Coroner

Coroner Gordon Terry has come to the Health and Education Committee each of the five years I've been on the Committee, asking for funding to attend his professional conference – the Conference of the New York State Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners. Each year the funding has been budgeted, and in the past he has gotten permission to use that money to attend the conference each year he has asked. This year he did not.

Otsego County has four elected Coroners. They are not distributed geographically – all four could conceivably be elected from the same town – and they are paid on a per-call basis. All receive the same health insurance as other County employees (including the Reps). Here is the list of Otsego County Coroners and the number of calls each responded to in 2016: 

        James Dow:

28 initial calls for 2016

21 follow ups for 2016

Michael Fox:

33 initial calls for 2016

24 follow ups for 2016

Terry Knapp:

134 initial calls for 2016

113 follow ups for 2016

Gordon Terry:

13 initial calls for 2016

0 follow ups for 2016

This year, so far, the proportion has been about the same.

So the Health and Education Committee asked Coroner Terry to contact the other three Coroners and whoever else might help, and figure out a way to even out the calls over a year's time. They have thirty days to come up with a plan.

I voted to allow him to go, thinking that we should give him, and the other three, time to find a more equitable way to sort out the calls. Andrew Marietta agreed with me; Len Carson and Chair Dave Bliss did not. So Coroner Terry will need to pay his own way to the conference this year.