The proposal above was submitted by the 4-County, First Judicial Circuit Interim Medical Examiner for next Fiscal Year.
This will be on the board's agenda for consideration later today, and the other 3 counties in the circuit would need to approve this as well in order to move forward.
With a base salary of $350,000.00 plus $1,250 per each additional autopsy performed above 250 autopsies yearly--the total compensation for this doctor could approach $1 Million Dollars--if the office only performed the same number of autopsies performed last year (729).
We all love our doctors, we LOVE them. And we know doctors in private practice command gigantic salaries. We all know this, and we get it.
We are now being told that the salary offered for a Medical Examiner is too low.
We are also being told that we had very few applicants due to the "politics" of the area--whatever that means. Will there be more than one doctor? Do we know? The way the last deal went, we were funding for two (2) Doctors but the office never hired a second doctor and best I can tell, the one doctor pocketed the money/salary of what should have been a second MD. Will this happen again, will we pay one guy $1 Million next year?
Here is the Key for me: this is a HUGE salary to pay. Huge. Part of the issue I had when the whole Medical Examiner issue erupted last year was the way money was moved around between the previous ME's office and her private company leading to her garnering compensation approaching $700K. Meanwhile, we are still in the midst of litigation to recoup funds Escambia County feels we are owed from that debacle. Who knows where that will land.
And now this proposal is being put in front of us.
I don't know that we can pay this high of a salary in the public sector--we cannot pay private level wages with public dollars, I just don't know how this can be justified.
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