New, old coroners in Lake Co. sparring over expenditures
Comments traded as issue brought to County Board
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said she is concerned about a couple of expenditures her predecessor made toward the end of his term, and brought it to the attention of the County Board in her annual report Tuesday.
The expenses in question concern former Coroner Dr. Howard Cooper’s purchase of almost $10,000 in laptop computers, and the ongoing rental of a hangar for $13,000 per month to house refrigerated trailers for the potential storage of any overflow of bodies of people killed by the coronavirus pandemic, which turned out were never utilized.
While Banek told the News-Sun she didn’t believe there was anything criminal about the spending, she called the expenses in question “suspicious.”
On Thursday, Cooper called Banek’s comments “politics,” saying he did not understand her confusion about the expenditures.
“She’s gonna try to sit and discredit me for absolutely nothing,” he said. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
Banek said she took issue with the expenses after several people asked her about them, and she wanted to make County Board members aware of her concerns.
“They hadn’t been informed before on these expenses or things that were going on in the office, and I think it’s important for them to know and be able to have oversight,” she said.
Specifically, she said that Cooper, who served one four-year term that ended in 2020, purchased $9,400 worth of laptop computers on Nov. 18, which was the day after the election results were certified and Banek
was formally declared the next coroner.
Despite months of looking into the purchase, Banek said she could not figure out the reason for the laptops purchase. She said she eventually found a use for them at the Lake County Health Department.
“We didn’t have a need of them, and none of the staff knew what they were for,” Banek told the News-Sun. “Then the health department started ramping up their staffing.”
Cooper told News-Sun that his team worked for three years to get those laptops for the coroner’s office, which were Toughbooks designed to be taken out into the field. He also said the county as a whole was working to replace some of its other laptops.
“All the deputies knew they were getting laptops,” he said. “There was no surprise there at all.”
Both Banek and Cooper said they reached out to each other to discuss the expenditures, but were not able to connect.
The other expense Banek brought up in her presentation to the County Board was a hangar rented last year as part of the county’s emergency plans for the coronavirus pandemic.
The hangar, which ran about $13,000 a month dating back to April of last year, held three refrigerated trailers for the county brought in to store any overflow of dead bodies related to the virus.
“I think we needed an emergency plan …. but at $13,000 a month, there was never a body stored in (those trailers),” she said.
Banek said she understood having the storage available for a few months, but criticized the lack of financial oversight that was given to the hangar over the course of the year. Banek said the coroner’s office has since discontinued its agreement to rent the hangar, and the state has picked up the trailers.
“My concern is that because of the cost, something like that should be more consistently evaluated,” she said.
Cooper said he wanted the trailers stored somewhere cheaper, but the location of the hangar, as well as the terms and price, were negotiated by county officials.
He said the hangar and trailers remained available through the end of his term because of recommendations from the county’s health department. Officials with the department warned of a potential surge in October and November. As a result, Cooper said the trailers were kept as a precaution.