Several cemeteries in the Bay region closed by the State agency due to poor financial management – The Mercury News

State regulators have ordered four cemeteries in northern California to stop operations in the midst of allegations of financial mismanagement.

Mount Tamalpais cemetery and morgue in San Rafael and three other commemorative sites under the same property have received requests to stop ceasing in the cemetery and funeral, which is part of the California Department of Consumer Affairs. The others are the SkyView commemorative lawn in Vallejo, the Chapel de la Lumière in Fresno and the Evergreen cemetery in Oakland.

Related: the owner of several cemeteries in the Bay region loses the decision of more than $ 52 million in “endowment care” funds

State directives, dated March 24, ordered the sites to stop “leading a cemetery company, including stakeholders and the sale of cemetery goods”. Each cemetery was also sentenced to a fine of $ 5,000 for continuous operations after abandoning its licenses last year.

The action was the last development of a long -standing effort of state regulators to ensure that cemeteries management complies with the law of the state. The office seized $ 52 million in “endowment care funds” reserved for the care and maintenance of the four cemeteries.

The office acted after learning that Buck Kamphausen, whose companies had the four cemeteries, were preparing to transfer funds to Evergreen Minister, an alleged non -profit religious organization exempt from tax. These organizations are exempt from the regulations by the State Office.

Kamphausen and partner Joshua Voss are officers of the ministries with persistent leaves. At the time, the State Office was disciplining Kamphausen on allegations not to submit compulsory annual reports, poor management of endowment care funds and not properly maintaining the reasons for the cemetery.

In a decision in January, a County Judge of Solano confirmed the office of the office to confiscate the funds. Judge Christine Carringer said that the testimony has revealed a persistent scheme for the creation of money between the endowment care funds and the cemetery verification accounts in the cemetery.

“In all,” wrote Carringer, “the image that developed was a complicated program on a large scale of financial mismanagement, whether deliberate or involuntary, directed and controlled by a single person: Buck Kamphausen.”

Kamphausen said on Wednesday that he called confiscation. He said that the office had not given him any endowment care funds since he had taken possession of money.

“All they said was a lie,” he said. “This is a situation that they imagined. I have a letter from the internal in return for service which says that Evergreen Minister is a valid church. “

Kamphausen said that he and your ministers.

“Mr. Vosss has made weddings,” he said.

Regarding the fact that some of the tombstones of the Mount Tamalpais cemetery change or fall, Kamphausen said: “We do not have tombstones. It is not our business to straighten them.”

Jack Thornton, director of the Mount Tamalpais cemetery, said that he continued to introduce himself to Kamphausen even if Kamphausen had returned his license.

The State Office sent its assignment and desire orders after the member of the Damon Connolly assembly sent a letter to its director, Gina Sanchez, on March 11.

“I understand that the same management is always in charge of the management of the cemetery, despite the lack of a valid license and to have demonstrated a history of flagrant misconduct and financial irregularity,” wrote Connolly.

Connolly, whose district includes sailor and part of the County of Sonoma, urged the office “to act quickly to remedy these questions”.

In his response by email, Sanchez has made no mention of the order of sale and upcoming dedications, but said that the agency would assign a corporate trustee under an audit. She said she didn’t know how long it would take.

“Regarding the interview,” wrote Sanchez, “the cemeteries in question are not authorized and therefore no longer fall under the jurisdiction of the office, because the authority of the office is limited to the conservation and protection of funds once there is no more licensee.”

The Kol Shofar congregation in Tiburon played an active role by trying to improve conditions in the Mont Tamalpais cemetery. Kol Shofar bought 1,200 plots there in 1989 and returned them over time to the faithful.

Kevin Frankel, a lawyer representing Kol Shofar, said there was a reason why the cemetery and funeral office was reluctant to close the cemeteries.

“It’s a hot potato,” said Frankel, “nobody wants to face the problem because there is not enough money to solve the problem.”

At the hearing of the County Tribunal of Solano, Carringer noted that Kamphausen had not invested in a cautious manner the care funds for cemeteries. Instead of using money to buy actions, Kamphausen has chosen a variety of investments, including residential and commercial real estate and gold, which represented 2% of endowment care funds. Some of the property purchased belonged to Kamphausen.

Frankel said that due to these bad investment decisions, there is less money available to maintain cemeteries than there should be.

During the hearing, Bruce Gribens, lawyer, accountant and associated with Deloitte, said that with good management, the endowment funds of the Mont Tamalpais cemetery would probably have represented nearly $ 24 million today, against $ 5.9 million in the account.

“Whoever takes this thing takes a responsibility, not an asset,” said Frankel, “that’s how you end up with abandoned cemeteries.”

Under the law of the state, a county can take charge of the maintenance of an abandoned cemetery or without license, but because it is optional that no county did. Senator of the State Laura Richardson, D-San Pedro, presented Bill 777 of the Senate to resolve the issue. A cemetery in his district, Lincoln Memorial Park, has been abandoned.

According to the analysis of the bill, there are seven cemeteries abandoned in California, counting the four recently closed by the office of the cemetery and funeral. 43 Others have sub-financed endowment care funds with a limited space for sale.

The Richardson bill would require that a local agency training commission identifies an entity to use cemeteries operations which have endowment care funds and have made their permit award or revoked. The mandate would become in force if a new cemetery authority did not suppose property within one year.

The bill would allow the agency to assume control to spend the client of the endowment fund in addition to the income earned if necessary.

“But local agencies will be faced with the same budgetary challenges which discourage private cemetery managers from taking control of abandoned cemeteries: insufficient funds for the care, maintenance and embellishment of the cemetery,” said the analysis.

Frankel said the risk of fire that cemeteries such as the installation of the Mont Tamalpais cemetery could neglect them more expensive for local governments than maintaining them.

The mayor of San Rafael, Kate Colin, commenting on the SB 777, said that she was supporting “the management he directed”. But she said that the county would be the jurisdiction to assume the management of the cemetery.

The director of the county of Marin, Derek Johnson, said: “I did not hear local residents directly concerning the Mont Tamalpais cemetery, and I had no discussion with the assembly of the Assembly Connolly or the Mayor Colin on the status of this private cemetery.”

Johnson added that the California State Association of Counties, representatives of the rural county of California and the urban counties of California oppose SB 777.

“Their opposition is probably due to the fact that the bill would impose a new mandate not financed on local governments,” he said.

Originally published: April 8, 2025 at 7:04 a.m.