COLUMBIANA, Ohio -  The officer who handles Columbiana’s K-9 is suing the city in federal court claiming he hasn’t been paid overtime for the hours he spends caring for the dog.

Patrolman Bryan Granchie on Friday filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Granchie says in 2018, 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 alleges that Police Chief Tim Gladis told Granchie that he would be compensated for his time spent caring for the dog.

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, which asks for a jury trial, seeks unspecified wages and attorney fees.

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.

When contacted by 21 News, Chief Gladis was not yet aware of the lawsuit and could not yet comment