KEYE, Austin's CBS affiliate, on October 10, 2022, published a story entitled "Austin could update cemetery rules for the first time in 45 years." Once again, a news agency utterly fails to investigate and report the pertinent facts behind this nine-year controversy.
The story opens stating that the City of Austin is trying to update its cemetery rules for the first time in 45 years. and that on October 10, 2022, city officials held a community engagement meeting to get the public's input on changes that would overhaul the 1978 rules that have been described as outdated, inconsistent, and vague. The article fails to report that this rules process was not initiated out of the benevolence of PARD because the 1978 rules, as the article describes them, are "outdated, inconsistent, and vague." This process was initiated in 2013 when PARD declared that it would be identifying graves that were not in compliance to the rules and regulations and forcing families to dismantle gravesite gardens and memorials which had previously been created with the implicit and explicit permission by PARD. Many of these gardens and memorials had been in place for years, even decades, and cannot be removed without damaging and desecrating the graves. On October 17, 2013, I and other members of the public appeared before the Austin City Council to protest this sudden declaration by PARD that it would be enforcing long-neglected cemetery rules. We asserted that the current regulations, which had not been revised, publicized, or enforced since the 1970s, needed to be revisited and revised and that the public and stakeholders must be involved in developing reasonable alternatives, balancing the rights of families and friends to uniquely honor their loved ones and the need to maintain cemetery grounds. We argued that grieving families should not be forced to dismantle gravesite memorials, many of which have been in place for years, simply because PARD had failed to fulfill its duties. We also noted that there was no urgency, as PARD already had the authority to remove any neglected or abandoned memorials and dead flowers and shrubs. In response to our concerns, the City Council enacted a resolution requiring the City Manager, in collaboration with stakeholders and a working group of the Parks and Recreation Board, to evaluate whether current cemetery policies related to grave ornamentation were appropriately sensitive to personal and cultural expressions of grieving, while preserving necessary safety for cemetery workers and respect for the values of all families. This process was to be completed over SIX MONTHS. It now has been over NINE YEARS, solely because of PARD's equivocations, bureaucratic foot-dragging, and needless delays.
The article then goes on to state that on October 10, 2022, city officials held a community engagement meeting to get the public's input on changes that would overhaul the 1978 rules. No mention that this was simply a single ZOOM meeting that lasted less than one and half hours and therefore was open only to those citizens who had Internet and computer access. With just a little digging, the reporter would have discover that although it is a public agency subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act, for NINE years PARD has consistently failed to properly notify and engage the public and stakeholders throughout the process and completely ignored public input.
The report then switches to Robert Gonzalez and his wife, next to their daughter's grave in Austin Memorial Park on October 10, 2022. The pair come out at least once a week to honor and remember their daughter, Vanessa, who has 32 years old when she died. According to the article, in the ensuing almost two decades ago, the couple has seen the cemetery rules change a few times. The article ignores the fact that there have been no rule changes; the 1978 rules have not only never been enforced or publicized, they have never been revised or amended. Mr. Gonzalez explains that they had set up a butterfly bench with pavers, but were forced to remove it several years ago. Yet he notes that he has seen other benches, including one identical to the one they had placed, scattered around the cemetery. When Mr. Gonzalez complained that the rules were inconsistent and that PARD "changed the rules in the middle of the game," what he really means is that the PARD treats the cemeteries as its own private fiefdom and arbitrarily and inconsistently decides what can stay and what can go, often without even bothering to try to notify families. To PARD, the cemeteries are not the final resting places for beloved families and friends, but just inconvenient plots of land that need to be maintained with as little effort as possible and certainly with no respect for those buried there or compassion for their families. PARD has over the decades given families implicit and explicit permission to install gravesite gardens and memorials and has no legal or moral right to try to retroactively enforce current the rules or regulations or impose new rules or regulations regarding existing gravesite memorials and gardens. Now PARD, under the new proposed rules, does want to really change "the rules in the middle of the game" and renege on over thirty years of promises.
Rather tellingly, considering PARD's long history of avoiding public participation and input, the article notes that "CBS Austin requested an interview with the City of Austin about the proposed cemetery rule changes, but officials said no one was available." It reports that city officials shared "that the goal of the rule changes is to give families clear, specific, and consistent rules on benches, decorations, and gravesite maintenance." However, the report made no attempt to determine whether these rules would be applied retroactively and if so, how that could potentially affect hundreds of gravesites throughout the municipal cemeteries, or how PARD is planning on implementing or publicizing the rules if they go into affect. The reporter certainly made little or no attempt to find and interview any of the stakeholders who have been involved in this process since 2013. All the article says is that the City of Austin states it will be the spring of 2023 before changes could take effect.
The article has a final quote from Mr. Gonzales, “If it keeps the place clean and looking nice, I think that would be a plus." The article completely misses the hypocrisy of PARD harassing the Gonzalez family for erecting a simple butterfly bench on their daughter's gravesite at Austin Memorial Park amid the horrendous conditions that are the sole result of neglect and poor maintenance practices by PARD, including the rusted and sagging chainlink fence, tilted and toppled grave monuments, and vast patches of dead turf and bare cracked soil. Maybe if PARD spent just a portion of the time, energy, and resources it has expended over harassing people like the Gonzales family on actual maintenance, the Austin cemeteries might be in much better shape.
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