Mercer County would close its medical examiner's office, but no layoffs would occur.
TRENTON -- Mercer County plans to close its medical examiner's office and pay Middlesex County $1.6 million per year for autopsies in a shared services agreement that could start Feb. 1.
The deal is scheduled to go before the Middlesex freeholder board next week, and then will be voted on by the Mercer board, officials said. The contract would be for 10 years.
Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes said in June the county was looking for a shared services agreement for the office due to the impending year-end retirement of its two, longtime medical examiners. And Middlesex County was a top choice since they had assumed Monmouth County's medical examiner duties earlier this year.
On Wednesday, Hughes said no layoffs would occur, and he's trying to save money.
"Anytime we can cut costs while preserving a service, our residents win," Hughes said.
"In the case of this regionalization, three of the four employees at the Mercer County Medical Examiner's office are set to retire, and the other, a clerical employee, is being offered a position in another county department," Hughes said.
The Mercer office is run by Dr. Raafat Ahmad, a 36-year county medical examiner, and working with her is Dr. Daksha Shah, a 35-year employee. Ahmad earns an annual salary of $154,993.00 and Shah $54,500.
Hughes' office said Wednesday that if the deal is approved, the first year of the contract would include extra start-up costs to cover a three-month overlap period, which arises from issues Middlesex and Monmouth counties experienced when they started their deal earlier this year and did not allow for phasing out open and "cold" cases.
Retiring medical examiner concerned about office's future
A draft of the agreement obtained by NJ Advance Media calls for Mercer paying Middlesex county $1,300 per autopsy when Mercer exceeds 275 per year.
In 2015, the Mercer office performed 65 autopsies, and in 93 in 2014, Mercer records show.
Hughes' office said another factor in the decision to pursue a shared agreement include advice from the State Medical Examiner's Office and the Attorney General's office that future recruitment would be difficult due to a national shortage of board certified forensic pathologists.
The county executive said Mercer is one of four remaining counties that employs a fulltime medical examiner and staff, and there's been a statewide trend of consolidating such services - like the Monmouth and Middlesex medical examiner agreement, and Mercer's contract to send youth detention suspects to Middlesex County.
Earlier this year, Hughes also announced he wanted to effectively close the Mercer County Correction Center in Hopewell Township and enter into an agreement with Hudson County, which would jail 600 inmates for Mercer County for about $21 million per year.
In March, Mercer County decided to hire consultants to study two parts of its plan, which slowed the pace of the plan.
And lingering in the medical examiner discussion, Hughes said, is that the Mercer medical examiner's office is on Trenton-Mercer Airport's property in Ewing.
And although the airport is county owned, the FAA requires the medical examiner's office to pay rent to the airport's owner - Mercer County - because it's performing a non-airport use on airport grounds.
Hughes has called the airport financial arrangement a "complicated breaking even process."
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.