Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson is tired of her district getting short shrift when it comes to representation.

Johnson, the current chairperson of the board of county commissioners, represents District 2, which covers the city of Oak Harbor. She has long been complaining about how her district is underrepresented on some boards and committees while District 3, which covers South and Central Whidbey, seems to be overrepresented.

The reason, as she sees it, is that Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Langley each get one seat on certain boards, even though Oak Harbor’s population is nearly 10 times the other two municipalities combined. Coupeville and Langley are both within District 1.

The issue is also political due to the partisan division of the island. District 2, after all, is much more conservative than District 1, while District 3 — North Whidbey and Camano Island — is more balanced.

“Representation should be allocated so the vision of one population doesn’t dominate the vision of other populations,” Johnson said.

Commissioner Melanie Bacon, a Democrat, represents District 1; Johnson, a Republican, represents District 2; and Janet St. Clair, a Democrat, is commissioner in District 3.

Johnson recently asserted her way onto the Island Transit board in order to help rectify the situation. Island Transit is an independent agency — not part of county government — but is run by a board made up of representatives from local governments.

Previously, the board had two county commissioners and representatives from Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Langley. That meant three of the five people on the board came from Central and South Whidbey — or within county commissioner District 1. Johnson pointed out that the bulk of the sales tax that funds Island Transit and most of the riders come from Oak Harbor.

Johnson proposed including all three county commissioners on the board while representatives from Coupeville and Langley trade off each year so that the board remains at five members. The members recently met to consider the idea, but others disagreed with Johnson and decided to add the third commissioner to the board and keep the remaining members.

The board is now an even six, which is an odd number for a board since it could more likely lead to deadlock. As it stands, three members are from within District 1, two members are from District 2 and District 3 only has one representative.

Similar imbalances are on the Council of Governments and the Island Regional Transportation Planning Organization, which makes important decisions about funding projects.

Johnson feels that Council of Governments, or COG, representation is especially skewed, which is why she has insisted that the group has no power to make funding or policy decisions. As such, it’s a strictly educational body.

The COG is made up of all three county commissioners, representatives from each of the three municipalities and one port district — the ports of Central Whidbey and South Whidbey trade off. That’s four seats from District 1, two seats from District 2 and one from District 3.

Bacon, from District 1, said she supported Johnson’s request to become part of the transit board and would be receptive to consider adding other people from Districts 2 and 3 to other boards. Yet she said it’s inevitable that several representatives from South and Central Whidbey would be on boards like the Island Regional Transportation Planning Organization because two port districts, two ferry docks and two municipalities are located there.

“It’s the largest district geographically and has many different jurisdictions,” she said, adding that Johnson and Oak Harbor City Administrator Blaine Oborn do a good job of advocating for Oak Harbor.