New Pierce County medical examiner gets $727K to hire more staff
Pierce County Council confirmed a new head of the Medical Examiner’s Office and approved her supplemental budget of $727,000.
Karen Cline-Parhamovich is expected to start Monday, overseeing the department that investigates sudden, unexplained, suspicious and violent deaths.
She and county staff created a layout of the department, outlining six new positions for a total of 24 full-time positions in 2020 and 23 in 2021.
County finance director Gary Robinson said current staffing levels do not meet National Accreditation of Medical Examiners’ standards, but the additions will do so.
The Medical Examiner’s Office budget increased to $9.5 million. The new positions are a forensic pathologist, two more death investigators, a forensic autopsy technician, an administrative assistant and a medical examiner consultant. Three positions were approved by council during the budget last year, but Cline-Parhamovich made changes, like exchanging a forensic autopsy technician for a death investigator.
Cline-Parhamovich’s confirmation to the position was a unanimous vote, but two of the seven council members voiced opposition to the new positions. Council members Derek Young and Marty Campbell voted against the supplemental budge.
Young said he felt the department should get more positions but approving new them during the coronavirus pandemic was not wise. If the federal government does not reimburse local governments for money spent responding to the pandemic, Young said, there could be catastrophic consequences.
“In a time like this, we need to take a much larger view of our budget,” he said in the council meeting call. “We are going to cut way into the bone.”
Council member Dave Morell said he was reluctant to support any budget increase during the coronavirus pandemic, but the county lost out on the initial medical examiner candidate due to a reluctance to fund needed positions.
“We need to get these reports out in a timely, dignified, safe manner,” Morell told the council on Tuesday.
Cline-Parhamovich was announced as the next medical examiner in January after the initial choice withdrew his application days before his confirmation. In her tenure, she was the head of the Office of the Medical Investigator for New Mexico and State Chief Medical Examiner in Tennessee.
The office has been marred by controversy in recent years. A whistleblower claimed medical examiner Thomas Clark was mismanaging death investigations last year. An independent investigation reported in 2016 that Clark had shown vindictive and arrogant behavior toward employees.
Clark will become a consultant to the department for the remainder of 2020.
