The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders voted February 18 to establish a Shared Services agreement with Monmouth County to regionalize all Medical Examiner operations, utilizing Middlesex County’s state-of-the-art facility in North Brunswick.
As part of the agreement, Monmouth County will pay Middlesex County $1.4 million annually — or $14 million over the life of the agreement — to perform all operations, including investigations of all unexplained natural deaths and violent deaths in order to determine cause and manner of death. The office also preserves evidence, analyzes physical evidence and provides expert testimony in courts of law. The agreement, effective April 1, will be in place for 10 years. The arrangement will save Monmouth County more than $1 million over that term.
Since 2009, Middlesex County has performed all administrative oversight of Monmouth County’s Medical Examiner services.
“In building on that initial partnership, we will make better use of our state-of-the-art facility and increase our revenues for the next decade,” said Middlesex County Freeholder Director Ronald G. Rios. “Our staff, under the supervision of our Medical Examiner Dr. Diane Karluk, has done an outstanding job in providing these very specialized services for our County and will now use that expertise to serve Monmouth County.”
“State statute permits the regionalization of medical examiners offices, so we are taking advantage of our geographic proximity to merge with Middlesex’s state-of-the-art facility,” Monmouth County Freeholder Deputy Director Serena DiMaso said. “We have been working with the Middlesex office for the past seven years, so we know that this merger will work for both counties.”
The Monmouth County Freeholders adopted a resolution on February 11 to formalize the arrangement. The Middlesex County Freeholders adopted a similar resolution February 18.