The Florida Senate

497.101  Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services; membership; appointment; terms.--

(1)  The Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services is created within the Department of Banking and Finance and shall consist of seven members appointed by the Governor, from nominations made by the Comptroller, and confirmed by the Senate. The Comptroller shall nominate three persons for each vacancy on the board, and the Governor shall fill each vacancy on the board by appointing one of the three persons nominated by the Comptroller to fill that vacancy. If the Governor objects to each of the three nominations for a vacancy, she or he shall inform the Comptroller in writing. Upon notification of an objection by the Governor, the Comptroller shall submit three additional nominations for that vacancy until the vacancy is filled.

(2)  Two members of the board must be funeral directors licensed under chapter 470 who are not associated with a cemetery company through ownership interests or through employment with a company which has an ownership interest in a cemetery. Two members must be owners or operators of a cemetery licensed under this chapter. The remaining three members must be residents of the state who have never been licensed as funeral directors or embalmers and who are in no way connected with a cemetery, the death care industry, or the practice of embalming, funeral directing, or direct disposition. At least one consumer member of the board must be 60 years of age or older. No licensee on the board may be associated by employment or ownership with a funeral establishment or cemetery which is owned partly or wholly by a person, business, corporation, or other entity which is associated with another licensee on the board.

(3)  The Governor shall appoint members for terms of 4 years, and such members shall serve until their successors are appointed. When the terms of the initial board members expire, the Governor shall stagger the terms of the successor members as follows: one funeral director, one cemetery company representative, and one consumer member shall be appointed for terms of 2 years, and the remaining members shall be appointed for terms of 4 years. All subsequent terms shall be for 4 years.

History.--s. 41, ch. 93-399; s. 5, ch. 96-400; s. 1143, ch. 97-103.