Larimer Country Coroner

[Larimer.org]

This form was submitted on Thursday, July 20, 2023 - 10:07am from https://www.larimer.gov/elected-officials.

Emailing (to) jkef...@larimer.org

Subject Larimer Country Coroner

Your Name Stephanie Goes

Phone 970-482-2221

Your Email step...@goesfuneralcare.com

Message (no html)

Hi John. Question. Is there any oversight by anyone over the Larimer County Coroner? I was wondering if the Commissioners, as elected officials, were deemed to be over the Coroner, also an elected official. Or as an elected official, the voting public oversees him.

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[John Kefalas]

Hello Stephanie,

It is good to hear from you, and the voters are the oversight for the coroner as an elected official. While the BoCC adopts the county budget, including the coroner's budget, we do not have direct oversight over the operations of the coroner's office. which is not to say that we cannot speak with Stephen to share community concerns. Feel free to call me on my cell phone below if you wish to discuss further, and I try and call you soon because I have a few questions brought to me by a constituent about her sister's death in Jefferson County. Thank you.

	John Kefalas County Commissioner, District 1
	Commissioners' Office 200 W Oak St | 2nd Floor PO Box 1190, Fort Collins, CO 80522-1190 W: (970) 498-7001 Cell:  (720) 254-7598 jkef...@larimer.org | www.larimer.org

[Stephanie Goes]

Hi John. I would like to talk to you regarding the budget for the Larimer County Coroner’s office. Up in Laramie County Wyoming, they have money in their county budget, supervised by county commissioners, to pay for cremations of unclaimed indigent, not on assistance, and homeless decedents. The funeral homes here in Larimer County have absorbed these costs in the past and as a privately owned business, I feel I cannot keep paying out for cases that I am in the red on. We have costs with each of these. My understanding is the County Commissioners work on or accept the budget for the Coroner’s office. Moving forward, we funeral homes would like to receive some payment from the county for our efforts to take care of homeless or indigent individuals without family- unclaimed. My understanding is that state statute requires the coroner to send unclaimed individuals to the Anatomical Board and if that is not possible the county through the coroner’s office accepts financial responsibility to take care of these individuals. This has not been the case for years. Can we meet to discuss?