One way the state has hid from solving the Stephen Hayne problem is a failure to have a state medical examiner. Note the phrasing there– it’s not that we lacked a “qualified” one. We didn’t have one at all.
The State Legislature has just passed Senate Bill 3124, an appropriations bill which can be read here, and which I’m told fully funds the state medical examiners office, with no more excuses.
Am I reading this right?
DIVISION OF MEDICAL EXAMINER FUNDING:
General Funds………… $ 127,704.00
Special Funds…………… 296,589.00
Total…………………… $ 424,293.00
With the funds appropriated herein, it is the intention of the Legislature that it shall be the agency’s responsibility to make certain that funds required to be appropriated for “Personal Services” for fiscal year 2010 do not exceed the following amount:…………………… $ 90,936.00.
AUTHORIZED POSITIONS:
Permanent:
Full Time…………. 2
Part Time………… 0
Time-Limited:
Full Time…………. 1
Part Time………… 0
So they want three full-time forensic pathologists to split $90K a year in salaries? Surely that’s not what it means, is it?
Check the conference report, located here:
http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2008/pdf/cr/SB3124CR.pdf
The language you read was the original language that made it to the House from the Senate. Rep. Bob Evans (D – Monticello) and Rep. Brandon Jones (D – Pascagoula) drafted an amendment to the bill that required DPS to fill the State Medical Examiner’s position or lose all funding for the Department of the Medical Examiner. The bill passed the House with that language, creating the need for a conference committee.
DPS complained that they couldn’t hire someone on the funds appropriated for the position. The conference committee cut the amendment language out and upped the funding to the levels you see in the conference report.
It may not be enough money to provide 6 board certified pathologists (the number we need to meet National Association of Medical Examiners standards), but it’s a start.
Thanks, OMTL. A start’s better than where we were — UNLESS they’re thinking of keeping Hayne and West or any as bad as they.
The legislature will screw it up eventually. It’s a hot potato right now and the legislature will
pony up enough to hire an ME or two or three and a couple of staff assistants. Then in two three years some legislator will get riled up over some perceived slight—probably over a hiring decision. That legislator will publicly stir the pot, the MEs will move on to saner pastures, and the state medical examiner mess will begin rotting again.
Ben out.