Below are the meeting minutes from the March 7, 2014 meeting of the Ohio Cemetery Law Task Force.
Also HERE is a link to the complete testimony of the Ohio Township Association (OTA) that was presented to the task force members during the meeting.
MINUTES
OF THE MEETING OF THE
OHIO
CEMETERY LAW TASK FORCE
77 S. High Street, 22nd Floor Hearing Room
March
7, 2014
Columbus, OH 43215-6133
9:30
a.m.
I.
Preliminary Matters
Co-chair Petit called the meeting to order.
Roll
Call:Laura Monick conducted roll
call.
Present: Daniel Applegate, Stephen George, Hon. Keith
G. Houts, Hon. Cory Noonan, Anne M. Petit, Patrick Piccininni,
Jay Russell, David
Snyder, James Turner, James Wright, Division Staff Attorney Laura Monick.
Absent:Dr. John N. Low
Review of Meeting Minutes:Co-chair Noonan opened the floor for discussion of the
minutes of the January 24, 2014 meeting of the Ohio Cemetery Law Task
Force.
Mr. Turner noted an errant “n” on
line 3, page 2 of the minutes. Mr. Turner then moved to approve the minutes of
the January 24th meeting with such correction.
Mr. Piccininni seconded the motion.
The motion passed unanimously.
II.
Old Business
Co-chair Noonan opened the floor for discussion of old
business. Co-chair Noonan noted that the
Ohio Farm Bureau was contacted and at this time they respectfully declined the
invitation to provide testimony.
Mr. Turner then moved to amend his motion to be an
approval of the February 21,2014 minutes. Mr. Piccininni seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Co-chair Petit, on behalf of Mr. George, announced a
change in staffing at the Ohio Historical Society. Ms. Dean left their employ
prior tosending thecontact information for the Tribal historical preservation
offices. Mr. George and Dr. Low will now
assist in finding contact information for the tribal leaders.
III.
New Business
Co-chair Petit brought the task force into new
business and welcomed Heidi Fought with the Ohio Township Association (OTA) to
the meeting.
Ohio Township Association (OTA) – represented by Heidi Fought, Director of Governmental
Affairs.
See written testimony attached.
Townships in Ohio maintain over 2,400 cemeteries and
take pride in caring for those cemeteries.
Townships have specific requirements with
respect to cemeteries as found in Ohio Revised Code Chapter 517. Primarily,
funding is a huge issue. In their
2015-2017 requested legislative priorities, the OTA asked the General Assembly
to address funding in two ways.
A few
years ago, then Representative Widener introduced legislation allowing
townships to sell cemetery related items to bring in additional revenue if a
township wanted to sell those items.
This
was House Bill 382 (126th GA). Municipalities currently can sell
cemetery related items but townships cannot.
The other funding piece noted in their requested legislative priorities is
a grant program proposed under ORC Chapter 4767. The OTA supports the grant
program and thinks is a great opportunity.
The OTA would also ask the task force to look at defining“abandoned” or “burial
ground.”These need clearer definitions because while they are mentioned in the
Ohio Revised Code there are not current definitions. If the definitions would
include large numbers of additional cemeteries then townships will need
adequate funding to match. Another area
for the task force to review is cemetery levies.
Currently, cemetery levies only can be five
years in length but townships would like the ability to have a continuous levy
option. With respect to maintenance
schedules and standards, townships do have Ohio Revised Code Chapter 517 that generally
speaks to cemetery maintenance. The OTA
likes the current minimum requirements but understands, perhaps, the need for
more and looks forward to working with the task force on this issue. The loss
of funding to townships has greatly impacted townships and the OTA tries to
provide education and training opportunities and would like to look at creating
a training program as an option to specific maintenance standards.Finally,
there is an Attorney General opinion on extinguishment of burial easement and re-selling
of lots which states that Ohio Revised Code Section 517.07 only permits
townships to re-sell lots on lots with deeds executedfrom
July 24, 1986 forward. The townships
would like the ability to re-sell lots that are older and where they can show
that there is no existing family left.
During questioning the OTA supported the same text of ORC
517.07 and just removing the date restriction.
If the date is removed then the OTA thinks it would be reasonable if
some more protection measures were added concerning when a township could
re-sell a burial right but ideally they would like that date restriction be
removed. With respect to former House Bill 382, in 2005 there were several
hearings in the House and sellers of cemetery related items opposed the
language that would permit townships to sell cemetery related items. Co-chair
Noonan requested that the OTA mesh proposed changes into Ohio Revised Code
Chapter 517 and provide that electronically to the task force.
The OTA emphasized that with respect to the
proposed grant program, any grant amount would help and how many townships
would apply would depend on whether townships took the time to apply. Townships know that grants are competitive
and the OTA understands that a tiered process with restrictions on how often a
township could apply for grant funds or placing a cap on grant amounts may be
needed.
After some additional discussion of a potential grant
program and townships selling cemetery related items, the task force moved
forward with the agenda and began discussion about the American University
Washington College of Law State Burial Laws Project. The task force had the
opportunity to view the State Burial Laws Project website.
Discussion then began on the mission of the task force
and what direction the task force wants to move with their process now that
they have heard the testimony of many interested parties. Discussion included thoughts on broader goals,
what format the task force’s recommendations might take and how to organize the
structure of the recommendations to help create a vision of how the State can
move forward.
Each member of the task
force had the opportunity to provide their views on moving forward and as a
group the task force decided that they would have the homework of reviewing the
previous meeting minutes and testimony then come up with their own lists of
broad categories they feel the task force should discuss. Co-chair Petit offered to work on compiling
each member’s list and then sending a master list back out to the task force
members prior to the next meeting. It
was then agreed that the master list could be the focus of next meeting agenda
with the goal of setting out broad categories and then listing out under those
broad categories more specific issues as identified by interested parties and
the task force.
Next
Meeting Dates:
April 4, 2014 at 9:30 am April 28, 2014 at 9:30am
IV. Adjournment
Mr.
Turner moved to adjourn. Mr. Russell
seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
