Coroner, Council at odds over pay

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Vigo County's coroner says she is un-fairly being underpaid.
   
County Corner Dr. Susan Amos became county coroner this year, but says she is being paid around $10,000 less than the previous coroner.
    
In the meeting Tuesday night, she addressed the council saying her salary is significantly less than other similar county’s coroners' through out the state.
    
She claims that the pay for the coroner should have never been reduced. She wants to be paid the same as other coroners across the state. The pay for a county coroner with a medical degree, like Amos, is 1 ½ percent higher than the standard pay. However she says the standard pay was lowered before she got into office.
    
The county council agreed that they did lower the pay for the position before she was elected and have added the necessary funds to pay for a coroner with a medical degree.

"I still feel like they directly discriminated against me,” Amos said.  “They knew I was running unopposed and would be winning the election so whenever they changed the salary, and nobody is really clear when they changed that salary, they did it directed at myself.”

The county council voted unanimously to deny Dr. Amos a different salary. The council says they did not in any way discriminate towards Dr. Amos when making their decision for salary in September of 2012.