New Whatcom medical examiner said services were substandard. This is what the council did
Whatcom County Council members agreed on a split vote to increase funding for the Medical Examiner’s Office, but changed the amount of the contract for the current year only.
In a 4-3 vote with council members Tyler Byrd, Ben Elenbaas and Kathy Kershner dissenting on Tuesday, Feb. 8, the council approved an extra $285,820 for Dr. Allison Hunt’s company, Hunt Forensics, in 2023.
“What this contract amendment doesn’t do is continue that for 2024 and 2025. It indicates that funding would be available for this year, and then the medical examiner will be going through the policies and procedure process, work with the advisory council, come back to County Council to have a discussion about the topics that were discussed this morning,” said Tyler Schroeder, deputy county executive.
Those topics included modernizing the office and morgue and making the medical examiner a county employee.
Byrd, Elenbaas and Kershner said Tuesday that they believe Hunt should work within the funding provided in her original contract, which was part of a bidding process.
“I’m leery about this particular contract amendment and the reason why is that we’ve got a contractor who has signed an agreement to provide services for a negotiated amount and before a year is up, we’re getting a request for an increase of 25% in that contract,” Kershner said Tuesday.
“And I’m thinking about what would happen if all of our contractors did that?” Kershner said.
Hunt, who took over from Dr. Gary Goldfogel in 2022, is the medical examiner under contract and not a Whatcom County employee.
She had sought $893,449 through 2025, citing an increased workload and the need to hire additional staff.
Formal action on the funding request has been delayed since Jan. 10.
In a Jan. 24 presentation to the council’s Finance and Administrative Services Committee, Hunt said that her office is substandard and understaffed and that “a lot of cases were slipping through the cracks” during the 32 years that Goldfogel was medical examiner.
Goldfogel and several of his former colleagues rebutted Hunt’s comments in interviews with The Bellingham Herald.
