image sourceKelly EmersonA day before her election to the Board of Island County Commissioners in November, Kelly Emerson filed a lawsuit against her opponent, her future employees, and the county itself. The lawsuit was so egregiously ill-conceived that after throwing it out of court, the judge made her lawyer pay the other side’s legal fees. This is not to say that Kelly Emerson requires the services of a terrible lawyer to make a complete ass of herself.A little background: Back in 2008, Emerson filed for a permit from the county to build a garage on her Camano Island property. County code enforcers allowed the garage, but noted that because of wetlands on her property any other improvements would need additional permits. In an evident bid to exercise her personal liberty, Emerson proceeded to make several additions to her house over the next two years without notifying the county. Then, as she ran for county commissioner in 2010, she broke ground on a new sun room, again on the sly. A neighbor informed her opponent, then-County Commissioner John Dean, who duly put the county’s code enforcers on the case. Shortly thereafter, a code enforcer knocked on Emerson’s door. Finding no one home, he went around back, saw the illicit sun room and posted a “stop work” order on it. Sensing a political opportunity, Dean mailed out a flyer to 20,000 of his constituents ahead of the election accusing Emerson of wrongful construction. Emerson responded in the most American of ways. She sued. She sued Dean, two county code enforcement staffers, and the county itself. In goin on to win the election by 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent, she was now suing two subordinates as well as the very county she had been elected to lead. In essence, Emerson’s main argument was that her opponent used the levers of government against her for political gain. Where this falls apart, of course, is that she was breaking the law.As Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks put it to the Whidbey News Times, “It’s like governing by suicide bomb…The first move by a county commissioner is to widen the hole in the budget. Brilliant.”In January, with the lawsuit still pending the county hit Emerson with $37,000 in fines, making clear that the bill could be reduced or even eliminated if she complied with the rules. Instead, Emerson refused to discuss the matter with county officials, saying that her lawsuit was her response. The suit was thrown out by In addition to being a lawbreaker, Emerson is also ignorant of . In an interview with the South Whidbey Record, Emerson discussed all the taxes that she wanted to cut. Among those she listed was the Island Transit sales tax. As the newspaper noted, however, “the agency isn’t a part of county government.”John Dean”It’s been an education,” she said. “I got to see the process from a different perspective than most elected officials ever do.”Indeed, most elected officials don’t file frivolous lawsuits http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/wnt/news/106795908.htmlhttp://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/wnt/news/125656338.htmlFollow The Daily Weekly on Facebook and Twitter.