Complaints of neglect at Bay Area cemetery
Complaints of neglect at Bay Area cemetery
Complaints of neglect have plagued a North Bay cemetery as congregants of the Mount Tam cemetery say they're disappointed with how the remains of their loved ones are handled. KTVU's Tom Vacar reports from San Rafael with the challenges they are facing and improving the area.
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - People pay for and trust cemeteries to take their deceased relatives and put them in a decent and well-kept place where generations will come long after they have gone. But, such hopes require the vigilance of government agencies to monitor burial sites and take care that they follow the law.
Neglected graveyard
What we know:
Enter San Rafael's Mount Tam Cemetery, a resting place that looks unkempt and forlorn. Within rundown Mount Tam Cemetery there are two Jewish cemeteries.
Both, especially that of Congregation Kol Shofar, are fairly described as tripping, slipping, hazard fields, especially for elderly people who come to funerals or visit grave sites. Pleas to the cemetery owner and employees were regularly ignored.
"We had noted to him several times that those agreements were not being held to account and there was always a reason why this or that," said Congregation Kol Shofar Chief Rabbi Paul Steinberg.
Steinberg is appalled at the poor care that has been going on for more than half a decade.
Respect for the dead
"The primary, fundamental principle behind everything regarding Jewish burial and funeral practices is respect for the dead. That founding principle was not being met," said the Rabbi.
Among all the other unsightly and dangerous things here, there are gopher holes everywhere – dozens. It is very likely that there are more gopher holes than there are grave sites.
The California Funeral and Cemetery Board sued owner Buck Kamphausen, who had to forfeit his several cemetery licenses and seized Mount Tam's $50 million Eternal Care Fund.
"They were adjudicated and the judge found it, found that many laws had been violated," said congregant and attorney Teveia Barnes.
But Kamphausen is appealing, so the money remains in the bank, denying families and worship places the eternal care they paid for.
"They can only use those assets that they hold, those funds for the care and maintenance of the cemetery," said Barnes.
"The cemetery itself is without a license and we've been informed by the way the state describes it…it's an abandoned cemetery," said Congregation Kol Shofar Executive Director Gordon Gladstone.
It's all very sad.
"Several congregants have decided that they do not intend to use the cemetery where they purchased all the plots," said Rabbi Steinberg. He said his father recently died and even he wouldn't want him to be interred at this cemetery.
Kamphausen said he would do an interview as soon as he sends KTVU a letter he sent to some newspapers he accuses of twisting his words. We will stay on this developing story.
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