Board approves revised on-call death investigator job description and grade increase

The Walla Walla County Board of Commissioners approved a revised job description for the county’s on-call death investigator position, reclassifying the role to reflect additional duties and state training requirements.

Human-resources and risk manager Josh Griffith said the update was prompted by an outdated job description and evolving state expectations. Chief Coroner Richard Greenwood told the board that the coroner’s office is being asked for more forensic work, including fingerprints and DNA samples, and cited increases in workload and outside-agency requests: “They want fingerprints, especially of all males, that are deceased and go through our office,” Greenwood said.

HRCC evaluated the revised description and recommended grade 4; commissioners discussed that the previous classification was low relative to current duties and agreed to the change. The board approved the revised job description 3-0. Josh Griffith said the change will move the on-call list compensation to align with the new grade and that the county had earlier approved step increases for two current on-call staff in a separate action.