Churchill County public administrator urges new fund, higher stipend and tighter paperwork for abandoned decedents

Summary

Public Administrator Bob Ghetto told commissioners the county's stipend is no longer covering costs associated with rising abandoned-body cases and audits of 23 files; he recommended raising the annual stipend, increasing an hourly rate for extraordinary services and creating a $10,000 fund to pay cremation costs without drawing on social services.

Bob Ghetto, Churchill County public administrator, told the Board of County Commissioners that his office is handling more complex and more numerous estates than when the county adopted its current funding approach and asked the board to consider three budget changes to address unrecovered expenses.

Ghetto, who said he has served in the office for about 10 years, described public administration as a constitutional, 24/7 function that steps in when a decedent has no will or no available family and where estates can range “from $0 to millions of dollars.” He said the county currently provides his office a $40,000 annual stipend, but after an internal audit of 23 cases the stipend is running short and sometimes estates yield little or no recoverable funds.

"Sometimes the public administrator might get $40. Sometimes they get $100. Sometimes they get…

Churchill County public administrator urges new fund, higher stipend and tighter paperwork for abandoned decedents

Summary

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