CANYON CITY — It’s official: The Grant County Sheriff’s Office is now the designated law enforcement agency for the city of John Day.

The Grant County Court on Feb. 5 signed an intergovernmental agreement with the city that states the sheriff’s office will provide “law enforcement services customarily provided by a municipal police department,” including both patrol and code enforcement.

For the most part, the deal formalizes a working arrangement that has evolved since John Day dissolved its police department in October 2021: Most of the calls for service to the sheriff’s office since that time have come from John Day residents, dispatch records show.

The big difference now is the county will be paid for those services.

Under the agreement the county court approved (and the John Day City Council previously OK’d), the city will pay the county $8,333 per month, or just under $100,000 a year.

Fines that citations generate will go to the city, the agreement states, as will the bills for expenses such as towing charges and ambulance fees incurred as a result of law enforcement activities.

In conjunction with a similar agreement with Prairie City, the additional funding has enabled the sheriff’s office to expand its patrol division by two deputies, enough to allow for more regular patrols throughout the county, according to Sheriff Todd McKinley.

“We’ve been working on this since probably almost this time last year,” McKinley told the court. “We are covering the city, and it’s good the county gets something out of it.”

McKinley added that his deputies would enforce the new homeless camping ordinance working its way through the John Day City Council, which he called “a dire need of the city.”

City Manager Melissa Bethel, who attend the meeting, told the county court McKinley “has been wonderful” to work with.

“We’re excited to have this partnership,” she said.

The agreement states that sheriff’s office personnel will be available to enforce the law within the city of John Day at all times, but it also notes that “(the) sheriff’s office’s primary responsibility is to provide law enforcement services for all of Grant County.”

The initial term of the agreement runs through Jan. 31, 2028, unless terminated earlier by mutual agreement or for a specific cause as outlined in the deal.

There’s also a provision for automatic renewal annually after the initial period expires, with the terms of the contract — including compensation — to be reviewed by both parties on a yearly basis.