Those who were disappointed to read that the county commissioners voted to continue to actively defend their position in a lawsuit brought by the airport commission (Jan. 21, “County commissioners reverse legal strategy, will defend against airport lawsuit”) against the county may not be looking at the big picture.

A string of earlier rulings in favor of the airport seems not to have sunk in. Perhaps total defeat is what it will take the seven Dukes County commissioners to realize they are wrong — this time around.

Of course, the cost to bring clarity to the county commissioners will be paid by the taxpayers of Dukes County, who support, through their town’s county assessment, a regional governmental shell that has done little to win their confidence.

The commissioners’ decision to proceed was made despite the wise refusal in November of the county advisory board, which oversees county finances, to authorize more spending on legal expenses. Where will the money to pay the county lawyer come from? Details, details. Those can be worked out later with some budgetary sleight of hand with the assistance of the county treasurer, a party to the suit and one of the long-standing airport protagonists; there is a principle at stake — don’t cross the county.

The county commission appoints the airport commission, which by state statute is a wholly independent body responsible for the county-owned Martha’s Vineyard Airport. But the county commissioners and the county treasurer have never quite accepted that as settled fact, and periodically attempt to meddle in airport affairs, most recently in connection with the clumsy way the airport handled disciplinary proceedings against an airport employee, who was later fired. The particulars of that messy skirmish are not the central issue. It is the statutory autonomy of the airport commission.

Or at least that is the way Judge Robert H. Bohn saw it in a decision entered against the county on July 14, 2005. And that is the way Dukes County Superior Court Associate Justice Richard J. Chin saw it in two rulings on matters of law issued on August 7, 2014 and on Nov. 5, 2014, in which the judge flatly ruled against the county and said the county had little likelihood of success.

How is it possible, then, that with the exception of commissioner John Alley, who disagrees with the majority, that commissioners Leon Arthur Brathwaite, Tristan Israel, David Holway, Christine Todd, Lenny Jason Jr. and Gretchen Tucker Underwood read those decisions and remain optimistic that the county will prevail?

Is it possible that the county commissioners are more clever than is readily apparent? That there is really a method to their madness?

Last April, the county commissioners refused to reappoint two airport commissioners in favor of one of their own, Ms. Todd, and Rich Michelson, a former airport employee and shop steward who has made no secret of his animosity to airport management.

In September, the county appointed Beth Toomey, retired West Tisbury police chief and former interim county commissioner, to fill an opening created by a resignation from the airport commission.

Unhappy with the pace of change, the county commissioners then voted to expand the airport commission from seven to nine members. Judge Chin squashed that ham-handed attempt to undercut the airport, which attracted the attention of state aeronautics officials, who have their own longstanding concerns about county efforts to mess with the airport.

But all things come to those who wait. This month the three-year terms of airport commissioners Jim Coyne, Connie Teixeira, and Denys Wortman expire. Those three, along with Norman Perry, who has one year left in his term, form the nucleus of an airport commission that for all its bungling understood that it is not under the direction of the county commissioners, who have their own rich history of bungling.

The county commissioners may be licking their chops at the prospect of jettisoning Mr. Coyne and Ms. Teixeira (Mr. Wortman has had enough, and will not seek another term) and wielding their appointing authority to construct a more compliant airport commission, one that would decide to drop its lawsuit against the county — how sweet would that be? Don’t bet on it.

In 1997, the exasperated executive director of the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission insisted the county commissioners sign off on a set of grant assurances that prohibited interference by the county manager or county in airport affairs in order to free up millions of dollars in state and federal funding for the new airport terminal.

In September, Christopher Willenborg, MassDOT Aeronautics Division administrator, made it quite clear that any reorganization of the airport commission, or attempt to interfere with the autonomy and authority of the airport commission, would be a violation of the airport grant assurances. The county’s wishful thinking notwithstanding, if a newly reorganized airport commission were to relinquish its responsibility to protect its autonomy, we can expect that MassDOT would step in.

How is it possible that the county commissioners still don’t get it? Their job is to appoint the best people they can find to the airport commission. Self-appointments, as they did with Ms. Todd, make a mockery of the process.

The current crop of airport commission applicants include Islanders with aviation and business experience. The county commissioners who meet next on Wednesday ought to take this opportunity to make wise appointments and acknowledge the independence of the airport commission.