An agreement for Medical Examiner services for the rest of 2020 and all of 2021 was discussed Wednesday during the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners’ executive committee meeting.
County clerk Lindsay Oswald said cost of the service, provided by Western Michigan University, has consistently gone up about 2 percent a year, and the current draft – likely to be approved at next week’s county commission meeting – reflects a similar increase.
The service is slated to cost $156,336 in 2020 and $159,731 next year. Oswald said the annual 2 percent increases are in line with what WMU itself experiences every 12 months.
Oswald said St. Joseph County next year will be in a position to issue a request for proposals for the service starting in 2022 in order to look at other options, namely potentially lower rates, she said.