St. Francis County Coroner Stanley Hurst and his five deputies, who took office Jan. 2, don’t have the money to buy gloves, disinfectants, cameras, body bags and other supplies essential to do their jobs, Deputy Coroner Effie Clay said.
They transport bodies in a Dodge Durango, a 16.75-footlong SUV, that’s too short, she said.
“If we slide a tall body in that Durango, his head will end up in the front in my lap,” Clay said.
In the past, St. Francis County’s elected coroners have always worked at funeral homes, which provided the needed supplies. Although Clay owns a funeral home in Forrest City, Hurst said it’s the county’s responsibility to fund the coroner’s office.
The county budgets $6,630 for annual salaries for the coroner and deputies, and about $400 each year for supplies, St. Francis County Judge Gary Hughes said.
“It’s always been paid voluntarily,” Hughes said of the county’s past coroners. “It was never requested that the county pay. We are a small county. We don’t have a large amount of supplies.”
Hurst will meet with the county’s budget committee Monday to discuss funding. The St. Francis County Quorum Court will convene the next evening.
“Will [Hurst] get the money?” Hughes said. “I can’t answer it. The budget committee will hear his request and act on it.
“We’re reasonable people here,” the county judge said. “Anything he needs as far as supplies, it should be approved. He just has to ask first.”
Clay has a list of 52 items that he said coroners need. Items include body bags, flashlights, identification tags, cameras, blood collection tubes, evidence tape, disposable paper jumpsuits and hair covers, shoe covers, firstaid kits, crime scene tape, gunshot residue analysis kits, reflective safety vests, hand tools and medical equipment tools such as scissors, forceps and swabs.
“We do have pencils and paper,” she said.
Hurst and the deputies attended a weeklong coroner’s training conference in St. Louis in August, each paying about $2,000 for hotel, travel and food expenses. That money was not reimbursed by the county, Clay said.
She said the coroner’s office also will request a wheeled cot to remove bodies from homes. Clay said when Hurst took office, he was given a flat, wooden spine board that is generally used to extricate people injured in car accidents.
“We had to transport a 400-pound person on that board,” Clay said. “If I did that, he’d fall off and be on the ground.”
Hughes said the budget committee reviewed coroners’ budgets for the past few years and determined that previous coroners provided their own supplies since they all worked at funeral homes and those supplies were readily available.
“It’s been done that way,” he said. “We’re not trying to withhold anything from them.”
Deputies are paid $75 for each call they make, he said.
Since Jan. 2, Hurst and his deputies have responded to seven death calls. Three were at the Forrest City Medical Center, one was at a home, one was at a hospice, one was at a hotel and one was at an accident scene on Interstate 40 near Forrest City.
“We’re all in this together,” Clay said. “We’re trying to do the best we can.”
St. Francis County is not alone when it comes to coroners with budget problems, said Kevin Cleghorn, president of the Arkansas Coroner’s Association.
About 30 percent of the state’s 75 coroners are not associated with funeral homes and do not have access to some supplies unless counties provide them.
He said one county coroner in the state has an annual budget of $1,500. When told that St. Francis County budgets $400 a year for supplies, Cleghorn expressed surprise.
“You can’t buy a case of body bags for $400,” he said.
This year, the state has 12 newly elected coroners.
“We’ve got to do something to help these new coroners,” Cleghorn said.
Former association president and Pulaski County Coroner Gerone Hobbs spoke about funding needs at a recent St. Francis County budget committee meeting. Cleghorn said association members are available to help county coroners and will talk with county officials whenever asked.
One of the problems, Cleghorn said, is that there are no official qualifications for becoming a coroner. If a person is older than 18, a registered voter, a resident of the county where he is seeking the elected position and has never been convicted of a felony, he is eligible to become a coroner.
There are no medical training requirements to become a coroner. Cleghorn said his association offers free training for newly elected coroners, but some have turned down the instruction.
“The two biggest dates in a person’s life is his birth and his death,” Cleghorn said. “We will do anything we can to help educate the coroners of Arkansas.”
He cited an opinion rendered by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge in 2016 about counties’ responsibilities to coroners’ offices. In her July 21 opinion, Rutledge wrote that state statutes do not set fixed rates for expenses for coroners.
“But it is the role of the quorum court to appropriate sufficient amounts to cover expenses incurred by the coroner in the performance of the officials duties of that office,” she wrote. “Any alleged insufficiency in the appropriation will need to be reviewed by a trier of fact.”
Hughes said the county’s budget committee asked Hurst to present a list of needed supplies Jan. 9, but Hurst was not prepared by then.
“He’s treated no different than any other coroner we’ve had,” he said.
Clay said the lack of supplies creates safety concerns.
“We need gloves,” she said. “You don’t know who has what. Diseases can be deadly. We are supposed to use universal precaution in every single case. We can’t do that.”
Clay plans to present the list of needed supplies Monday and hopes that justices of the peace will help.
“Everything we have, we’ve had to dig up ourselves,” she said. “Maybe we can get some change.”