New Medical Examiner Facility Proposal Could be a Step in the Right Direction

Everyone everywhere who takes the time to tour the current state of our Medical Examiner's spaces in Escambia County knows one thing.  The spaces are deficient, inadequate, and undersized.

This was painfully evident when I toured the facility in 2021.  We also discussed the facility's deficiencies during one of my coffee with the commissioner events  in 2021.  We have long known there is a problem.

The difficult thing now is finding a way forward in solving this issue that works for all four counties that must fund this essential (and expensive) service.  Many have worked hard at a compromise.

The approach that didn't work:  Attempts by some from other counties to dictate to Escambia County what we should do.  Those sorts of overtures fell on deaf ears.

Because Escambia County is where most of the deaths occur, so naturally it makes sense for the ME's office to be located here.  At our latest meeting where this was discussed, a commonsense plan to expand the current ME location footprint with additional cooler space (desperately needed) and additional office and parking spaces was put forward as a workable, interim solution.  And those plans have subsequently moved forward.

In speaking with a local professional in the funeral home industry about this, some salient points were imparted to me:   "Jeff, we have the most death here in Escambia County.  Even if it is someone from the other counties, if they are really sick they end up over here in Escambia County at one of the big three hospitals where unfortunately many of them die.  In addition to that, there are folks from Baldwin County that end up in our hospitals here and many of them die here, too.  So, in my business, I see that most of the death happens here, so is it really prudent to be driving over to a county to the East with bodies from Escambia County?  I mean, I'll do it--but it will put an additional cost on the families because there are costs associated with transporting bodies."

For my part ----my thinking on this has been: I believe the ME office should be modernized, it should be improved, and additional space and cooler capacity should be added.  But it should be added here--because this is where most of the crime deaths, overdose deaths, and hospital/hospice deaths happen--let alone we in Escambia are the population center of the circuit and therefore have the highest percentage of deaths from natural and all causes.  By a longshot.  The current location of the ME facility is where it should be because of this.

Is this ideal for the other four counties, for Walton County?  No, it isn't.  But the geographic realities of the layout of this four county circuit is what it is---and in other parts of the country even larger "geographic" areas are similarly serviced by one standalone ME facility. In some cases even smaller facilities like the one in Leon county, for instance, which is a metal prefabricated/preengineered building (PEB).

With this as the backdrop--now comes a new proposal from Craig Coffey--Deputy Administrator for Okaloosa County and currently the chairman of the four county medical examiner support entity, "DOMES."  Coffee's newest proposal could be step in the right direction--as it at least recognizes the necessity of having ME capability in Escambia County.   Where I think it needs further tweaking is that the facility in Santa Rosa should be smaller than 17,000 feet and it should be the annex, NOT Escambia county.  

The rest of the proposal, particularly the percentages of payment responsibility, look good to me.

This proposal, below, will be discussed tomorrow at the regular BCC meeting.

A Camel's Nose Under the Tent?

Could the recent ruling coming out of Walton County dealing with customary use of the beaches in Walton County--could this be the camel's nose coming under the tent as it pertains to beaches locally, in Perdido Key, once again becoming accessible to the public?  Could the rest of the camel be coming into the tent shortly?

According to this article  - the decision by Walton County Circuit Court Judge David W. Green that customary use is not unconstitutional was expected by the private landowners and this decision will be appealed.

Eventually, this case will end up before the Florida Supreme Court.

from a different article on the same topic:  

"Judge David W. Green issued a 10-page ruling Monday that turned down arguments by Northshore Holdings, LLC and Lavin Family Development, LLC, which own property along the Gulf of Mexico and contended that customary use violates the state and federal constitutions..Green pointed to a 1974 Florida Supreme Court opinion that allowed the public to use those areas of beaches. He wrote that he is “without authority to enter a judgment finding the doctrine of customary use as established by the Florida Supreme Court unconstitutional as a violation of the prohibitions against taking of property without just compensation or without due process of law.”

Some believe that the issues being litigated in Walton County are directly on point as it relates to the issues of public access on the "private" beaches in Perdido Key.

So we'll see what happens going forward, and whether or not the camel gets in the tent.

Whichever way that decision goes, we will read the ruling and we will play by the rules.  As I said at my recent townhall--I play by the rules, but I know how to read a rulebook.

Could the Interim Medical Examiner's Compensation Approach $1 Million for FY 2019-2020?

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.

Walton County Terminates Escambia County Inmate Housing Agreement

Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson sent the Escambia BCC a letter today terminating our
prisoner housing agreement....

Could this make a tent city even more likely in Escambia, even sooner than anyone thought?

With a very generic, one-page letter delivered to commissioners late this afternoon with no forewarning, Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson has given Escambia County 30 days’ notice that our inmates will no longer be housed Walton County, in his jail, After July 1st.  The letter points to a meeting of the Escambia BCC on May 25^th where jail capacity and other issues were presented to the BCC by staff.  According to the letter, Sheriff Adkinson took issue with much of the data presented at that meeting; this appears to be the impetus for this sudden termination of the agreement.

This is devastatingly terrible news for Escambia County, as we currently have nearly 300 inmates in Walton County—at a cost per inmate per day of $53.00-- which is much less than we have been able to pay housing our own inmates here.  But worse than this-- we don’t currently have space available to accept this massive influx, and the board nixed double bunking and eschewed the idea of taking back a facility we lease back to the state to house juveniles.  Berrydale is out as an option as is the cramming of these inmates into our existing jail.  So options to house our inmates are running low.  One thing is for sure, though:  we are going to be getting all of our prisoners back in the next 30 days….. From the letter:

“It had been our hope to partner with you to provide a level of overflow capacity and advanced programs for inmates that could reduce overall costs.  Unfortunately, I believe that exploration of this opportunity is no longer viable, nor is it in the best interest of Walton County…On May 25th 2017 we were taken aback by the presentation to the [Escambia] Board.  That presentation’s veracity is central to my concern that the [Escambia] Board is not fully aware of operational issues at the jail and represents a deliberate indifference.   feel I have no other option than to exercise our right to terminate our agreement.”

As has been discussed several times including quite recently—will this unfortunate turn of events be the mother of invention that necessitates that we look seriously at a tent city to temporarily house our inmates?