CANYON CITY — Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpenter will be running unopposed for a third four-year term in the May 17 election.

No one filed to run against him by the March 8 deadline.

Carpenter has been a staple in Grant County politics since 2001, when he became a member of the John Day Planning Commission.

Carpenter has held the DA position since 2015, after defeating incumbent Ryan Joslin in the 2014 election.

Carpenter passed the state bar exams in both Oregon and Idaho in 2001 and began his legal career as a civil litigator. Now, as district attorney, Carpenter focuses on the prosecution of criminal behavior.

“Mostly I think I do well. Sometimes my constituents let me know there needs to be a course correction; hopefully we are in this together to make our community a safer place,” Carpenter said.

The job hasn’t been without challenges, however, as budget constraints and the elimination of the John Day Police Department have made law enforcement and prosecuting crimes more difficult than it has been in the past.

”When I took office in 2015, the DA’s Office was staffed with a deputy DA that was funded with grants. That grant funding was discontinued in 2018 and that position was eliminated,” Carpenter said.

In 2019, to address the staffing issue, Carpenter agreed to serve as county counsel without pay, provided the county funded a deputy DA position. That position was filled for a short time and later vacated again.

Budgetary concerns also creep into discussions surrounding which cases will be prosecuted by the DA’s Office. The current deputy district attorney, Riccola Voigt, isn’t full time, meaning a lot of that work falls on Carpenter.

“The county does fund a deputy for 600 hours per fiscal year,” Carpenter said. Those hours work out out to about 30% of full time, which means some cases never make it to court.

“As it is, I’m sometimes in the position of deciding whether a case will be prosecuted based on available resources rather than merit,” Carpenter said.

Aside from budget constraints, the elimination of the John Day Police Department has added complications to the job.

“I’m often asked about the local police situation. I am a law officer of the state and county where I live. That being said, my office does not have an investigative function,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter also states that while he works with local police, he doesn’t direct their activities or have the authority to dictate how they police.

“I would prefer to have additional police resources. All that needs doing simply can’t be done,” Carpenter said. “This is another area where decisions will have to be made based on resources available; many situations that would generally merit police responses will go without,” Carpenter added.

These difficulties haven’t made the job all bad, however. Carpenter said he is pleased that his office has been able to work through the pandemic. He’s also encouraged by the establishment of treatment and family courts, although he adds they have been somewhat slow to get off the ground because of COVID.

“Recently our circuit implemented a treatment court along with a family court. I would like to see these opportunities utilized to the extent they were designed (for),” Carpenter said.

Carpenter also stressed that he is “on board” with providing opportunities for change, but the consequences of illegal behavior have to be of a higher magnitude than the pain of changing illegal behavior.

“When we allow illegal behavior without consequence, we are simply enabling further illegal behavior,” said Carpenter.

Carpenter says that he’ll continue to work within the justice system to hold offenders accountable while still seeking resources to help those offenders change their habits and become productive members of society.

“As part of that, the state needs to step up and provide resources for rural communities,” he added.

Singling out a particular event or accomplishment that defines his last term is challenging, according to Carpenter, given the many changes that have taken place in that time.

“Over the past four years, there have been significant changes to the law that benefit defendants to the detriment of the victims and the public. Additionally, the local law enforcement landscape has changed with the election of a new sheriff and discontinuation of the John Day Police Department,” Carpenter stated.

Carpenter’s office has been dealing with an increased workload following the departure of a full-time deputy DA and the COVID-19 pandemic bogging down the court process and delaying trials for around a year. Despite these circumstances, Carpenter says his office has been proceeding mostly on schedule regarding cases and prosecutions.

“I’m grateful that my office has pulled together and been able to weather these changes wile proceeding on a more or less even keel,” Carpenter said.