Tao Martinez: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: North AuroraWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Kane CoronerAge: 31Family: Happily married to my wife, Rene, for 9 years. We have 3 children together, 5 year old twins, a 3 year old, and our beloved cat and dog.Occupation: President and founder of ArchAngels BioRecovery, Inc. A company dedicated to the assistance of families and victims, as a result of a tragic loss of a loved one, including infection control of hazardous environments -homicides, suicides, unattended deathEducation: 2 years of College for International Business and AdministrationCivic involvement: Candidate did not respond.Elected offices held: NoneHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Bringing back integrity and restoring trust to the Coroner's office.Providing compassionate and professional attention to the residence of Kane county.Key Issue 2 Stream line, administrate, and scrutinize the budget in an efficient manner for today's timesKey Issue 3 As an elected official, not only is there an obligation to the office, but an obligation to the community.Making an effort to reduce the number of deaths by educating the residence while working hand in hand with assistance programs should be a Coroner's duty.Questions Answers What would your policy be on the handling and storage of evidence and materials from death scenes' Specifically, should employees be allowed to take items from death scenes home with them under any circumstances'Under no circumstances should employees be allowed to take items from death scenes home with them.Absolute policy needs to be that no personal items to be removed, from any scene, except for the purposes of the investigation.Other property not associated with the investigation will not be recovered from the scene.A criminal investigation would be initiated for any illegal activity. Photographs and documentation is critical for all evidence from the scene, to handling and storage, from which evidence is going to be recovered.A complete log would be kept from collection of evidence, to storage, to release. For example, log why someone is in the storage room as a chain of evidence, there has to be a paper trail. Triplicate log in system, one goes to the police department, family, and Coroner's office, and a witness to sign off for logging. Maintain separate evidence logging and inventory of fire arms, controlled substances, jewelry, and personal belongings.The county board has considered converting the coroner's office into more of a medical examiner position several times now. What is your view on the differences in those setups and what is best for Kane County's needs'There is the only one county in Illinois that has a Medical Examiner, and that is Cook County. For any other county, It is not cost effective to have a Medical Examiner system financed through the tax payers' money.We currently use a pathologist for autopsies as needed and no need to have multiple high paid physicians on staff full time. One of the purposes of using an outside forensic pathologist is to avoid any conflict of interest between the administration of the Coroner's office and accurately determining the cause of death. Coroners are elected, and the people decide who is the best person for the position, a Medical Examiner is appointed.How do you resolve the ongoing debate over the county board setting budgets for departments run by other elected officials whom the county board has no control over? How should the county board enforce the budgets it sets'As it is today, the Coroner has to go to the county board in order to determine budget.It should not affect the Coroner's office who determines the budget, as long as whoever is determining the budget can understand the needs for the office.The office has to prove that the budget has been well managed in order to justify any increase or decrease in budget based by county needs.We cannot control the number of people that have passed away or require an autopsy per year, but can control and streamline how the budget is applied and administrated in the office. There has to be control of the tax payer's money one way or another.The Coroner becomes a steward of the funds dedicated to the investigations to accurately determine the cause of death.Anyone that has been an independent successful business owner always has to deal and learn to work with their own budget.Do you believe the county board members and chairman should receive health insurance and pension benefits'This should be determined by the residents of the county at election.It is not up to the Coroner to decide who gets benefits and who doesn't.I do believe that any hard working individual with a full time job should receive benefits of some sort.Do you support a more stringent ethics ordinance for Kane County governing the conduct of elected officials and county employees' Why or why not? If so, what should the ordinance contain?Of course, there should be a stringent code of ethics. Trust is fundamental, ethics are ethics.Coroners are sworn officers and the code of ethics needs to be in line with law enforcement code of ethics.A badge should be a symbol of trust to every resident. A stringent manual of procedures and regulations needs to be abided by.There should be ethics and ordinance procedures on how to conduct activity on or off duty.