While Island County officials say the tone of anti-noise leaders is becoming more aggressive, one longtime critic of the board of commissioners is claiming he was bullied.

Rick Abraham, a member of Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, or COER, an anti-jet noise group, claims the county hassled North Whidbey resident Garrett Newkirk after he commented at a Nov. 3 commissioner meeting.

Sheriff Mark Brown said Monday he was called by a concerned county staff member during Newkirk’s comments, which were off his usual script and directed specifically at Commissioner Jill Johnson.

“My concern is that the sheriff’s department was being used for the wrong purpose because the commissioners didn’t want to hear what he and people like him had to say,” Abraham said.

At the heart of both Newkirk’s and Abraham’s ongoing complaints is their opposition to the Navy’s use of the EA-18G Growlers based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

Newkirk and Abraham said they don’t believe the commissioners are appropriately responsive to their concerns about jet noise.

“It smacks of the kind of conduct, the kind of bullying that has taken place against noise victims and attempts to marginalize the people who are noise victims and have the courage to speak out like he did,” Abraham said.

“I support everything (Newkirk) had to say.”

Johnson said there was no attempt by board members to intimidate or stifle Newkirk and that the call to the sheriff was simply a staff member who was being cautious.

Commissioners would not identify the staff member.

Johnson said that “there has been an escalation” in recent weeks in Newkirk’s “aggression” toward the commissioners, and toward her specifically.

Johnson said Newkirk was verbally aggressive after the Navy’s Oct. 28 Environment Impact Statement open house on the Growlers in Coupeville.

“People come to the microphone and they don’t alway say things you want to hear,” Johnson said. “That’s just part of the gig. But it’s been escalating … you can feel it, and it’s unsettling.”

“It’s not the Garrett we had a year ago.”

Johnson said she believes that what should have been a simple conversation about meeting protocol was hijacked by those who wish to “frame it as ‘stifling free speech.’”

Newkirk said Monday that he felt “bullied” after his Nov. 3 comments in “a political tactic to stop people from speaking.”

“This is the way the county commissioners are going to deal with the comments against them by those who are being harmed by the EA-18Gs,” Newkirk said.

The sheriff was summoned to a Nov. 10 meeting after a public speaker broke meeting protocol and leveled personal attacks at Commissioner Helen Price Johnson.

The content of resident feedback is not the problem, but commissioners expect commenters to be civil and follow meeting protocol when they address board members, Price Johnson said.

After speaking with Newkirk, Brown said it was clear he didn’t pose a real threat at the Nov. 3 meeting, but his recent history with Johnson raised some concerns.

“We need to remember that you have the right to free speech no problem,” Brown said he told Newkirk. “But if you cross the line, it could be problematic.”