The chair of the House Health and Government Operations Committee said a state board that oversees cremation facilities should be temporarily taken over by the Maryland Department of Health.
Officials with the Maryland State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors told the committee Friday of severe staffing shortages, budget constraints and a backlog of scores of inspections. Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), chair of the committee, said the health department should step in to help the board get back on track.
“I think that perhaps the department can consider taking this on for a couple years to straighten it out, helping them with getting some pins [new positions], making sure that the governor put some money in there for some of the pins as well,” Peña-Melnyk said.
“And we have to do this for a little bit to get it straight, because it really is a mess. And I don’t mean that disrespectfully to you, OK?,” she said. “They can’t do it. They don’t have the money or the help or the pins as well.”
Her comments followed more than 90 minutes of testimony during a briefing sparked by the suspension of a Charles County crematorium’s license last month.
Erika Malone, executive director of the board, said the 11-member panel is at nearly half strength, and has the budget for only one inspector for the entire state.
“There’s not been full staff since the 2016 audit,” Malone told the House committee.
The independent panel is responsible for licensing and inspecting more than 415 facilities including funeral homes, crematoriums and transportation services. Those inspections are supposed to happen every two years.
Malone said that when she joined the board more than a year ago, there was a backlog of 300 inspections. She said at the time, it was just her and Andrew Liberto, the inspector, who was required to stay in the office “due to auditing purposes and adherence to policies and procedures.”
“I could not manage doing licensing and manage the financial aspect of the licensing. So, I needed him, and it was required he be in the office so he can handle that,” Malone said.
Since then, Malone has been able to slightly increase the number of employees, freeing up Liberto to resume inspections, tackling them by region. The agency is down to about 100 facilities in the inspection backlog.
Liberto told the committee the longest he’s seen so far for a facility to go uninspected is one that dated back to 2016.
Malone told the committee that while the board’s budget is “in the black” it does not have enough money to increase staffing. The independent board is funded solely with fees on the industry, all of which have been frozen.
The board has asked for fee increases. Malone added that a request has also been made to Gov. Wes Moore (D) for state help.
“I feel bad. You know you guys are definitely in need of extra support in a year where we don’t have a lot of resources to go around,” said Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s). “The work that you all do is really important for families and people going through really, really tough times, ”
Friday’s briefing follows the mass resignation of leadership of the independent board’s executive committee after a highly publicized problem with Heaven Bound Cremation Services in Charles County.
Last month, the board summarily suspended the license issued to the White Plains cremation facility. The emergency action followed inspections of the facility in March and April 2024 that found dozens of remains improperly stored and decomposing.
The facility was deemed hazardous to public health by state and local health officials.
The facility had been the subject of complaints and previous disciplinary actions since it was licensed in 2016.
The facility is technically open even though the suspension bars it from doing business.
The board’s actions apparenlty were not enough for Moore, who demanded the resignations of the executive board members and appointed Charles Scheeler, senior counsel at DLA Piper and a former federal prosecutor, to lead a review of the board’s structure and operations. A final review could include recommended changes to state law or regulations.
Charlotte Hoffman, chair of the board’s Complaint Committee, and others representing the board declined to comment directly about the closure of the cremation facility citing ongoing litigation.
“There are lots of things about this I wish I could say,” Hoffman said.