March 18, 2024
Bannock County Commissioners Jeff Hough and Chairman Ernie Moser:
Please pick a project that would help us be a leader in the state that would cost the Bannock County taxpayers less money than the proposed forensic pathology lab. Moser has stated that the importance factor for lab was not just the cost but the cost-benefit scale. Commissioner Hough has referred to Bannock County as the bastard stepchild of Idaho and said that we get no respect. Let’s look at some facts.
There are no signed contracts with an architect, with surrounding counties participating in the lab, with contractors building the lab, or with doctors performing the autopsies—nothing is nailed down.
A doctor was in negotiations for $300,000 a year to perform autopsies, but this did not pan out. There was a trial run at Portneuf Medical Center in which a doctor was used from the travel doctors organization. The fee was $6,500 per day, and for two days the sum was $13,000. There was a cost of $95 per autopsy for using the Portneuf Medical Center, plus the cost of supplies. The two commissioners want to charge the surrounding counties $2,300 per autopsy but there are no contracts with the surrounding counties either. Bannock County taxpayers would pick up the tab to the tune of $4,000 per autopsy from surrounding counties. The price of $2,300 that the counties would be paying does not cover the actual cost of the autopsies performed. This would be a great deal for surrounding counties, but a lousy deal for Bannock County taxpayers.
During the year 2023, there were 2.5 autopsies per month in Bannock County. That is 30 for the year. That does not justify putting many thousands of dollars into a lab, since not every death requires an autopsy.
Dottie Owens has been paid as a consultant from Boise for for $4,500 a month. At $54,000 a year, she could possibly be asked to manage the lab. Any information and data that she would present is suspect because her job is at stake.
I have to agree with Commissioner Crowder that some of the money would be better used to fix and maintain buildings that we already have, and to increase wages and benefits for county agencies such as the sheriffs department and the prosecutors office. The pathology lab will not be a moneymaker, and it will cost the Bannock County taxpayers dearly. The lab needs to be permanently shelved.
Joan Reed, a conservative, concerned citizen
Pocatello
