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JBBourgesCounty Coroner
Carmel hamlet across Lake Gleneida in Putnam County.

Republican nominee · 2026

John Bourges

Putnam County Coroner

I have taken this call since 2015. I am asking to keep taking it.

Carmel · Lake Gleneida

Downtown Carmel at dusk, looking along the hamlet’s main street.

When I am called, I go.

Snow, back roads, and the homes of families on the worst day they will have. If there is no physician, I sign the certificate myself.

  • On call

    Through the police, day and night, 24/7. We don’t take holidays or vacations.

  • With the county

    Suicide and overdose task forces, the Health Department, and reports to the Legislature.

  • In the field

    Residences, roadways, woods, and weather. I go when and where I am called.

John Bourges taking the oath of office beside the Putnam County seal.

In this term

What we have already been doing.

With Dr. Nesheiwat, Wendy Erickson, and the Health Department.

  • We report our cases to the Legislature’s Protective Services Committee.
  • I represent the office on the Suicide Prevention Task Force and the Overdose Prevention Task Force.
  • The Coroner’s Office sits on the steering committee of the county’s BR;DGE Alliance.
  • With the Health Department, Mental Health, and the Child Advocacy Center, we helped plan the suicide and overdose fatality review. The county put that team to work in 2025.
  • In 2026 I spoke at the historic courthouse when the Legislature proclaimed Overdose Awareness Day: remember the people we lost, and drop the stigma.

Since

2015

Elected coroner

Overdose deaths we investigated

25, then 12, then 2

2022, 2023, and 2024, in our reports to the Legislature.

Before the office

Detective. Nurse. Captain.

Re-election

Why I am asking again.

  • I already know the call. Nights, storms, back roads, and the certificate when no physician is there.
  • The work with the Health Department and the Legislature is a constant that I want to continue with excellence and dignity.
  • A family should get someone who has done this job since 2015.

Twenty years with the NYPD, retiring as a Detective 2nd Grade out of Manhattan North Homicide. An ICU and emergency nurse after that, including at Putnam Hospital. Army Reserve captain, deployed to Iraq. From 2014 to 2021 I coordinated the PFC Joseph P. Dwyer veteran peer program in Putnam. The State Senate named me to the Veterans Hall of Fame in 2017 and again in 2021.

John Bourges at a county gathering.
  • John Bourges in New York City Police Department dress uniform.

    NYPD, 1981–2001

  • John Bourges in uniform in Iraq, with a helicopter behind him.

    Iraq, 2007–2008

  • John Bourges at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, pointing to a name on the wall.

    The Wall

If I am re-elected

The work I will carry forward.

  • With the county

    The work already going with the Suicide Prevention Task Force, the Overdose Prevention Task Force, Child Fatality Review, the BR;DGE Alliance, Project Anchor, and the HEALing Communities Study.

  • LiveOnNY

    Keep coordinating with LiveOnNY, the organ and tissue donation network, so a death this office handles can still help someone else when the family chooses that.

  • Veterans

    Veteran suicide prevention, with the Dwyer program, Guardian Revival, and the state Division of Veterans’ Services.

  • The families

    The same support for people left behind after a suicide, an overdose, or any death this office handles.

Write me.

Send me a short note here, or reach out through the Putnam County Health Department for official services.