CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Nueces County Medical Examiner's Office is making an effort to convince the best in the industry to come to the Coastal Bend.
A motion to adjust salaries, eliminate unneeded positions and reclassify other positions was approved unanimously Wednesday in Nueces County Commissioners Court.
Everything on the agenda was approved Wednesday in a move to fill the medical examiner's office with top talent, and pay salaries to help them compete with other cities.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Timothy Fagan spoke at commissioners court Wednesday and said the changes will come with no additional cost to Nueces County.
"This office can move forward with our plans to reorganize and recognize the great staff that we have," he said. "This plan has no additional costs and can potentially reduce long-term financial costs to the county be reducing the total number of positions at this office."
Fagan worked with Precinct 4 Nueces County Commissioner Brent Chesney and others to find a way to bring changes to his office without affecting the county's general fund. That would not be allowed outside of a budget cycle, meaning the budget can't increase unless there's an emergency. Fagan's staff changes were made to follow the law.
"There were positions that he didn't need, and he needed to ramp up and pay people more in the positions that he had to attract good candidates and keep the ones that he had," he said.
The changes include eliminating a vacant medical examiner coordinator position and a part-time medical examiner investigator that was vacant since last year. A voluntary director of operations salary decrease was also approved, and a salary increase for various positions like autopsy technicians and investigators.
"It'll help retain good people, you know. We want to make sure that we keep good people, and we want to make sure that we are an attractive place to go and be hired in this industry," he said.
Fagan took over as medical examiner last year, already hiring new positions for his office since then. Chesney said salary increases will help keep top candidates working for Nueces County, something they are trying to do across the county to make it more competitive with other employers. Without affecting the general fund, Chesney said the court could approve the mid-year budget changes on Wednesday.
"If you're going to bring it, we'll consider it as long as you're providing us permanent savings that has a zero affect to the budget and that's what he wanted to do," he said.
After Wednesday's motion was passed, the total number of positions in the medical examiner's office will be reduced, but Chesney said future positions can still be added, if necessary.
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