The Coachella Valley Public Cemetery District, an agency that has interred 17,000 people in Riverside County, voted unanimously on June 12 to expand from a three- to a five-member board, following a Grand Jury’s recommendation.
Joseph T. Ortiz, an attorney with law firm Best Best & Krieger advising the district, said after the meeting that expanding to a five-member board is considered a best practice to avoid violations of the Brown Act, the state law governing public meetings of city and county agencies.
“A board of three means that any time two people meet on the streets, they’re technically a majority of the board and it needs to be a posted, agendized meeting,” he said, “so it’s rife with risks for violating the Brown Act.”
Ortiz said the resolution requesting the expansion of the board to five members will now go to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors for approval.
A Grand Jury report, publicly released in April after months of interviews and investigation, uncovered conflict and potential Brown Act violations at the district, which oversees about 400 burials each year at a 60-acre public cemetery in Coachella. It serves residents of a 3,444-square-mile area in Riverside County, roughly from Rancho Mirage to Desert Center.
Jurors reported that district General Manager Bret Kestell and two board members “purposely excluded” the board’s third member, Marcos Coronel, from meetings since March 2017.
In addition to expanding the board from three to five members, the jury also recommended the district:
- Conduct staff training
- Establish a website to post agendas
- Conduct mediation to resolve issues between board members and the general manager
- Post public meeting notices and notify board members of meetings and agendas in a timely manner
- Establish lines of communication with the Riverside County Board of Supervisors
- Reaffirm the board's "position as decision makers" and supervisors of the general manager
- Review the district’s housing policy. For years, jurors found, the district’s general manager and head mechanic have lived in residences located on cemetery property. They recommended instituting a rental or use agreement.
In an interview with The Desert Sun, Kestell, the district's General Manager, said the cemetery has until July 23 to respond to the Grand Jury report.
He said the district plans to add additional training and create a new website, but contested some of the report’s findings. He said the cemetery already complies with required training, posts public meetings on the door of its office, maintains open communications with the Board of Supervisors and has established a housing policy.
He also said jurors incorrectly implied he makes decisions for the board, when he has left policy up to members.
Kestell said the board excluded Coronel from meetings and called for an investigation into his conduct after receiving letters from multiple employees alleging Coronel harassed them at work.
Kestell then provided The Desert Sun with a copy of a report on Coronel conducted by the firm Najar Investigations. Cemetery district employees interviewed in the report allege Coronel made them uncomfortable by questioning them at length, telling one of them “your job depends on it, because I’m gonna be in charge one day.”
Board member Joe Ceja alleges in the report that Coronel violated the Brown Act by attempting to discuss the expansion of the board with Ceja and Kestell after a meeting had adjourned and a third board member, Wayne Bowers, was not present.
Coronel denied those allegations, noted that they are not a part of the Grand Jury report and said he has made attempts to reconcile with cemetery staff and board members. He said he has offered to resign, but has since asked to rescind his resignation letter.
At the June 12 meeting, members briefly discussed a board policy on censuring trustees, but opted to table the discussion.
The Coachella Valley Cemetery District is one of 269 districts in the state.
According to the grand jury report, the cemetery district received more than $700,000 in property tax revenue in each of the years between 2015 and 2017. Additionally, the district obtained $680,000 annually from a $1,700 charge on each of 400 burials a year.
June 12, 2018
The Desert Sun
By Amy DiPierro
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