Now, they say there may be more trouble and have ordered a thorough investigation. Now the real tough questions: 1) Who will perform this investigation, and what expertise do they possess to insure this investigation is in fact thorough? 2) Will this investigation take place as an independent one, with absolutely no interference from federal sources? 3)Who has the appropriate expertise to effect change beyond the investigation and put in place policy and procedures to insure this cannot occur in the future? 4) What is in place now, to allow for corrections later without disturbing an inordinate number of burials, in essence perpetuating a problem already in existence?
CemOps has many more questions than answers at this point in time. We hope to have meaningful conversations in the near term to answer some of these and hopefully be invited on the ground to assist. Our nations war dead deserve better. Their families deserve better. We have the right to expect more of the folks we entrust our national burial grounds to.
]]>The successful sales cycle brings as much revenue into the businesses as possible in the shortest amount of time allowable. The successful operations cycle corrects the mistakes made during the sales cycle, and is deemed a success if the result of this second cycle completes with no new litigation or legislation. It generally appears as a constant circular path.
This cyclic path we find the industry on now, is changing. By typical standards, the operations cycle should have begun about a year ago however, the sales cycle continues to grow and the operations cycle is slowing ever further. Restructuring is occuring and operations managers are being downsized or eliminated in favor of sales management and/or General Manager/Sales Manager positions. The difference is there are only a handful of experienced individuals in the industry who are truly capable of wearing both hats, and with emphasis on the sales aspect are given precious little time or resources to insure operational integrity.
Presently there are hundreds of positions advertised for sales people, sales managers, sales executives, and the like. You will find presently not one operations management position posted on any of the job boards, trade boards, or corporate websites. This is a concerning, if not disturbing, trend for the experts in operations.
It would be believed that operations consultants would become busier with this trend, saving the corporations a lot of money by utilizing talent that is not their responsibility. They would not be required to pay for benefits, fica match, or any of the other items necessary for an employee while experiencing a higher level of operational integrity. But this is not the case, and is curious to us all.
It is clearly understood the ramifications of sales. Sales bring in money, and operations cost money with no immediate direct additional benefit to the bottom line. Operations insures the money accrued during sales ramps are spent properly and budgeted for the future, while insuring carefully thought out policies and procedures are honored to eliminate liabilities. I personally know of two such consultants that are about to leave the industry entirely, due to lack of work. These two individuals have worked diligently over the course of their careers to make the death care profession a better place for employees and better experience for the consumers. It will be a loss if they move on, and we lose their passionate approach to an industry they love.
CemOps won’t be far behind, if the present trend continues. Without sustainable business, a business cannot sustain. We believe the industry should keep close tabs on both sides of this equation, and never let their guard down. There is a marriage of the two that should take place, but no marriage can take place or survive with just one partner getting all the attention. Here’s hoping for a brighter future for the ops minded professionals out there. You can’t restructure your business model completely away from compliance, without risking the business. At the end of the day, a lack of rules will cause utter chaos.
]]>To answer the first question: Green burials are great if you are into getting back to the old ways of performing burials. No casket expense, no vault expense, no memorial expense because in a true green burial space no memorial is allowed. This for a burial business means little or no streams of revenue to keep the cemetery profitable and in business. In 20 years, when the business is no longer solvent what happens to those burials? Who looks after the properties and maintains any record of those burials? I offer this as a brain teaser to this question: Many pioneer cemeteries and other old non marked cemeteries are disturbed annually with new road construction, new housing developments, etc. etc. I see this as a repeat of those same issues, 50 or 100 years from now. So for those who preach green, I want to know how they intend to protect the sanctity of these “new” green burial places for generations to come? Or, does that matter?
I just read an article out of the Midwest about a green burial cemetery that was just approved. I noticed a local funeral director had spoken about “green embalming fluids”, and unless something new has come about; I have never heard of such a thing. Embalming is one of the items taken off the list of expenses with a green burial. I want to know where these “green embalming fluids” are being purchased. If they exist, it sure isn’t industry wide knowledge. The funeral directors I know have heard nothing about these either and I have asked. I also have found no reference to this in industry trade magazines. I have seen the new biodegradeable wicker looking baskets for burial and other items of that nature, but nothing relative to green fluids for embalming. I’ll look again, but if such a thing exists someone post a comment on this and let me know where to look this up.
For my second question, and this will surely upset the green folks, but if this was MY family being buried I would want to know: If I am not allowed the option of a casket, or a burial vault, what happens to my loved ones body when the burial is complete and a couple of tons of dirt are dumped on their body? This is a viable question, considering I buried my Dad, Grandmother, and Grandfather some years back and would not care for the visual this gives me. Personally, I like the idea that my loved ones weren’t crushed by the weight of the dirt during backfill. That gives ME peace of mind. And unless I have completely missed something, I remember the entire reason for the ceremony or funeral is for the living, not the dead, which means I have to remember what – when the time comes for me to make those decisions again?
I am not prepared to speak professionally about how this green movement will play out. I, like many, have more questions than answers. As long as I have questions, I will continue to lean on the side of traditional.
I am open for debate on this topic, and as I have shared in this article I am not expressing professional opinion/s on this matter. I am curious and apprehensive, and have many questions. I am concerned that families are not getting the complete story when they are being given this as an option. For now, I call it a fad. Only time will tell whether I was full of it or not.
]]>I have reprinted this post over the years in the hopes of finding common ground between all the parties involved in cemeteries. Still, the news agencies report upset families and the cemetery shows reluctance to fully speak to the media about the reasons for removing decorations in the early spring. There are many valid reasons to perform this clean up, the least of which is appearance. The first and formost reason is safety, but seldom do you hear this spoken about. Why? Unless the cemetery being complained about has suffered a legal loss due to personal inury from flying debris or read about another, they just don’t talk about it. I hope the instance of media events on cemetery spring cleanup drops this year. I hope communications improves among the interested parties. It’s a new day and I hope for a new way.
]]>Never covered in any of these news accounts or blogs, is the simple poor method of performing audits at the company or state level, and the lack of tools/training invested in these groups. The auditors are simply accoutants hired to look over documentation requested, usually a percentage of contracts and burial records from the previous year, then those findings are put against accounting records from a home office or accounting firm. This is hardly the type audit necessary to discover anything beyond “surface” issues.
The set up for a cemetery or funeral home or crematory inspection or audit is where the problem begins. Days or weeks in advance the location is notified of a pending audit. With that notification, there are items marked to have ready for the auditor. The auditor comes in, looks over those items pulled for inspection and if nothing seems out of order that is the end of the audit. Too many times, in the few states that actually perform inspections of crematories, the inspector doesn’t want to pry. If a crematory is presently in use, the inspector schedules another day to come back. This is a bad mistake.
In the cemetery or funeral audit, the inspector has precious little time to commit to one location. These state agencies are historically understaffed and under funded, and have many more locations to cover than people to cover them. The agency they work for has to watch their budgets very closely, as they come from the general fund of the state. These agencies can be trained properly to become self supporting, which would also afford them better training and tools; but this is a tough sell when old ways are hard to break. Or the states need to consider privatizing the audit/inspection capacities. Privatization would cost them less, and gain them much better control over issues present. Privatization would also raise accountabilities and reduce the desire or ability to misapropriate funds or manage poorly.
Here’s wishing for a time when everyone cares to do things right every time on both sides of this issue. Here’s wishing for a time when both sides will open their minds to better methods and accountabilities. http://www.cemops.com
]]>On CemOps website, we now offer the complaints form page to help answer some of the pressing issues facing anyone involved in the cemetery, funeral, and crematory industries. And finally, someone willing to address those concerns from ALL the partners who make up the success or failure of a death care business venture.
You can access this new page at: http://www.cemops.com/complaints_form.html
Your personal information will be held in the strictest of confidence, and is only needed for the purposes of contact by us once we have made our determinations. If you wish us to contact a cemetery, funeral home, or crematory on your behalf we will not share your personal information without your permissions. If you are an owner we will check out your concerns and report directly back to you and nobody else, insuring your privacy and the integrity of your needs. If you are a manager or employee we will protect you from any possible retaliation by not reporting your identity.
The purpose of this page, is to help slow some of the news items making headlines that continue to erode the trust placed on us by families in need. To help employees and managers become stronger by communicating helpful methodology in facing complaints, and determining the severity of their concerns. And to help owners and families work together to correct issues to the satisfaction of all involved, helping to slow the increasing negative media attention and court dockets and rebuilding the faith in our profession.
At the end of each year, Cemops will publish a report on the website, categorizing the type of complaints received – any geographical tendencies – cooperative efforts on the parts of the parties involved, or the lack thereof – violations of state or federal law statistics useful – and training efforts to further strengthen our profession in the eyes of our consumers and onlookers.
It is our sincere desire that everyone who is vested will use this form. There is no cost for using this complaint form, and this can only help improve relations that continue to be strained by both internal and external sources. We expect to be able to communicate with all parties via email, which will keep this free. It makes sense that if we can keep our costs down, we can continue to provide this service at no charge. So take advantage of this offer. Light up your keyboards and let us know what is on your minds and hearts.
This is the first of it’s kind, considering the number of search engine hits available telling you the procedures for filing a complaint in states. Here, the only procedure or step needed is simply filling out our form. We will take it from there with no further need of following lengthy procedure or burdensome steps. We will do that for you.
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We at CemOps have discussed this very concern with industry ownership, and to date we find little interest in pursuing the issue. The crime described by this post, is a crime not of greed mostly but of need. In the most recent 13 cases I have been involved with each of those events of theft by employee eminated from cemetery sales people who are payed commission only. Of those commission only folks, most do not make it 6 months in the profession. There are many reasons for their failure, some their fault and some the fault of those who hired them, but the clear accelerant for theft by employees is usually need. Folks called Family Service Counselors (commission only sales people), must sell in order to receive a paycheck. After weeks or months of no money, they can be trapped in the desparate cycle of needing to pay rent, utilities, etc. Put a person in a desparate situation and what can you expect?
Don’t misunderstand, we have no pity for them and when we catch them we prosecute to the fullest. The industry as a whole has the ability to stop this, and some of the companies have, by paying hourly wages AND bonuses or commissions. Take away the desparation and you take away the temptation.
Then you have office personnel who are the last ones to handle monies. What controls do you have in place to insure every dime of that money makes it into your bank account? We can teach you those controls and put them in place. We can also teach you what to look for that will tell you if your people are stealing from you. This type theft is generally very sneaky, and done by people you trust on a daily basis. People you would swear would never do that to you. They are the most dangerous of them all. They hide behind your wall of trust, while they steal from you. If this is happening to your operation you owe it to yourself to find out. If it is not, you can look at the investigation as confirmation you have the best people you could possibly have.
Reality? In the past 13 locations I have managed there has been at least one instance of theft by employee. One of those employees weren’t even stealing from the company we worked for. They stole from another funeral home, but end result we had to make the family whole to maintain our reputation. This particular employee used documents from another funeral home to sell a family, as a representative of our establishment. In this instance, the owner did the right thing. They put their reputation ahead of their bank account and took care of the family. But what if this hadn’t been discovered? What if nothing came up until the family suffered a death 20 years from now?
That is exactly what a rogue employee is counting on. They are counting on the fact they will be long gone before anything ever comes of it. If you want to know if you are a victim of this crime, call us. Not only will your business reputation be protected, but you will not have to worry about your bottom line being affected by such crime.
You will also have the comfort of knowing you don’t have those people in your midst anymore, in front of your families. Peace of mind in this arena is key.
]]>According to the news article, Dan Hynes office of the comptroller was notified in 2003 of the issues at Burr Oak Cemetery regarding the digging up of remains and discarding them into vacant property to make room for other burials, and that his top cemetery official met with him regarding this very incident. This apparently occured on November 19, 2003.
According to a follow up letter from Hynes’ office to cemetery owners the next February, his now director of cemetery care stated, “I am writing in response to our meeting with you in November regarding the discovery of human remains at Burr Oak Cemetery.” The letter written on official comptroller stationary and signed by Percy Lucina, Hynes’ top cemetery aide.
This has become a focal point in the race for governor in the state of Illinois. Governor Quinn blames Hynes for the lack of control over the issue, and Hynes counterclaims that Quinn’s office has spent millions of dollars distorting the facts and blaming him for exploiting the tragedy where he contests his office had no control.
CemOps assertion is; this is so atypical. Fingerpointing with no direction to correct the situation or bring the actual perpetrators to justice. But for this to alledgedly occur for 6 years prior to making the breaking nationwide news is unforgiveable!
Apparently, Governor Quinn blames the comptrollers’ agency for not making the appropriate agencies aware after the letter was published. Making this story even more disgusting, it states there is documentation the cemetery owners were made aware of the problems during the 2003 communications.
CemOps has communicated now for 4 years, this is not out of the ordinary. This isn’t only happening in Illinois, even though Senator Burris was implicated earlier on over the IFDA (Illinois Funeral Directors Association) pre paid funeral trust scam. States just dont’ get it. They have the regulatory control and responsibilities and where withall to levy fines and other punishments for failing to follow state law. Do they? Not until it is too late. CemOps has offered help in almost all states, with little or no return of the offers. States don’t realize instead of complaining about budgets and inability to finance audit and regulatory agencies, these agencies don’t need to feed off the general fund of the individual states. They can easily be self supporting and we can show them how.
Instead of becoming political fodder in a nasty race, the eyes need to be on the ball of the affected families and the continued grief they all suffer every time they read these type headlines. It is evident that all parties have dropped the ball on this case, including ownership of the cemetery, but this is not the first time this has happened. There was the Troy, Georgia crematory case and the Mennorah Gardens case before this, which by the way was quite similar in nature. And hundreds of other cases that only made regional news.
In the past year, CemOps has monitored over 300 cases where the states could have/should have stepped in to protect their constituents. They failed at every turn. We suggest instead of tunnel vision on hiring accountants for this function, look at qualified operations persons with real time experience in the death care industry to look into these matters. Same goes for the federal government. The GAO is no better equipped to investigate these type occurences, but the governmental bodies refuse to move in a different direction.
Simply put, CemOps is sick and tired of these news items making it to a national audience with little or no viable solutions coming forth. Along the way the profession also sits quietly by waiting for the outcome instead of being proactive to insure these type occurences stop. If the government threatens further regulations, the associations fight it, instead of finding ways to police within their own industry and correct before these items hit national news.
The forgotten facts here, are so easy to see if there is a willingness to….. Families are negatively impacted every time they read a story like this. It causes them pause, wondering if where they chose to associate themselves are any better. The state, federal and local government agencies basically do nothing until it blows up in the news, and the death care industry follows suit when of all people they could internally police themselves.
It’s time for everyone to wake up. This is the type thing that drives our revenues down. Our reputation takes more hits every day without a word from the industry that continues to be negatively impacted. The g0vernment continues to lose the trust of the people they are payed to protect.
We don’t have all the answers, but we do have many. Let’s get our heads together and slow this down to a manageable flow until we can get full control over the poor operators that are destroying our profession. If you challenge me on this, I will be glad to send you the hundreds of emails I receive annually regarding this very type occurence. Heads out of the sand! Send me your email address and I will send them to you. Then, maybe you will see how deeply this goes.
]]>During the remediation of a cemetery for one of the large corporations, the lack of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment became a serious cause of illness for me. During a disinterment in a cemetery with a considerable amount of limestone and under ground water, in order to communicate with a grounds member I lifted my paper mask. At that very moment, a splash of water was caused by a large rock falling into the grave and splashback of material into my mouth. One year later, I was diagnosed with cancer and the biopsy returned with trace amounts of arsenic and fremaldehyde in the tissue taken. Thus the reason we offer Personal Protective Equipment on our website and we no longer perform such operations without it.
At this point I certainly could have come back on the company, but chose not to. I personally despise those who think the answers to their lives are in the courts with huge settlements, and stayed true to myself and allowed the health insurance to take care of the disease.
At the next large corporation, my reputation was intact for fixing troubled cemetery and crematory locations. During the hiring process, I was interested in clear understandings regarding the identification and solution phases of repairing what was known to be a troubled location. The Chief Operating Officer made it abundantly clear that I was expected to clean up the situation and eliminate all liability from the company for the future. Once it was apparent this could cost the company money in order to correct, the budget was killed and the issues remained.
At the end of this cycle, I had two single spaced pages of unrectified issues the company had no desire to correct. I kept a personal copy of these issues in case it came back to me, and the state ever required an investigation. End result, neither occured.
It was at this time, I realized there was a need for a CemOps. It was at this time, I discovered if the companies didn’t care and the state regulators didn’t care, there was a clear disconnect in what the law stated it required. It was then I realized expectations and enforcement were far apart.
So these issues continue and parties are not brought to accountability until enough families complain or a news agency gets involved.
Those same companies do not respond to efforts to assist with what we know to be problems we can solve. Those same companies have chosen to continue business as usual and not allow outside involvement and help. We continue to offer, with no return to those we know are in desparate need of our assistance.
I can also say to you I have worked for smaller organizations/corporations who have taken these same issues seriously and dedicated the necessary resources to correct issues and insure future occurences do not occur.
Help is here and available to those who wish to take advantage of it.
]]>Where it may be a wise choice to distance themselves, in their opinion-the news agencies and sheriff department are pulverizing them at every turn. Most recently, a sheriff department audit reveals there are possibly 9,000 more bodies buried in this cemetery than it can accomodate at full capacity. Perpetua has done nothing to publicly combat this, and the idea of there being that many beyond capacity just doesn’t add up. Recent statements in those same media articles relate burials are taking place without event, and no new disturbances of old graves are taking place.
If you consider both these completely contradictory items being stated in the same article, you would think a spokesperson from Perpetua or their legal firm would be taking the opportunity to speak out. To date, nothing. All that is coming out about this company is they have filed for bankruptcy protection. No damage control will be disastrous for this company. People have no choice but to believe what they read, because nobody else is giving them any information to the contrary.
The other concern with this and a number of other issues in the cemetery, funeral and crematory industries is who is watching over these locations? How could this have gone on without notice, if anyone was ever showing up from the headquarters? What about the previous owners? If there is truly thousands of burials more than the cemetery can hold, why isn’t there any mention of previous owners and their possible roles? Calculating 9,000 burials overage, if the cemetery is performing 350 burials annually would mean this has been ongoing for over two decades. If the news stories are anywhere close to true, and the sheriff has truly audited the location properly-how could this go on for over two decades without being caught? Baffling, isn’t it?
CemOps has long offered to be the eyes and ears of ownership. To be the ones that go into locations and discover improper operating issues for the owners and report back so things can be corrected and kept in house. To be the ones that assist owners of any size in discovering weaknesses and building on principles to turn them into strengths.
Cemetery, crematory and funeral companies spend tens of millions every year on legal fees to defend themselves in court, pay for their legal departments, and/or develop policies and procedures that are obviously not being followed consistently globally. We have offered as a professional aid to help with the front end of this and save these companies countless millions by identifying issues for correction long before they become of interest to the media. Self regulation if you will.
We have seen the fiscal destruction of businesses and family/community trust when nobody is apparently watching. Companies buy out cemeteries from each other, keep the existing employees with little of no further reference or background checks. A few visits take place in the beginning (sometimes) then these locations go on the clock. If there are employees kept who are not upright (re: Burr Oak), the new owner gets the surprise of their lives when the lawsuits and media accounts hit. A little due diligence, another offering of CemOps, and followup will route out most of these type concerns long before reason for news or court coverage. There is your value, if you are willing to take advantage of it.
Finally, how can anyone believe in the case of Burr Oak, a sheriff has the necessary tools and skill sets to audit a cemetery? No offense intended, but a complete forensic inspection is in order now that these numbers have been reported, as it is highly unlikely this sheriff knows how to differenciate the different type burials, which could affect numbers and space or acreage/availability or recognition of poor records keeping/fraud on the part of the four indicted in this story. It takes industry knowledge to get to the bottom of this, and industry savvy of having learned discovery in difficult circumstances and record keeping practices of both healthy and unhealthy operations.
CemOps is still here. Still watching. Still waiting for the industry to understand the value that is CemOps. Our fees represent a small fraction of the costs associated with these claims. Our fees discover these issues before anyone else so they can be corrected and the families are no longer negatively impacted. Beyond the legal fees and destruction of reputation, the entire industry suffers at the hands of such items.
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