The day after adopting the 2026 budget and a sales tax meant to benefit law and justice departments, the commissioners decided to freeze new positions included in the budget until funding levels can be reassessed in June.

Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson made the motion at the end of the commissioner meeting Tuesday. Commissioner Melanie Bacon voted for the motion and Commissioner Janet St. Clair abstained.

In making the motion, Johnson said she was concerned that the commissioners passed a new funding source, a one-tenth of 1% sales tax for criminal justice purposes, but didn’t save much in the budget for cost increases they know are coming in 2027. Specifically, she pointed to a hike in public defense costs because of new caseload standards dictated by the state Supreme Court, the operational cost of a planned new jail and the expense of the new vehicle leasing program for the sheriff’s office.

“Now that the whole picture is in place, I think it would be wise of us to hold and review them again in June,” she said. “At that point we will see where we are in the budget.”

It was the same argument that Johnson made in voting against both the sales tax and the county budget on Monday. The other two commissioners overruled her and passed both the tax and the budget.

“I’m not feeling the concern you are, however, over the years I’ve learned to really respect the depth of analysis that you make to the budget,” Bacon said to Johnson Tuesday. “So if you are feeling that concern, I’m going to respect that concern.”

Under Johnson’s motion, the new positions will not be immediately filled. In June, the commissioners will assess the positions and decide if there is budget capacity to fill them.

“I’m not convinced that we will be able to carry all these current expense positions on the books into 2027,” Johnson said.

While the overall budget saw a decrease of 6.4 full-time-equivalent positions, it included five new positions, all of which are in law-and-justice departments. They include an administrator in district court, a court facilitator in superior court, an IT systems administrator in the sheriff’s office and a position in the court clerk’s office which wasn’t set to begin until halfway through the year.

The final position is an investigator in the prosecutor’s office. County Prosecutor Greg Banks said the investigator would do trial preparation work which the detectives in the sheriff’s office or the police department may not always have time to do. Johnson was especially critical of this position, even though Budget Director Susan Geiger said the cost is offset by a deputy position in the sheriff’s office that will remain unfilled.

Earlier in the year, Johnson and Banks got into a heated argument over the budget process during a roundtable meeting. Banks complained about a lack of communication and consultation from commissioners when they made budget decisions about other elected officials’ offices. Ironically, Johnson’s motion to freeze the positions was a surprise and done without consultation with any of the departments affected.

It was the surprise nature of the motion that led St. Clair to abstain from the vote. She said she wasn’t for or against the motion since she didn’t have time to consider the implications.

“I want to talk to HR and ask if there are other consequences,” she said.

On Thursday, she said she had time to research the temporary freeze and supports it.