June 25 Opposition to SB 777 (Richardson) – Abandoned Endowment Care Cemeteries (As amended June 16, 2025)

June 25, 2025

The Honorable Laura Richardson
California State Senate
1021 O Street, Room 7340
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Opposition to SB 777 (Richardson) – Abandoned Endowment Care Cemeteries (As amended June 16, 2025)

Dear Senator Richardson:

On behalf of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, I write to respectfully express our continued opposition to SB 777, which would require local governments to assume ownership, management, and liability for abandoned private endowment care cemeteries. While we recognize the intent to address cemetery deterioration and appreciate the June 16 amendments that introduce additional audit requirements, limited administrative support for LAFCO proceedings, and a new Abandonment Grant Funding Program, the bill still does not address the root causes of abandonment—or the long-term financial, legal, and operational burdens it would impose on counties and cities.

Marin County is currently dealing with the real-world impacts of a failed endowment care cemetery—Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery in San Rafael, which is specifically named in SB 777. Mt. Tamalpais experienced extensive financial mismanagement, including the disappearance of millions of dollars from its endowment care fund. Although the site was licensed by the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, the state took no enforcement action for several years despite missing financial filings and visible deterioration. Even after the cemetery’s license was revoked earlier this year, the operator remained in control without adequate oversight or an effective transition process. As a result, the property’s overgrown vegetation has created a significant wildfire risk to nearby homes, businesses, and downtown San Rafael and San Anselmo, in addition to obscuring headstones and limiting site access. The County was forced to step in to coordinate vegetation clearance to protect the surrounding community. Meanwhile, grieving families, faith communities, and cemetery neighbors continue to face uncertainty and distress.

Under current law, a private cemetery’s endowment care fund is supposed to prevent this type of breakdown by setting aside a portion of each burial plot sale to fund long-term site maintenance. But there are minimal legal standards for how endowment funds—often totaling millions—must be managed or invested. At Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery, endowment funds were used to purchase speculative assets including personal real estate, rather than being placed in safe, income-generating accounts. The Cemetery and Funeral Bureau knew financial filings had not been submitted for several years before any enforcement began—during which time even more funds went missing.

SB 777, even with its recent amendments, would still ultimately place the responsibility for addressing these kinds of failures on local governments. It would require counties and cities to establish or modify cemetery districts, assume fee title, and take over full operational control. While the Abandonment Grant Funding Program may help offset some immediate set-up costs, the bill creates long-term obligations for local governments—many of which, like Marin, are not in the cemetery business and have no regulatory authority over private cemeteries. Taking over a private cemetery means assuming all its responsibilities: financial, legal, site needs, and emotional.

The bill also does nothing to prevent similar failures from happening again—and worse, may unintentionally incentivize them. By making public takeover the default remedy, SB 777 signals to other private cemetery operators that they may simply walk away, knowing the state will shift the burden to counties and taxpayers. The bill includes no disincentive for mismanagement, no framework to prevent abandonment, and no tools to help responsible private or nonprofit operators step in before a public transfer becomes necessary.

We urge the Legislature to consider a more balanced and forward-looking framework—one that focuses first on prevention, accountability, and viable private-sector alternatives.

Specifically, our recommendations include:

1. Establish clear investment standards for endowment care funds. Require that funds be restricted to secure, low-risk investments—such as U.S. Treasury bonds, high-grade municipal bonds, or investment-grade mutual funds—to preserve long-term fund value.
2. Index per-plot contribution rates to inflation. From 2009 to 2021, the state’s required contribution rate remained completely flat despite rising maintenance costs. Only recently, through legislation (AB 651), were rates increased—from 3% of plot sales in 2022 to 10% in 2024. However, these adjustments are not tied to inflation in the future and no increases are planned beyond 2024.
3. Strengthen oversight and enforcement capacity. The Cemetery and Funeral Bureau and Attorney General’s Office need the tools to intervene earlier when financial filings are missing or irregularities are detected. In the Mt. Tamalpais case, enforcement came too late to prevent significant losses in the endowment care fund.
4. Implement a transition protocol to prevent service disruption. The state should require a plan to ensure burial access prior to revoking a license, especially for families with cultural or religious requirements for timely interment. Cease-and-desist orders alone are not sufficient.
5. Prioritize private transitions before public assumption. The bill should include a clear private-sector pathway, including a right of first refusal for qualified cemetery operators, temporary state conservatorship to facilitate transfers, and acquisition incentives or liability protections for responsible new stewards. For example, another private cemetery in Marin may have been positioned to take over operations at Mt. Tamalpais, but no such state mechanism currently exists to support this.

Marin County remains committed to supporting long-term solutions that promote accountability, ensure maintenance, and prevent other communities from experiencing what we have with Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery. However, SB 777—despite the June 16 amendments—continues to place the long-term burden on local governments without addressing the systemic issues at the heart of cemetery abandonment.

We respectfully urge reconsideration of the current approach.

Sincerely, 

Mary Sackett, President
Marin County Board of Supervisors

CC:       Marin County Board of Supervisors
            Senator Mike McGuire
            Assemblymember Damon Connolly