Tom Cheney Seeks to Get on the Ballot for Coroner, as Problems & Salaries Are Discussed by BOS
Cheney and BOS agree: we have a problem!
There were 145 unattended deaths requiring coroners in 2022.
Last cycle, the Ways and Means Committee discussed adjusting the coroners’ salaries in response to a couple coroners’ failure to respond to calls and in anticipation of autopsy costs at least doubling next year. (Coroners sometimes respond to calls over the phone instead of going to the scene in person, which results in Ontario paying for more autopsies than it needs to.) Coroners serve four-year terms. Two of the current coroners’ terms are up this year, prompting the salary discussion.
I also sat down and spoke with Tom Cheney, a Phelps funeral director who is currently petitioning to run for coroner later this year on the Republican ticket, to learn more about coroners in Ontario County, what is working and what could stand to be improved, and why he wants to be one of our coroners.
This article is informed by both of the above discussions.
Some background on coroners: How it’s supposed to work
Ontario County is mandated to have four coroners. These are elected positions. When someone is found and thought to be deceased, the police and an ambulance are sent to the scene. They will either confirm death or attempt to resuscitate, depending on the situation. All unattended deaths (any death occurring outside of a medical facility and/or the individual is not under hospice care) require a coroner to come to the scene. In the event that the individual has passed, the police call dispatch, who is supposed to check the rotation before calling the correct coroner. The police then wait at the site until the coroner arrives. It is the coroner’s job to travel to the scene, check for foul play, determine the manner of death (this is distinct from the cause of death), sign the death certificate (along with the forensic pathologist), and determine whether or not an autopsy is needed. If the deceased had a primary care physician, the coroner contacts them to obtain the deceased’s medical history before making a determination about an autopsy. The coroner also typically contacts the deceased’s next-of-kin to obtain more medical history, explain the situation, and ask about a preferred funeral home. Ambulances are not allowed to transport anyone who is already deceased; rather, this is the responsibility of a funeral home.
Coroners who have qualifications as physicians or nurse practitioners (like newly-elected Terry Haskins) can examine the scene and determine the cause of death as well as the manner of death. The body can then be released to the family and their funeral director of choice. “The other coroners, the lay coroners, cannot do that” said Sheriff David Cirencione. “So, their choice is either to attempt to get hold of some sort of primary care physician, or heart doctor… So, when those coroners can either not get hold of a doctor, or there isn’t a doctor, or sometimes the person’s a little younger, maybe we’re talking somebody in their 50s… that’s when we tend to see autopsies get ordered. And [I] should also indicate that we’ve had some even younger people with the overdoses.”
Problems with the current system
1. Some coroners are not responding to calls at all
At the Ways and Means meeting, Sheriff Cirencione said, “Probably 70% of the time, we get somebody, and then other times, we just – they don’t answer, or they’re tied up with something else and they’re not available, and then it’s on us to stay there until we figure something out…”
He said when a coroner is available, they generally respond in about half an hour, but “there are times when we can’t get one and we have to continue to wait until we can get one of them to answer.”
Later in the meeting, he shared further: “But it’s a tremendous drain on our resources. It’s a deputy, an investigator, an evidence technician and a supervisor at every one of these. Minimum. And we can’t just pack up and leave if nobody’s answering the phone. Somebody’s gotta stay there until the decedents are properly cared for.”
Tom Cheney, who himself responded to 23 calls in 2022, said that deputies can wait for hours, sometimes staying with the dead even after their shifts have ended, which he called “a courtesy to funeral directors and families.” When none of the four coroners respond, the police turn to funeral directors – this was not brought up in the Ways and Means discussion. According to Cheney, it is very often that no one shows up. Cheney has even been asked to pull medical histories and sign death certificates for the deceased – a job that four other people are paid to do.
It would seem that some Ontario County coroners are much more responsive than others. This was eluded to on multiple occasions by multiple parties. Supervisor Dave Baker (City of Canandaigua), reading a copy of a report to the Ways and Means committee, named the individuals frankly when he said, “If [James J.] Devaney or Dr. Long [no longer serving as coroner] is going to be taking better than 50% of the cases, I would think they should be paid better than [Michael D.] John or [Scott A.] Avedisian, who appear to be at it for the health insurance only.” I would be remiss if I did not mention that newly-elected coroner Terry Haskins, a nurse practitioner, was spoken of favorably, as someone who has already responded to many cases and who almost always arrives in person.
2. Coroners phoning in
“The law actually states that they’re supposed to respond to the scene and conduct their investigation,” said Cirencione. And yet, “we get a fair amount of times when they conduct it over the phone… The law’s a hundred years old. From our take, lots of times, we’ll take somebody over the phone than nobody answering at all, especially if there’s going to be an autopsy. That’s kind of the way I look at it.”
When a coroner responds via phone, that coroner essentially has to have the law enforcement officers present do his job for him. Unable to investigate the scene himself, he will ask the officers whether they observe anything suspicious, or have contact information for the deceased’s next-of-kin or primary care physician. In addition, coroners cannot sign death certificates and often do not explain what is going on to family members over the phone. This can cause families great pain and confusion during an already difficult time. According the Cheney, these responsibilities often get passed to the funeral directors who transport the dead from the scene to the hospital, and later, from the hospital to the funeral home.
“We get complaints, especially from the funeral directors, do complain that they don’t always go to the site, so they do it by phone,” said director of Public Health, Mary Beer. “And so, some of it, you do wonder if they’ve done enough investigation to say a 90 year-old woman who had a cardiac problem, they sent – that was a hit for the County.” In other words, an autopsy was ordered.
In the event that no coroner responds and no physician can be identified for the deceased, an autopsy must be ordered to determine the cause of death.
“I do believe we pay for more autopsies than if they did a little more digging, they would be able to resolve it without an autopsy,” said Beer. “But how many, or which ones? I don’t investigate every one.”
How many, indeed?
3. Dr. William Dean’s retirement means that autopsies will at least double in cost
Dr. William Dean is the forensic pathologist that conducts autopsies for Ontario, Seneca, Wayne and Yates Counties. His retirement at the end of this year will double the cost of autopsies for all four counties.
Ontario openly acknowledges that it will have a hard time finding his replacement.
“There’s not a boatload of forensic pathologists out there that are going to want to do it for that price,” said Mary Beer, referencing Dean’s charge of $750 per autopsy. This is about half the going rate of $1500-1800. “Or even find somebody to do that volume, because it’s a big volume.”
4. Increases in unattended deaths are compounding all of these problems
“I haven’t gone back and run numbers over the last seven or eight years, but I can certainly say with a fair degree of confidence that our unattended deaths in general are up significantly in the last five, six years,” said Cirencione. “Perhaps it ties into the pandemic, too, with people not going to the doctor when they should. I mean, we see a lot of ‘haven’t been feeling well,’ ‘called my doctor, never went,’ and then we end up...”
In search of a solution:
The Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Sup. Dave Baker (City of Canandaigua), are pursuing a salary change for the county coroners (technically, just the two that are up for re-election. The salaries of the other two would change in two more years, when they are up for re-election). Currently, each is provided with health insurance (value up to $30,000 for a family plan) and a salary of $12,700. The committee discussed making the base salary smaller and paying the coroners for each case they respond to: perhaps $250/case for on-scene responses and $150/case for phone responses. Baker hopes that this will help to ensure a “return on investment,” saying that taxpayer money should produce a return and that right now, we are simply not getting one from all of the coroners.
When asked by Supervisor Baker about how paying coroners on a case-by-case basis might impact the situation, Cirencione responded, “I think it would probably improve the availability.” Mary Beer, at the time seated next to him, nodded in agreement.
Supervisor Bob Green (Bristol) suggested that the four counties being served by Dr. Dean collaborate to establish their own medical examiner’s office. County Administrator Chris DeBolt replied that such conversations are already underway.
“We need to make sure that it’s fair,” said Baker. “And if you’ve got people who are doing all the calls and somebody that, for whatever reason, does it just so they can get their health insurance, then that’s the way it is, but let’s reflect that in the comp.”
“It’s the worst job in the whole world,” said Beer in closing. “It’s not a pleasant thing to do.”
About Cheney:
Tom Cheney, 32, grew up in his family’s funeral home in Phelps and has been interacting with grieving families for his entire life. Last year alone, he responded to 23 of the 145 coroner calls in Ontario. Having already gotten a feel for the job, he wants to make it official by running for coroner later this year. When asked why he wants to run, he replied, “I’ve been on the scene alone enough – why not? I show up. I want to be there for families.”
Cheney is young, driven, and staunch in his view that “this coroner position should not be political. Death does not care what your party is.” In order to get on the ballot as a Republican, he needs to collect 1,000 signatures from registered Republican voters.
According to Cheney, in other counties it is common for coroners to hold each other responsible for getting to calls in-person. In Ontario, by contrast, they are “too comfortable in a system that allows them not to do their jobs.” He suggests creating a chief coroner – a coroner physician – who can determine cause of death, sign death certificates, and oversee four deputy coroners. He does not like the idea of paying coroners for phone calls because other people wind up doing most of the work.
Collecting signatures, he says, is hard work. All of the current coroners had to do it, too, before they were elected. “You do all this work to not have to go to work,” he mused. “Why?”
If you are registered as a Republican and would like to sign Cheney’s petition, he can be contacted at CheneyForCoroner@gmail.com.
Update: I just spoke with the Board of Elections and confirmed that the following people intend to run (or are petitioning to run) for coroner this November:
On the Republican ticket:
Thomas Cheney (petitioning)
James Devaney (incumbent)
Michael John (incumbent)
On the Democratic ticket:
Nancy Augustine (petitioning)
Laura Swarthout (petitioning)
Augustine and Swarthout are petitioning jointly together with Ontario County Clerk hopeful Liz Yockel. If you are a registered Democrat and would like to sign this petition, please check out Yockel’s Facebook page for more information: https://www.facebook.com/LizYockelforOntarioCountyClerk