4-H CLUB’S NIGHT OUT
ule a final hearing and finalize the budget.
The county is required by law to have a finalized and approved budget by Sept. 15.
CORONER’S OFFICE
Oktibbeha County Coroner Michael Hunt appeared before Supervisors Friday to clarify new statutes dictating his budget for next year.
Hunt said deputy coroners would now be required to have salaries as part of a directive from the State Medical Examiner’s Office.
Previously, deputies were paid $100 per month along with a fee of $125 per death investigated. The new statutes will push their monthly pay up to $300 monthly and increase the death investigation fee to $175.
Hunt explained standards were rising for coroners’ deputies, meaning their compensation was increasing as well.
“The reason being for that is the requirements have dramatically changed,” Hunt said. “The continued education we’ve done in the last 24 years has sort of been mediocre.”
Deputies will be expected to receive more extensive education in death investigation than they had been required to in the past, Hunt said.
“In the past, most of my deputies were in the medical field,” Hunt said. “So we’d use their continuing hours on their medical training. That won’t work anymore.”
New mandates will also require coroners in every county to have at least one deputy on payroll. Hunt, who currently has two, said he felt the number of calls his office received justified the added employee and gave them flexibility, noting his office regularly received more than 30 calls a month.
“It’s usually a coroner per 10 calls,” Hunt said.
Currently, the budget draft calls for a $18,650 increase for the Coroner’s Office, though this number is subject to increase as Supervisors work out a final budget.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Oktibbeha County’s Emergency Management Agency Director Kristen Campanella requested Supervisors add a staff position for her department to the coming budget.
Campanella said the position would be a part of the EMA while being responsible for the 911 administration.
The position was needed, Campanella said, because 911 operation systems were on the verge of being overhauled.
“There’s a lot of standards that’s coming,” Campanella said. “They say in 2020 they’re going to start pushing all these mandates, unfunded mandates, down to us. There’s a lot of policies and standards we’ve got to get implemented.”
Because the county is aware of the updates, Campanella said she hoped to see paperwork begin for the improvements before 2020 but doubted her current staff would be able to efficiently complete the task.
“That takes time,” Campanella
said. “Honestly, we just don’t have time to do it with two people.”
Campanella also said the new staff member would be cross-trained for the emergency management side of her department in case a third person was needed during a disaster.
Supervisor Marvell Howard of District 3 said he trusted Campanella’s judgment regarding her department and could not overstate the importance of keeping the county’s 911 and EMA systems up to date.
“I just think it’s real important,” Howard said. “That’s the first call that people make, to 911. It saves lives.”
IN OTHER NEWS
• Supervisor Joe Williams of District 5 previously asked
Board Attorney Rob Roberson to investigate the legality of Miller working as an administrator for the Mississippi Horse Park while the Board of Supervisors gave county funds to the park. Roberson said Friday that no law was being broken and the one way to avoid the perception of Miller having a conflict of interest was for her to leave the room during discussion of the park, something Miller has always done in the past, Supervisor John Montgomery of District 1 said. Miller also provided an opinion from the Mississippi Ethics Commission’s Chief Counsel and Executive Director Tom Hood supporting her argument that being on the Board was not in breach of ethics guidelines.