REGULAR BOARD
MEETING
MINUTES
May 20, 2009
The North Carolina Board of Funeral Service met for a duly
scheduled Board Meeting at 9:00 a.m. on May 20, 2009 at the Board’s office,
Present: Larry Andrews, President; J. T. Willoughby III,
Vice President;
Also Present: Paul
Harris, Executive Director; Stephen N. Dirksen, General Counsel; Fred Jordan
with the N. C. Eye Bank, Herb Reichlin with the Funeral Consumers Alliance, Pat
Hayes with North Carolina Funeral Directors Association, Jimmy Miller with the
North Carolina Cemetery Commission, Licensee Horace Gunn, Jack Nichols with
Allen & Pinnix, Charles McDarris with Bailey and Dixon, Carolyn Connor and
Mr. Andrews called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. and led
the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Willoughby
had the invocation.
Mr. Andrews read the Ethics Awareness & Conflict of
Interest statement and Mr. Blake stated he would recuse himself from a
Disciplinary item at the proper time.
Mr. Andrews asked for public comment. There was none and the visitors in attendance
identified themselves.
Mr. Willoughby made the motion to go into closed session to
consult with an attorney retained by the Board in order to preserve the
attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the Board. Mr. Lea seconded and the motion carried.
Upon proper motion by Mr. Briggs and second by Mr. Willoughby,
the Board returned to open session. Mr.
Parrott made the motion to accept the Consent Order for the matter
discussed. Mr. Lea seconded. Discussion ensued. Mr. Nichols stated it was not a consent order
but a memorandum of understanding that would be the basis for the consent
order. Mr. Parrott amended his motion to
include the wording approve the memorandum of understanding. Mr. Briggs seconded and the motion carried. At this time Mr. Nichols departed the
meeting.
Mr. Parrott presented the April minutes. Mr. Willoughby the motion to accept the
minutes and Ms. Wiseman seconded. The
motion carried.
Exam Committee:
Mr. Parrott reported ten applicants took the laws and rules exam in
April. Two were retakes and both
passed. Two were first timers and both
failed. Staff finished the last part of
what Castle needs to get the computer-based exam ready. Staff will review the exam via a website. Following that review members may take the
exam if they want to. This was presented
for information only.
Finance/Personnel:
Staff was presenting a proposal to move administration and reporting of
the 401K plan to Standard Benefit Administration, LLC. This does not involve changing the 401K plan
to another provider but only transferring the Third Party Administration
responsibilities. Mr. Briggs made the
motion to accept the proposal and Mr. Parrott seconded. The motion carried.
Following the April meeting, staff contacted First Citizens
to discuss moving the approved amount from checking into an interest bearing
account. The First Citizens
representative is to prepare an analysis for the best way to handle this.
Mr. Briggs presented the Financials. Mr. Harris reported the audit adjustments for
the deferred income has not been made but would be prior to the June
meeting. Mr. Briggs made the motion to
accept the report. Ms. Webber seconded
and the motion carried.
Laws, Rules & Legislation: Staff received a proof for part of the 2009
Edition of the law book on Monday.
Several sections were not included and LexisNexis was contacted. Staff was told LexisNexis misunderstood the
scope of laws and rules to be included in the quote and it would be a
significant increase to include those.
An estimate of $28,000 was given.
If the CRF text related to the Funeral Rule were omitted, the price
would be approximately $20,000. Mr.
Briggs made the motion for staff to negotiate the price with LexisNexis and
research another provider. Mr. Blake
seconded and the motion carried.
The proposed rule amendments and new rules were published
Friday in the North Carolina Review. The
public hearing is scheduled for June 17th in conjunction with the
Board meeting. Staff will publish the
changes to the interested parties list, to include all crematories since one of
the new rules is related to the use of the combined 56 form.
Preneed Committee:
Mr. Andrews presented the report for information only.
The Preneed Committee met by teleconference to discuss
several items. Mr. Andrews deferred to
Mr. Harris. Mr. Harris stated a Preneed
Audit and Examinations Standard Operating Procedure draft has been
developed. Mr. Miller with the Cemetery
Commission had shared a template of a standard operating procedure that Mr.
Harris used. On May 1 Mr. Harris met
with the inspectors to review and then forwarded the draft to the Preneed
Committee for review. Discussion
ensued. Mr. Lea made the motion to allow
the funeral home ten days to correct deficiencies that an inspector may cite
during an audit and ten days to bring records in compliance in the event the
inspector determines during the pre-audit interview that the firm is not
prepared for an audit. Mr.
Parrott seconded and the motion carried.
Mr. Briggs made the motion for inspectors to give the funeral home a
two-day notice of audit. Ms. Wiseman
seconded and the motion carried.
Staff has received a request by a licensee for the Board to
reimburse them for refunds paid on non-guaranteed portion of inflation-proof
contracts due to improper calculations.
Mr. Blake made the motion to deny the request for reimbursement. Mr. Lea seconded and the motion carried.
Disciplinary Committee: Mr. Lea presented the report for review. Mr. Blake recused himself from V09-009. Mr. Briggs made the motion to remove V09-009
from consideration. Mr. Willoughby
seconded. The motion carried. Questions ensued. Mr. Willoughby made the motion to accept the
recommendation by the Disciplinary Committee but V09-009 and the addendum. Mr. Parrott seconded and the motion
carried. Mr. Briggs made the motion to
accept V09-009. Mr. Willoughby seconded
and the motion carried. Mr. Blake did
not participate in the vote. Mr. Parrott
made the motion to remove V07-043 from the addendum. Mr. Willoughby seconded and the motion
carried. Mr. Parrott made the motion to
accept the recommendation for V08-011 and M09-001. Ms. Webber seconded. Discussion ensued. Mr. Andrews called for the vote. The motion was opposed. Mr. Blake made the motion to accept the
recommendation to approve V09-001. Mr.
Briggs seconded and the motion carried.
Mr. Briggs made the motion to approve the recommendation and allow the
funeral home to retain their preneed license if the insurance agent in question
is terminated. Mr. Blake seconded and
the motion carried. Mr. Briggs made the
motion to accept the recommendation for V07-043 and deny the respondents
request. Ms. Wiseman seconded and the
motion carried.
At this time the Board recessed for 15 minutes and Ms.
Connor and Mr. McDarris entered the meeting.
Traineeship Committee:
Mr. Blake reported that the Committee continues to review the work
reports for trainees. Eighteen
jurisdictions responded to staff request for forms used by the respective jurisdictions.
Clinics: Ms. Wiseman
reported the Committee had met by teleconference. Due to the high cost of the web cast, they
were recommending that the Board not pursue this at this time. Mr. Willoughby made the motion to accept the
recommendation and Mr. Lea seconded. The
motion carried.
Other Committee Reports: There were none.
Attorney Report: Mr. Dirksen presented his
report. One of the two hearings for
11:00 had settled. The 11:00 Thursday
hearing is still scheduled. Mr. Dirksen
has completed his research into whether Mark Howell could bind the corporation to
the repayment agreement. It was
determined that he could and therefore offers the repayment agreement to the
Board for approval. This includes an
initial payment of $40,000 and approval was delayed Mr. Howell has since made
two monthly payments in accordance with the terms he offered in the repayment
agreement. The terms of the agreement
need to be modified to reflect this. Mr.
Parrott made the motion to approve the repayment agreement and Ms. Wiseman
seconded and the motion carried. Mr.
Willoughby made the motion to accept the amendment to the repayment
agreement. Mr. Lea seconded and the
motion carried. Mr. Dirksen stated there
were two more Howell claims for approval of approximately $11,000. Mr. Parrott made the motion to approve the
payments from the Recovery Fund. Mr.
Blake seconded and the motion carried.
Mr. Dirksen presented information regarding another Recovery Fund claim
due to a closed funeral home of $2,202.20.
Mr. Parrott made the motion to approve the payment and Mr. Blake seconded. The motion carried.
Executive Director’s Report: Mr. Harris submitted the
Inspectors Monthly Status Reports for December.
Since the April 8 Board Meeting
eighteen reports have been filed. New
Funeral Homes: Pinecrest Funeral &
Cremation Services, Hope Mills; Cleveland Funeral Services, Cleveland; Walker
Memorial Funeral Home, Lillington; Serenity Funeral Home, Inc., Beulaville;
Atlantic Cremation Service, Wilmington; Ulysses D. Miller Funeral Service, LLC,
Spindale. New Transport/Removal Permits: Kermit W. Thompson, Jr.,
New funeral service licensees:
David Cooper, William Ketterer, Norbert Starr, Tawanda Burgess, Kenneth
Forrester.
New trainees: Sarah Sykes, Calvin Gladden, Amy Thomas,
Avala Nealy, Eric Simmons, Kelly Emory, Brantly Grubb, Richard Robinson.
Inspector Carolyn Connor was
present for questions and comments regarding her area. Mr. Andrews congratulated her for ten years
of service to the Board and presented her with token of appreciation and she
departed the meeting.
Mr. Harris and Mr. Andrews met
with the representatives from Boyce, Furr regarding the Board audit Tuesday
afternoon. Mr. Harris presented the
Financial Statements as completed by Boyce, Furr. Mr. Andrews met with the representatives
privately and commended Mr. Harris and staff for an excellent audit.
Mr. Harris presented the annual
Report to the Joint Legislative Administrative Procedure Oversight Committee
Summarizing the Licensing Activities of the North Carolina Board of Funeral
Service and the Report to the General Assembly Summarizing the Pre-Need
Activities of the North Carolina Board of Funeral Service.
Mr. Harris presented his ethics
report and stated he attended the NCFDA Convention in
Mr. Pollard with the State Auditor
office has been involved with other audits but has been in contact with Mr.
Harris and will have the results of the audit to him as quickly as he can.
Discussion ensued regarding
legislative matters—HB-221 and SB303, HB734, HB644, HB81, HB491 and SB18.
The letter to the Editor of the
News & Observer regarding Philip Guyette will be mailed this week. The letter to the banks regarding pre-need
funds is not yet complete. The NC
Emergency Management Mass Fatality meeting was postponed due the swine flu
outbreak and will be rescheduled. Mr.
Harris is still considering discontinuing the traineeship program with the
Department of Labor. He has been
approached by representatives from the Mexican Consulate in
The FD&MA of NC will meet in
New Business: Mr. Harris introduced Horace
Gunn to respond to questions on the application for an outside embalming
establishment. Discussion ensued. Mr. Briggs made the motion to deny
application until further information is presented to the Board. Mr. Blake seconded. Discussion ensued. Mr. Andrews called for the vote and the
motion carried.
An Order of Liquidation was
presented for Maultsby Mutual Burial Association, Incorporated. Mr. Lea made the motion to allow the
Order. Mr. Parrott seconded and the
motion carried.
A request has been received from
the secretary of an MBA asking if they can be paid a salary for prior years.
They are also having difficulty getting the bond for the MBA. Ms. Wiseman made the motion to deny the
request for the salary and the MBA has 60 days to get the bond or the MBA will
be dissolved. Mr. Willoughby seconded
and the motion carried. Mr. Harris is
directed to write the letter as soon as possible.
Old Business: Mr. Harris has found that the
January 15, 2009 minutes should reflect approval of a Recovery Fund Claim
regarding the Howell matter and was presenting them for approval. Mr. Parrott made the motion to amend the
minutes and Ms. Wiseman seconded. The
motion carried.
A preneed licensee that was issued
a Final Agency Decision and has been suspended from writing preneed contracts
for three years until a satisfactory audit has been found with
deficiencies. Mr. Parrott made the
motion to recommend the Board issue a Notice of Hearing. Mr. Willoughby seconded and the motion
carried.
Informational Items: Included is a 2009 Best of
Brunswick Reader’s Choice Award to Brunswick Funeral Home and an invitation to
the Dedication Ceremony of the renaming of
Public Comment: There was none
Mr. Parrott made the
motion to adjourn the meeting. Mr.
Willoughby seconded and the meeting was adjourned at 12:25 p.m.
Larry
Andrews, President