The field narrowed to five finalists late Tuesday in a week-long scramble in Oakland County to fill the shoes of the late L. Brooks Patterson. A committee of two Democrats and one Republican chose the finalists — including former county board chair David Woodward, a prominent Democrat — from among 21 online applications. That set the stage for the next act in Oakland County's tumultuous drama to appoint a new county executive. On Wednesday, one day before Patterson’s funeral at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in Troy, committee members will interview the finalists, starting at 9:30 a.m., before a public audience and while broadcasting the proceedings live at oakgov.com/boc . They could vote to appoint a new county executive to fill the remainder of Patterson's term as soon as Friday. Significantly, Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner was not among the 21 applicants. Meisner said he would not submit his name to fill the remainder of Patterson’s term because he "does not have faith in the integrity of this process." That's a concern he shares with many Republicans as well as other Democrats. Certainly not adding credibility was that, of the 21 names submitted online, at least one seemed an obvious hoax — someone applying as "Ima Skaam.” Still, in a county rapidly swinging from decades of red to a politics of blue, and threatening to upend entrenched Republican power, Democrats on the county board seemed eager to put one of their own in the crucial seat atop the political hierarchy of Michigan's most affluent county. Besides Woodward, who has served on the county board since 2004, the finalists are: Woodward aggressively sought the appointment last week, even as Republicans accused him of doing so with unseemly haste in seeking a leap to executive power just days after Patterson’s death from pancreatic cancer on Aug. 3. Woodward, 43, served three terms as a state representative, then was term-limited from Lansing and first elected to the county board of commissioners in 2004. He also has served as the chair of the Oakland County Democratic Party. Last week, after he was blocked from attaining an immediate appointment through a commission vote, Woodward said he'd decided after all that he supported the "open and transparent" process of interviewing for the position. In sharp contrast, Meisner released a statement Tuesday that said: “I called for an open and transparent process in making this appointment, and instead we’ve had dirty deals, self-interested politicians and, now, the appearance of criminal wrongdoing." By wrongdoing, Meisner meant the behavior of Republican Commissioner Shelley Goodman Taub of Bloomfield Township. Taub admitted to reporters that she'd sent a text to her Republican colleagues on the county board that said "Delete! Delete! Delete! Now” in an effort to have them erase potentially troublesome emails about secret wheeling and dealing, presumably with Democrats, to fill Patterson’s shoes. Destroying government correspondence, depending on the contents, can be a criminal offense. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office said this week it would investigate Taub’s text if the issue were brought forward by a local agency. Some Democrats, including Meisner, have called for Taub to resign. Taub told the Free Press on Tuesday that she did not intend for any of her colleagues to violate any law, only that they should eliminate emails that "was nasty or a dirty joke or otherwise improper." Taub also said she had “absolutely no intention of resigning.” During a news conference Tuesday at the Southfield Public Library, Meisner said he would file a criminal complaint regarding Taub's actions if no one else did. He said Taub should, "at the very least," recuse herself from any vote on Friday to name Patterson's successor. Joining Meisner at the library event, in a most unusual joining of political opposites, was Oakland County Republican Party Chair Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski, who called the appointment process a "disaster from day one.” Raczkowski said the county board should let voters choose Patterson’s successor in a special election, an alternative allowed under state law. Yet, Raczkowski differed strongly from Meisner in his view of Taub's now infamous text of “Delete! Delete! Delete!” Raczkowski said she did so merely to suggest that commissioners erase “personal information,” not key correspondence about the application process. He said finding criminal intent in Taub's texting would be unlikely because “she didn't do anything wrong.” It was Meisner’s outcry last week that contributed to a decision by the board’s acting chair Marcia Gershenson — a Democrat who represents Farmington Hills as well as portions of West Bloomfield and Bloomfield townships — to block Woodward’s plan to be appointed county executive. His plan, according to a news release from the Royal Oak Democrats club, was to be appointed in a special meeting that Woodward himself called, to be held last Thursday. Soon after calling the meeting, Woodward announced that he had resigned from board — a requirement under state law for anyone wishing to be appointed to countywide office. But he did so clearly without expecting his Democratic colleague Gershenson, suddenly elevated to acting chair by his resignation, would cancel the meeting and open the process to applicants from across Oakland County. Gershenson told the Free Press last week that she canceled the meeting in response to requests that the process be “open and transparent,” and that it allow applicants from across the county to submit their names. Perhaps the loudest outcry in opposition to last week’s canceled special meeting, slated to appoint Woodward, and to this week’s appointment process, has come from Woodward’s archrival for the executive’s office — Meisner. Both Meisner and Woodward had declared their intentions to run for the office in 2020 well before Patterson’s death. Taub and other Republicans have said that appointing an interim successor to the county’s longtime boss is unnecessary. They point to Gerald Poisson, Patterson’s veteran chief deputy executive, as being steeped in the management and budget processes of the county. They say "Jerry" is fully capable of filling the office without offering a political challenge to Democrats in 2020. Poisson was sworn in as executive just 12 hours after Patterson's death — a quick transition because "the executive is the decision maker in the event of any countywide emergency," Poisson said Tuesday. He has pledged that he would not run for the office next year. MORE: Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com