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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 5211
February Session, 2022
Referred to Committee on JUDICIARY
Introduced by:
(JUD)
AN ACT CONCERNING THE APPLICATION OF THE FREEDOM OF
INFORMATION ACT TO CERTAIN CEMETERY ASSOCIATIONS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 19a-296 of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2022): 2
(a) Cemetery associations shall be organized in accordance with the 3
provisions of sections 33-1025 to 33-1047, inclusive, and shall not be 4
conducted for the purposes of speculation in cemetery lots and 5
property, or for private gain, either directly or indirectly, to any of the 6
members of any such association; and land for the enlargement of a 7
cemetery may be taken in accordance with the provisions of section 48-8
18. 9
(b) The board of directors or board of trustees of any cemetery 10
association shall hold an annual meeting of the association. At such 11
annual meeting, the board shall accept an annual financial statement 12
that shall contain an accounting of income and expenses of the cemetery 13
association for the preceding fiscal year and an accounting of assets 14 Substitute Bill No. 5211
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owned by the association. Such financial statement shall be included in 15
the minutes of the annual meeting at which such financial statement was 16
accepted. The board shall retain the minutes of such annual meeting for 17
a period of not less than twenty years after the date of such meeting. 18
(c) No officer, director or trustee of a cemetery association may serve 19
as an officer, director or trustee of any company that manages or 20
operates any aspect of the cemetery. 21
(d) Any interested party may petition the [probate court] Probate 22
Court for the district within which the cemetery owned or controlled by 23
a cemetery association is located to require disclosure of the minutes of 24
an annual meeting of the cemetery association including any financial 25
statement required to be included in such minutes. The court may, after 26
hearing, with notice to all interested parties, grant the petition and 27
require disclosure of such minutes for such periods of time as it 28
determines are reasonable and necessary on finding that: (1) The 29
petitioner has an interest in the minutes sufficient to warrant disclosure, 30
and (2) the petition is not for the purpose of harassment. 31
(e) Any cemetery association, organized in accordance with the 32
provisions of sections 33-1025 to 33-1047, inclusive, that receives or 33
expends any public funds, as defined in section 7-401, shall be deemed 34
a public agency for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act, as 35
defined in section 1-200. 36
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2022 19a-296
Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
In Subsec. (e), "shall be a "public agency" and subject to the provisions
of the Freedom of Information Act, as defined in section 1-200", was
changed to "shall be deemed a public agency for purposes of the
Freedom of Information Act, as defined in section 1-200", for accuracy
and clarity.
Substitute Bill No. 5211
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JUD Joint Favorable Subst. -LCO