Abandoned cemeteries: report.

Senator Richardson’s SB 777 reframes the handling of abandoned cemeteries by directing the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau to convene a time-limited workgroup and produce a Legislature-bound report on whether counties should assume maintenance, irrigation, public works, and burial services for cemeteries that become abandoned. The core action centers on a tightly scoped study rather than new regulatory duties for licensees, with the process running on an accelerated schedule and concluding with a sunset repeal.

The amended statute requires the bureau to convene a workgroup on or before March 1, 2026, drawing participants from identified stakeholders—including the cemetery industry, local agency formations, counties’ associations, public cemeteries, and legislative staff—and to discuss options for continued care, embellishment, and related services for abandoned cemeteries. The discussions must consider whether counties should assume responsibility for maintenance, irrigation, public works, and burial services within their boundaries. Following the discussions, the bureau must submit a report to the Legislature summarizing the workgroup’s conversations and recommendations no later than June 1, 2026, with Government Code Section 9795 governing the reporting process. The section is repealed on January 1, 2027.

From a regulatory and fiscal standpoint, the bill does not impose licensing, registration, or penalties. Acknowledged are potential costs associated with convening the workgroup and producing the report, though no explicit appropriation is tied to the measure. The fiscal implications for counties, including any funding mechanisms or oversight structures, would depend on future legislative action informed by the workgroup’s findings. The structure relies on standard governmental reporting procedures via the Government Code cross-reference, but it leaves the detailed processes for member selection, meeting cadence, and decision rules to the bureau’s implementation.

In broad terms, SB 777 introduces a discrete, accelerated policy inquiry into the future role of counties in cemetery maintenance and related services. It compresses the timeline relative to prior guidance, expands the roster of likely stakeholders, and provisions for a short-lived statutory basis that ends in 2027 unless renewed. The proposal sits within the existing regulatory framework of the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau and connects to Government Code reporting mechanisms, without prescribing immediate programmatic changes, funding allocations, or mandatory county action.