How the Montgomery County coroner became Franklin County's highest-paid employee in 2022

The highest-paid Franklin County employee in 2022 also happens to be the elected Montgomery County coroner, a Dispatch analysis of payroll records found.

Dr. Kent Harshbarger is working as the chief pathologist and deputy coroner for the Franklin County Coroner's Office while also serving as the elected coroner in Montgomery County. The Montgomery County Coroner's Office in Dayton is under contract with dozens of Ohio counties as one of the largest public providers of autopsy and forensic pathology services in the state.

In a nutshell, Harshbarger is moonlighting. He is receiving a part-time salary by Ohio law as coroner in Montgomery County because he has a full-time job with Franklin County.

In calendar year 2022, Franklin County paid Harshbarger a total of $426,750, making him by far the highest-paid county employee, The Dispatch found.

He makes more than four times what the county pays his boss, Franklin County Coroner Dr. Nathaniel Overmire, who was appointed to the office by the county Democratic Pary in December 2022 — and who is also moonlighting.

Overmire is a part-time public coroner because he has a full-time medical practice as an osteopathic primary care physician. He has been working to resolve serious management problems at the county coroner's office that he inherited after former Franklin County Coroner Anahi Ortiz announced last November that she was resigning her elected post with more than two years left on her term.

Ortiz's resignation came just weeks before a $720,000 consultant's investigation report that criticized some management practices and the work climate under Ortiz.

County officials point to a critical nationwide shortage of pathologists for the circular hiring that brought Harshbarger to Franklin County. But elected officials holding down multiple public jobs raises "potential issues with Ohio's ethics laws," said Paul Nick, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, which investigates cases of financial conflicts of interest in the public sector.

Nick supplied an advisory legal opinion on the topic his agency delivered to Franklin County last October, which shows that the Franklin County Coroner's Office also was considering contracting for autopsy services with Warren County Coroner Russell Uptegrove.

The advisory shows potential legal issues must be navigated to avoid prohibited interests in county contracts, not disclosing confidential information, and other potential pitfalls. Uptegrove signed a one-year contract in January with the Franklin County Coroner's office to perform autopsies, for up to $1,500 per procedure and a maximum annual expenditure capped at $250,000.

How it all began

The arrangement between Franklin County and Harshbarger started with contractual work doing autopsies on an as-needed basis about nine years ago, he said.

Harshbarger's relationship evolved further at the start of 2022, when the resignations of nearly all of Franklin County's own staff pathologists left Ortiz with a backlog on autopsies that reached about six months, creating friction with homicide detectives. That forced the county to spend millions of dollars on outside autopsy services with other counties and private pathology firms — including some work with Montgomery County coroner's office. Franklin County says the contracts weren't negotiated through Harshbarger, who had recused himself.

The contract between Franklin County and the Mongomery County Coroner's Office was signed by Ortiz and Brooke Dunn Ehlers, who works for Harshbarger's office.

It was signed in the spring of 2022, when Franklin County began leaning heavily on Harshbarger to get autopsies done. The county paid him $226,750 for performing hundreds of autopsies and exams between January and May of 2022, the office said. Franklin County ultimately outright hired Montgomery County's sitting coroner in May 2022 as Franklin County's chief deputy coroner, overseeing staff pathologists. He works 30 hours per week, with a current salary of $335,150 per year, the office said.

The total $426,750 Franklin County paid Harshbarger in 2022 was some $143,000 more than the next highest-paid county worker, Jed Morrison, former superintendent and CEO for the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities, who retired at the end of last year.

Simultaneously, Harshbarger was also paid another $89,709 by Montgomery County in 2022 for being its elected coroner, heading one of the busiest referral pathology operations in the state, which takes cases from about half of Ohio's 88 counties. In 2021, Montgomery County paid him much more — $219,862 — according to a county spokesman, but the amount was reduced in 2022 when Harshbarger declared he was also working a "private practice," which by state law automatically reduces a coroner's public pay.

"My practice of medicine is in Franklin County," now as a county employee, Harshbarger told The Dispatch in an interview. "... My intent was never to make (working for Franklin County) permanent. I worked there part-time probably since 2014, something like that. There was no one to do the work (following the mass exodus of pathologists in early 2022).

"When no one was there, I was doing lots of autopsies and being paid per case, essentially," Harshbarger added. "I am doing cases now as well, but I also have an administrative component."

Controversy over inmate's death in Richland County

Harshbarger has become caught up in controversy because two pathologists at his Montgomery County Coroner's Office listed the cause of the 2019 death of a 28-year-old man being held on drug charges in the Richland County Jail as being from "excited delirium," or an agitated state sometimes characterized by "superhuman strength" and noncompliance with law enforcement.

But last December, a Richland County corrections officer was indicted on involuntary manslaughter and reckless homicide charges after the county finally released a five-minute video showing five jail guards tackling, beating, repeatedly using a stun gun and standing on the back near the neck of inmate Alexander Rios. The day after the beating, the county released a statement that said Rios had been trying to commit suicide.

The "excited delirium" cause of death cited by the Montgomery County Coroner's Office in the Richland County jail inmate's death is the same condition cited as one defense in the murder case against Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd Jr. It ultimately was rejected along with other defenses, and Chauvin was convicted and imprisoned.

The American Medical Association issued a statement noting that the term "excited delirium" has been associated with racism in medicine and law enforcement in police-related deaths of Blacks, and has called for abandonment of the term as a diagnosis and cause of death.

The AMA has been joined by the American College of Medical Toxicology, American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Emergency Medicine and several similar medical groups in the United Kingdom in that call.

Harshbarger declined to discuss the Richland County case with The Dispatch.

Franklin County Coroner Overmire said he was not familiar with the case.

Franklin County Coroner's Office performance improved

Overmire said he is not concerned that Harshbarger's other job in Montgomery County is dividing his attention from his Franklin County responsibilities. In fact, the Franklin County office's performance metrics have improved since Harshbarger was brought on.

Overmire said his office now employs seven pathologists as of August, is in the process of interviewing an eighth, and it is no longer utilizing Montgomery or Hamilton counties for autopsy services.

All autopsies "are being done in Franklin County" and are taking between weeks and three months to perform, which Overmire said meets current national benchmarks.

"It depends on the complexity of the case," Overmire said of the time difference, which can also depend when toxicilogy test results are completed. "...Most if not all autopsies and their corresponding death certificates are being signed within three months, which is the goal."

Harshbarger "is currently doing everything within his role within Franklin County to ensure that we are doing the best of our ability to determine cause and manner of death in the most professional way," Overmire said.

Overmire is paid $96,755 annually as the part-time coroner, which is based on state law for a county with more than 1 million population. Because he is not a certified pathologist, Overmire cannot perform autopsies, but he does oversee his office's pathology department and signs off on death certificates.

"I work full-time as the Franklin County coroner, but Ohio Revised Code sets my salary as part-time because I still see patients," Overmire said, adding he is open to lawmakers re-examining those maximum salaries in light of wage pressures to retain public pathologists amid competition from the private sector.

Friction between the Franklin County Coroner's Office and Columbus homicide detectives over police being excluded during the COVID pandemic from observing autopsies in 2021 and 2022 has also subsided. They are now back in the room - or at least in an adjacent observation area.

"Dr. Overmire and his team have gone above and beyond to work with us to restore the working relationship with our investigators," Sgt. Joe Albert, a Columbus police spokesman, said in an email.

Asked if he would ever consider dropping his outside practice, Overmire said: "I certainly am considering all the options so that I can devote the time needed to making sure I'm serving the residents of Franklin County to the best of my ability." He plans to run in his first election next year to retain his post as county coroner.

Harshbarger said how long his dual roles goes on for will be up to Overmire.

"My plan is to not work probably more than a year with Franklin County," Harshbarger said. "If there's still a need, I'm willing to serve."

(Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the status of Warren County Coroner Russell Uptegrove's 2022 contract negotiations with Franklin County.)

wbush@gannett.com

@ReporterBush

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Montgomery County coroner is highest-paid Franklin County employee