Bob Quinton, Grant County Budget Committee citizen member and chair, during the county's Tuesday, June 7, 2022, budget session.

CANYON CITY — Grant County Budget Committee members ended a tense stalemate on Tuesday, June 7, to pass a $94.7 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year  by agreeing to trim all but a few county departments from a 40-hour to a 32-hour work week.

The Budget Committee passed the budget on a 4-2 vote, with all three citizen members voting to approve the budget. Grant County Judge Scott Myers broke with the court’s two commissioners to end the budget standoff.

With a looming deadline to submit a balanced budget by June 30 to head off a countywide shutdown, county officials continued to grapple with potential cuts in the wake of an $800,0000 “miscalculation” discovered amid deliberations on the 2022-23 budget.

County Treasurer Julie Ellison presented multiple options for attempting to rebalance the budget.

One option, Ellison said, would be to cut all general fund and elected county employees to 36 hours a week. The savings, she said, would work out to roughly $145,000 a year. On the other hand, if the county were to cut those positions to 32 hours a week, the savings would increase to just over $258,000.

The court members initially remained deadlocked with the citizen members, arguing the county could backfill budget holes with COVID-19 relief funds. In addition to those federal dollars, recently passed legislation that could potentially increase the county’s payment in lieu of taxes funding could help the county to avoid cuts.

Bob Quinton, one of the Budget Committee’s citizen members, said he would be willing to vote for the budget if County Commissioner Jim Hamsher could show him documentation that the county would be getting the money on a specific date. 

Quinton and the other citizen members said they would be willing to revisit the budget when the county receives the increased federal funding and reinstate the affected departments back to full-time hours. 

Ultimately, the committee compromised and voted to allocate roughly $700,000 in COVID-19 relief funding to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office to bring on two additional patrol deputies and a part-time clerical employee.

Since the John Day Police Department was shut down in October, enforcing the law within the city limits has fallen primarily to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, which has just four patrol deputies covering the entire county. Sheriff Todd McKinley has repeatedly told both the John Day City Council and the County Court that he needs additional deputies to provide adequate coverage.

The John Day City Council offered to pay the county $300,000 a year to hire three deputies to provide law enforcement services in the city limits. But that proposal also called on the county to give the city $300,000 a year from its road fund to pay for street improvements to serve new housing developments in John Day, on the theory that housing starts in the city would broaden the tax base for the entire county.

While the County Court never formally deliberated on the city’s proposal, court members have made it clear that the idea of linking county road fund money to police services is a nonstarter.

The city and county still have not come to an agreement on law enforcement funding. Nonetheless, Grant County’s draft budget included a $300,000 contribution from John Day.

County Commissioner Sam Palmer, who met informally with McKinley and elected city officials, said the talks ended after City Manager Nick Green shouted him down during a John Day City Council meeting in March.

One way or the other, McKinley said, the Sheriff’s Office needs more staff.

Myers said he planned to discuss the possibility of drawing up a law enforcement bond levy to put on the ballot in November with the county’s legal counsel.

Myers said the deadline to submit a bond measure to the County Clerk’s Office for the November ballot is Aug. 19.

The County Court will hold a special meeting Thursday, June 9, at 4 p.m. to discuss the hours of operation in the departments affected by the reduction of hours, impacted employees benefits, accrual of comp time and reducing spending.

This story has been updated to reflect a special county court session has been scheduled for Thursday, June 9 at 4 p.m.