Article 5 - General Provisions
(225 ILCS 411/Art. 5 heading) Article 5.General Provisions (Article scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2021)(Source: P.A. 96‑863, eff. 3‑1‑10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5‑1)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2021)
Sec. 5‑1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Cemetery Oversight Act.
(Source: P.A. 96‑863, eff. 3‑1‑10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5‑5)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2021)
Sec. 5‑5. Findings and purpose. The citizens of Illinois have a compelling interest in the expectation that their loved ones will be treated with the same dignity and respect in death as they are entitled to be treated in life. The laws of the State should provide adequate protection in upholding the sanctity of the handling and disposition of human remains and the preservation of final resting places, but without unduly restricting family, ethnic, cultural, and religious traditions. The purpose of this Act is to ensure that the deceased be accorded equal treatment and respect for human dignity without reference to ethnic origins, cultural backgrounds, or religious affiliations.
(Source: P.A. 96‑863, eff. 3‑1‑10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5‑10)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2021)
Sec. 5‑10. Declaration of public policy. The practice of cemetery operation in the State of Illinois is hereby declared to affect the public health, safety, and well‑being of its citizens and to be subject to regulation and control in the public interest. It is further declared that cemetery operation, as defined in this Act, should merit the confidence of the public and that only qualified persons shall be authorized to own, operate, manage, or otherwise control a cemetery in the State of Illinois. This Act shall be liberally construed to best carry out this purpose.
(Source: P.A. 96‑863, eff. 3‑1‑10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5‑15)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2021)
Sec. 5‑15. Definitions. In this Act:
"Address of record" means the designated address recorded by the Department in the applicant's or licensee's application file or license file. It is the duty of the applicant or licensee to inform the Department of any change of address within 14 days either through the Department's website or by contacting the Department's licensure maintenance unit. The address of record for a cemetery authority shall be the permanent street address of the cemetery.
"Applicant" means a person applying for licensure under this Act as a cemetery authority, cemetery manager, or customer service employee. Any applicant or any person who holds himself or herself out as an applicant is considered a licensee for purposes of enforcement, investigation, hearings, and the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act.
"Burial permit" means a permit for the disposition of a dead human body that is filed with the Illinois Department of Public Health.
"Care" means the maintenance of a cemetery and of the lots, graves, crypts, niches, family mausoleums, memorials, and markers therein, including: (i) the cutting and trimming of lawn, shrubs, and trees at reasonable intervals; (ii) keeping in repair the drains, water lines, roads, buildings, fences, and other structures, in keeping with a well‑maintained cemetery as provided for in Section 20‑5 of this Act and otherwise as required by rule; (iii) maintenance of machinery, tools, and equipment for such care; (iv) compensation of cemetery workers, any discretionary payment of insurance premiums, and any reasonable payments for workers' pension and other benefits plans; and (v) the payment of expenses necessary for such purposes and for maintaining necessary records of lot ownership, transfers, and burials.
"Care funds", as distinguished from receipts from annual charges or gifts for current or annual care, means any realty or personalty impressed with a trust by the terms of any gift, grant, contribution, payment, legacy, or pursuant to contract, accepted by any cemetery authority or by any trustee, licensee, agent, or custodian for the same, under Article 15 of this Act, and any income accumulated therefrom, where legally so directed by the terms of the transaction by which the principal was established.
"Cemetery" means any land or structure in this State dedicated to and used, or intended to be used, for the interment, inurnment, or entombment of human remains.
"Cemetery association" means an association of 6 or more persons, and their successors in trust, who have received articles of organization from the Secretary of State to operate a cemetery; the articles of organization shall be in perpetuity and in trust for the use and benefit of all persons who may acquire burial lots in a cemetery.
"Cemetery authority" means any individual or legal entity that owns or controls cemetery lands or property.
"Cemetery manager" means an individual who is engaged in, or responsible for, or holding himself or herself out as engaged in, those activities involved in or incidental to supervising the following: the maintenance, operation, development, or improvement of a cemetery licensed under this Act; the interment of human remains; or the care, preservation, and embellishment of cemetery property. This definition includes, without limitation, an employee, an individual that is an independent contractor, an individual employed or contracted by an independent contractor, a third‑party vendor, or an individual employed or contracted by a third‑party vendor who is engaged in, or holding himself or herself out as engaged in, those activities involved in or incidental to supervising the following: the maintenance, operation, development, or improvement of a cemetery licensed under this Act; the interment of human remains; or the care, preservation, and embellishment of cemetery property.
"Cemetery operation" means to engage or attempt to engage in the interment, inurnment, or entombment of human remains or to engage in or attempt to engage in the care of a cemetery.
"Cemetery Oversight Database" means a database certified by the Department as effective in tracking the interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains.
"Cemetery worker" means an individual, including an independent contractor or third‑party vendor, who performs any work at the cemetery that is customarily performed by one or more cemetery employees, including openings and closings of vaults and graves, stone settings, inurnments, interments, entombments, administrative work, handling of any official burial records, the preparation of foundations for memorials, and routine cemetery maintenance. This definition does not include uncompensated, volunteer workers.
"Certificate of organization" means the document received by a cemetery association from the Secretary of State that indicates that the cemetery association shall be deemed fully organized as a body corporate under the name adopted and in its corporate name may sue and be sued.
"Comptroller" means the Comptroller of the State of Illinois.
"Consumer" means a person, or the persons given priority for the disposition of an individual's remains under the Disposition of Remains Act, who purchases or is considering purchasing cemetery, burial, or cremation products or services from a cemetery authority or crematory authority, whether for themselves or for another person.
"Customer service employee" means an individual who has direct contact with consumers and explains cemetery merchandise or services or negotiates, develops, or finalizes contracts with consumers. This definition includes, without limitation, an employee, an individual that is an independent contractor, an individual that is employed or contracted by an independent contractor, a third‑party vendor, or an individual that is employed or contracted by a third‑party vendor, who has direct contact with consumers and explains cemetery merchandise or services or negotiates, develops, or finalizes contracts with consumers. This definition does not include an employee, an individual that is an independent contractor or an individual that is employed or contracted by an independent contractor, a third party vendor, or an individual that is employed or contracted by a third party vendor, who merely provides a printed cemetery list to a consumer, processes payment from a consumer, or performs sales functions related solely to incidental merchandise like flowers, souvenirs, or other similar items.
"Department" means the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
"Employee" means an individual who works for a cemetery authority where the cemetery authority has the right to control what work is performed and the details of how the work is performed regardless of whether federal or State payroll taxes are withheld.
"Entombment right" means the right to place individual human remains or individual cremated human remains in a specific mausoleum crypt or lawn crypt selected by a consumer for use as a final resting place.
"Family burying ground" means a cemetery in which no lots are sold to the public and in which interments are restricted to the immediate family or a group of individuals related to each other by blood or marriage.
"Full exemption" means an exemption granted to a cemetery authority pursuant to subsection (a) of Section 5‑20.
"Funeral director" means a funeral director as defined by the Funeral Directors and Embalmers Licensing Code.
"Grave" means a space of ground in a cemetery used or intended to be used for burial.
"Green burial or cremation disposition" means burial or cremation practices that reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and toxic chemicals ordinarily created in burial or cremation or, in the case of greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate or offset emissions. Such practices include standards for burial or cremation certified by the Green Burial Council or any other organization or method that the Department may name by rule.
"Immediate family" means the designated agent of a person or the persons given priority for the disposition of a person's remains under the Disposition of Remains Act and shall include a person's spouse, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren and siblings.
"Imputed value" means the retail price of comparable rights within the same or similar area of the cemetery.
"Independent contractor" means a person who performs work for a cemetery authority where the cemetery authority has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not the means and methods of accomplishing the result.
"Individual" means a natural person.
"Interment right" means the right to place individual human remains or cremated human remains in a specific underground location selected by a consumer for use as a final resting place.
"Inurnment right" means the right to place individual cremated human remains in a specific niche selected by the consumer for use as a final resting place.
"Investment Company Act of 1940" means Title 15 of the United States Code, Sections 80a‑1 to 80a‑64, inclusive, as amended.
"Investment company" means any issuer (a) whose securities are purchasable only with care funds or trust funds, or both; (b) that is an open and diversified management company as defined in and registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940; and (c) that has entered into an agreement with the Department containing such provisions as the Department by regulation requires for the proper administration of this Act.
"Lawn crypt" means a permanent underground crypt installed in multiple units for the interment of human remains.
"Licensee" means a person licensed under this Act as a cemetery authority, cemetery manager, or customer service employee. Anyone who holds himself or herself out as a licensee or who is accused of unlicensed practice is considered a licensee for purposes of enforcement, investigation, hearings, and the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act. This definition does not include a cemetery worker.
"Mausoleum crypt" means a space in a mausoleum used or intended to be used, above or underground, to entomb human remains.
"Niche" means a space in a columbarium or mausoleum used, or intended to be used, for inurnment of cremated human remains.
"Partial exemption" means an exemption granted to a cemetery authority pursuant to subsection (b) of Section 5‑20.
"Parcel identification number" means a unique number assigned to a grave, plot, crypt, or niche that enables the Department to ascertain the precise location of a decedent's remains interred, entombed, or inurned after the effective date of this Act.
"Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation, limited liability company, trustee, government or political subdivision, or other entity.
"Public cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled, or managed by the federal government, by any state, county, city, village, incorporated town, township, multi‑township, public cemetery district, or other municipal corporation, political subdivision, or instrumentality thereof authorized by law to own, operate, or manage a cemetery.
"Religious cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled, or managed by any recognized church, religious society, association, or denomination, or by any cemetery authority or any corporation administering, or through which is administered, the temporalities of any recognized church, religious society, association, or denomination.
"Secretary" means the Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation.
"Term burial" means a right of interment sold to a consumer in which the cemetery authority retains the right to disinter and relocate the remains, subject to the provisions of subsection (d) of Section 35‑15 of this Act.
"Trustee" means any person authorized to hold funds under this Act.
"Unique personal identifier" means the parcel identification number in addition to the term of burial in years; the numbered level or depth in the grave, plot, crypt, or niche; and the year of death for human remains interred, entombed, or inurned after the effective date of this Act.
(Source: P.A. 96‑863, eff. 3‑1‑10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5‑20)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2021)
Sec. 5‑20. Exemptions.
(a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, this Act does not apply to (1) any cemetery authority operating as a family burying ground, (2) any cemetery authority that has not engaged in an interment, inurnment, or entombment of human remains within the last 10 years and does not accept or maintain care funds, or (3) any cemetery authority that is less than 2 acres and does not accept or maintain care funds. For purposes of determining the applicability of this subsection, the number of interments, inurnments, and entombments shall be aggregated for each calendar year. A cemetery authority claiming a full exemption shall apply for exempt status as provided for in Article 10 of this Act. A cemetery authority that performs activities that would disqualify it from a full exemption is required to apply for licensure within one year following the date on which its activities would disqualify it for a full exemption. A cemetery authority that previously qualified for and maintained a full exemption that fails to timely apply for licensure shall be deemed to have engaged in unlicensed practice and shall be subject to discipline in accordance with Article 25 of this Act.
(b) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a cemetery authority that does not qualify for a full exemption that is operating as a cemetery authority (i) that engages in 25 or fewer interments, inurnments, or entombments of human remains for each of the preceding 2 calendar years and does not accept or maintain care funds, (ii) that is operating as a public cemetery, or (iii) that is operating as a religious cemetery is exempt from this Act, but is required to comply with Sections 20‑5(a), 20‑5(b), 20‑5(b‑5), 20‑5(c), 20‑5(d), 20‑6, 20‑8, 20‑10, 20‑11, 20‑12, 20‑30, 25‑3, and 25‑120 and Article 35 of this Act. Cemetery authorities claiming a partial exemption shall apply for the partial exemption as provided in Article 10 of this Act. A cemetery authority that changes to a status that would disqualify it from a partial exemption is required to apply for licensure within one year following the date on which it changes its status. A cemetery authority that maintains a partial exemption that fails to timely apply for licensure shall be deemed to have engaged in unlicensed practice and shall be subject to discipline in accordance with Article 25 of this Act.
(c) Nothing in this Act applies to the City of Chicago in its exercise of its powers under the O'Hare Modernization Act or limits the authority of the City of Chicago to acquire property or otherwise exercise its powers under the O'Hare Modernization Act, or requires the City of Chicago, or any person acting on behalf of the City of Chicago, to comply with the licensing, regulation, investigation, or mediation requirements of this Act in exercising its powers under the O'Hare Modernization Act.
(Source: P.A. 96‑863, eff. 3‑1‑10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5‑25)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2021)
Sec. 5‑25. Powers of the Department. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Department may exercise the following powers:
(1) Authorize written examinations to ascertain the qualifications and fitness of applicants for licensing as a licensed cemetery manager or as a customer service employee to ascertain whether they possess the requisite level of knowledge for such position.
(2) Examine and audit a licensed cemetery authority's care funds, records from any year, and records of care funds from any year, or any other aspects of cemetery operation as the Department deems appropriate.
(3) Investigate any and all cemetery‑related activity.
(4) Conduct hearings on proceedings to refuse to issue or renew licenses or to revoke, suspend, place on probation, reprimand, or otherwise discipline a license under this Act or take other non‑disciplinary action.
(5) Adopt reasonable rules required for the administration of this Act.
(6) Prescribe forms to be issued for the administration and enforcement of this Act.
(7) Maintain rosters of the names and addresses of all licensees and all persons whose licenses have been suspended, revoked, denied renewal, or otherwise disciplined within the previous calendar year. These rosters shall be available upon written request and payment of the required fee as established by rule.
(Source: P.A. 96‑863, eff. 3‑1‑10.)