REGULAR BOARD
MEETING
MINUTES
November 12, 2008
The North Carolina Board of Funeral Service met for a duly
scheduled Board Meeting at 9:00 a.m. on November 12, 2008 at the Board’s
office,
Present: Mark Blake, President; Larry Andrews, Vice
President; J. T. Willoughby III, Secretary; Rudy Lea, Frank McCree, Jack Briggs
and George Parrott.
Also Present: Paul
Harris, Executive Director; Stephen N. Dirksen, General Counsel; Fred Jordan
with the N. C. Eye Bank, Dorman Caudle with Carolina Donor Services, Funeral
Service licensee Dan Funchess, Betty Stoddard, Debe Czerwiec and Herb Reichlin
with the Funeral Consumers Alliance, Pat Hayes with North Carolina Funeral
Directors Association, Gerard Mikell with the International Conference of
Funeral Service Examining Boards, and Lyn Cochrane.
Mr. Blake called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m. and led
the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Willoughby
had the invocation.
Mr. Blake read the Ethics Awareness & Conflict of
Interest Reminder and no member recused themselves at this time.
Mr. Blake read the Resolution of Sorrow and Appreciation of
Service for Board member T. E. White, Sr. who passed away October 31,
2008. (At this time Mr. Andrews entered
the meeting.) Board members Mark Blake.
T. Willoughby III, Jack Briggs, and
Larry Andrews made comments regarding Mr. Whites’ service to the Board and to
the State of
Mr. Blake asked for public comment and there was none. The visitors in attendance identified
themselves. Mr. Blake thanked the
visitors for their attendance.
Mr. Blake recognized Mr. Willoughby for the presentation of
the October minutes. Mr. Andrews made
the motion to accept the minutes and Mr. Parrott seconded. The motion carried.
Mr. Blake recognized Gerard “Skip” Mikell, District 3
Governor of ICFSEB who made a brief report of the Conference. Mr. Mikell then departed the meeting.
Finance/Personnel:
Mr. Briggs presented the report and made the motion to accept the
report. Mr. Lea seconded and the motion
carried.
Laws, Rules & Legislation: Mr. Briggs stated the Committee had reviewed
the letter from Holly Stevens of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of the Piedmont
requesting clarification of the Board’s August.
The staff will draft a response and there is no further action by the
Board.
Preneed Committee:
Mr. Andrews presented the preneed report and the deferred to Mr. Harris
for comment. Mr. Harris has received
Preneed Inspection reports from two examiners but due to the death of Mr.
White, he has been unable to enter the information necessary to generate the
report. This will be included in the
next meeting.
Mr. Andrews stated the Committee had met via teleconference
to discuss the addition of notarized statement on the report. He deferred further comment to Mr.
Harris. Discussion ensued. The vote was tabled until additional
information is provided later in the meeting.
Disciplinary Committee: Mr. Parrott presented the report and stated
he will make a motion to go into closed session later in the meeting. Question ensued regarding the cases. Mr. Lea made the motion to accept the
report. Mr. Willoughby seconded. Mr. Willoughby, Mr. McCree, Mr. Briggs, Mr.
Andrews, Mr. Lea and Mr. Parrott voted yes and Mr. Blake voted no. The motion carried.
At this time Mr. Blake stated he had assigned the following
Board members to fill Mr. White’s position on these committees: Mr. Parrott, Finance and Personnel; Mr.
Willoughby, Laws, Rules & Legislation; Mr. Blake will chair the Exam
Committee.
Attorney Report: Mr. Dirksen presented his
report. Two of the hearings for Thursday
have asked for their first continuance and all information has been properly
submitted. Mr. Briggs made the motion to
allow the continuances. Mr. McCree
seconded and the motion carried. The third
hearing scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on Thursday did not make the time frame for a
continuance but will retain counsel and the defendant will come before the
Board later in the meeting to personally request the continuance. The 1:00 a.m. hearing for today is in
settlement negotiations and staff is awaiting a consent order; however, it has
not yet been received. There is now one
11:00 a.m. hearing for Thursday.
Discussion ensued.
At this time Mr. Blake called for
a 15-minute recess in order for Mr. Dirksen to contact Mr. Nichols concerning
the 1:00 p.m. hearing and the respondent for the hearing scheduled for 11:00 a.m.
on Thursday. When the meeting was
reconvened, Ms. Czerwiec and Mr. Samuel Strickland entered the meeting.
Executive Director’s Report: Mr. Harris submitted the
Inspectors Monthly Status Reports for October.
Since the October 23, 2008 Board
Meeting four reports have been filed.
(Twelve reports are waiting to be entered.) Establishment Changes: New Crematory—Harrington Funeral Home &
Crematory in Hamlet; Change of Ownership—Inman Funeral Home,
New funeral service
licensees: Ruth Bennett, Mack
Stephenson, James Rees, Joseph Wilson.
New funeral director
licensees: Coburn Hartsell.
New trainees: Merle Terry, Sharon Worrell.
Staff Ethics Report: Mr. Harris stated he had
interaction with the Funeral Directors and Morticians Association of NC, Inc.,
NCFDA and FCAT.
Two sessions of Security/Safety
Training for the inspections have not been completed. There may be two more sessions next year.
November 20 is the deadline for
filing rulemaking with the Rules Review Board.
The Division of Air Quality has
requested information on the top five crematories in NC. Due the extensive nature of this request and
the cost of having the Board’s database set up with a new query, staff may
generate a report for them to do the research themselves.
Because of the change in transport
licensing, seventeen additional applications will be mailed with the renewals
this year.
There will be an FTC and Preneed
Review on December 18 for only licensees that have been required to attend this
class. Since Mr. Harris has a full CE
schedule until yearend, and inspector will help him with classes.
The fall newsletter will go out
this week. The bulk mail center was
unable to process the newsletters until then because of the recent election and
the amount of mail being sent out. Since
this newsletter has the information regarding the continuing education class
being held next week, Mr. Harris will ask the Associations to broadcast the
information to their membership. In
addition, Mr. Harris will send it the Board’s e-newsletter group.
Mr. Harris hopes to have the
additional laws and regulations online soon.
The Board will need to set the recovery fund interest rate for claims at
their January meeting.
Mr. Harris reminded the Members of
the Board Christmas Party on December 9th. Mrs. Daniels and her son will attend and he
will extend an invitation to Mrs. White.
Mr. Willoughby suggested a copy of the group Board Member picture be
presented to Mrs. Daniels and Mrs. White at this dinner.
Mr. Blake asked about the website
directory and showing owners names.
Mr. Harris gave the Board members
a copy of the Preneed Annual Report signature page for review and explained how
the notary section would be included with this information. It was also noted that only an owner or
corporate office could sign the form.
Mr. Briggs made the motion to accept this document. Mr. Willoughby seconded and the motion
carried.
Mr. Andrews stated he had
omitted from the Preneed Report a request for an order of revocation to
transfer an irrevocable preneed contract out of state pursuant to NCGS
90-210.65(3) had been received and it met the requirements of the law. Staff was recommending approval of the
request. Mr. Willoughby made the motion
to accept. Mr. Parrott seconded and the
motion carried.
New Business: There was none.
Old Business: Mr. Craig Franklin Smith then
entered the meeting. Mr. Smith was
requesting a continuance for the 9:00 Thursday hearing. Questions ensued. Mr. Briggs made the motion to grant the
continuance. Mr. Andrews seconded and
the motion carried. Mr. Smith departed
the meeting.
Mr. Blake then called Mr.
Strickland before the Board. Mr.
Strickland requested his funeral service license be reinstated. He has met the requirements to have his
embalmers license reinstated. Mr.
Strickland stated he would allow Mr. Parrott to participate in the discussion
even though he was on the Disciplinary Committee at the time of the original
hearing. Questions ensued. Mr. Briggs made the motion to go into closed
session to deliberate Mr. Strickland’s request.
Mr. Parrott seconded and the motion carried.
Upon a motion by Mr. Briggs and a
second by Mr. McCree, the Board entered into open session. Mr. Briggs made the motion to deny the
request for the reinstatement of the funeral service license but to grant the
embalmers license with a two-year probation.
Mr. McCree seconded and the motion carried. At this time Mr. Strickland thanked the Board
and departed the meeting.
Mr. Blake announced it was 11:00
and it was time to begin the canvassing of the Crematory Authority
ballots.
44 official return
envelopes were received by the deadline of 4:30 p.m. November 3, 2008. One
ballot was deemed invalid because it was damaged as the envelope was opened.
The Board was unable to determine if a vote was cast for one nominee because of
the damage but was able to determine there were no votes for the other
nominees. A vote for the person whose name was obscured would not affect the
results. The remaining ballots were then counted with the following results:
Jason L. Benton received 5 votes
Cecil M. Burton received 14 votes
Joseph Andrew Thompson received 9 votes
James D. Weatherspoon received 8 votes
Philip Douglas Young received 7 votes
Mr. Burton received the most votes and was deemed elected; however he did not
receive a majority of the votes cast. Under the provisions of the election
rules as the person with the second highest number of votes, Mr. Thompson may
file a written petition within ten days requesting a second election. If
requested, a second election would only be between Mr. Burton and Mr.
Thompson. Mr. Harris will inform all
nominees of the results.
Informational Items: As directed at the October
meeting, Mr. Harris submitted a copy of the letter from Wake County Human
Services regarding the Certificates of Death Filing Requirements. Mr. Blake requested staff to find out of the
NC Vital Records and State Medical Examiner Dr. Butts will issue the same
letter.
Public Comment: There was none. Ms. Stoddard introduced Ms. Czerwiec with
FCAT.
Discussion ensued regarding Mr.
White’s replacement and a quorum at the December hearings. Mr. Harris stated Judge Morgan accepted with
pleasure the invitation to administer the oaths of office for new members at
the January meeting.
At this time Mr. Parrott made the
motion to go into closed session to consult with general counsel concerning
possible litigation and settlement of claims related to Case V08-048 in order
to preserve the attorney-client privilege.
Mr. Briggs seconded and the motion carried.
Upon proper motion by Mr. Briggs
and second by Mr. Andrews, the Board returned to open session. No formal action was taken. Mr. Willoughby made the motion to approve the
payments from the Recovery Fund and Mr. Andrews seconded. The motion carried.
The meeting adjourned at 11:55
a.m. until the 1:00 p.m. hearing.
The meeting reconvened at 1:00
p.m. Jack Nichols, legal counsel, joined
the meeting to discuss possible settlement of the matters related to the
hearing.
Mr., Blake reconvened the
meeting at 1:00 p.m. at that time Board legal counsels Jack
Nichols and Charles McDarris, and the Court Reporter joined the meeting.
Mr. Briggs made a motion to
continue the matter scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Thursday. Mr. Andrews seconded the motion and the
motion carried.
Mr. Blake recognized Mr.
Nichols who requested that the hearing scheduled for 1:00 p.m. be
continued because he had reached a settlement in principal with the respondents
and expects to have agreement on a consent order shortly. This hearing was for
cases M06-019, V07-013, V07-028, V07-068, M07-001 and M08-001. In the event a
consent order is not executed, Mr. Nichols stated he intends to have
the hearing noticed for the next Board meeting. Mr. Willoughby moved to
continue the hearing and Mr. Parrott offered a second. The motion carried.
Mr. Blake asked about the status
of case M07-010. Mr. Nichols stated that he intended to have that noticed with
the Office of Administrative Hearings shortly. Mr. Blake consulted with
Mr. McDarris regarding a question he had related to the matter. Following the
consultation Mr. Blake indicated he would not ask the question of Mr. Nichols.
With no further business before
the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 1:20 p.m.
Mark
Blake, President
J.T.
Willoughby III, Secretary