Coroner’s detachment from duties of his office is alarming

The coroner’s office is not by state statute a 24/7 operation, but there is a higher law than the Ohio Revised Code.

It is the law of human decency, and it was that law that was violated over the weekend when the families of three young traffic accident victims were left to wait two days for definitive confirmation that their loved ones had died.

Mahoning County Coroner Dr. David Kennedy defended the inaction of his office — and himself — by saying that he is working under budgetary constraints that prohibit a 24/7 operation. He also defended not sending an investigator to the scene of the accident because, “it was an automobile accident. I don’t think we were going to learn much from the scene besides what we got from the police investigation.”

But this was far from a routine traffic accident. It was an extremely violent crash in which a compact car smashed into a house at high speed. Three people died; one was taken to the hospital, where he remains unconscious. Obviously, police had access to wallets and personal effects that helped them make tentative identifications, but a Campbell police detective asked the coroner for help in confirming the identities for the families Saturday afternoon.

That help was denied by Dr. Kennedy, who didn’t want to incur the cost of having an employee meet with police and/or the families at the coroner’s office on Saturday, and would not be bothered to do so himself.

Holding the line

During a press conference in his offices Monday, Kennedy said more than once that he is not running a 24/7 operation. A clear impression was given that the coroner has drawn a line that he will not cross. Inconveniencing himself, especially on a weekend, is over that line.

We would suggest that as a coroner and a doctor, Kennedy’s patients are the dead who come into his care, often through sudden and tragic circumstances. He owes the families of those patients the same respect and compassion that any physician gives the loved ones of a patient.

As an elected official, Kennedy signed on for a job that is not confined to the hours 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. Ask any mayor, commissioner or township trustee about their hours. They know that duty calls when a broken water main or a sudden downpour floods streets or homes — regardless of the day or hour. More, not less, should be expected of a coroner.

We are only suggesting that Kennedy perform at a level that the public has a right to expect for the $63,000 it pays for his part-time services — and at a level other coroners manage to meet. Instead, Kennedy, by his own estimate, works 15 to 20 hours a week, and thinks that’s enough.

In Trumbull County, the office of Dr. Humphrey D. Germaniuk is operating this year on a budget of $601,875. He has an advantage in that he is a pathologist and so he does the department’s autopsies. He had been the pathologist under the previous coroner; when he ran for office he did so knowing that he’d be doing more work for less pay. He has an office secretary, whom he credits with keeping the wheels running smoothly, and he has four certified investigators. With that staff, Germaniuk runs a 24/7 operation, 365 days a year, including holidays.

On the same budget, Kennedy pays himself, a pathologist, a secretary, a financial officer and three investigators (soon to be cut to two).

Kennedy is a doctor, but he’s not a pathologist, so by law he can’t do autopsies, thus the hiring of a pathologist. He’s elected to be an administrator, but by his own admission, he can’t balance the books, so he hired a financial officer.

He managed to survive 15 years in office despite those deficiencies because few chose to challenge him, the county was not facing a fiscal crisis and his level of detachment was never exposed as it was by recent events.

Question time

Kennedy will be meeting with county commissioners Friday morning. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to commissioners if Kennedy tells them he needs more money to operate. It shouldn’t come as a shock to Kennedy if the commissioners tell him to do what everyone else is doing these days, more with less.

Kennedy is an elected officeholder, and commissioners can’t give him orders. But they do have the power of the purse strings, and they have an obligation in these tight economic times to demand fiscal accountability.

When asked during his press conference why he couldn’t do his own books, Kennedy shrugged and smiled and said that he’d tried that, and it didn’t work out well. Commissioners should ask that question for themselves, and expect an answer that has more substance. If Kennedy could get through med school, he can learn the intricacies of a spreadsheet.

The commissioners and the county administrator should challenge Kennedy to meet the obligations of the coroner’s office outside of banker’s hours. Indeed, bankers are slaves to the clock beside Kennedy.

Perhaps, commissioners should ask Kennedy if he has lost whatever passion he may have had for the job, and what he’s going to do to get it back. Better yet, Kennedy should ask himself that question.