Coroner won’t run for second term

WEST CHESTER » Less than two weeks after declaring that the “ongoing pandemic is not the time to change the leadership of this essential office,” Chester County Coroner Dr. Christina VandePol has announced she will not seek a second term.

“This past week I reconsidered and decided not to run for re-election,” said the Democrat, who has long fought for a modernization of the county office that investigates the facts and circumstances surrounding outof-hospital deaths, in an email announcing her decision, which she

later called “bittersweet.”

“I decided to focus fulltime on completing my term, including advancing key initiatives, such as a forensic facility. The Coroner’s Office caseload continues to be twice what it was before the pandemic and managing the office through this disaster is my primary concern,” she said.

VandePol endorsed the candidacy of her secondin-command, Chief Deputy Coroner Sophia GarciaJackson, as the “only person who can ensure continuity of operations during these challenging times.”

Her decision to withdraw from the race came as a surprise to many in the party since she had only a few days before sending out a campaign release touting her achievements in office and proclaiming her suitability for a second term.

But on Wednesday ,she said she had become weary of trying to deal with the challenges of her office without the financial and logistical support she believes the office deserves, and could not envision expending energy on a campaign at the same time.

“Working in a pandemic with the resources we have, or don’t have, takes its toll,” she said in an interview.

VandePol also pointed specifically to the failure to win approval to her plans for a new forensic morgue facility for the office. In October, she presented the commissioners with a study conducted by a national design firm that showed the need for a new facility, which she said could be constructed at the county’s South Coatesville property where its new Public Safety Training Campus is located.

The cost of the 20,000-square-foot building, which could be completed as soon as 2024, is estimated at between $13 million and $15 million, she said. “I think it is time that we get this done. It has been kicked down the road too long now.”

“In making this decision, I was torn between my dedication to the mission of this office and my frustration about a longstanding lack of support or respect for the Coroner’s Office from those who control our resources,” she said, avoiding naming the commissioners directly but clearly signaling her displeasure with local and state government partners.

“Death waits for no one, not even in Chester County. I spoke out about the condition of the office before I was sworn in and have been transparent since about the deficiencies I found on taking office. I’m sure some day the county will do the right thing and build a centralized Coroner Forensic Center, but it’s actions, not words, that count.

At the time of her study presentation last year, the commissioners said they were reviewing the proposal and that it was under consideration as a capital project for 2021. But in the end, they did not include it in the budget.

“I certainly respect her decision,” said Chester County Democratic Committee Chairman Dick Bingham in a telephone interview Wednesday. “She has had a challenging four years (in office), with the last year the most challenging” as her office grappled with the burden of dozens and dozens of COVID-19 related deaths.

“Dr. VandePol has made us all proud with the great work she has done as Coroner over the past three years,” said county Controller Margaret Reif, who was elected with VandePol as part of a slate of Democratic women candidates who ran for office for the first time in 2017 and pulled off a historic sweep of four Row Offices that signaled the county’s transition from a Republican suburban stronghold to one with a Democratic plurality. “It has been an honor to witness her passion and dedication to the office.”

Bingham, who is preparing for the Democratic committee’s virtual nominating convention on Feb. 16, said he heard from VandePol about her decision on Jan. 27, but that she asked him to keep the news private. As more and more people found out, however, VandePol made a public announcement during Monday’s snowstorm.

Bingham was quick to support Garcia-Jackson’s candidacy, although a formal endorsement will not come until the nominating convention later this month when she will introduce herself to the committee members.

“She has a really strong background, and knows the job inside and out,” Bingham said of the New Jersey transplanted medical death investigator who came to the county in 2019 and was promoted to chief deputy in 2020. “I have little doubt that she has all the qualifications and is suitable for the job.”

“Sophia is recognized as an expert Medico-legal death investigator not only by our staff but by our colleagues in local law enforcement,” said VandePol at the time of Garcia-Jackson’s promotion. “It’s important to have a highly qualified Chief Deputy Coroner because by law that person steps in if anything happens to the coroner.”

Her responsibilities as first deputy coroner included establishing an investigator training program, supervising and strengthening the transporter function, updating the Coroner’s Office Mass Fatality plan, and expanding the department’s public outreach program. In addition to a Master’s degree in Forensic Medicine, Garcia-Jackson has been a diplomat of the American Board of Medico-legal Investigators since 2017, according to the office.

VandePol, of West Chester, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and worked in medicine and research in a variety of positions. She currently teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology at Delaware Community College. Her election in 2017 was the first time she had run for public office.

Since taking over in 2018, VandePol has led efforts to hold memorial services for those whose bodies were unclaimed by families or friends for burial. The first such service for those “forgotten souls” was held in 2018. But the twin crisis of opioid deaths and the COVID-19 pandemic consumed much more of her time.

“Facing the opioid epidemic when I took office, I became the first coroner to serve on the (county’s) Overdose Prevention Task Force,” she said last month in her campaign announcement. “I also kept the public advised of new drug threats and overdose statistics, and cooperated with the District Attorney’s office on criminal drug death cases,” she said.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, her efforts included putting new protocols and equipment in place to lower infection risks for staff and to ensure accurate identification of COVID-19 deaths, especially home deaths, and calling for an investigation into the high number of COVID-19 deaths at the Southeastern Veterans Center, “bringing widespread attention to the dire situation at that and other long term care facilities in Chester County.”

“I will always be proud of the way this Coroner’s Office rose to the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest mass fatality event here in over 100 years,” she said. “It is not over yet and with our caseload still twice what it was when I came into office, I can’t in good conscience take the time to run for re-election. Being coroner under these conditions is a 24/7/365 job, and I plan to keep working for the people of Chester County more than full-time for the rest of my term.”

VandePol