Families urge faster action as Cemetery and Funeral Bureau gathers testimony on abandoned cemeteries

The Cemetery and Funeral Bureau convened a hybrid stakeholder meeting on Dec. 16, 2025, to collect public testimony and ideas after the Legislature directed a work group by Senate Bill 777 to propose solutions for unlicensed and abandoned cemeteries.

Bureau chief Gina Chevarini Sanchez opened the meeting by outlining the bureau’s consumer-protection mission and saying, “This meeting is being held as part of the broader stakeholder engagement envisioned by 777 to ensure the work group is informed and provided the public perspective.” She told attendees the work group must deliver a report to the Legislature by June 1 and that comments from the meeting would be provided to that body.

The session drew extensive, often emotional testimony from families and congregation leaders who described long-standing problems at Mount Tamalpais Cemetery in Marin County and other sites. Speakers detailed sinking and tipped headstones, gopher damage, overgrown grounds, vandalism, blocked roads and hazards that make visits unsafe. “The promise has been…