The information contained in this column is a report of the actions taken by the board members who were present during the open public session portion of the meeting only. It is not a transcript of the official board minutes or an official record of attendance. It does not address board member attendance or actions taken during the executive session that typically follow the open session and are closed to the public. 

October 15, 2026, 9:32 a.m.

Members Present

Paul M. Desbiens, chair; Deborah Santangelo, vice-chair; Rabbi Jay M. Kornsgold; Jeffrey S. Kasko, Linda McGloin; and Anthony Menafro.

Executive Staff Present

Quin Archer, executive director; Karinya M. Song, agency service representative; Michelle K. Smith, deputy attorney general; and Nicole Parelli, regulatory analyst.

Public

George R. Kelder Jr., CFSP, and Jonathan R. Bender, New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association, and 15 other members of the public.

Approval of Public Meeting Minutes

The Board approved the public session minutes of the September 17, 2026 meeting as amended.

Executive Directors Report

Eight complaints were received during September, and 41 complaints have been received since January 1, 2026.

Old Business

Mercer Cemetery at Trenton (CA#266): At Capacity
The Board reported that Mercer Cemetery has been inactive since 1973. It provided information regarding the titling of its M&P fund. The Board requested additional clarification as to whether the M&P trust fund is irrevocable.

Hillside Cemetery Association (CA#266): DISH Land Lease Termination
The Board was informed that Hillside Cemetery Association confirmed the cell tower associated with the former DISH lease remains on the cemetery property.

Green Cemetery (CA#323): Notification of Columbarium Completion
The Board reported that Green Cemetery provided notification of completion of construction on their first columbarium.

Evergreen Cemetery of Basking Ridge: Certificate of Authority Application
The Board voted to move this matter into Executive Session.

Ewing Cemetery Association (CA#020): Update to plot transfers for Har Sinai Temple
The Board reviewed a court order authorizing the buyback of 1,835 cemetery plots from Har Sinai Temple for $742,150. The cemetery advised that 1,332 non-Jewish plots will be demarcated from 503 plots that will remain Jewish burial spaces and that the required deposit of 15 percent into their Maintenance and Preservation fund will be completed at the time of a grave purchase. Following discussion, the Board approved the buyback as ordered by the court.

Greenwood Cemetery Association (CA#028): to Brooklyn on Fun (500 plots) Bulk Sale: Order Dismissing Appeal
Bulk sale request was dismissed and no action is required.

Restland Memorial Park t/d/b/a/ Eternal Sunset Memorial Park and Cemetery (CA#117) to Albanian American Cultural Center (295 plots) Bulk Sale: Order Dismissing Appeal
Bulk sale request was dismissed and no action is required.

Restland Memorial Park t/d/b/a/ Eternal Sunset Memorial Park and Cemetery (CA#117) to International Islamic Association, Inc. (57 plots) Bulk Sale: Order Dismissing Appeal
Bulk sale request was dismissed and no action is required.

New Business

Assembly Bill No. 3909
The Board was informed that Assembly Bill No. 3909, which allows for operation of crematories at locations not situated on cemetery grounds or funeral home properties, was reintroduced. The Board voted to oppose the bill and provided comments to the regulatory analyst.  

Assembly Bill No. 4151
The Board was informed that Assembly Bill No. 4151, which allows for the interment of cremated pet remains to be interred alongside human remains in a cemetery, was introduced. The board voted to remain neutral on the bill and provided comments to the regulatory analyst.

Proposed Amendment to N.J.A.C. 13:45C-1.3
The Board was informed that the public comment period ends today for the proposed amendment to N.J.A.C. 13:45 C1.3 regarding a licensee’s duty to cooperate and comply with Board orders. The amendment was published on Monday, August 17, 2026.

Hillside Cemetery Association (CA#116): Request for the use of the word “cemetery”
Hillside Cemetery requested the use of the word “cemetery” for the purposes of obtaining a corporate filing number. The Board approved the request.

Bulk Sale

East Ridgelawn Cemetery (CA#018) to Albanian American Islamic Center of NY and NJ 172 interment spaces for $412,800 ($2,400 per space)
Following discussion, the Board approved the bulk sale.

The cemetery is required to deposit the required 15 percent into its respective Maintenance and Preservation funds.

For Your Information

Marlboro Memorial Cemetery (CA#395): Notice of first preconstruction sale
The Board was notified of the first preconstruction sale of a mausoleum under construction at Marlboro Memorial Cemetery. Following discussion, the Board voted to send correspondence to the cemetery reminding it of the four-year deadline for completion.

Public Comment

Earl Stahl addressed the Board seeking information regarding bulk sales at cemeteries. Michelle Smith, deputy attorney general, advised Mr. Stahl to contact the Board and request a copy of the applicable regulation.

Smajije Srdanovic, President of the Islamic Unity & Culture Center of Plav-Gusinje, addressed the Board regarding concerns related to a bulk sale approved in November 2025 at Eternal Sunset Memorial Park and a recent request by the cemetery for the Islamic Center to forward additional money above the contracted price for deposit into the cemetery’s M&P fund. Quin Archer, executive director, advised that the correspondence submitted to the Board on the matter had been received and would be discussed in Executive Session.

The Board voted to adjourn the meeting and enter Executive Session at 10:41 a.m. The next scheduled Board meeting is Thursday, December 17, 2026.

We are considering allowing another funeral director to set up his mortuary at our establishment. We already have three “shingles” located at our facility. What is the limit for funeral establishments at one location?

Read the answer here.

Funeral home owners who post links to the obituaries of their consumers on their Facebook page are now being told they will need to pay for that ability.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, rolled out its Meta One subscription service in September 2026, touting benefits for businesses who operate a page on the social media platform. Among those services are subscription models that charge businesses for posting a set number of links on their pages.

Key Takeaways

• Meta One subscriptions may cost funeral homes $15 to $500 monthly to post obituary links on Facebook
• Funeral homes can share obituary links in comments, direct families to websites or encourage personal-page sharing
• Funeral directors should calculate per-case subscription costs carefully before passing fees to consumers as a cash advance

The fees for the subscription service run from approximately $15 a month to $500 a month for what Meta calls its Max level.

“Plans, benefits, pricing and availability may vary by region, by app and by account,” Meta said in a press release announcing the plans.

New Jersey funeral directors are beginning to feel the pinch. The New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association Manager of the Day program has received at least one call from a member firm saying they have been told the firm will need to pay for linking obituaries on their Facebook page. They said Meta notified them they could only post two links a month without a subscription plan.

The issue was discovered when the funeral home was notified by a family member that their mother’s obituary had disappeared from the funeral home’s Facebook page, the facility’s manager said.

Once staff examined the issue, they discovered that several links to obituaries posted after October 5, 2026 were wiped from the page. The funeral home was never notified of the policy or the removal and only found out the reason by seeing other Facebook posts concerning the new policy.

The Meta plan to charge for outside links exempts some business pages on Facebook, including ones for publishing companies.

Nationwide, funeral directors have expressed concern about the new Meta initiative and apologized to their consumers.

“While we've gladly provided this service to our online community for years, we will no longer be posting the links,” Hunter Funeral Home in Sparta, TN, posted on its Facebook page. “We will still let you know what families we are serving on our page. Please know all obituaries can be found on our website.”

Others declared that links to obituaries would now be shared in the comments on a Facebook death announcement. Those links still appear to be free.

Meta has been working to limit the ability to post links on pages without a Meta Verified designation.

Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, in a December 2025 post on the Meta social media site Threads quoted Meta as saying the new policy to limit links in posts was “a limited test to understand whether the ability to publish an increased volume of posts with links add additional value for Meta Verified subscribers.”

An article in Yahoo! Finance indicates the strategy to limit posts to outside websites is working. Citing Meta’s own statistics, the article states that the exposure of link posts has dropped from 9.8 percent of viewed content including a link in 2022 to 1.3 percent in the most recent report.

But the September announcement takes the initiative to curb linking to a new level. The new Meta One subscription services stand to cost small businesses such as funeral homes for a service they used to have for free.

What Can You Do?

In order to cope with the changes, funeral homes have a few options to avoid the cost:

• Place a generic announcement of a person’s death on their Facebook page and tell viewer to visit their website for the obituaries and details on services.
• Place the link to the obituary in the comments, which appears to still be free.
• Urge the family to post the obituary to their personal pages.
• Create a personal, non-business page for the owner/manager of the facility and post the obituary link there.

Funeral homes can also choose a subscription level that meets their needs and pass the costs on to consumers as a cash advance. The New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association recommends that if funeral homes choose to pass the costs of subscriptions on to consumers, they should calculate the yearly number of cases they handle and divide that into the cost of the Meta plan to establish a fair and uninflated cost.

Those with further questions should contact the NJSFDA’s Manager of the Day at 800.734.3712, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or via email at njsfda@njsfda.org. The NJSFDA does NOT provide legal advice but does offer information on funeral service regulations and law.

Gravedigging in Wyoming can present challenges. A former funeral home in Florida has been converted into a hotel that is creating buzz. And a mayor in Jamaica is urging residents to stop backyard burials because of a variety of environmental concerns. These stories and more are in the week in funeral news.

NEWS

Six Feet Deep at 20 Below: Wyoming Gravediggers Say Job Is “Not for Everybody”
By Kolby Fedore (Cowboy State Daily)
Try digging six feet down when the first five are frozen solid in Wyoming. Summer softens a cemetery, but winter hardens everything. The grass disappears beneath snow. Roads vanish. Temperatures sink below zero and frost drives four or five feet into the earth. Read more here.

He Buried Generations of Black Washingtonians. Now It’s Time for His Send-Off
By Paul Schwartzman (The Washington Post)
As a funeral director, Richard Ables Sr. guided generations of Washingtonians through the wrenching ritual of burying loved ones, helping families choose cemetery plots and caskets, and dressing the dead for a last milestone. Ables, as it turns out, was no less meticulous about his own passing. Read more here.

Right Dress on Wrong Body Found in Casket at South Carolina Mother’s Funeral, Suit Says
By Terri Richardson (The Sun)
A family expecting to see their mother in a casket during her viewing instead found a stranger wearing her clothes, a lawsuit says. Iris Gordon claims that she had arranged funeral services through Ocean Funeral Home and Cremation Services in Myrtle Beach, SC, after her 87-year-old mother, Iris Evans, passed away in January. Part of the arrangements included an open casket and burial, the lawsuit filed October 6, 2026 said. Read more here.

A Former Funeral Home Is One of Florida’s Most Intriguing New Hotels
By Jennifer Bradley Franklin (Southern Living)
Would you spend the night in a former funeral home? If the answer is “yes,” now’s your chance with the opening of The Raven, a new 13-room boutique aparthotel in Jacksonville, FL. Here, the lodging’s history is almost as compelling as its themed suites. The Raven occupies the restored 1916 Lawton L. Pratt Funeral Home, built by one of the area’s pioneering Black Jacksonville builders—and one of the state’s first Black millionaires—Joseph Haygood Blodgett. Read more here.

Family Discovers Daughter, 15, Is Alive in Her Coffin During Wake
By Perkin Amalaraj (Daily Mail)
A 15-year-old Guatemalan girl sat up in her coffin during her wake–eight hours after being declared dead. Yuleidy Ixcotoyac lost consciousness while her father was driving her to a medical center in the early hours of October 10, 2026. Abraham Ixcotoyac, an evangelical pastor, stopped the car, checked for a pulse and breathing, and concluded she had died after finding neither. Read more here.

Mayor Flags Dangers of Backyard Burials
By Horace Hines (Jamaica Observer)
A mayor in Jamaica is appealing to residents across in his area to stop backyard burials, warning that the practice could threaten water quality, obstruct drainage and create mosquito-breeding sites. Read more here.

OPINION

A Child's Question at a Funeral Reminded Us Death Does Not Get the Last Word
By John A. Murray (Fox News)
The question came unexpectedly from my five-year-old grandson. My late mom’s pastor had gathered our family to explain how her funeral service would go and asked if we had any final questions before we processed into the church. Raising his hand, my grandson inquired, "Will we see Momma Bettie again?" Read more here.

With natural organic reduction having been legal in New Jersey since July 1, funeral directors serving families who choose NOR should be aware of a statutory disclosure requirement regarding the placement of the final product after the process is complete.

Under N.J.S.A. 45:7-65.6, funeral directors making arrangements with a family selecting natural organic reduction are required to inform the customer, in writing, that placement in a cemetery is an available option following the completion of the NOR process.

The law further requires the New Jersey Cemetery Board to notify the State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jesey of cemeteries that express interest and comply with the applicable requirements for accepting remains following natural organic reduction.

While the statutory requirement is in effect, the regulations governing natural organic reduction have not yet been promulgated. As a result, many aspects of NOR implementation remain without formal regulatory guidance, including the process for maintaining and distributing the Cemetery Board's list of participating cemeteries.

Since Governor Phil Murphy signed NOR legislation into law last September, the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association has advocated for the prioritization of promulgating the revised mortuary regulations by the Mortuary Board.

To assist members in meeting their statutory responsibility and better serve families, the NJSFDA sought and obtained a list of cemeteries currently willing to accept NOR remains.

The participating cemeteries currently include:

• Mount Prospect Cemetery, Neptune
• Fountain Lawn Memorial Park, Ewing Township
• Sunset Memorial Park, Pennsauken
• Machpelah Cemetery, North Bergen
• Harleigh Cemetery, Camden

Cemetery pricing information is not included on the list and should be obtained directly from the participating cemetery.

As additional cemeteries elect to participate, the list is expected to grow. The law requires that the official list of participating cemeteries will be maintained by the Cemetery Board and provided to the Mortuary Board.

The NJSFDA previously issued guidance completing a death certificate involving NOR, which includes listing the location where the remains will go after the process has taken place.

For funeral directors seeking additional information on the law, procedures and practical considerations surrounding NOR, The Natural Organic Reduction in New Jersey on-demand webinar is an essential primer on this new funeral service option available to New Jersey families.

People who die in prisons, jails and other forms of government custody are often denied the dignity and protections afforded to other decedents in the United States, according to a new study.

Key Takeaways

• A Princeton study finds widespread gaps in policies protecting people who die in government custody
• New Jersey ranks among the top states but lacks a deadline for identifying deceased individuals
• Researchers recommend stronger family notification, religious protections, accountability and transparency, while warning policies alone cannot ensure compliance

The 442-page report, conducted by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ Policy Advocacy Clinic, says government fails decedents who were incarcerated at the time of death and their families in five ways:

• Dignity of a person’s intrinsic value and rights
• Respect for family rights
• Respect for religious practices
• Accountability for government failures
• Transparency

“The dignity owed to a person does not end at death,” the report states. “Whether someone dies in state custody or leaves behind a digital presence online, the treatment of their body, memory, and remains reflects how fully we recognize their humanity.”

States’ and U.S. territories’ policies on the handling of decedents who were incarcerated vary in significant ways, the report concludes. Based on 58 metrics established in the report to gauge each jurisdiction’s response to a death while incarcerated, California, New Jersey and New York scored the highest. Wyoming ranked the worst among the 50 states, the report concluded.

The study’s findings present a bleak picture of how those who die in custody are treated. A press release on the study cited these shortcomings:

Disrespect of personhood in disposition decisions: 81 percent of jurisdictions fail to explicitly recognize the deceased’s wishes with regards to disposition, including cremation.

Disrespect of families: 45 percent of jurisdictions do not provide a clear timeline for family notification of a death in custody.

Disrespect of religion: Less than half of jurisdictions address religious practices in notification, disposition, and burial. Only about 25 percent of jurisdictions consider religious objections to autopsies, and only 13 jurisdictions have a policy authorizing or respecting the religious need for burial, rather than cremation.

Lack of accountability: Nearly 60 percent of jurisdictions lack internal mortality reviews and independent oversight bodies and nearly 73 percent of jurisdictions do not recognize a right to a private autopsy.

Lack of transparency. Nearly 85 percent of jurisdictions don’t require public reporting for deaths in custody.

The problem with treatment of deaths in custody is not small, the study concludes.

“At least 26,345 people died in prisons and jails in the United States from 2020 to 2024, and 10,818 of these deaths were attributed to unlawful, unnatural or unknown causes,” the report states.

New Jersey ranked particularly high in decedent identification, according to the study.

“New Jersey policy establishes a strong identification procedure by assigning an actor and listing at least three methods of identification that include positive identification and digital registry access,” the report states. “However, it lacks a timeline for identification.”

The report stresses that strong policies do not mean consistent implementation of regulations, a point driven home by academics studying prisons and incarceration.

“Having the policies is a good first step, and they need to be effective and meaningful policies, but that's no guarantee the policies will get followed,” Michele Deitch, the director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas, Austin, said in an article by The Marshall Project.

The study concludes that best practices for the treatment of deaths in custody is an amalgam of the strongest policies in several states. No one state has an ideal system, the report says. Among the recommendations are stronger policies on notifications to families, a greater recognition of religious preferences for funeral services, a right to autopsies, preservation of evidence concerning the circumstances of the death, the return of personal property and investigations of deaths.

Deitch told The Marshall Report that the study had value in identifying best practices and areas where each jurisdiction might be lacking.

“Reports like this provide a baseline of the landscape of this issue,” Deitch said. “It's a way to allow states to compare themselves to each other, for advocates to and policy makers to look at how else things could be done, if there are better ways to do them, to realize the gaps in their own policies.”