BILL WOULD ALLOW CAPE COUNTY TO RETAIN CORONER

Pending state legislation would allow Cape Girardeau County to retain its county coroner rather than have to hire a medical examiner when the county goes first class.

As of Jan. 1, Cape Girardeau County becomes a first-class county, which will bring about several changes in the way business gets done.

One of the changes includes replacing the elected county coroner with a contracted medical examiner.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter has indicated he will file for re-election, but at this point it is anybody's guess whether that office will exist come Jan. 1.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones says a medical examiner isn't necessary and would be too costly, with an estimated annual price tag of $100,000.

Carpenter, Jones said, "does an excellent job" and his salary is only $8,000.

"We're just trying to get it worked out so that we can retain our coroner instead of the medical examiner," he said.

Carpenter said Monday that he will go ahead and file for re-election. "We're going to go ahead and put it on the ballot and see how it goes," he said.

State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, has introduced a bill that would give Cape Girardeau County the option of electing a coroner or putting a medical examiner on retainer.

"It was the No. 1 request of the county commission," Kinder said.

Having to hire a medical examiner "could be dramatically more costly, like in the six figures," he said.

Senate Bill 806 was recently approved in committee and should be approved on the Senate floor soon, said Kinder.

The bill originally would have applied to all first-class counties, he said, but it was amended in committee to apply to Cape County alone.

Companion legislation sponsored by Reps. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, and David Schwab, R-Jackson, has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

Filing opens today for several county offices, including coroner, sheriff, county commissioners, treasurer, assessor, public administrator and surveyor.

Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle has been researching the implications of the county's change in status.

The change won't have much impact on most offices, Swingle said, but the question so far has been whether the coroner's post should even be put on the ballot for the November election since the start of the coroner's term of office and the county's first-class status -- which may prohibit the office -- will coincide.

"It's a complicated issue," Swingle said, and there are no legal precedents indicating what steps should be taken.

On the one hand, he said, it could be argued that since the office exists prior to the county's status change, it should go on the ballot, and next year the officeholder should fill out the four-year term, after which the post would be abolished.

But on the other hand, why have an election for a position that may not exist? Swingle asked.

"Both arguments seem logical," he said. In light of the pending legislation, "probably the safer course is to go ahead and accept applications to be on the ballot."

As a prosecutor, Swingle said, having a coroner rather than a medical examiner "works very well because we don't have a large number of homicide cases or suspicious-death cases."

A medical examiner on retainer would earn the same salary no matter how often his or her services were utilized.

As it now stands, he said, autopsies are contracted out to pathologists in the area as they are needed.

"I think we save a large amount of money that way, and we still end up with competent testimony in the courtroom because the pathologists are medical experts," Swingle said.

Swingle said he hopes to have "working paper" on all the changes inherent in the new status ready for commissioners in March or April.

Other changes include increasing the terms of office from two to four years for the commissioners in Districts 1 and 2: Larry Bock and Joe Gambill, respectively.

The new status also will give the county commission the power to set ordinances in unincorporated areas, Jones said, "so we'll have a little more authority."

Commissioners could establish ordinances on such things as nuisance abatements or speed limits on county roads in unincorporated areas, he said.

Cape County's commissioners also will have control over the number of sheriff's deputies and their salaries, which is now handled by the presiding circuit judge, said Juanita Donahue, executive director of the Missouri Association of Counties.

The commission could also establish a convention and sports complex authority and qualify for state funding to build a sports-convention facility.

There are currently 11 first-class counties in Missouri, and as of Jan. 1, four new first-class counties, including Cape County, will go on the books, Donahue said. The other three are Cass, Cole and Camden counties.