Coroner Wilkey seeking another term

COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County Coroner Deb Wilkey says she would like to continue providing death-inquiry services for the county's residents.

Wilkey, a Republican, has been coroner since 2010 and was a deputy coroner before that, starting in 2004.

"My goal was and is to provide the most accurate information into circumstances surrounding a person's death, through objective and professional service," Wilkey said.

Her office annually has been responding to approximately 360 coroner jurisdiction cases, which include unattended deaths, accidents, suicides and homicides.

"Although the coroner calls have gone up, staffing has not," she said.

Wilkey, 60, of Hayden, said one of the biggest challenges of the job is predicting the unpredictable - death - and budgeting for ever-increasing service needs.

"What has been looked at for the last couple of years, and is currently in the early stages of implementation is a 're-tooling,' restructuring of how service is provided," Wilkey said.

She has reduced costs by moving her office from Coeur d'Alene Memorial Gardens to facilities that are considered part of Kootenai County's campus. That has cut duplicate office costs, such as for rent and Internet service.

She also has moved the office to more electronic filing and reporting, making the operation as paperless as possible.

And she is working to reduce costs on toxicology and pathology work through direct case management.

She said she enjoys the work because of the combination of skills required, in both the medical field and law enforcement.

"It's an interesting combination of disciplines," she said.

She graduated from Idaho State University, and worked for both the Bannock County Sheriff's Office and the Pocatello Police Department. She spent eight years in law enforcement.

After that, she moved to Coeur d'Alene and entered the nursing field. She has 25 years of experience, the majority of it in emergency and critical care at Kootenai Health. She was recruited by former Coroner Robert West to serve as deputy coroner.

She completed a master's degree in forensic anthropology.

Wilkey, an Idaho native, has been a resident of Kootenai County since 1984.