Cemetery work could resume

GLENDALE — The attorney representing Grand View Memorial Park stakeholders will ask a judge today to modify a city order that has prohibited maintenance and clean-up work, officials said.

The cemetery, which is embroiled in a series of lawsuits stemming from October 2005 when state inspectors found the remains of about 4,000 people that were never buried or properly disposed of there, has been closed to public visits since June as part of an evidence preservation order.

The city attorney’s office filed a public nuisance abatement action in September against cemetery operator Moshe Goldsman and the estate of former cemetery owner Marsha Lee Howard, who died in November 2006, ordering the defendants to bring the cemetery and its grove of brittle, flammable trees up to safety standards in order to reestablish a limited public visitation schedule.

If the cemetery does the necessary work, the city will drop the nuisance abatement complaint, City Atty. Scott Howard said. If the cemetery does not do the work, the abatement complaint would allow the city to mitigate the issue without the property owner’s consent and then seek reimbursement, he added.

But an existing evidence preservation order prohibiting the property owner from altering the physical state of the facility must be removed before the work can be done, said David Baum, the attorney representing Goldsman.

Goldsman has tried to work with the city on this, said Mike Grant, senior assistant city attorney.

“Here’s proof that Mr. Goldsman has made an enormous effort to get these violations remedied in response to the city’s lawsuit,” Grant said. “We filed it in September, and they started right away in trying to get estimates and other preparations, including checking how much money is in the endowment fund.”

Since filing the lawsuit in September, city officials have met with Goldsman periodically to negotiate a maintenance plan that includes an above-ground irrigation system and tree trimming to abate fire hazards, Grant said.

Paul Ayers, the attorney representing family members suing Grand View and its owners, welcomed Goldsman’s apparent steps toward cleaning up the cemetery.