A Waldo County budget committee member and local selectman has been appointed to fill a vacant seat on the Waldo County Commission.
Gov. Janet Mills has appointed Breanna Pinkham Bebb to the three-member commission, the Waldo County Democratic Committee confirmed on Thursday. She will serve until Dec. 31, finishing the term of longtime Commissioner Betty Johnson, who died in January.
Pinkham Bebb will be sworn in on Tuesday, Feb. 10. She is currently a member of the county’s budget committee and chair of the Northport Select Board, a position from which she will have to resign.
She was one of three people the local Democratic party committee recommended for the seat, including Belfast Mayor Eric Sanders and Waldo County Treasurer Owen Smith.
As a budget committee member, Pinkham Bebb switches roles as Waldo County is in the midst of a budget crisis. In December 2025, the commission proposed a 2026 budget that amounted to a 36% hike over the year before — which drew immediate public outcry.
A new budget proposal from mid-January calls for a 17% increase.
In addition to preparing county budgets, commissioners are responsible for fiscal and policy decisions affecting the county.
BDN writer Bridget Huber contributed reporting.