Who could have predicted an industry largely devoid of oversight could produce such a disaster?
Dan Hynes actually. The unsexiest of statewide politicians took on a very unsexy subject when he became Comptroller in 1999. Loleta Didrickson before him vastly improved financial oversight of pre-sold products in the industry and Hynes moved to gain greater regulatory authority over cemeteries. It’s probably inadequate as the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal is quickly demonstrating, but it is also an improvement over a system where there was virtually no agency with authority over funeral and cemeteries.
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Hynes is promoting legislation this spring aimed at preventing such disasters. For the most part, he would strengthen state regulation of business standards at privately owned cemeteries. Hynes isn t the first comptroller to propose such reforms. Since the 1940s, that office has been responsible for financial oversight of some privately owned cemeteries. Authority was later expanded to include businesses that sell plots on a pre-need basis. Under state law, a portion of all regulated cemeteries revenues are put into a trust fund. The interest earned by that fund is supposed to help pay for maintenance.
But Hynes plan also would expand the state s authority over maintenance standards. That would be a rare move, according to a report issued by the U.S. General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The report, released last year, found that while authority to regulate cemeteries varies from state to state, among the larger states only Florida requires an annual inspection of the cemeteries it oversees.
More specifically, Hynes would require an owner to provide reasonable maintenance of the property. There s a gap in people s understanding of what they can expect when they buy a plot, he says. So we want it clearly stated in the law that if you buy a plot, the least you can expect is that the lawn will be mowed, trees and bushes trimmed, and that it is kept in decent shape.
The plan has received bipartisan support in the General Assembly, but it faces some hurdles. The Illinois Ceme-tery and Funeral Home Association is opposed to the package as drafted. The 200-member trade group argues that cookie-cutter standards are unrealistic.
There are many different types and styles [of cemeteries]. The memorial cemetery has flat markers and needs far fewer man-hours of maintenance, says Charlene Garner, the group s executive director. A monument or rural style cemetery will have hills, winding roads and upright monuments.
The group opposes another provision, as well, one that would give anyone who buys a grave plot or a headstone 30 days to void the contract.
But Hynes plan is predicated on the need for expanded consumer protections. And he would address the corporate trend in the cemetery business by requiring more information about owners and managers. Under his reforms, cemetery owners and sales staff would have to post corporate information in their offices and in their contracts.
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Yet even if Hynes succeeds in strengthening state authority, most Illinois cemeteries won t be covered by the regulations. According to Hynes office, only about 900 of the state s estimated 9,000 cemeteries fall under his authority. The rest are operated by municipalities and townships, military organizations or religious groups. There also may be thousands of abandoned burial sites.
The bill was killed by the Senate and then resurrected and passed by the end of May IIRC. Part of the issue was the Senate Majority leader was a retired funeral director and obviously sympathetic to the industry. Hynes also pushed through a bill in 2002 to regulate crematoriums as well.
The Comptroller’s office still does not have the power to enforce most rules and action has to be taken usually in conjunction with a local municipality to get any action at all.
In the same article, the authors point to one cemetery where the income was sufficient to support the upkeep, but was not spent. In this case, apparently local employees were scamming families and the parent corporation. Yet no one had much authority until the Sheriff was able to determine a crime occurred. Could Hynes have stopped it if he had the full authority he had sought? It’s pretty hard to say given the fraud involved here, but at least if they had discovered early problems, they could have interceded.
ArchPundit
