A $3,500 increase approved by the St. Francis County Quorum Court will raise the county coroner's annual budget to $10,501, but it's still not enough to do the job, Chief Deputy Coroner Effie Clay said.
Clay and Coroner Stanley Hurst, who took office Jan. 1, had asked the Quorum Court for $64,181, which included the cost of a transport vehicle, labor and supplies.
"We want to do things right," Clay said. "They don't know what we need and what we're doing."
Clay said Hurst and his five deputies don't have the money to buy gloves, body bags, disinfectants, cameras and other supplies needed to perform the job. In the past, St. Francis County coroners either owned or were associated with funeral homes and provided their own equipment.
Hurst is a retired truck driver. Clay owns a funeral home.
Justices of the peace met briefly Tuesday to allocate the additional $3,500, but neither Clay nor Hurst attended the meeting. Clay said she arrived at the St. Francis County Courthouse in Forrest City at 5:05 p.m. Tuesday for the 5 p.m. meeting and learned that the justices of the peace had already voted and left without hearing her requests.
"It ran short," Justice of the Peace Ernestine Weaver said of the meeting. "We only had that one issue."
The county originally appropriated $7,001 for the coroner's office, which included $6,630 for Hurst's salary and $371 for supplies. County Judge Gary Hughes said the budgeted amount was based on the budgets from the two previous years when Rausch Hodges was the coroner.
Clay was to present a list of 52 items to the Quorum Court that coroners need to do their job. The list includes gloves, reflective safety vests, flashlights, cameras, communication equipment, blood collection tubes, evidence tape, business cards, shoe covers, disposable jumpsuits, needles, cots, a thermometer, boots and first-aid kits. She also requested $27,495 to buy a vehicle to transport bodies.
"We're doing better than we did the last couple of years, but we don't have that kind of money," Weaver said. "I want them to have what they need, but we have to be good stewards of the county's money.
"We can't just give him a blank check."
The county gave Hurst space in the courthouse to store his supplies.
Weaver said that if Hurst needs more supplies, he can buy them and then ask the county to reimburse him.
"We're not going to spend our money and then go to them with a receipt and hope we get reimbursed," Clay said. "I'm not doing that. The stuff we need is expensive."
Clay said deputy coroners are not paid for the runs they make. So far this year, the coroner's office has responded to eight calls.
"I should be paid for the work I'm doing," Clay said. "Our deputies should be paid."
Weaver said Hurst can request money anytime he needs it.
"He needs to make sure he has what he needs," she said. "I don't want him to take money out of his own pocket, but he needs to do the job he ran for."
State Desk on 01/21/2017