Pulaski County Coroner’s staff say they aren’t getting paid what they’re owed by the county. Under the county’s pay structure, Coroner John Behny and Chief Deputy Jon Frain each receive an annual salary, plus additional money for each call they respond to. But how much they’re supposed to get per call was a topic of debate during Monday’s county council meeting.
Frain said this year’s budget increased that amount from $150 to $500, but council member Mike Tiede said that’s not what the council intended. “I guarantee we wasn’t going to raise it 300 percent. I’ll guarantee it,” he said. “I guarantee it. I’ll make the motion to make it $150. I guarantee we weren’t going to make it more.”
Council members approved Tiede’s motion to continue paying Behny and Frain $150 per call, until the end of the year. That led Frain to ask if the council could legally do that. He went on to explain that he didn’t take the job for the money. “I’m trying to get it so that we can get people to do this job so that it’s done right. You have never beat up any entity about getting paid for the work they do . . . [The raise] was a suggestion, and you guys didn’t change it.”
Some council members felt the $500 figure was designed specifically for additional deputies who would not get an annual salary. Behny and Frain disagreed with that. Currently, they’re the only two people working in the Pulaski County Coroner’s Office.
Frain felt they’ve accomplished a lot with limited resources. “When I took this job, there were so many violations going on,” he said. And I don’t know whose job it is to get them corrected or what it’s worth to you, but I think at the end of the day, when a lawsuit comes down, it’s you guys’ butts that’s in the air. We’re trying really hard to make sure that our job is done right, nobody’s being stolen from, nothing’s misplaced. We didn’t even have bio-hazard waste. Where was all the dirty stuff going for all those years you were a commissioner and on the council?”
Recently, coroner pay has also been a topic of debate in Starke County.
