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By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 1, 2000
LARGO -- It might be a first for Pinellas and Pasco counties -- a medical examiner who, before his professional career, once fainted at the sight of blood.
Those days are long behind Dr. Jon Thogmartin.
Thogmartin, Palm Beach County's medical examiner, cleared his biggest hurdle on Thursday to becoming the circuit's next medical examiner after a local search committee recommended that he replace Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood.
After interviewing five candidates to replace Wood, who will retire Sept. 30, Thogmartin was the near-unanimous choice of a committee made up of local law enforcement, prosecutors, the public defender and county officials.
But Thogmartin doesn't have the job yet.
The Florida Medical Examiner Commission must approve the choice, which it is widely expected to do no later than its next meeting on Oct. 25. The commission will then make a recommendation to Gov. Jeb Bush, who appoints the three-year post.
The commission might move faster, perhaps within days, if it holds a conference about the choice by telephone.
Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe will appoint an interim medical examiner if a replacement isn't selected before Wood's retirement.
Though Bush can override any recommendation, local officials expect the governor to approve the selection. Thogmartin, of course, still must formally accept the job.
Some members of the committee don't think that's necessarily a certainty.
Thogmartin, 36, has been Palm Beach's medical examiner since April 1999.
And a member of the search committee, Pinellas County Commissioner Sallie Parks, questioned whether he was simply using his Pinellas-Pasco application to get a raise in Palm Beach.
"Some might feel you're using this to get leverage in Palm Beach," she told him.
McCabe, who was chairman of the search committee, also asked him about a comment he made to a reporter after he was appointed medical examiner in Palm Beach.
Thogmartin told the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale that he planned to stay in Palm Beach "until I become old and gray."
"I know you wish you hadn't said that," McCabe said. "But what's changed since then?"
Thogmartin said Pinellas offered a probable pay increase from his current $125,000. Wood earns $145,000.
But Thogmartin said the biggest reason for leaving was the freedom to run his office independently. In Palm Beach, the medical examiner is a county employee beholden entirely to county officials. In Pinellas, Thogmartin said, he would like to continue as an independent contractor of the counties, as Wood now operates.
"If you're going to be held accountable for your employees, then having control of your employees is very desirable to me," he said, noting the Palm Beach personnel office exerts much influence over his hiring decisions.
Thogmartin acknowledged that Palm Beach officials offered him a $10,000 pay raise to drop out of the running.
"But I didn't pull my name out," he said.
Thogmartin said he also likes the fact that Pinellas-Pasco does its own toxicology work in-house, which Palm Beach does not.
"It's not like I'm running away from something," he said. "It's more like I'm running toward something."
Afterward, McCabe said: "My impression is that he really wants to work here. If he doesn't want to work here, then he should be an actor. He's good at it."
Thogmartin is a graduate of the University of Texas medical school in San Antonio. He was an associate medical examiner in Palm Beach for two years before becoming chief of the office.
He comes to Pinellas highly recommended by prosecutors and police in Palm Beach.
The committee's second choice was Dr. Russell Vega, an associate medical examiner in Hillsborough. Though he has worked in the field about the same length of time as Thogmartin, committee members said they feared his lack of experience.
Of the five candidates, Thogmartin was the only one who is currently a chief medical examiner with administrative experience.
Wood, 55, announced her retirement earlier this year after prosecutors dropped criminal charges against the Church of Scientology, blaming Wood's reversal in the death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson for hopelessly damaging their case.