Kane coroner candidates debate budgeting for autopsies

Death is inevitable. But predicting how much death will occur in Kane County, and how much it will cost the coroner to investigate, has been an ongoing source of heated debate in the county.

All four candidates for coroner have different views on how to budget for death in Kane County.

Incumbent Republican Rob Russell said the contention over his office's budget is all political. Every death he's chosen to investigate with an autopsy is based on protocol and the law, he said. His office can't follow those laws if his budget is based on the inaction of his predecessor, who faced federal misconduct charges before he died.

Former Coroner Chuck West called for 103 autopsies his final year in office. The number was nearly 50 percent lower than that of just a few years prior.

"I was asked to budget based on those numbers," Russell said. "I told the chairman there is no way I can do that. We're not doing autopsies when they are necessary."

Russell pointed specifically to drug deaths. He said all the industry journals mandate autopsies on drug deaths.

"Not a single one was done," Russell said. "I came in and did things the way that they should have been done. Therefore, the budget went up."

But all three of his challengers believe they could, probably, do the job at less cost to taxpayers.

Dr. Robert Tiballi is Russell's Republican challenger in the March 15 primary. He said a fair number of autopsies is somewhere between what West and Russell budgeted. But beyond the autopsies, Tiballi said he easily can cut costs by using his medical expertise and business acumen.

Reducing the number of vehicles, keeping employee salaries low but competitive, and doing away with unnecessary personnel such as grant writers, budget consultants and communications contractors all would trim the bottom line, Tiballi said.

Those actions are the types of efforts Tiballi believes the county board is looking for in order to believe in the management of the office.

"I don't think the board has a problem with granting overages to a budget if you go over on autopsies," Tiballi said. "An autopsy is a good faith expense. The county is obligated to pay for that. But there's been a serious erosion of good will between the board and that office."

Democrat John Shoemaker said he's best qualified of all the candidates to set an accurate budget for the office. He has a nursing background. And he's the only candidate with extensive experience as an elected official. Shoemaker is the highway commissioner in Aurora Township, and he previously served eight years as a township trustee.

"That's 16 tax levies and 16 budgets I've put in place," Shoemaker said. "The budget is simple. What needs to be done differently is cooperation, working with the county board."

Shoemaker said the number of autopsies needed will always be a fluid number. He suggested creating an autopsy contingency fund that could be activated only if the coroner demonstrates to the board why more expenses are needed.

"There is a time and place you have to stand up and demonstrate each case out in the open, in public meetings, and defend your work," Shoemaker said. There is no fluff in the coroner's budget. There is no buying your chachkies."

Fellow Democrat Tao Martinez said the coroner's budget is out of whack because the expenses are not transparent enough and because Russell simply doesn't have the credentials to do the job.

Martinez serves as a deputy coroner in Kendall County. He is also a certified medical legal death investigator.

"Knowing when to perform an autopsy is all based on investigative skills," Martinez said. "If you conduct an autopsy for everything, you blow your budget. Russell had investigative skills but not medical legal death investigative skills. The truth is he's taking no chances. He's adopting standards not even relevant to state standards. And that's basically to cover for his lack of experience and investigating skills."

Martinez said with some wiggle room of 10 to 15 deaths, there is no reason the coroner's office budget shouldn't be accurate.

The current budget is comparable to other area coroner's offices, he said. So the key to determining what expenses are really necessary is partitioning the budget into administrative costs versus forensic costs.

"Blending the budget into one is allowing the coroner to mix expenses into one category that, perhaps, should not be in that category. It's creating confusion."