REGULAR BOARD MEETING
MINUTES
May 14, 2008
The North
Carolina Board of Funeral Service met for a duly scheduled Board Meeting at
9:00 a.m. on May 14,2008 at the Board’s office,
Present: Mark
Blake, President; J. T. Willoughby III, Secretary; George Parrott, T. E. White,
Sr., Frank McCree, Rudy Lea, and Jack Briggs.
Larry Andrews was absent.
Also
Present: Paul Harris, Executive
Director; Stephen N. Dirksen, General Counsel; Fred Jordan and Rob Cornish with
the NC Eye Bank, Betty Stoddard and Herb Reichlin with the Funeral Consumers
Alliance, Patricia Hayes with the North Carolina Funeral Directors Association,
Dorman Caudle with Carolina Donor Services, Chip Windham, and Lyn Cochrane.
Mr. Blake called
the meeting to order at 9:07 a.m., led the Pledge of Allegiance and had the
invocation.
Mr. Blake read
the Ethics Awareness & Conflict of Interest Reminder and no one recused
themselves.
Mr. Blake read
the Resolution of Sorrow and Appreciation of Service for Board member Windell
Daniels who passed away April 22, 2008.
After a moment of silence for Mr. Daniels, Board members George Parrott,
Jack Briggs, Mark Blake and Executive Director Paul Harris made comments
regarding Mr. Daniels service to the Board and to the State of
Mr. Blake asked
for public comment and there was none.
Visitors introduced themselves.
Ms. Hayes thanked the Board for their attendance at their 2008
Conference May 5 and 6.
Mr. Willoughby
presented the minutes for the April 16, 2008 meeting. Mr. Lea made the motion to accept the minutes
with the correction of Mr. Briggs statement regarding the Advisory Memorandum
as a recommendation not a requirement on Page 4 and the change the word “us” to
“is” in the first paragraph, last sentence on Page 4. Mr. White seconded. The motion carried.
Continuing
Education: Mr. Willoughby deferred the meeting to Mr.
Harris. Mr. Harris stated he had
received a request from a licensee to waive the CE requirements permanently beginning
next year due to his health issues.
Discussion ensued. Mr. Briggs
made the motion to waive the CE requirements for the year 2009 and to direct
the licensee to reapply for this waiver on a year-by-year basis. Mr. Parrott seconded and the motion carried.
Mr. Willoughby
stated the NCFDA requested the Board review their current policy regarding
attendance and credit for FD licensees to participate in embalming
programs. He deferred to Mr. Harris for
comments. Discussion ensued. Action deferred to CE Committee for study and
a recommendation will be made to the full Board after review. Mr. Briggs made the motion for staff to have
authority in the decision of pending clinics until the CE Committee makes their
report. Mr. McCree seconded and the motion
carried.
NCFDA has also
requested the Board review standards of online CE programs due to the increase
of gas prices and the expense licensees will experience for travel. Discussion ensued. CE Committee will review this and report to
the Board.
Exam Committee:
Mr. White deferred to Mr. Harris.
The International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards has
provided their expenses for the computer based Laws and Rules testing. Discussion ensued. Mr. Blake would like for staff to research alternative
testing companies.
Mr. White
reported the exam results for the April 22nd exam—ten people took
the laws and rules. Nine passed and one
retake failed.
The exam has
been given 38 times since November 2007 with 33 passing and 5 failing. Staff has been tracking the performance of
questions on the exam since that date.
Several questions are being missed a high number of times and the
committee will conduct a review of these questions and ones that have never
been missed.
The Conference
will begin to provide pass/fail stats for the state funeral director arts and
embalming sciences exam on request.
Discussion
ensued regarding the current procedure for taking the Laws and Rules exam. This report was for information only.
Finance/Personnel:
Mr. Harris presented the Report.
Discussion ensued.
The Wachovia
investment account has several investments that are maturing. He has spoken with the representative with
regards to the best way to renew the investments. Mr. Parrott made the motion to delegate
authority to Mr. Harris on behalf of the Finance Committee. Mr. White seconded and the motion carried.
Mr. White made
the motion to approve the Finance report and Mr. Lea seconded. The motion carried.
Mr. Harris
stated the Board policy for flowers for deaths, births, and weddings was
$75. Flowers had been sent to Mr.
Daniels’ father and the bill was $86.21.
Since this was over the policy amount, Mr. Parrott made the motion to
approve the additional funds. Mr. Briggs
seconded and the motion carried.
Discussion ensued. Mr. White made
the motion to increase the amount to $100 for flowers for wedding, deaths and
births for staff and Board member immediate family. Mr. Parrott seconded and the motion carried.
Mr. Harris has
received one proposal from a bank on mortgage refinancing. Staff has a meeting with another bank to
discuss this refinancing next week and will also be trying to schedule with
another bank.
Mr. Harris
stated staff receives numerous Spam e-mails daily. He personally had 7,009 e-mails Monday. He has met with representatives from
WorkSmart with regards to a Spam filtering solution and they have given him a
price of $860. Since this was an
unbudgeted item he was seeking approval.
Mr. Parrott made the motion to approve the purchase and Mr. Lee
seconded. The motion carried.
At this time there was a ten-minute recess and the Board reconvened at
10:35 a.m.
Preneed
Committee: In Mr. Andrews’ absence, Mr. Harris presented
the report.
Mr. Harris
stated 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. Briggs made the motion to allow and Mr. White seconded. The motion carried.
Several firms
returned the electronic preneed annual report-testing template with
comments. Most like the convenience and
nearly all requested the same report but in an Excel program format. Staff will discuss with Vincent Miranda how
to provide that format.
Discussion
ensued. This report was for information
only.
Disciplinary: Mr. Parrott
stated there was one addendum.
Discussion ensued. Mr. Briggs
made the motion to remove M07-002 from the report and discuss further. Mr. White seconded and the motion
carried. Discuss ensured on the
report. Mr. Briggs made the motion to
send a Letter of Caution to the licensee by staff on V08-012. Mr. Parrott seconded and the motion carried.
Mr. Lea recused himself from the voting of V06-066. Mr. Briggs made the motion to accept the
Disciplinary report with the exception of V06-066 and M07-002. Mr. White seconded and the motion carried. Mr. Briggs made the motion to accept the
recommendation of V06-066 and the motion carried. Mr. Lea did not participate in the vote. Mr. White made the motion not to approve the
consent order until the entire case is resolved on M07-002. Mr. Willoughby seconded. Mr. White, Mr. Blake, Mr. McCree, Mr. Lea and
Mr. Briggs voted yes. Mr. Parrott voted
no. The motion carried.
The Board recessed at 11:05 a.m. for the deliberation in a hearing. Mr. Lea and Mr. Parrott left the room and did
not participate.
The meeting reconvened at 11:33 a.m.
Laws, Rules and Legislation: Mr. Briggs deferred to Mr. Harris. Mr. Harris made comments on the final draft
of the licensed guidelines documents and the continuing review of rules drafts.
Traineeship: Mr. Blake
stated comments on the trainee supervisor document have been received and will
be considered in preparing the final draft.
Mr. Harris stated one more comment had been received and he will
distribute this to the Board members.
Clinics: Mr. Lea the August 5th
clinic at
Attorney Report: Mr. Dirksen
presented the report. The two hearings
scheduled for Thursday were requesting continuance. Mr. Briggs made the motion to grant the
continuance and Mr. Lea seconded. Them
motion carried.
Mr. Harris stated that of the thirty-four cases directed to be sent to a
hearing several were against the same licensee.
Executive Director’s Report: Mr. Harris
submitted the Inspectors Monthly Status Reports for review.
Since the April 16 Board Meeting, seventeen reports have been filed. Establishment Changes: Closed—Sensible Alternatives,
New funeral service licensees: Michael
Bryant, Tyran Carter, Gloria Nicholas-Brown, Paul Richardson, Sheldon Helfrich,
and Timothy Zollars.
New trainees: Thonda Barnett,
Annie Boone-Carroll, Ivan Davis, Jonathan Holland, Tammy Jonson, Achillera
Tyson, Marvin Wiley and Patrick Best.
Ethics Report: Mr. Harris, Ms. Cochrane, Marty Mills and Elizabeth
Stegall attended the NCFDA Conference.
Mr. Harris is registered to attend the FD & MA of NC, Inc.
conference in
Mr. Harris met by teleconference with the NC Medical Board and Vital
Records with regards to the difficulty in getting signatures on death
certificates. Mr. Blake was also in
attendance. Mr. Harris will draft a
joint letter to the NC Hospital Association and the NC Medical Board
Association.
Mr. Harris briefly spoke to the new Chief of Recipient Services, Division
of Medical Assistance, Ms. McClanahan, regarding insurance ownership. She expressed concern with local social
workers requiring funeral home ownership and asked that we trace the
jurisdictions this was happening in so they could train properly.
Mr. Harris has permission from Wilmington News Star to use Mr. Daniels
photo in the next Board newsletter, which should be finished soon.
The number of telephone calls received after 4:30 since the last Board
meeting was six and two of those were from Board members. Mr. Harris would like direction on ordering
the sign with the Board hours. Mr.
Parrott made the motion to give Mr. Harris authority to order this sign. Mr. Lea seconded. Mr. Parrott, Mr. White, Mr. McCree, Mr. Lea,
Mr. Willoughby and Mr. Briggs voted yes.
Mr. Blake voted no and the motion carried.
The rear parking lot and deck should be ready within two weeks resolving
the parking problem.
The Board 2007 audit will be May 19-21, 2008. The June meeting date needs to be changed so
it will not coincide with the FD & MA of NC, Inc. Annual Convention. Mr. Briggs made the motion to change the
Board meeting dates to June 18 and 19.
Mr. White seconded and the motion carried. The Board Retreat could be held at the Board
offices or the Brownstone Hotel at a date to be decided. Mr. Blake suggested not going to
New Business: The
dissolution of Nixon Mutual Burial Association and Joyner’s Mutual Burial
Association, Farmville, were discussed.
Nixon MBA has had no funeral home for several years and because of the
law change, can now be dissolved. Since
there are no records, ads will be run in the local newspaper and any funds not
claimed will be escheated to the State Treasurer’s office. Joyner’s MBA does have records. Mr. Willoughby made the motion to authorize
staff to handle the dissolution. Mr.
Parrott seconded and the motion carried.
Discussion ensued regarding a gas stipend for the inspectors. Mr. Parrott made the motion to approve this
stipend. Mr. Harris will talk to the
auditors next week. Mr. Parrott withdrew
his motion.
Old Business: There was
none.
Public Comment:
Mr. Caudle made comments.
Informational Items: There were
none.
Mr. Blake
recessed the meeting at 12:20 a.m. to reconvene at 1:00 for the Hearings.
While in open
session the Board meeting was reconvened and Mr. Harris reported the changes
made to the April had been corrected.
There were two additional corrections that should be made. The date in the first paragraph second
sentence should be changed from March 19 to April 16 and Mr. Andrews name was
listed twice under Board attendance. Mr.
White made the motion to correct these items and Mr. Briggs seconded. The motion carried.
The meeting was
adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
Mark
Blake, President
J.T.
Willoughby III, Secretary