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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Boulder County Coroner Race is the Surprise Headliner

Move over Transit Tax. Good luck, School Bond. These and all the local issue campaigns are falling to the wayside as Denver media is getting involved in the Boulder County Coroner race. There's enough there to make me question my endorsement of Tom Faure, the incumbent, that I sent in on deadline earlier this month to the Yellow Scene.

Letters to the editor in the Daily Camera have highlighted deep dissatisfaction with Faure's job performance, albeit anecdotal. Lafayette resident Tom Macurdy sued Faure on October 27 for failing to perform an autopsy on a judgment call. Then on October 29, Channel 9News Investigator Paula Woodward aired a report after secretly filming Faure for days and raising questions about his work ethic and performance. Ouch.

None of these allegations were known to me at the time of my cursory analysis of the race (Lafayette 2C is much more intriguing) This may be a good example of why not to vote early.

Read about Paula Woodward's investigation at the DenverPost.com.

Faure's opponent, Lisa Jo Floyd, is an emergency room doctor in Aurora. She has been endorsed by both the Longmont Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 6 and the Boulder Police Officers Association. BPOA president Rich Denig wrote in the endorsement: “We believe the primary improvements Dr. Floyd would implement include improved communication with law enforcement and improved efficiency with laboratory results, which will benefit criminal investigations.” Read more in the Daily Times-Call.

So is this cops wanting a coroner they can push around to meet their schedules or cops wanting a coroner who is simply more timely and professional? The allegations are making me wonder more. The emotional stories of people unhappy with how long they had to wait for death certificates are compelling, but are they out of the ordinary for a coroner's office for a County our size?

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