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“Let’s Talk Tulare Cemetery District! Xavier Avila Joins Hopper In The Morning Monday 8.15.22”

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Alex and Catherine
No ! It doesn’t work that way . The Tulare Public Cemetery is a government agency . We are never going to contact a family where a complaint was initiated by a third party , even from a board member . It would be bad policy to do otherwise. Can you name one government agency that would do this ? No one will because it’s a bad practice . There is no substitute for the contracted family to make complaints. Board members bringing complaints to the manager will be viewed as that board members personal issues and not as a complaint from anyone else . It is too confusing otherwise . Alberto came in to talk to Clara about a number of different issues. He had 46 pictures of the cemetery and only six of those pictures where about this family’s burials . He had many other concerns he talked to her about .

As for an apology. The Cemetery is not going to start a bad precedent by apologizing for complaints that the board finds to have no merit. We are not afraid to apologize when we fail . We have failed before and responded appropriately. At this point the Chair has sent the family a letter apologizing for the weeds and the branches however the district fulfilled the contract . Everything else has been explained. Customer Service requires the customer to communicate with the agency.
Alberto failed this family. He should have encouraged them to contact the office with their complaints.

I have nothing but sympathy for this family. I hate seeing people in a state of grieving and vulnerability get exploited by people with a agenda. Alberto was the wrong person to take this too . Any other board member would have encouraged the family to contact the office and make a complaint.

Bingo! Thank you Catherine for sharing some common sense. Customer Service and setting expectations & timelines in improving the cemetery grounds should be the District Board’s #1 Priority. Not increasing salaries and/or cutting corners.

We are all witnessing what is known as the “Dunning–Kruger effect”, whereby people with low ability, expertise, or experience regarding a certain type of a task or area of knowledge tend to overestimate their ability or knowledge.

Urgh, so offensive.

The issue is that Clara was informed of the family’s concerns June 27, and their complaint should have been addressed, and an apology issued, June 28. I wouldn’t know the Fernandes family if I tripped over them, but I’d bet, given my 60 years on this earth, that the family probably would not be asking for their money back if Clara had dealt with this complaint the day she was informed about it.

I’m sorry but this family got exploited by Alberto and the ValleyVoice. The very fact that the letter was given to the ValleyVoice and posted without the families approval and knowledge is clear evidence. Alberto was the wrong person to handle this complaint. He never misses an opportunity to grand stand . They wanted this complaint to make the ValleyVoice . Alberto talk about a lot of other things that had nothing to do with the complaint. Before Alberto handed over the letter to the ValleyVoice why didn’t he tell Clara about this letter? Why didn’t he give it to Clara ? The letter was dated July 6 but Clara didn’t get it until July 11th the same day as the article . Why is that ? Someone is lying to you . Someone is manipulating things

This is not the first time a family has been used for their political agenda. Vicky Gilson during her public comments at the last board meeting informed us that she involved herself by talking to the family.

A family member should have made the complaint to someone at the cemetery office or at the very least given a complaint letter to Alberto to hand deliver to Clara . This miscommunication was intentional. You don’t have a newspaper article if you resolve a complaint.

Your first comment looks like someone feed you with garbage. This is evident by you asking “ is it true Clara had no prior Cemetery experience “ obviously someone has been talking to you. By the way Cindy Summers the manager of the Visalia Cemetery didn’t have any prior Cemetery experience either as many other Cemetery managers don’t have prior experience but they didn’t tell you that did they ? They wanted to make you think that something was wrong . That’s because they are using you to do their dirty work . I have seen them do this before. I’m sure they said all kinds of things in order to get you upset so you will join in . If they told the family of all different kinds of things regarding the cemetery that have nothing to do with the complaint then that’s even more evidence they are exploiting the family .

All this attention is not in the best interest of the family. Alex Gutierrez has already posted your first comment on Caring Cause which is even more evidence .

Loosing a loved one is very traumatic. It takes a while to deal with all the emotions. The grieving process needs to take place . This is not helping the family. Those people are taking advantage of the emotional state of a grieving family.

Call Clara and meet with her . you need to talk about this with her or this whole thing is going interfere with the healing process is even more .

It’s honestly very insulting on how dismissive you are regarding the Almeida Funeral service preparations and also the handling of the gravesite after the lowering of the casket. Your response only demonstrates how simply out of touch you are with what’s actually occurring at the Tulare Public Cemetery.

The cemetery scheduled the Almeida funeral service one week in advance and didn’t have the decency to manicure the gravesite and surrounding areas. Do you find this acceptable?

There was a broken headstone that was left next to where the family was sitting and it was definitely a hazard. Do you find this unthoughtful and irresponsible from the Cemetery Staff under your watch?

When people go to a funeral, they wear proper attire- a suit, dress, dress shirt, etc. You could imagine how hot it gets especially with no canopy. Do you believe in customer service? Or is the the Tulare Public Cemetery services just a money grab?

Since you mentioned “it’s not in the contract”… Can you make a motion at the next Board Meeting to please add the following verbiage to the contract “Please have the cemetery staff actually do their jobs” Maybe that will help!

Those questions are minor compared to the real issues at hand that you, the District Manager and District Chairman keeps dancing around..

The handling of the gravesite after the lowering of the casket was undignified and disgraceful. There was just a pile of dirt above the grave with sunken footprints all over it. It is obvious from the pictures that there was no attempt to use any kind of machinery to level out the dirt or any attempt to level out the dirt until TWENTY DAYS after the funeral date which the family documented. Is this standard practice and do you find this acceptable in any way? It’s just a simple Yes or No answer.

The flowers were not gently laid down as apathetic you make it sound. The family understands that the flowers were going to be placed over the grave. The point you keep ignoring is that they were carelessly thrown over the gravesite and destroyed as shown in the pictures. Is this standard practice? If so, do you find this acceptable in any way?

Lastly, Ms. Fernandes did her due diligence and notified a Tulare District Board Member Mr. Aguilar on the same day of the funeral service to express her concerns. She also followed up with a letter because she never heard back from anyone? Why do you and the District Chairman keep saying Ms. Fernandes never reached out? Isn’t Mr. Aguilar a representative of the District Board of the Tulare Public Cemetery? Why didn’t Clara reach out the family right away after Mr. Aguilar told her about it instead of being dishonest to a family member that she put in writing saying she didn’t know anything about their complaint?

Are you insinuating that if Ms. Fernandes reached out to you instead, the outcome would be favorable?

It’s appalling that Ms. Fernandes and her family were unknowingly and involuntarily caught up in an internal feud between Board Members and had to deal with this nonsense during her grieving state. This has been causing a lot of unwarranted stress to the family. You, the District Manager and the District Chairmen should all be ashamed of yourselves!

As for Yolanda Allen’s comments,
I deleted her comment below after an acquaintance of hers said she regretted writing them and requested that I take them down. Ms. Allen posted the below comment on the Valley Voice website July 11 at 4:50pm.

“Mrs. Fernandes,

Did you take these pictures yourself? I see Trustee Aguilar’s pickup in the background. Was he already informed and didn’t discuss with the other Trustees before you went public?

I agree that it’s unacceptable, I’m just curious as to why it was published here before asking the cemetery itself.”

Good advise Mr. Zen, thanks! I am leaving this conversation and will now hide out in a good book! 🙂

Barbara
Nice attempt at a deflecting my question’s .
You are a fairly honest person and if you thought the answer to my questions , if Alberto and the ValleyVoice acted in the best interest of the family was YES you certainly would have said Yes . Which means you don’t think they acted in the best interest of the family.
The problem isn’t the board getting along . The problem isn’t news articles. I don’t care about how many articles there are , as long as they are fair .
The real problem is a little political group of people who want control of the cemetery . Catherine is part of that group even though she denies it . I got a email with her and the others collaborating. Albetto inadvertently sent it to a person that he shouldn’t have sent it too . Alberto and Vicky Gilson are on this email.
Their plan is to make the board and its manager lives a living hell . So we will all quit . They certainly cannot have a successful manager or cemetery because that defeats their agenda.

Lots of other cemeteries have problems but Catherine ignores those . Look how she put Visalia Cemetery board member Geneva Philpot’s comments in this story . Geneva has nothing to do with it . Vicky Gilson admitted at our last board meeting that she contacted and met with the family. She has nothing to do with the cemetery board anymore so why is she getting involved. Do you think it’s in the best interest of the family. It’s not . She is looking to exploit them . This is why they keep crying to replace the board . So they can get control. They already did that once . These people do not care about the cemetery. They have done things to hurt it . The. Catherine is their spin doctor. Her provides them cover .

Now look at Alex’s comments above and how he questions Clara’s qualifications. That’s exactly what thesecpeople want . I have seen them exploit a few families. I had communication with both of the families involved with the disinterments . Both families were contacted by Vicky Gilson. Both families told me she wanted to know if they were going to sue the cemetery . Both families told me they didn’t want nothing to with her.

The board treated both of those families with respect. One family member was very upset by Vicky Gilson’s prying. The board is very capable of handling these situation . Outside interference doesn’t help these families. People using grieving families as pawns in their game is down right evil .

Clara is now their target. That’s why Catherine wrote an article about her pay . Shame her and shed her in a negative light . Wear her out . Get her to quit. Get people against her ! This very thing is happening right under your nose . You need to wake up . No one good wants to work for a cemetery that gets attacked by a newspaper. No other cemetery has this to deal with . The Tulare Cemetery is one of the best cemeteries in Tulare County. We have a lot of room for improvement but right now we are one of if not the best . Other cemeteries have issues too . What they don’t have is a band of people trying to damage them and a newspaper posting hit piece articles.

So as long as Clara is getting attacked , get used to me pushing back . I’m never going to stop . Insult me all you want . I have been lnsulted by the best . All of you people who resort those tactics combined wouldn’t hold a candle to Carton Jones. I respect honesty . I respect those who work for what’s good . Ask yourself Barbara . What kind of person are you . I don’t need you to answer me on this one . You can keep it to yourself. Are you the type of person that builds or destroys .