In January, the Union County Quorum Court voted to provide 6% pay raises to most county employees, along with 8% raises to Union County Sheriff's Office deputies, jailers and highway and solid waste workers.
A special-called meeting was held for Justices of the Peace to consider the pay raise ordinance, and during that meeting, District 4 JP Steve Ward asked if there would be any consideration of a further increase in pay for Union County Coroner Stormey Primm.
The conversation didn't go far.
Primm spoke briefly about the work he does and changes he's made in the Coroner's office since he was first elected in2018, District 6 JP Cecil Polk and District 7 JP Johnny Burson expressed opposing positions on an additional raise and District 5 JP Carolyn Jones asked for more information about how his salary compares to other coroners in the state.
"We just got this when we got here today. I think this should go to finance (committee) and finance have a chance to study it, and then come back to the regular Quorum Court," Jones said in January. "I would like to have more time to look at it and to study it."
This month, Primm returned to the Quorum Court, this time personally asking for an increase in pay – which Polk noted in January that Primm had approached him about as a constituent – and detailing his extensive duties in the county.
"We average about 1.5, near two calls a day. Yesterday, I ran five calls... There are days you might not see me at all, but there are also days that I don't see my family until the next morning," he said. "Our office is constantly building."
Halfway into his first term, Primm noted, the COVID-19 pandemic befell the world. In 2020 and 2021, his office responded to 600-plus deaths across Union County.
"There were days where you didn't think it would end. You would go from one case to another to another without stopping, or you would walk in the hospital and you wouldn't leave for hours on end," Primm said in an interview last week. "You eventually become more and more helpless, knowing that there was nothing we could do at that point; it was another COVID death, or another death that was someone's life cut short because of COVID."
In the pandemic's early days, when testing and information about the virus was still limited, Primm personally took the majority of the COVID death calls, instead of asking his deputy coroners to put themselves into a situation they might be uncomfortable in, he said.
"People on my staff, whether they had medical problems (or not), I told them, 'If you feel uncomfortable, call me.' I'm responsible for the office, so I did my best to step up and take as many calls as I could," he said. "I was the one that was comfortable carrying all the gear to constantly suit up, coming home and taking off my uniform outside then going in straight to the shower... I had deputies that were concerned about going to those cases. We didn't know, at that point, how it was going around."
Primm told JPs he signed 99% of the death certificates of Union County residents and personally reviews every case file.
"I don't put that on my deputies," he said. "I want to be the one that, if something has to go to court or if something has to be questioned, the buck stops with me."
The cause of death listed on a person's death certificate can impact their families, Primm noted.
"We have multiple cases come through where it's like, 'oh, they had a brain bleed.' Well, 97% of brain bleeds aren't spontaneous. We go back and look (and find out) oh, they had a fall a week ago. Well, that results in the family having an accidental death versus just a natural death," he explained.
Primm is considered under Arkansas law to be a certified coroner. One does not have to be certified to be a coroner in the State of Arkansas, but the pay scales for certified and non-certified coroners are different.
Primm is a nationally certified medicolegal death investigator. He's a member of the Arkansas Coroner's Association, where he serves on the education committee in a role that allows him to help organize and schedule certification classes for other death investigators. He said he's hoping to arrange for a class to be taught in El Dorado in the coming months.
"Education, for me, is one of the things that never stops," he said this week.
And he's fulfilled a 2018 campaign promise to modernize the coroner's office, which at the time of his election was utilizing paper records. The office now uses MDILog, an electronic records-keeping system that allows for the exchange of information between coroner's offices around the country.
"It allows us to interact with the State Crime Lab flawlessly," he said. "We can see almost keystroke by keystroke as the medical examiner's office is entering data... We have one of the best relationships with the Arkansas State Crime Lab that I've ever known."
Primm makes $41,870 annually after the 6% raise provided in January. Before that, he made $39,500.
Polk, who noted that Primm is his neighbor and constituent, spoke in favor of raising the coroner's salary.
"Anybody in Norphlet will tell you, 100% -- because you hear compliments – how much he takes care of his job," he said. "I sure couldn't do what he's doing. I don't know if anybody else could. We really need to listen and do something about this."
Burson responded, "I think you're confusing the job of a coroner with Stormey. That's two different things... You're talking about Stormey – how hard he works, how good he does – and that's good, but we're talking about the pay scale for our coroner."
District 3 JP Greg Harrison asked if the county could tier the coroner's pay, with certified coroners on a different pay scale than non-certified coroners, should one be elected. Primm noted that the state already has different pay scales for certified and non-certified coroners.
Burson asked whether funeral homes would still transport bodies, instead of the coroner's office having to do so. Primm said if the family of the deceased person has chosen a funeral home, the funeral home takes custody of the body; otherwise, it is held in a morgue until the family has decided.
"We work cases all the time that the family doesn't know what funeral home they want to choose," he said.
County Judge Mike Loftin asked Primm if he had a salary in mind.
"I do not," Primm answered. "If y'all don't give me anything, I'll still walk out of here and do the same job I'm doing."
Jones said she was in favor of raising Primm's pay.
"He came in at a different time and realized that one, he needed to get much more certified, and thank God he did, because COVID hit. We never envisioned COVID. We never had a coroner that had to deal with 600 deaths," she said. "I believe when people go back to school, these get these certifications... We should be grateful."
Harrison noted that Primm also worked hard to keep the community informed about COVID and its risks through social media.
"He did go above and beyond to keep people informed when you didn't know what type of information you were getting. He kept people informed on the facts," Harrison said.
Jones moved to raise the coroner's salary to $48,500 annually, effective Jan. 27, when the 6% raises were approved. After some discussion, the motion was amended to include language about a tiered pay scale for certified and non-certified coroners who may be elected to serve Union County in the future.
Dumas said he doesn't believe salaries for Union County officials were comparable to those of officials "north of I-40," because "they're growing and we're not. Their revenues are going up, and our revenues are not." He moved to table the issue, but Jeff Rogers, legal counsel for the county, said Jones's motion had to be voted on first.
"Make them vote, and then table it if it doesn't pass," he said.
In a roll call vote, Jones's proposal to raise Primm's salary failed 6-4. Dumas, Burson, District 8 JP Donnie Crawford, District 9 JP Benny Vestal, District 10 JP Ross Burton and District 11 JP Phillip Hamaker voted no; Harrison, Ward, Jones and Polk voted yes.
Tammie Wilson, administrative assistant to the county judge, said a special-called finance committee meeting has been called for April 5 at 10 a.m. in the third-floor conference room at the county Courthouse to discuss the coroner's salary further, as well as a proposal for a solar power project in the county.
Stormey Primm