HomeMy WebLinkAboutA001 - Cover Letter for proposed ordinance EL
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City Attorney's Office
Caring People 515 Clark Avenue,P. O.Box 811
Qaafily Programs Ames,IA 50010
Exceptional Service Phone: 515-239-5146 • Fax: 515-239-5142
October 18, 2007
The Honorable Ann H. Campbell, Mayor,
and Members of the City Council
of the City of Ames, Iowa
Re: Proposed Ordinance and Amended Regulations for Ames Municipal Cemetery
Dear Mayor Campbell and Council Members:
For more than ninety years the City of Ames has maintained a perpetual care fund for the
maintenance of cemetery grounds. Use of the care fund was subject only to the limits set out in
Ordinance 292, enacted by the City Council in 1917. Although the Iowa Code regulated the
operation of most cemeteries and the use of their perpetual care funds, municipal cemeteries
established prior to 1995 were largely exempted from the state regulations.
Recent changes to the Iowa Code now subject municipal cemeteries and their perpetual care funds
to regulatory oversight of the Securities Bureau in the Iowa Department of Commerce. State Code
now limits the use of distributions from the perpetual care fund. In order to comply with the State
regulations, it is necessary for the City to enact a new cemetery ordinance and to revise the rules
and regulations set out in Appendix A of the Municipal Code.
The proposed ordinance, to be codified as a new Chapter 33 of the Municipal Code, follows the
requirements of Iowa Code Chapter 523I pertaining to perpetual care cemeteries. It provides for
operation of the Municipal Cemetery, maintenance of records, disclosure and collection of fees,
and adoption of rules and regulations by resolution of Council.
The proposed amendments to the Cemetery Rules and Regulations implement the disclosure
requirements of the State Code, clarify current fees, and specify procedures for purchase and
transfer of interment rights.
Yours truly,
Douglas R. Marek
City Attorney
c: John Joiner, Duane Pitcher, Diane Voss