BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
BILL NO: AB 966 HEARING: 6/22/11
AUTHOR: Yamada FISCAL: No
VERSION: 6/13/11 TAX LEVY: No
CONSULTANT: Weinberger
DAVIS CEMETERY DISTRICT
Allows the Davis Cemetery District to inter nonresidents
under specified conditions.
Background and Existing Law
California's 253 public cemetery districts are separate
local governments that operate cemeteries and provide
interment services, mostly in rural areas and suburbs that
were formerly rural communities. County boards of
supervisors appoint the cemetery districts' boards of
trustees, composed of three to five registered voters from
within the districts' boundaries. The districts finance
their operations with small shares of local property tax
revenues, by selling interment rights, and by charging for
services.
State law limits who may be buried in a district cemetery.
Generally, cemetery districts can bury only residents,
former residents, property taxpayers, former taxpayers,
certain eligible nonresidents, and their family members.
Responding to an Attorney General's opinion, the
Legislature allowed the Oroville Cemetery District (Butte
County) to inter up to 100 nonresidents in a former Jewish
cemetery which the District had acquired (SB 1906, Johnson,
1982). When it revised the Public Cemetery District Law,
the Legislature retained Oroville's special provision (SB
341, Senate Local Government Committee, 2003). Last year,
the Legislature allowed the Elsinore Valley Cemetery
District (River-side County) to inter up to 536
nonresidents in a former Jewish cemetery, under specified
conditions (AB 1969, Jeffries, 2010).
Formed in 1922, the Davis Cemetery District (Yolo County)
serves residents and property taxpayers within a 43 square
AB 966 -- 6/13/11-- Page 2
mile service area, most of which is in the City of Davis.
The District's 2005 Master Plan projects that the
cemetery's 25 acres will serve the community's burial needs
for the next 100 years.
Congregation Bet Haverim is the only synagogue in Yolo
County. Members of the synagogue, including several
families from outside of the Davis Cemetery District, want
to purchase a group of plots to supplement an existing
Congregation Bet Haverim group of plots in the Davis
Cemetery. To accommodate this purchase, Davis Cemetery
District officials want the Legislature to grant the
District an exemption from the statute restricting
nonresident burials.
Proposed Law
Assembly Bill 966 authorizes the Davis Cemetery District to
inter up to a total of 500 interments of people who are
neither residents nor property taxpayers in the District,
if:
The board of trustees determines that the cemetery
has adequate space for the foreseeable future;
The District has an endowment care fund that meets
at least a minimum payment as prescribed by law; and
The District requires the payment of a non-resident
fee, as set by law.
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comment
Purpose of the bill . Although statewide laws attempt to
embrace a wide variety local conditions and circumstances,
legislators can't anticipate every local need. Responding
to a special request nearly 30 years ago, the Legislature
allowed the Oroville Cemetery District to bury
nonresidents, if three conditions existed. Last year,
subject to the same conditions, the Legislature approved a
similar exception for the Elsinore Valley Cemetery
District. To facilitate a group purchase of cemetery plots
by members of the Congregation Bet Haverim Synagogue,
AB 966 -- 6/13/11-- Page 3
including some who are neither residents nor property
taxpayers in the Davis Cemetery District, AB 966 provides
the Davis Cemetery District with a similar exception.
Assembly Actions
Assembly Local Government Committee: 9-0
Assembly Floor: 78-0
Support and Opposition (6/16/11)
Support : Davis Cemetery District; Congregation Bet
Haverim; letters from 20 individuals.
Opposition : Unknown.