Currently there are no rules or regulations regarding grave ornamentation in Austin's public cemeteries. The 1978 rules were never publicized or enforced and for some 35 years, PARD, through its agents and by its own actions gave families both implicit and expressed permission to create memorial gardens and place statuary or other grave ornamentation on the final resting places of their loved ones. PARD therefore effectively waived those rules. The latest proposed rules and regulations that PARD tried to ramrod in violation of the Austin City Council's October 17, 2013 resolution and with no effective public input are now dead as of March 23, 2023. Yet, despite the fact there are no rules to inform the public or guide PARD's actions, PARD continues to desecrate graves and rob them of ornamentation. I visit Austin Memorial Park at least once a week to water and maintain the garden on my parents' graves (now almost utterly destroyed by PARD despite it telling us April 13, 2023, that not only were our family gravesites in "compliance," they would be flagged so that PARD employees would know that the gardens were being maintained by the family--and I have yet to receive any contact or personal apology from PARD!). On a recent visit, I saw a number of gravesites with the above small yellow flag and and a paper tag.
The tag reads: 30 DAY NOTICE The items on this burial site are not in compliance with the City of Austin's Cemetery Rules & Regulations. Please review the rules at https://www.austintexas.gov/department/cemeteries and promptly correct this violation. After thirty (30) days the City will remove and dispose of any remaining items in violations (sic). You may also contact us at the information below. Thank you. Cemetery Operations Phone: (512) 978-2326 Email: cemeteries@austintexas.gov.
The notice itself does not notify the site holder of just what the alleged violation is. But if you go the https://www.austintexas.gov/department/cemeteries to look as the rules, there are no actual rules cited! You can scroll down to the Rules and Regulations Draft Process 2018 and the Rules and Regulations Draft Process 2022, but these only concern proposed rules and regulations that were either enacted and then withdrawn (2018) or were never enacted (2022). If you click on "Cemetery Rules" in the sidebar, it takes you to a new page discussing the 2022 draft rules and regulations, but mid-page, there is a link entitled Current COA Cemetery Operations Rules and Regulations. However that link takes you to a new page with the 1978 rules and regulations, long waived by PARD through its own actions and admissions.
Further, this flimsy little yellow flag and scrap of paper appear to be the only notice PARD bothers to give before it engages in a little grave robbery. In response to a public information request I submitted, PARD admits that it does not have a single document, memo, letter, note, notice, or photograph regarding the removal of any item of grave decoration or ornamentation at AMP, including of any notice provided to the plot owner or stakeholder.
So unless someone happens to visit the tagged gravesite during the 30-day period set out on this "notice," then they have no way of knowing that PARD is about to raid the gravesite. And maybe not even then. This well-maintained and attractive cast metal bench did not have a visible tag.
However, I found underneath, fallen over and hidden by shadows, was one of the small flags and paper scraps. I wonder how many of these frail "notices" have been blown away or otherwise lost.
Apparently, this month, PARD had decided to go after benches, no matter their condition, how long they have been in place, or their monetary or historic value (plus the fact that PARD has no right to retroactively enforce rules that it waived for some 35 years). This bench near my parents' and niece's graves has been in place as long as I can remember. In fact, I have sat on it a number of times while resting from hauling water to my family's gravesites. Why after all these years has PARD suddenly decided that this bench must go?
To demonstrate the arbitrariness of PARD's "enforcement" of non-existent rules, this nearby bench was not tagged.
Ripping these ornaments is a disgraceful discourtesy to the families who lovingly selected and installed them and a dishonor to the dead. AMP was designated as a Historic Texas Cemetery by the Texas Historical Commission in 2008 and is the final resting place for many notable Texans. These grave ornaments are part of that historical record. Further, doing a quick Internet search, I found that the above bench retails on various websites for over $500. However, these items were not only costly when first purchased, as someone who is familiar with the antiques market, I know that vintage and antique metal benches can sell for hundreds of dollars as they are popular garden ornaments. Plus, these iron benches have value just for the metal.
In summary, there are no currently enforceable rules or regulations giving PARD the unlimited and arbitrary right to remove any grave ornaments. Further, it is clear that PARD is randomly removing unknown numbers of gravesite ornaments throughout Austin's historic cemeteries without any consideration of their emotional, historical, or monetary significance. PARD has admitted that it has failed to document in any way the removal of a single item of grave decoration or ornamentation, when and from where a item was removed, who authorized the removal, whether there was any consideration given to the historic or other value of the item, the reasons for the removal, any notice provided to the plot owner or stakeholder, whether the item was stored, and the final disposition of the item. Currently, possibly hundreds of sculptures, statues, urns, and other grave ornaments have been torn out of Austin gravesites with no documentation. Nor is there any procedure, protocol, or other documentation regarding the ultimate fate of many of the grave decorations pillaged by PARD. The people of Austin have no way of knowing whether these ornaments are simply destroyed and discarded, given away to city employees or other persons, or even sold (and if so, what happens to the proceeds?).
If the City of Austin sincerely cares about preserving its history, protecting its historic public cemeteries, and honoring those interred therein, it must immediately stop PARD's uncontrolled looting and desecration of Austin's cemeteries.
UPDATE: On August 31, 2023, I visited my family's gravesites at AMP and every bench in this posting had been removed (apparently including the bench that was NOT tagged!). In other words, these benches lovingly placed by grieving families (some of these benches have been in place for years, as well) and are part of a historic cemetery have disappeared into the black hole that is PARD. Not only did these benches have emotional and historic value, frankly they are also worth hundreds of dollars. But because PARD cannot be bothered with documenting its actions, even when this public entity seizes a citizen's personal property, the people of Austin has no way of discovering the fate of these benches. Destroyed and discarded? Sold to an antiques dealer or a metal recycler? Given away to decorate somebody's garden? As far as PARD is concerned, that is for them to know and us never to find out.
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