The Hon. Richard Chin said in a written opinion that the county manager may not serve as an ex officio nonvoting member of the airport commission, and that the county treasurer may not refuse to pay airport legal bills. The ruling clears the way for the case to go to trial.

A superior court judge heard arguments Tuesday afternoon on both sides of a dispute between the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission and the county. The hearing saw spirited debate about the legal independence of the airport, and also whether the dispute belonged in court in the first place.

The Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission is working on new bylaws and an employee handbook to better codify how business is done at the Island airport. The county manager has urged the commission to make the process more open and public.

Legal and personnel troubles at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport continued this week as a former employee filed a new lawsuit against members of the airport commission, county, and airport management.

The Martha’s Vineyard Airport expects to spend nearly 11 times as much as it budgeted in legal fees during the fiscal year that closed last week. Unusually high legal spending led to a last-minute scramble to adopt a supplemental budget for the airport.

Members of the airport commission have declared they will serve out the remainder of their terms, despite a call from the Dukes County Commission to consider stepping down. A letter was sent to the county commission this week.

The manager of the Martha’s Vineyard Airport has been granted a medical leave for an undisclosed length of time. Commission chairman Norman Perry said Wednesday that he granted the leave request to manager Sean Flynn earlier in the week, before meeting in executive session with his board.

The Martha's Vineyard Airport Commission has called a special meeting in executive session for next Wednesday following a domestic disburbance involving the airport manager.

In the second regular meeting since their recent reorganization, members of the Martha’s Vineyard airport commission sparred with each other and airport staff over procedures and policies governing the Island’s only commercial airport. Two attorneys participated in the meeting by conference call.

Longstanding tensions between the Dukes County Commission and the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission over who really runs the airport wound up in superior court this week, when airport commissioners filed a complaint against the very body that appoints them.