Democrats have maintained their hold over the Will County Coroner’s Office for 36 years, and a Republican once again will try to win the office in Tuesday’s election.

Incumbent Laurie Summers, a Crete Democrat, will face off against Robert Enright, a Republican who is one of the funeral directors for Reeves & Baskerville Funeral Home.

Enright lives in an area of Joliet known as “Jofield” because it has a Plainfield mailing address.

In 2020, Summers succeeded Patrick O’Neil, a Democrat who served as coroner for 28 years before he retired. Duane Krieger, another Democrat who died May 28, served one term as coroner before O’Neil.

Krieger was preceded by convicted arsonist Robert “Bobby” Tezak, the last Republican to control the coroner’s office.

Candidates’ positions

Summers said she wants to serve a second term because she has “more to do.”

One of the top items on Summers’ agenda is the digitization of paper records. She said she also wants to continue addressing the underlying comorbidities, or coexisting conditions, of people who die from fatal drug overdoses.

However, Summers said she doesn’t use the term overdose.

“It is a poisoning. It is a toxicity,” Summers said.

In 2022, Summers had publicly released details on the rapid surge of drug-related deaths. She said she did so as a “public health warning” to let people know that drugs sold on the street were possibly laced with fentanyl and other dangerous substances.

Summers counts last year’s opening of the new Will County coroner building in Joliet as one of her biggest accomplishments. Previously, the coroner’s office had an administrative office in downtown Joliet and a morgue in Crest Hill.

“Equally as important [was] getting the staff where it needed to be because we were critically understaffed. [The COVID-19 pandemic] had a lot to do with that, but we are busier and busier every year,” Summers said.

Summers said that when she started, her office had eight or nine deputy coroners. She said the office is now up to 16 deputies in the field, she said.

Enright said he wants to make the coroner’s office more “customer service-oriented” and “more accessible” to funeral homes while generally working better with those businesses.

“They’re already under enough stress as it is,” Enright said of funeral home directors.

Enright said he wants to create an online portal where funeral directors can get up-to-date information on death cases.

Summers said her office is “always accessible” to funeral homes, and they are contacted as soon as autopsies are completed.

Enright said he also wants to make sure that all union members at the office are “treated better than what the [union] contract is stated.” He said he wants union members to have fair wages, a safe working environment and a “work-life balance.”

“I just want to make sure the employees are treated the way they should be treated, especially if they are contracted union members,” Enright said.

He said the coroner is a law enforcement position, and coroners used to be able to carry firearms. He said if elected, he wants to “bring the firearms back.”

Summers said her office already has instituted a policy to allow coroner deputies to carry firearms if they choose to do so.

Enright said one of his issues with Summers is her transparency when it comes to publicly releasing details on death cases. He said Summers tends to release “cookie-cutter” information on deaths.

“But there’s never any follow-up. There’s no follow-up with what happened or updates,” Enright said.

Summers said the coroner Facebook page posts details about death cases as a “courtesy,” and her office is “not mandated by state law to do it.”

“I am as transparent as can be. I do not have to do that Facebook page. But I do, don’t I?” Summers said.

One issue Enright and Summers seem to agree on is not publicly naming juveniles who’ve died, which stands in contrast to the practice of O’Neil, as well as the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Enright said he considers it “bad taste” unless he gets explicit permission from guardians or parents. Summers said she does not release those names “for the families” because “they’re going through enough.”

“And everyone tends to find out anyways,” Summers said.

Enright said he’s heard from Will County sheriff’s deputies that Summers’ staff is not arriving to death scenes in a timely fashion. He said he knows “things can get busy,” but he contends this is a “consistent thing” he’s heard.

“As a funeral director, I think when someone passes away, I do my best to get there within an hour,” Enright said.

Summers said Will County is about 835 square miles, and it would take a long time for her staff to get from one end of the county to the other when they were critically understaffed.

But Summers said their new building has substantially cut down on travel time for her staff, and she’s not heard any complaints from sheriff’s deputies.

“One of my biggest things is don’t make them wait on scenes,” Summers said of police officers and firefighters.

Enright also had an issue with Summers calling herself a registered nurse because her license expired. State records show that Summers’ nursing license expired Sept. 30, 2020.

Summers said Enright was being “disrespectful.” She said Enright, who is not a nurse, uses the caduceus symbol on his campaign signs. The medicine symbol is associated with nursing.

Summers said she is a registered nurse because she completed the education and the requirements to become one. She said her license is inactive because she is “not actively working clinically as a nurse.”

“I’m a nurse [and] will always be a nurse,” Summers said.