Memorandum 18-047 Amending Homer City Code Re: Cemetery Deeds

Memorandum 18-047

TO:                         MAYOR ZAK AND HOMER CITY COUNCIL

FROM:                  MELISSA JACOBSEN, MMC, CITY CLERK

DATE:                    APRIL 13, 2018

SUBJECT:           AMENDMENTS TO HOMER CITY CODE RE: CEMETERY DEEDS

The City Clerk’s office manages the Hickerson Memorial Cemetery and works with Public Works to maintain records when plots are purchased and reserved, and when interments take place.

For many years, the reservation/purchase process has entailed completing a Cemetery Records Justification form with the purchaser, updating our records, forwarding it to Public Works to update their records, and filing the form.  Then an original deed is mailed to the purchaser and a copy filed in the Clerk’s office.

The Hickerson Memorial Cemetery Policies and Guidelines that were adopted in 2017 reference purchasing a permit for a plot in the cemetery.  In working through the process, Clerk’s office staff have developed one form that can be used by the Clerk’s office and Public Works to process a reservation/purchase, and that form can then sent to the purchaser and a copy retained in the Clerk’s office. 

This process eliminates the need for issuing a deed, as all the information and signatures can be included on one double sided form.  We believe this will be a more efficient process, save paper, and take up less space in our permanent files.

Removing the transfer or assignment section of code and addressing it in the Hickerson Memorial Cemetery Policies and Guidelines will be helpful because all the requirements for cemetery plots will be in one document that can be amended as needed via resolution.  It will also eliminate duplication and potential oversights in having to amend the same information in separate places.

Recommendation:  Adopt Ordinance 18-20 repealing HCC 19.04.050 and 19.04.060.