Legislator Urges Overhaul of Cemetery Regulation

At the state Cemetery Board’s last meeting Wednesday, Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount) released a preliminary report recommending sweeping changes in the way private cemeteries are regulated in California.

The report comes after a summer of cemetery scandals, during which several Southern California graveyard operators were accused of raiding maintenance trust funds and committing other, sometimes gruesome, misdeeds, including digging up bodies and reselling burial plots.

Among the recommendations in the 24-page document--titled “Reforming the California Cemetery Industry: Recommendations to Protect the Consumer and Strengthen State Oversight”--Murray suggests that the state audit all 193 state-regulated cemeteries within two years and assign more personnel to oversee burial grounds.

The Department of Consumer Affairs took over most of the Cemetery Board’s duties Oct. 2, after the board’s five staff members, including Executive Director Raymond Giunta, became overwhelmed with problems at Paradise Memorial Park in Santa Fe Springs and Lincoln Memorial Park in Carson. Consumer Affairs will assume all duties as of Monday.

Some Cemetery Board members, as well as consumers who credited Giunta with bringing the problems to light, have said Consumer Affairs has neither the knowledge nor the experience to regulate the burial industry, and have urged legislators to keep the board. The report by Murray recommends allowing Consumer Affairs to take over, but also suggests that Cemetery Board staffers be retained for their expertise.

Consumer Affairs, Murray said, “has the staff and the funding and the wherewithal--the Cemetery Board [alone] does not.”

The report also recommends increasing cemetery licensing fees, which now bring in about $400,000 annually, to fund state oversight; having the state Banking Department regulate cemetery trust funds, which are supposed to be used to maintain the properties after they close, and conducting regular inspections of cemeteries.

Some at Wednesday’s hearing, held at Compton City Hall, agreed with many of Murray’s recommendations, but said they need assistance now and could not wait for bureaucratic change.

Mike Arias, an attorney representing clients in class-action lawsuits against Lincoln and Paradise, called on legislators to approve emergency funding for the run-down Paradise site, which has been maintained by volunteers since the Cemetery Board took it over in July.