Is Santa Barbara’s Coroner’s Office Unsafe for the Living?
Grand Jury Recommends Existing Building Be Torn Down and Replaced with New Structure
For the fourth time in 10 years, Santa Barbara’s Grand Jury has concluded that the county’s coroner’s offices are so unsafe that they pose an environmental health hazard to the people who work there. The Grand Jury recommended the existing building be torn down and a new structure be built in its place; in the meantime, the Grand Jury recommended that the General Services Department hire a full-time safety inspector to make sure that mold, termites, formaldehyde fumes, and a leaky roof were all kept in check.
For the fourth time, the county supervisors said the Grand Jury’s recommended solutions exceeded the scope of the problems. The mold, they said, has been addressed, exterminators hired, and a new roof is on the way. A new building is on the county’s master list of new buildings to be built — everyone acknowledges the existing structure is “substandard” — but admittedly, that’s about 10 years down the road.
A designated inspector is not necessary, the supervisors were told, because the coroner’s building has been inspected within the past year by the county’s Department of Environmental Services and by the California Public Health Department and passed. The building, the supervisors were told, does not pose a health risk to its workers.
Supervisor Joan Hartmann commented that the Grand Jury seemed to have gotten “a little off track.”
Coming to the jury’s defense was Supervisor Laura Capps, who noted that many of the recent fixes that have recently taken place were done only after the Grand Jury demanded they be done. To the extent matters aren’t worse, she said, it’s because the Grand Jury did its job.
“There’s more agreement here than is reflected in the reports,” Capps said.
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