Title
Cemeteries Ordinance Amendment
Action
Action:
Adopt an ordinance amending Chapter 7 - Cemeteries of the City Code, as recommended by the Environment Committee.
Body
Committee Chair:
Patsy Kinsey, Environment Committee
Staff Resource(s):
Mike Davis, Engineering and Property Management
Gina Shell, Engineering and Property Management
Quin Hall, Engineering and Property Management
Anna Schleunes, City Attorney's Office
Explanation
? The Cemeteries ordinance was last updated in 1985.
* In 2015, students from UNCC's Gerald G. Fox Master of Public Administration Program completed an Operations Analysis of the City's cemetery section.
* As part of the FY 2018 budget, Council approved $225,000 for completion of a Cemeteries Master Plan to be completed later this year.
* The goals of the revised Cemetery Ordinance are to:
- Modernize the language and update terms and definitions,
- Eliminate duplication of and contradiction with other ordinances, and
- Better reflect current operations.
* The proposed draft for a revised Cemeteries Ordinance includes the following major changes:
- Allows the city manager and city staff to annually update "Cemetery Rules and Guidelines" without City Council approval,
- Simplifies the descriptions of city manager and staff authority to manage and control cemeteries,
- Describes current management of burials for indigent persons and unclaimed remains, authorizes the city manager to work with local agencies to fund these burials, and to have discretion regarding type of burial provided,
- Deletes prescriptive formulas for setting after-hour and weekend burial fees,
- Changes the "waiting period" before a burial space can be deemed unused and available for resale to 100 years,
- Deletes language regarding the establishment and management of cemeteries in the city limits by other corporations or associations,
- Clarifies section on perpetual care, which is the ongoing maintenance of the cemetery properties provided by the city and ...
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