Albany County will replace its four elected, part-time coroners with an appointed medical examiner after more than 60% of voters approved the change, according to unofficial results from the Albany County Board of Elections.
The Medical Examiner's Office will take over the coroners' responsibility of investigating unattended, questionable and accidental deaths.
The chief medical examiner, a full-time employee, will have to be a licensed physician with expertise in forensic pathology. They will be appointed to a six-year term by the county executive and confirmed by the Albany County Legislature.
The chief medical examiner will be able to hire a full-time chief deputy medical examiner and other staff, like death investigators.
County officials told legislators at a budget hearing last month that the county is in talks to share medical examiner resources with a "neighboring county" in an effort to share costs. That deal could be approved as soon as next month.
Proponents of abolishing the "antiquated" Coroner's Office argued that a medical examiner's office would modernize the county's process for investigating deaths.
County Executive Dan McCoy, a backer of the ballot initiative, said he got frustrated with coroners' tendency to sometimes arrive at scenes late, as well as the lack of quality data on COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic and on overdose deaths during the opioid crisis.
"They weren't tracking it. There's just statistics that they should have, [they're] not getting back to people," McCoy said in an interview last month. "And there's professionals — I'm not taking away from the coroners; they did a good job. But it's the administrative side of the house, right? And it's the 21st century. We got to change the approach."
In the County Legislature, some members were concerned that the office could cost even more than what McCoy had budgeted for, especially given what they considered to be underestimates for the salaries of the three death investigators county officials proposed hiring.
"I am concerned the cost of the new office will be more than the administration thinks," said Legislator Mark Grimm, who voted in favor of keeping the coroners, in an email in September. "It does try to modernize things. Close call for me on the vote."
The County Executive's Office originally estimated that switching to a medical examiner's office would cost an additional $935,000 per year, although they said the cost increase may only be an additional $600,000 if the proposed resource-sharing agreement with that "neighboring county" goes through.
WAMC reached out to the Coroner's Office for comment. A coroner reached by WAMC declined to comment, but said he would reach out to other coroners. No one ever got back to WAMC.
Process for expelling county legislators also approved
Voters approved a second ballot proposal Tuesday that will create a process for expelling Albany County legislators, with about 79% of voters in support, according to unofficial results from the Albany County Board of Elections.
The measure means the County Legislature will be able to vote to expel one of its members from office for not living in their district, knowingly filing a "materially false" financial statement with the county while serving, or being convicted of a felony while in office.
Two-thirds of the County Legislature — or 26 of its 39 members — would need to vote to remove a member from office. Per the County Charter, the legislature could appoint a replacement for expelled members until the next general election, when voters would select a replacement.
The ballot initiative is in large part the result of an investigation into whether County Legislator Beroro Efekoro, a Democrat who voted against putting the proposal to the voters, really lived in his district.
Albany County Legislature Deputy Chairwoman Wanda Willingham, a Democrat who backed the ballot initiative, said it wasn't meant to target Efekoro.
"All of the controversy came out about him, then we looked, and we said, 'You know what? There's more than just him involved,'" Willingham said in an interview Tuesday night. "So it wasn't fair to make people think that he was the one that was being targeted when it was really about addressing the issue. We looked at it and realized we have nothing in place."
As originally reported by the Albany Times-Union in 2025, Democrats in the legislature began investigating whether Efekoro lives in his district or in a different home he owns in another part of the City of Albany.
The investigation was based on a tip that Efekoro listed that second property as his primary residence on a mortgage form. A county investigator reportedly followed Efekoro for two weeks.
Democrats in the legislature said they were just trying to make sure Efekoro was following ethical guidelines. For his part, Efekoro has maintained that he doesn't live in that second property and said the investigation was retaliation for bucking party leadership.
