Faulkner County panel forwards coroner staffing reorganization after rise in death-scene responses

The Faulkner County Quorum Court personnel committee voted to forward Personnel Committee Resolution 25-03 to the county budget process after hearing that death-scene responses have risen substantially since 2016.

Administrator Higgins, speaking to the committee, presented statistics prepared for the committee showing 694 death-scene responses in 2016, 1,151 responses in the most recent full year, and 722 responses in the first six months of the current year. Higgins told the committee that the combination of more calls and increased administrative work per case has created a manpower shortfall in the coroner's office.

The nut graf: Committee members considered a staffing reorganization that would convert part of the county's existing part-time coroner appropriation into a full-time position and request additional appropriations to fund another full-time hire, while retaining some part-time coverage for off‑hour callouts.

Higgins explained the county currently uses a part-time appropriation model to cover multiple deputy coroners and that, because death calls can occur 24 hours a day, part-time on-call staff are often unavailable due to shift work, family obligations or other reasons. The proposal would: (1) reallocate roughly half of the part-time coroner appropriation into a permanent full-time job that can be scheduled, (2) request that the quorum court appropriate additional funds to hire another full-time coroner, and (3) keep a reduced part-time pool for occasional coverage.

Higgins also described plans to assign part of the new full-time hire’s duties to administrative tasks so that responding coroners spend less time on paperwork at scenes. He said the coroner’s headcount has not changed since February 2016 and that rising caseload and longer per‑case administrative times have driven the need for the change.

Committee members moved and seconded the resolution and voted to send Resolution 25-03 to budget for consideration. No specific salary figures or appropriation amounts were included in the committee discussion; those figures were described as matters for the budget process.

The committee record shows the item was forwarded to the county budget review; the quorum court will consider appropriation and implementation details during the budget process.

Ending: The committee did not adopt funding at the meeting and directed the resolution to the budget process for financial review and possible appropriation.