A Colorado coroner is refusing to collect more bodies unless he gets a raise and is threatening to sue if county commissioners refuse.
Tommy Dunagan, the Prowers County coroner, maintains that he is only a part-time employee and should not have to work more than 20 hours if he is not paid as a full-time employee.
The issue came to a head over Memorial Day weekend, when he allegedly refused to attend the scene of a death because he was already “overdue” and did not have enough hours to work over the weekend. following.
He told county officials that none of his five deputies were able to respond to the scene either, and “that he would respond the next day when he was back on duty,” Commissioners Chairman Ron Cook said at a special meeting. June 4 meeting.
As a result, Cook claimed, the body was left lying in a field while an ambulance at the scene waited for county officials to find someone who had legal permission to transport a body.
Tommy Dunagan, the Prowers County coroner, refuses to pick up more bodies unless he gets a raise.
Finally, after some back and forth, Dunagan finally agreed to respond to the scene when the county commissioners agreed to hold a special meeting to discuss increasing his salary. 9 News reports.
At that special meeting last week, county commissioners expressed frustration with Dunagan’s response, with Cook noting that he “sworn an oath as a coroner… to take charge of any death in the county” and is responsible for have someone available to perform those functions if they are not available.
“It’s very unfortunate that they put us in that position,” he said of the delayed response on June 1, noting that he knew the deceased.
“It was very disturbing that this conversation had to be made public,” Cook added. “I think there were ways to handle this more professionally.”
County commissioners met last week to discuss his salary after he reportedly refused to pick up a body.
Residents at the meeting also criticized Dunagan for his apparent new rule, with one woman noting that he “campaigned to bring dignity, transparency and compassion” to the coroner’s office.
“Does anyone in this room, and I challenge you if you say yes, believe that there is dignity, compassion or transparency in leaving a body?”
She went on to call his apparent refusal to respond “despicable,” while another resident said it was “inappropriate.”
“At that moment you decided to hunker down and leave a human body, disrespectfully, waiting for you to decide if you were being paid enough money or not.”
Commissioners Chairman Ron Cook recounted how Dunagan told him there were no deputies available and “that he would respond the next day when he was back on duty.”
Dunagan has since denied there was a delay in his response and claimed the deceased was not “left lying in the field because I refused to respond”.
But at the meeting, he simply seemed to double down, noting that he had never left a body “until now” and stating that there isn’t “much more I can do without being compensated.”
“I don’t think that after 20 hours I should take calls,” he said at the meeting.
Dunagan has raised issues about working more than 20 hours in the past, prompting state lawmakers to approve a measure allowing county commissioners to make him a full-time employee by January 2024.
Instead, commissioners gave him money to hire some assistants and increased the Coroner’s Office budget by $15,000, which would be used to replenish supplies.
They cannot change their salary again until 2026, according to state law.
But Dunagan has now hired his own attorney to pressure lawmakers to increase his salary and demand that the county pay his legal fees.
He also criticized commissioners for inviting “several disinterested parties and my political rivals to the meeting and (providing) them with information about an active death investigation.”
“It was wrong and inappropriate to do so and was disrespectful to the deceased and his family, especially as they were trying to cope with the unexpected death of a loved one,” Dunagan. he wrote in a letter to the editor of SECO Newsstating that the deceased is “a friend of mine and to suggest that I neglected my duties (is) absurd and repugnant.”
Dunagan hired a lawyer to try to force the county commissioners to increase his salary.
Still, he noted that he has to respond to about 100 deaths each year and spend about 15 hours investigating each one.
“The Chief Coroner is available 24/7/365 and is expected to respond to all deaths,” Dunagan wrote. ‘
This does not include office management, training, organization and scheduling of deputy coroners and other deputies and office responsibilities.
“Since taking my position, I have worked an average of 50 hours a week.”
He concluded his essay by saying that he wants to be “the best coroner in the state of Colorado,” but “I also believe that full-time work deserves a full-time salary.”
