Hearse Chasing As Misuse of Office

Everyone knows about ambulance-chasing lawyers, but until reading <a href="http://citizensvoice.com/news/ethics-code-would-ban-coroner-s-employees…; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's <i>Citizens' Voice</i> of Luzerne County</a> (PA), I had
never heard of hearse-chasing deputy coroners. Maybe I would have known
about them if I'd watched the TV show <i>Six Feet Under.</i><br>
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According to the article, funeral home directors in Luzerne County have
claimed that some deputy coroners have used their position to get
funeral business. Deputy coroners pronounce individuals dead,
informally investigate the circumstances of death, and direct where
bodies are to be moved. Apparently, some deputy coroners in the funeral
business were using their county position to get decedents' families as clients. There's even a <a href="http://coronercorruption.blogspot.com/&quot; target="”_blank”">Coroner Corruption Blogspot</a>.<br>
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A <a href="http://www.luzernecounty.org/content/File/HRTC%20Ethics_Code__draft_rev…; target="”_blank”">proposed Luzerne County ethics code</a> (see p. 16) would prohibit a member of the
county coroner's office, while on county business, from soliciting
funeral business or recommending funeral services. If he already had a
relationship with the family, he could keep the family as a client.
Otherwise, no dice.<br>
<br>
This is about as focused an ethics provision as I've ever seen. A regular misuse of office provision would appear to cover this situation. It's the recommendation of business, the indirect conflict, that really requires (and in the Luzerne County code gets) special language, to make it clear that this benefit to others, which often includes kickbacks, is prohibited.<br>
<br>
Macabre as this situation may seem, it is pretty much the same issue as with
first responders who have relationships with towing companies, and use their positions to send them business, a
situation I discussed in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/miscellany-15&quot; target="”_blank”">a blog post</a>
earlier this year. There, the issue was kickbacks, here it is direct
business. But the misuse of a local government position for one's own benefit is much the
same.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
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