Efforts to bring the Pulaski County Coroner’s Office in line with other county departments moved forward slightly last month, but the county council stopped short of offering the coroner health insurance and retirement benefits. Council members agreed to let County Attorney Kevin Tankersley add the Coroner’s Office to the county handbook and review a proposed job description for a part-time deputy.
Coroner Jon Frain asked for his position to be changed from part-time to full-time, letting him and future coroners get the same benefits as other elected department heads. “I’m the only constitutionally-created office holder that’s elected in this county that is not considered eligible for those benefits, based on a hyphenated two-word ‘part-time’ that has been assigned to me,” he told council members. “And no other county that I spoke to in the last five years – because we’ve been talking about this for five years – is there any other coroner that doesn’t, and to be told that I’m part-time is insulting. I’m on-call 24/7.”
Council Member Brian Young said the county might be legally obligated to offer health insurance and retirement benefits to the coroner, and Frain felt that it was up to the council to prove otherwise. Still, outgoing Council Member Jay Sullivan noted that Frain already has a full-time job outside of his work as coroner, a point Frain considered irrelevant.
“You would not have asked the sheriff that, the judge that, the prosecutor that, the auditor that – I know you wouldn’t have asked [Auditor] Laura [Wheeler] that – the clerk that, or anyone because they only have to report one day a year,” Frain said.
The request to move the coroner’s position to full-time status was narrowly voted down by the county council, despite a favorable recommendation from the county commissioners.
