Jessie Stensland reports from the Island County Commissioners’ board meeting on Tue., Dec. 2, 2025 for the Whidbey News-Times. Read the whole story.
Summary by Perplexity AI
At the close of an Island County commissioners meeting, Chair Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) read a prepared statement expressing frustration with the personal animosity between Commissioners Janet St. Clair (D-Camano Island) and Jill Johnson (R-Oak Harbor). While praising their work on the budget, she said the behind-the-scenes disrespect and hurtful behavior meant she could not support either as 2026 chair and believed making one of them chair would worsen the situation. Bacon ended the meeting before they could respond. The next day, at a work session, both St. Clair and Johnson said they would support Bacon remaining chair, though Johnson denied responsibility for the conflict and referenced prior grievances.
They Said It
Bacon read a statement that started with positive comments about her colleagues and how much they’ve accomplished in adopting the budget, but ultimately explained that she cannot support either Commissioner Janet St. Clair or Commissioner Jill Johnson as the 2026 chairperson because of the animosity between them.
“I think that situation would be worse if one of you were made chair,” she said.
“Citizens will probably be surprised,” she added, “that I’m saying this because they don’t see what happens behind the scenes around here. They see the work stuff, but they don’t see the personal stuff, the disrespectful stuff, the hurtful stuff.”
Johnson did interrupt [Bacon] during her speech, saying “started by who?” as Bacon mentioned the animosity.
In her statement, Bacon said the other two had the option of voting together and choosing one of them as the new chairperson or one or both of them could support her.
At a work session the next day, Johnson and St. Clair said they would both support Bacon for another year as chair.
Contacted after the meeting, St. Clair said she had no comment on the matter.
In an interview after the meeting, Johnson said she doesn’t accept any responsibility for animosity between her and St. Clair. She pointed out that next year was St. Clair’s turn to be the chair under the normal schedule.
“Janet knows what she did and why she is not chair. That’s all I am going to say,” Johnson said.
In her statement, Bacon said that one of the main reasons that she ran for office came from observing the commissioners while she was the county Human Resources director.
“I was always so impressed by your collegiality and brilliance and professionalism as you worked through the toughest of issues together,” she said. “I wanted to be part of that.”
She said the commissioners were still capable of that level of collegiality and pointed out that the commissioners discussed the budget the day before and were professional, even complimenting each other, despite disagreeing on whether to adopt the document.
