Lake County Coroner David Pastrick held a steady lead Tuesday night over two challengers in the Democratic primary.
Pastrick received 45.5% of the vote, Danielle Carter received 38.6% of the vote and Elizabeth Ann-Marie Hmurovic received nearly 16% of the vote, according to unofficial Lake County Board of Elections and Registration data. Pastrick’s November challenger, Gary resident Andrew Delano, ran unopposed in the Republican primary.
During an interview with the Post-Tribune Friday, Pastrick said he previously served as Lake County Coroner from 2002 to 2009 and he was elected to the office again in 2020. Under Indiana law, Pastrick didn’t take office until 2022.
After receiving a number of calls from people in law enforcement and the coroner’s office in 2019, Pastrick said he decided to run for coroner with a mission to increase pay for employees and upgrade the office.
In the 2023 budget, Pastrick said he was able to work with the Lake County Council to secure pay raises for office employees after reducing staff by three positions.
Since 2022, Pastrick said he has ensured upgrading equipment like replacing old cameras with new digital photography equipment, new vehicles and upgraded computers, among other things.
Additionally, over the last two years, Pastrick said he’s overseen building improvements to the office including replacing the original building tile with hospital-grade flooring and a new HVAC system.
Pastrick also worked to make ADA improvements to the office, he said.
“The office is there 24/7 and I feel that the staff deserve a nice working place that they’re going to be in each and every day,” Pastrick said. “We’ve really done a lot of work for the office.”
Pastrick said he’d like to continue working toward decreasing the number of substance abuse cases throughout Lake County. Additionally, Pastrick said he’d like to continue partnering with the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office on its gun lock safety program.
“Our county’s got to do better in helping families and friends with addiction disorder. We also have to tell each other that if we own a firearm to lock that firearm up and place it away from children or anyone else who may frequent their residence,” Pastrick said.
As coroner, Pastrick will continue the partnerships with all the local emergency offices and personnel that the office staff work with daily, he said.
“We just want to continue working on a lot of the things that I set out to do in 2022,” Pastrick said. “Just making the office better for the public and for the staff.”
