County Commissioner John Rowell discusses ideas to help find long-term funding for the Grant County Sheriff’s Office at the June 7 Grant County Court meeting.

CANYON CITY — The Grant County Court continues to grapple with the question of law enforcement funding, but the answer remains elusive.

Commissioner John Rowell raised the issue at the court’s Wednesday, June 7, meeting, saying he wanted to explore ideas and gather public input toward long-term funding solutions for a sheriff’s office faced with serious staff shortages and recruitment challenges.

Discussed during the meeting was the potential for county department cuts, the possibility of a tax levy and news that the city of John Day would be unable to contribute any money toward funding a deputy position.

How we got here

Last month, the Grant County Budget Committee approved a $99.3 million balanced budget, but the panel’s citizen members expressed concern that expenses would outpace revenue in the coming years as large revenue enhancement and grant payments from the federal government run out.

The county has received one of two $2.2 million payments from the federal Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund and expects to receive the remaining funds sometime this year, officials said. The LATCF is a general revenue enhancement program that provides assistance to eligible counties. During deliberations, budget committee members voted unanimously to move all of the LATCF money — about $4.4 million — into the unappropriated ending balance, a savings fund that cannot be touched until the beginning of the next fiscal year. (Some $300,000 of that money has since been set aside for a potential legal settlement, although county officials have declined to discuss details of the matter.)

A large part of the county’s budget was awarded to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, with a total budget of $2.1 million for the next fiscal year. McKinley said much of that total came from grant monies, including about $660,000 for the coming fiscal year from federal American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 relief fund money.

The citizen budget committee members said that in order to fund the sheriff’s office more sustainably in the future, the court should place a tax levy on the November ballot this year. The move would help decision-makers better plan for the 2025 fiscal year.

A vote of the people

At last week’s county court meeting, Rowell once again brought up the possibility of a law enforcement levy to put out to public vote this November. He said the levy could be for as much as $500,000 a year or as little as $300,000.

“That would be a five-year levy or it could be a permanent year levy,” said Rowell, who added he welcomes the public’s input on public safety funding.

“We have to decide how much we’re going to put it out for, and if people turn the levy down, for example, that’s a signal to the county court that we have to do something else.”

To cut or not to cut

Rowell said the county could eliminate departments or cut staff to free up money for the sheriff’s office, adding that the list of proposals were ideas to consider and not to take action on at the meeting.

“The justice court, the proposal could be to phase it out,” Rowell said. “Animal control is another one that we could save on. Economic development — any cost-splitting between the cities and the county is possible. The library could be a split cost to help … County staff reductions is also a possibility, so … these are ideas from all of you and people listening outside.”

Grant County Treasurer Julie Ellison said there is already cost-splitting by the cities and the county to fund the Economic Development Office, though she said John Day hasn’t contributed its share since 2017. About half of the funds for the office come from the state lottery, which are specifically dedicated toward economic development purposes.

Economic Development Director Tory Stinnett, who was present at the meeting, voiced concern over the discussion of potential cuts to her department.

“When you put people’s names on a list and each time you go to the budget committee and it’s always on the list, that’s a morale issue, so you need to decide if you want these departments or you don’t want these departments,” she said.

County Commissioner Jim Hamsher appeared to distance himself from the list.

“Well, this is John’s list, not necessarily the court’s list,” he said.

Rowell said the court will decide what to do based on all the information it receives.

“We have to do something … because we don’t see any long-term financing for the county to keep the process totally status quo,” he said.

Kathy Stinnett, Grant County justice of the peace, said the court should look into the possibility of restructuring pay scales for new top elected positions.

“If I retire in a year and a half, the person that gets elected comes in and makes the exact same salary the day they come in as the day I left,” she said. “I think that’s unnecessary, and I think it’s not spending your money wisely. That person would start out at 75% of the max salary and then, after a couple of years, they move up a little bit. … If Grant County’s looking to have a turnover of four or five major elected officials coming up, if you could save 25 percent of any one of those salaries for the first three years, you’re saving a pretty good chunk of money.”

Nothing from John Day

John Day represents the largest share of service calls to the sheriff’s office — about 40% — but at present it is paying nothing for patrol services.

At a county work session in May to explore the law enforcement funding issue, interim John Day City Manager Rick Allen said there was a possibility the city could provide something similar to the $100,000 that Prairie City had proposed to pay for contract patrol coverage. That idea was nixed at a John Day budget meeting on June 6.

“Commissioner, if I may, you were at the budget committee last night with the city of John Day and you saw that they’re dire, so I don’t know if there is exactly an answer there any time in the future,” said Sheriff Todd McKinley. “They’ve got their own problems to deal with at this point, so I don’t see that as a fix-all to what we’re looking for. I would say that’s off the table.”

Recruitment and retention

The sheriff’s office is also facing recruitment issues, with the undersheriff and the corrections sergeant for the department saying they’ve lost viable applicants because of a lack of affordable housing and low wage levels.

“It’s just concerning when the wages don’t match the housing opportunities. It’s difficult to get people here,” McKinley said in an interview after the meeting.

Hamsher, who has voiced opposition to the idea of a levy, said he was interested in raising pay for deputies in order to remedy the retention and recruitment issue.

“Even though we’ve assigned all these funds, if we can’t get people to apply and take the positions, all the money in the world doesn’t fix it,” he said. “That’s why we have to look at what’s stopping them, and I think we need to work with Sheriff McKinley and see if we couldn’t propose an increase in salaries to try to bring in some folks.”

Hamsher said he thought the discussion of potential department cuts was “getting the cart before the horse.”