CANYON CITY — Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley reiterated the pitch he made earlier this year for the need to raise salaries and increase staffing during a work session of the Grant County Court on Wednesday, May 10, called to explore long-term funding for his department.

McKinley, at the session last week, described a law enforcement agency challenged by officer recruitment and retention issues stemming from lower pay than its counterparts in other parts of Oregon.

“I don’t think it’s a secret, but for the majority of this county currently, at any given time there is one deputy on for the entire county,” he said.

Officials discussed funding mechanisms that included putting a tax levy on the November ballot and the possibility of contracting with the cities in Grant County to pay for their share of patrol service.

McKinley said he has six officers available for patrol: three patrol deputies, a patrol sergeant, the undersheriff and himself.

He said the largest share of calls for service his department receives — about 40% — comes from John Day and added that in order to provide proper coverage for the city, the department would need to be able to fund three more deputies for the long term.

Grant County patrol deputy salaries are currently about $45,000 a year, McKinley said, adding that bumping them up by about $2,000 annually would make the job more attractive and help with recruitment and retention.

“So we need to get a little more competitive in that,” he said. “So the discussion is, do we come up with another couple thousand dollars … per year per person, to try to change it and make it a little more competitive on the wage scale.”

At the work session, McKinley said three more officers would help the department provide more adequate service at a cost of $500,000, including vehicles, benefits and raises for the first year.

“Even to fill those three positions, it costs about 100,000 per person, and that’s just a rough (estimate) we’ve been going off of, to include (Public Employees Retirement System payments), insurance, and all that, and you’re talking vehicles and fuel. That’s easily $450,000 to $500,000,” McKinley said.

County Commissioner John Rowell has been open to the idea of floating a levy for voters in order to secure more long-term funding for the Sheriff’s Department. He said it’s important to get more public feedback on the matter as the deadline for putting out a November levy this year is in August.

“The other alternative is to look at our current budget for 2024-2025 and take a look at what can the county cut to put toward public (safety), and will the public stand for that,” Rowell said. “That’s one of the questions we have to throw out there. I think it’s very important we do that. Maybe we come up with $300,000 and we come up with $200,000 to go out for levy. Maybe that’s palatable — I don’t know.”

During the work session, McKinley said he would not vote for a $500,000 levy. In an interview after the session, he modified that statement.

“If the levy was a lesser gap-filler, potentially, but I’m not fond of seeing us keep raising taxes and not cutting spending in other places,” the sheriff said.

Commissioner Jim Hamsher, who has voiced opposition to a levy, discussed the possibility that the cities in Grant County should pay their fair share to the county for Sheriff’s Department service, an idea he said in an interview after the work session was the “best path forward.” He said Prairie City is proposing a $100,000 contract with the sheriff’s office for law enforcement services in the next fiscal year.

No city in Grant County still has its own police department. Prairie City has a history of contracting with the sheriff’s office for service, with $40,000 budgeted for that purpose for this fiscal year, Hamsher said. John Day disbanded its police department in 2021 due to budgetary constraints and does not pay for sheriff’s coverage.

Prairie City Mayor Scott Officer said currently his city contracts with Grant County for 20 hours of sheriff’s office coverage per week. He said the aim with the $100,000 proposal for the next fiscal year is for 40 hours of law enforcement coverage in the city per week. The city has yet to approve the proposed deal, though Officer said the city is on track to approve its budget at a June 14 meeting.

“Maybe we would have a little more say with when they were there, and get some ordinance enforcement,” Officer said. “What the other towns do is up to them, but a lot of people in Prairie City want some police coverage, and we don’t have any way to enforce our ordinances right now.”

Hamsher, a former mayor of Prairie City, expressed an interest in having a law enforcement contract between the cities and the county based on varying levels of patrol coverage for each.

“I would like to have a proposal and see what the contract would provide and tell the cities what they can expect,” he said after the session. “That way they can expect, when they budget funds, what they get for their money.”

Hamsher asked Rick Allen, John Day interim city manager, what his city might be proposing in the way of funding for the sheriff’s office.

“Well, we don’t know for sure,” Allen said during the work session. “We are working on our budget, but I have tried to put in a number for you, somewhere around the number of Prairie City, actually a little more, but — but — it could be when we add it all up, it’s not possible, and so I’ll know a little more next week on that.”