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 broken,” said Tracy Clapow, executive director of Congregation Rodef Shalom, in reference to endowment care funds she said had been misused; she urged the bureau to “remove the current management [and] appoint a qualified professional oversight so the restoration can finally begin.”

Multiple speakers said they had paid for perpetual care and that endowment funds were intended to ensure maintenance. Sarah Reichenbacher, who described herself as a daughter of someone buried at Mount Tamalpais and a neighbor, said, “We have paid into that endowment care fund, and those funds are legally intended to ensure this ongoing care and maintenance,” and pressed for faster state action when early warning signs appear.

Some commenters urged interim, practical fixes while legal reforms proceed. Jerry Desmond, representing the Cemetery and Mortuary Association of California, suggested an intermediate or temporary manager could keep operations running short-term and recommended improving reporting, inspections and identification of at-risk operators so action could happen before abandonment. Josh Tuttle urged building early-warning tools (stronger endowment reporting, inspections) and proposed municipal takeover of sites “akin to a park” as one long-term option.

Speakers also offered local examples and proposals. Sherry Manning Cartwright, director of Ararat Armenian Cemetery in Fresno, described plans to buy and steward an abandoned Chinese cemetery founded in 1913, donate the purchase price back into a maintenance fund, and partner with community groups as a model for local reclamation.

Other suggestions included looking to financial-sector regulation for reserve requirements and supervision, community fundraising and volunteer stewardship, and using site-specific technology or planning (including artificial-intelligence-aided plans) for persistent problems such as gopher damage.

Gina Chevarini Sanchez said the bureau already regulates about 190 privately owned licensed cemeteries and noted statutory limits that leave gaps when cemeteries become unlicensed and unregulated. The bureau cited prior findings: a 2017 study identified 43 licensed cemeteries with underfunded endowment accounts and limited burial space, a factor that can create financial instability. The bureau pointed to permissive portions of the Business and Professions Code it referenced at the meeting and to recent legislative changes (SB 777) that accelerate formation of the work group.

Attendees repeatedly called for clearer, mandatory authority to protect consumers and the perpetual-care funds families buy, and for faster, interim remedies that would preserve access and safety while the Legislature considers statutory changes. Gina closed by repeating the bureau’s contact information (email: emailcfb@dca.ca.gov; website: cfb.ca.gov), confirming the meeting recording would be posted, and reiterating that the work group’s report is due to the Legislature on June 1.

The bureau did not adopt new rules or take a formal vote at the meeting; the next formal step is the SB 777 work group drafting its report and recommendations for the Legislature.