COEUR d’ALENE, Idaho — Four days after the Panhandle Health Board passed a requirement for people to wear masks in Kootenai County, at least one county commissioner is questioning the way members of that board are appointed.

Commissioner Bill Brooks addressed the matter in a weekly meeting Monday. He said he believes health board members should be elected officials so that they can be voted in and removed by voters.

RELATED: Panhandle Health District Board approves mask mandate in Kootenai County

He did not suggest an action item to change that, as it is laid out in state law. Commissioner Brooks told people gathered in the room that if they want to challenge the mask mandate, they should do it in the courts.

Idaho statute dictates that public health boards are made up of people appointed by county commissioners. One member of the board should be a physician and “all members shall be chosen with due regard to their knowledge and interest in public health and in promoting the health of the citizens of the state and the public health district.”

Commissioners discussed the possibility of one of them serving on the board.

Over the weekend, the item of discussion on the agenda prompted posts on Facebook from people saying the commissioners were going to discuss the removal of Jai Nelson from the health board. Commissioners immediately clarified that they weren’t discussing removing anyone from the board, though the room was packed with people who wanted to share their opinions about it.

Nelson is a registered nurse who works in the Advanced Cardiac Care Unit at Sacred Heart. She spoke in support of the mandate on Thursday.

Commissioner Brooks, who has a background in healthcare, said he did not agree with the mask mandate. He did say he was upset about the “circus” surrounding last week’s Panhandle Health meeting, which included people yelling at commissioners, protesting outside and even approaching the dais.

“It was embarrassing for me as a conservative,” Commissioner Brooks said, pointing out that while he agreed with many of the points people made, he did not agree about the manner in which they did it.

Brooks said they received about 150 emails about the mask mandate. He said half wanted Nelson removed, the other half “wanted to give her a medal of honor.”

Another woman commenting called it an “extra layer of bureaucracy” to have appointed people on health boards instead of elected officials. One man in the audience accused the two doctors on the board of practicing without a license. The same commenter said “why should we be listening to [the health board], why aren’t we listening to President Trump?”

Another woman who identified herself as a teacher of young children said it’s “inhumane” to require children to wear masks; she said “children aren’t at risk, really.” She called the order “child abuse.”

As of Monday morning, there are 140 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in people under the age of 18.

Idaho Rep. Tony Wisniewski concluded the public comment period. He said Idaho is “so low” on the epidemiological curve that the state is not at risk of overwhelming the hospitals.

“We want more cases… because the survival rate is under 2% fatality rate of those infected,” Rep. Wisniewski said. “Idaho has a reasonably high [rate of] positive test cases and a very low death rate.”

“The data says we’re way overreacting,” Rep. Wisniewski said.

Rep. Tim Remington also testified before commissioners. He said the “actual fear factor” is the biggest thing we’re dealing with. Rep. Remington said masks aren’t effective and it’s like a “mosquito through a chainlink fence.”

“We should be allowed to use our common sense,” Remington said. “It’s about time we have people [on the health board] who have common sense and care about our community.”

The latest numbers from Panhandle Health show 1,478 confirmed cases in the northern counties. That includes 1,420 cases in Kootenai County.

The commissioners said they would “discuss” changing their appointment to the health board, but made no immediate plans to put it on a future agenda.

RELATED HEADLINES: ‘Masks will not silence us’: People protest mask mandate in downtown Coeur d’Alene

COPYRIGHT 2020 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.