San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury
• 2008-2009
Cemetery Districts: Digging for Answers
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 7 findings
F1
Some of the public cemeteries in the county are generally well operated while others have problems.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
The San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors should (a) appoint new cemetery district board members, knowledgeable of the relevant law and responsibilities, to fill the vacancies noted in Finding 2 and (b) set up a system whereby vacancies and term expiration on these boards will be brought to its attention promptly.
F2
Two of the districts have fewer than the required minimum of three board members. Those districts are the Estrella-Pleasant Valley and Templeton districts.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
In the event the Board of Supervisors finds it is not practical or feasible to appoint new cemetery district board members for the Estrella-Pleasant Valley Cemetery District due to the apparent inability of this cemetery district to operate independently without any source of revenue, The Board of Supervisors should appoint itself as the board of trustees of this cemetery district.
F3
One of the districts, Estrella-Pleasant Valley, has no endowment care fund.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
The Board of Trustees of the Adelaida Cemetery District should (a) hold a minimum of four meetings per year with published agendas and publicly available minutes and (b) acquire liability insurance.
F4
Two of the districts, Adelaida and Estrella-Pleasant Valley, have fewer than the minimum four board meetings per year.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
The Board of Trustees of the Estrella-Pleasant Valley Cemetery District should (a) hold a minimum of four meetings per year with published agendas and publicly available minutes, (b) promptly establish an endowment care fund adequate to provide income for perpetual maintenance, (c) provide for inspection of the burial register for the cemetery and (d) arrange for an annual audit and (e) acquire liability insurance.
F5
Three of the districts, Estrella-Pleasant Valley, Santa Margarita and Templeton, do not have an accessible burial register.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
The Board of Trustees of Santa Margarita Cemetery District shall respond to Findings 1 and 5 and Recommendation 6. The responses from the San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors shall be submitted to the Presiding Judge at the San Luis Obispo Superior court by September 24, 2009. Please provide a copy of all responses to the Grand Jury as well. The responses from the Adelaida, Estrella-Pleasant Valley, Santa Margarita, Shandon and Templeton Cemetery Districts shall be submitted to the Presiding Judge at the San Luis Obispo Superior court by August 25, 2009. Please provide a copy of all responses to the Grand Jury as well. The mailing addresses for delivery are: Presiding Judge Grand Jury Presiding Judge Martin Tangeman San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury Superior Court of California P.O. Box 4910 1035 Palm, Room 385 San Luis Obispo, CA 93403 San Luis Obispo, CA 93408 _____________________________________________________________________________ 10
F6
One of the districts, Estrella-Pleasant Valley, does not have an annual audit. _____________________________________________________________________________ 8
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
The Board of Trustees of the Santa Margarita Cemetery District should provide for inspection of the burial register for the cemetery.
F7
Two of the districts, Adelaida and Estrella-Pleasant Valley, do not carry liability insurance.
No recommendations for this finding
Conclusions 1
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CL1The majority of the county cemetery districts are operated professionally and meet all the state requirements for cemetery management. The staff is trained, the boards of trustees function as they should, budgets are on time and transparent, and services are rendered for the public good. However, some cemetery districts need improvement. Regulations are not followed, budgets and audits are late and at times inadequate and questionable, and the public is ill-served in various ways. Because they are independent districts without an electorate, there is little opportunity for external control should things go wrong except for legal proceedings by the state. The one area of local external authority is the responsibility of the Board of Supervisors to name trustees - including the possibility of appointing the Board of Supervisors itself as the board of trustees of a cemetery district. The Board of Supervisors should consider systematic tracking of vacancies on cemetery district boards of trustees so that supervisors can make timely appointments of well informed and responsible persons to those cemetery boards.