Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks was roundly scolded Wednesday by commissioners for requesting additional money after the budget was adopted last month.

The clash highlights the complex and sometimes frustrating relationships between the county’s elected officials.

Commissioners ultimately approved Banks’ request for an additional $4,000 in wages for a deputy prosecutor in a 2-1 vote, but not before making their displeasure clear.

“I would have preferred to have this brought to our attention during the budget conversation,” said Commissioner Helen Price Johnson. “We should have anticipated this in the budget as a given. It’s frustrating but is what it is. I’m gonna move forward with it, but I don’t want it to happen again. I don’t know how to better communicate the need to anticipate those costs that are driven by contract.”

Commissioner Jill Johnson, who was the dissenting vote, said after “scraping” together the 2015 budget and choosing to not fund some key positions, she was not in favor of approving a request that could have been planned for.

“We haven’t even had this budget adopted for a month and now we’re getting a request for a budget amendment,” Johnson said. “I’m saying no, just so you know. I’m sorry for him, but this would have been a much easier conversation if it had been built into the budget, but it wasn’t. And we were really clear and communicative about what our expectations were.”

“Thank you for the scolding,” Banks said.

“I obviously dropped the ball.”

While the county commissioners oversee a large part of the county’s services and staffing, elected officials such as the prosecutor, the sheriff, the auditor, the assessor and others are independently elected department heads who do not answer to the board.

Still, commissioners control the budget and the elected officials are forced to go before the board, sometimes hat in hand, for monetary requests.

Commissioner Aubrey Vaughan, who approved the request along with Price Johnson, said he agreed with the other board members but didn’t want Banks’ error to impact the employee.

“I’m not going to penalize a worthy and deserving employee because it’s a little bit of trouble for us and Greg didn’t give us a good idea about what was coming up,” Vaughan said.

Earlier this year, Sheriff Mark Brown opposed a county attempt to move sheriff’s deputy files into the county’s human resources office.

Banks assisted Brown in arguing that as independently elected leaders, they have the right to maintain and house their own personnel records.

Price Johnson raised that issue with Banks Wednesday, saying that if they are going to house their own personnel files, they should maintain them appropriately.

“You have asked repeatedly of us that you are the steward of these employees. You’ve advocated that personnel records should stay with elected officials, and yet, I’m at a loss as well,” Price Johnson said. “That should be something that all departments should be reviewing on a regular basis.”

In a Friday telephone interview Price Johnson said overall the elected officials work well together and that relationships have improved since she took office five years ago.

“When I was first elected not many elected officials attended the roundtables,” said Price Johnson, adding that attendance has markedly increased.

Still, as the county’s fiduciary body, board decisions can cause tensions over money.

“It must be frustrating to have the autonomy but not the budget authority,” Price Johnson said.

Price Johnson pointed out that the state-designed leadership paradigm makes elected officials answerable to the voter, not the board of commissioners, allowing each to advocate freely for their departments.

Earlier this year, Treasurer Ana Maria Nuñez, who was unseated this month by former chief deputy treasurer Wanda Grone, was also reprimanded by the board. Camano Island’s 2014 tax statements had gone out incorrectly, causing the county to be bombarded with concerned phone calls and emails.

The error led to the issuance of $12,000 clarification letters, costing the treasurer’s office an additional $4,500 in postage alone.