Editor,

Taxpayers of Island County, why are you not outraged and disgusted at the shenanigans being perpetrated on the prosecuting attorney’s office and you by the county commissioners?

As taxpayers and voters we elected the prosecuting attorney to represent us in legal issues, and upon taking that office it became his sworn duty to do just that.

The Island County Commissioners, however, decided that they should judge what issues the prosecutor’s office should handle and spent hundreds of thousands of our hard-earned tax dollars to hire outside counsel to handle issues that fall squarely within his purview.

No explanation was given to the taxpayers for this act, no indication that the office was unable or incapable, no fact presented that made a case for removing this responsibility from the office, just the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of our hard-earned tax dollars.

The sad part is that the responsibility for the work performed by someone working not for him, but for the commissioners, still rests squarely on the county prosecutor’s office.

When Prosecutor Greg Banks pointed out to the commissioners that what they intended to do was wrong and that it would better serve the county to put the money into his budget and allow his office to complete the task for Island County, he was rebuffed and told “no.”

When he told them that he would be forced to take legal action if they continued, he was ignored, and now they are spending tens of thousands more of our hard-earned tax dollars on attorneys to defend themselves.

Who are these people who treat our hard earned tax dollars like Monopoly money and insult the very people we have elected to represent us?

Be outraged, be disgusted, and vote out of office these people who have no respect for us.

Robert Clark

Oak Harbor