REGULAR BOARD MEETING
MINUTES
June 9, 2010
The North
Carolina Board of Funeral Service met for a duly scheduled Board Meeting at
9:00 a.m. on June 9, 2010 at the Board’s office,
Present: J. T.
Willoughby III, President;
Also
Present: Paul Harris, Executive
Director; Stephen N. Dirksen, General Counsel; Fred Jordan with the N. C. Eye
Bank, Pat Hayes with North Carolina Funeral Directors Association, Herb
Reichlin with the Funeral Consumers Alliance, Dorman Caudle with Carolina Donor
Services, Jesse Ray with Ray & Allen Funeral Service, and
Mr. Willoughby
called the meeting to order, led the Pledge of Allegiance and had the
invocation.
Mr. Willoughby
read the Ethics Awareness & Conflict of Interest statement. Mr. Briggs stated he would not participate in
the discussion regarding the Board’s health plan since he knew the
representatives involved and also would not participate in one of the
Disciplinary cases.
Mr. Willoughby
asked the guests to identify themselves.
Ms. Wiseman
thanked Ms. Webber for filling in for her in May and presented the minutes for
approval. Mr. Parrott seconded and the
motion carried.
Exam Committee:
One additional applicant has taken and passed the laws and rules exam
since the May Board meeting.
Finance/Personnel:
Mr. Briggs stated the health plan representative mistakenly quoted
earlier in the year the increase would be 6% when actually it was 16.2%. The Committee held two meetings to discuss
this and recommend adoption of plan renewal designated as option 1. Mr. Briggs yielded to Mr. Harris for further
explanation. Mr. Harris explained that
the staff would be responsible for absorbing 5 to 6% of the renewal
increase. Mr. Briggs made the motion to
accept the recommendation of the Finance/Personnel Committee. Mr. Lea seconded and the motion carried. Mr. Briggs reviewed the financials. Discussion ensued. Mr. Briggs made the motion to accept the
financials as presented. Mr. Blake
seconded and the motion carried.
Laws, Rules and
Legislation Committee: Mr. Briggs presented the Form to Request
Declaratory Ruling and the Committee recommends approval. Mr. Harris informed the Board there was a
backside to the sheet and it was not included in the Board Book. This was
tabled until the recess to allow time to get the backside of the form.
The period for
written comment ended June 1 for proposed changes to 21 NCAC 34A, 34B, and
34D. The one letter that was received
with suggestions would have to be done by statute changes, not rulemaking. This will be submitted to Rules Review this
month and should have an August 1st approval date.
Discussion for
the motion for chapel ownership will be under New Business.
Preneed
Committee: Mr. Andrews submitted the report for
information only. Discussion ensued.
Disciplinary
Committee: Mr. Lea stated there was an addendum to the
report. Mr. Briggs recused himself from
the addendum V09-031 and asked that it be separated from the report. Mr. Blake made the motion to approve this
request. Ms. Webber seconded and the
motion carried. It was noted V09-060 was
rescinded at the May meeting and the complainant had been invited to attend the
June meeting. Mr. Dirksen asked that
this case be tabled until the end of the meeting in case the complainant was
able to attend. Mr. Parrott made the
motion and Mr. Briggs seconded. The
motion carried. Discussion ensued and
Mr. Parrott made the motion to approve V10-022, V09-065, V10-008, V10-014,
V0-018 and V05-23. Mr. Blake seconded
and the motion carried.
Mr. Briggs
moved from the table. Ms. Wiseman made
the motion to approve V09-031. Mr. Blake
seconded and the motion carried. Mr.
Briggs returned to the table and it was noted he did not participate in the
vote.
Traineeship:
The committee met prior to the Board meeting with a trainee who was
suspended for two late reports within the registered traineeship year. Recommendation was to lift the suspension
effective July 1 and trainee will not receive credit for May or June. Also discussed was the improvement of
communication of the Board’s concerns to trainee supervisors. Recommendation was that in addition to the
copies of letters sent to trainees who are suspended, the supervisors will also
receive a letter reinforcing the responsibilities of the supervisor. Mr. Blake made the motion to accept the
committees’ recommendations. Mr. Lea
seconded and the motion carried.
Clinics:
Ms. Wiseman stated the committee met by teleconference Tuesday morning
to discuss the October clinic. The
recommendation was to request the Mexican Consulate staff present at least one
hour on the processes of shipping remains to
Attorney Report: Mr. Dirksen
presented the report. There were two
Howell claims from the Recovery Fund.
One claim has been approved but the claimant was unable to locate all
the checks. Recommendation was to
reimburse for only the checks that could be provided and if any others were
found, to process them separately. The
other claim was a new one. Mr. Andrews
asked if there was any statute of limitation regarding recovery fund
claims. Mr. Dirksen replied there was
none and further discussion ensued. Mr.
Andrews made the motion for Laws and Rules to research and discuss establishing
a time limit for any claims to be filed.
Mr. Lea seconded and the motion carried.
Mr. Blake made the motion to accept the two recovery fund claims. Ms. Webber seconded. Mr. Blake asked the amounts of the claims and
Mr. Dirksen stated they were approximately $8000. Mr. Willoughby called for the vote and the
motion carried.
Mr. Willoughby called for a five-minute recess.
Executive Director’s Report: Since the
May 19 Board Meeting nineteen inspection/audit reports have been filed.
New Establishments: Hardee
Mortuary Service,
New Unaffiliated: Joanne Marotta
Funeral Service Licensee, Clayton
Crematory Operators: Gordon
Funeral & Cremation Service, Monroe
New FD Licensee: April Miller
New Trainees: Shawn Worthington,
Mark Johnson.
Staff Ethics report: Day to day
contact with licensees who are members of both associations.
Mr. Harris stated he has spoken with architect for the building and has
an appointment with him next week to discuss the interior office construction.
Mr. Harris has followed up with the Ethics Commission concerning the
request for an advisory opinion on the Crematory Authority Chairman also
serving as President of the NC Crematory Association. He was informed they never received the
letter and another one was provided. The
Crematory Authority nominations will be mailed next week.
The preneed annual reports are in better order and more accurate this
year.
Mr. Harris will meet with representatives from the
The FD&MA of NC, Inc. Convention is in
The Crematory Authority meets July 20th. There will be a brief report during the July
Hearing Dates. The newsletter will be
mailed mid-September with more information regarding the continuing education
seminar. There is adequate seating but
parking is limited.
A staff member with State Ethics Commission contacted Mr. Harris to
discuss the Commission’s research into how disciplinary matters and hearings
conducted by Boards and Mr. Harris invited the staff member to attend the
hearings scheduled for today.
This report is for information only.
At this time Mr. Harris provided the backside of the Request for
Declaratory Ruling sheet for review. Mr.
Briggs made the motion to approve the form with an approval date included at
the bottom of the form. Ms. Webber
seconded and the motion carried.
New Business: Mr. Briggs
stated in the matter of the Petition for Approval of Chapel Operations for Ray
and Allen Funeral Service, Committee was recommending denial of the
petition. Mr. Briggs made the motion to
accept the recommendation and Mr. Andrews seconded. The motion carried.
Old Business: Mr. Harris
reported on the status of the preneed recovery claim that was tabled at the
April meeting. As directed by the Board
an inspector reviewed the preneed records from the same time period. The findings were that all funded preneeds
had exactly the same manner of receipt and acknowledgement by the individual
preneed sales licensee. In cases where
there were prearrangements only without any funding a different type of
worksheet was used. These findings
support the staff and disciplinary committee belief that funds were paid by the
purchaser. The firm changed ownership
since the original transaction and the current owner of the funeral home has been
written and asked to refund the money but there has been no response to the
letter.
Mr. Blake stated he had a matter to discuss under New Business. An individual had called him regarding starting
a funeral-consulting firm. The individual wanted information from the funeral
home where Mr. Blake is employed.
Mr. Harris stated he had also been contacted and explained to the
individual the difference between
consulting and activities that would require an unaffiliated
license. Discussion ensued.
Informational Items: There were
none.
Public Comment: Mr. Ray
made comments regarding his petition of the chapel ownership.
Mr. Harris stated he and Mr. Dirksen had spoken and the Board should
adopt the proposed rules before sending to Rules Review. Mr. Briggs made the motion to adopt the rules
included in Section 2 of the Notice of Text and repeal the rules also included
under Section 2. Ms. Wiseman seconded
and the motion carried.
Mr. Willoughby stated since there had been no response from the complainant
the tabled Disciplinary Committee item would be voted upon. Mr. Lea made the motion to accept V09-060 as
part of the Disciplinary Committee Report.
Mr. Blake seconded and the motion carried. Questions ensued regarding the 11:00 and 1:00
hearings. Mr. Dirksen stated Board
approval of consent orders took care of the matters scheduled for 11:00 and
1:00.
With no further business to come before the Board, Mr.
Parrott made the motion to adjourn the meeting.
Ms. Wiseman seconded and the motion carried.
J.
T. Willoughby III, President
Tryphina
Wiseman, Secretary