Columbiana settles OT lawsuit from K-9 handler

Csuti

The City of Columbiana has settled a lawsuit filed by the officer who handles the police department's K-9 who claimed he hasn’t been paid overtime for the hours he spends caring for the dog, according to court records.

An attorney for Patrolman Bryan Granchie revealed in a court filing that both sides have reached a settlement of the civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Granchie filed the suit in September alleging in 2018 that he spearheaded the effort to start a K-9 program for the police department, encouraging community support and leading a campaign to raise $60,000 to buy a police dog and equipment needed for a K-9 program.

The lawsuit alleged that Police Chief Tim Gladis told Granchie that he would be compensated for his time spent caring for the dog. Gladis retired as chief this past November.

Since the ten-week training period was completed and K-9 Officer “Csuti” was certified, Granchie says he has been spending a half-hour a day or more both on duty and off duty,  feeding, exercising, cleaning, training,  grooming, and taking the dog to veterinary visits.

Granchie says he works at least 40 hours in almost every workweek, not including time spent caring for and training Csuti.  The lawsuit says the city has not paid Granchie the time-and-a-half for work beyond his 40 hour week.

The lawsuit sought unspecified wages and attorney fees.

The city has denied some of Granchie’s allegations but admitted that although caring for the dog is part of the officer’s duties, he is not responsible for the cost of the care.

The city also said it paid for the working hours Granchie submitted but says he never made any claims for additional compensation for such “off duty” time spent with Csuti.

Terms of the settlement have not been revealed and are subject to the approval of the court, which is expected in March.

Last year Granchie and Csuti won three gold medals and one silver medal during a competition at the Ohio Police and Fire Games in Canton.

The team was tops in the Residential Building Search competition by finding a “suspect” hiding in a bedroom on the second floor of a house in just 8 seconds.

It took K9 Csuti two minutes to sniff out more than 20 vehicles to find four packages of narcotics, getting him a gold medal in the Vehicle Narcotics category.

Csuti also won the gold in the Large Area/Building Narcotics contest by locating three packages of narcotics hidden in a large industrial area in just over one minute.

Granchie and Csuti won the silver medal for Tactical Skills.