Five days after a widely-viewed and contentious Tulare Public Cemetery District meeting on Thursday May 22, three district board trustees handed in their resignation.
On Tuesday May 27, Vice Chairperson Charlie Ramos, Secretary Patricia Hitlin, and Treasurer Michelle Lima submitted notices of resignation. Only trustees Xavier Avila and Steve Present remain on the board.
Ramos’ term ended in January of 2026, while Hitlin and Lima’s terms ended in January of 2028. Ramos had been on the board since 2021, and the other two since January 2024.
The resignations were first briefly discussed Wednesday morning at the Visalia Public Cemetery Board meeting.
Chairperson Geneva Philpot said the Visalia Cemetery Board “keeps track now and then of what goes on at the Tulare Cemetery.”
“The people change on the Tulare Cemetery Board, but the situation doesn’t,” Philpot said.
Philpot was elected to the California Association of Public Cemeteries six times and is a big proponent of training. She said that the continued mismanagement of Tulare Cemetery wouldn’t happen if the board were better trained.
Can’t conduct official business
With only two board members, Avila and Present, the board cannot conduct business – three of the five board seats must be filled and present at a meeting to have a quorum.
A quorum is the minimum number of board members that must be present at meetings to make their decisions valid.
Tulare County Supervisor Pete Vander Poel confirmed the board members’ resignations in a statement to the Valley Voice.
“The Clerk of the Board has received the unexpected written resignation letters of three members of the Tulare Public Cemetery District. They are processing the vacancies now. As the appointing authority, we are working to fill the vacancies in a timely manner,” an email read.
Vander Poel has been in this position before.
In September of 2017, Alberto Aguilar was hurriedly sworn in a few days before a board meeting when the Tulare County Board of Supervisors approved his appointment to fill Trustee Toni Chavez’ seat.
He joined Trustees Phil Deal and Vicki Gilson to make a quorum so the board could meet.
Chavez had resigned two months earlier on July 12, but she and the administration at that time kept her resignation a secret.
Trustee Phil Vandegrift also secretly resigned, allegedly on September 11, leaving the board unable to function.
Why resign?
After a long, thoughtful pause, Lima told the Voice that she resigned because, “as long as that board has a cancer on it no good can be done.”
Lima did not specify what the “cancer” was.
Lima responded to the fact that the Voice has reported on the continuing problems since 2017 by saying, “look back and see who has been on the board since then.”
“The other board members who resigned would say the same thing,” she said.
“You want a respectable place for your loved ones,” Lima said, “and I had a whole beautification project I wanted to put in place. But you can’t get any work done with the current issues. The majority of the board was trying to do good work.”
“Resigning was a somber experience but I am at peace,” said Lima. “I had to unsubscribe from the crazy channel.”
Presant said that Hitlin resigned for health reasons but that Ramos told him he couldn’t “continue on the board with a problematic board member.”
Presant did not specify who Ramos was referring to.
Presant said that cemetery administration and employees continue working as usual and operations at the cemetery have not been disrupted.
He added that they hired a new lead foreman who had made huge improvements to the grounds and was excited keep the two cemeteries beautiful.
“The cemetery is operating smoothly as if nothing has happened,” Presant said.