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Planning and Building Department, Cemeteries Division, recommending the Board receive and file an update to the work plan for administration of El Dorado County-managed cemeteries.
FUNDING: Fees for services, plot sales, parcel taxes for the Georgetown Cemetery Zone of Benefit, General Fund.
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DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The Cemeteries Division manages seventeen (17) public cemeteries, providing burial and other services to residents and non-residents of El Dorado County. Eight (8) of the 17 cemeteries are active, and staff handle an average of forty-five to fifty (45-50) burials per year. The Facilities Division performs landscape maintenance at ten (10) of these cemeteries and the Cemeteries Division manages contracts and contractors to provide landscape maintenance at five (5) cemeteries while volunteers provide occasional landscape maintenance at two (2) cemeteries. The Division also sells plots, crypts, and niches, arranges burials, and performs research to provide information to queries from the public about previous burials or other questions about El Dorado County cemeteries. The Division also assists with the work of two advisory committees: the Georgetown Zone of Benefit Advisory Committee and the countywide Cemetery Advisory Committee.
In 2018, the Chief Administrative Office, Cemeteries Division, presented an update to the Board on cemeteries within El Dorado County (Legistar Number 18-0987). During the presentation it was noted that compared to other counties in California, El Dorado County is unique in the number of cemeteries it oversees and that most jurisdictions utilize special districts to oversee their cemeteries. Given the County’s limited General Fund, this unique situation makes County management of its cemeteries especially challenging.
On September 10, 2019 (Legistar Number 19-1323), the Board directed staff to formulate a plan for a cemeteries Zone of Benefit (ZOB) on the West Slope. On November 5, 2019 (Legistar Number 19-1585)...
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