SENATE BILL REPORT

SHB 450

BYHouse Committee on State Government (originally sponsored by Representatives H. Sommers and B. Williams; by request of  Governor Gardner)

Revising and reorganizing laws pertaining to the cemetery board.

House Committe on State Government

Senate Committee on Governmental Operations

Senate Hearing Date(s):March 24, 1987

Majority Report:  Do pass.

      Signed by Senators Halsan, Chairman; Garrett, Vice Chairman; DeJarnatt, McCaslin, Talmadge.

Senate Staff:Barbara Howard (786-7410); Eugene Green (786-7405)

                  March 24, 1987

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS, MARCH 24, 1987

BACKGROUND:

The Cemetery Board's primary powers have concerned regulation of endowment care funds and prearrangement sales contracts of private cemeteries.  The Board was subject to a review under the Washington Sunset Act in 1980 and again in 1986.  The Legislative Budget Committee (LBC) and the Office of Financial Management (OFM) recommended that the Board be continued with some modifications.  Two major recommendations were that the Board's statutory authority to regulate cemeteries be clarified, and that its enforcement powers be clearly specified and enhanced.  As part of the latter effort, the Cemetery Board undertook to recodify and reorganize the various chapters of law under Title 68 RCW, "Cemeteries, Morgues and Human Remains."

SUMMARY:

The Cemetery Board is continued, as are its powers with respect to policy-making and regulation of private cemeteries. For administrative purposes, the Board is transferred to the Department of Licensing (DOL).  Specific authority is given to the Director, in consultation with the Board, to employ the Executive Secretary, who must have a minimum of five years' experience in cemetery management unless the Board waives that requirement. The Director is also authorized to collect regulatory charges.

In the recodification, the Board's jurisdiction is specifically applied to the chapters of law relating to private cemeteries, cemetery property, mausoleums and columbariums, cemetery plots, abandoned lots, endowment care, endowment care funds, prearrangement contracts and human remains.  Excluded from the Board's jurisdiction are laws relating to public cemeteries and morgues, cemetery districts and penalties.

Specific enforcement powers are delineated for the Board's regulation of the cemetery industry.  Protections for endowment care, endowment care funding, trusts, and prearrangement contracts are strengthened by allowing the Board to seize funds in jeopardy.

The Cemetery Board and its functions are removed from the sunset termination schedule.

Fiscal Note:      available

Effective Date:The bill declares an emergency and takes effect July 1, 1987.

Senate Committee - Testified: Paul Elvig, Executive Secretary, Cemetery Board; Fred Hellberg, Office of the Governor