Written by John Blythe
In response to Laura Kyt, former secretary of the Kern River Valley Public Cemetery District, I wanted to address and clarify her statement that she submitted in writing at the last Board of Trustees meeting on July 9th that was covered in the Kern Valley Sun article dated July 17th. In her letter, she requested that I be censured for preparing minutes that she felt were inaccurate as they were prepared by me from the June 11th 2024 Board of Trustees meeting. In these minutes there was a statement indicating that I would “refer to Mr. Brown regarding any improprieties of monies collected/expensed from services between the District and the local mortuary”. Mrs. Kyt asked that these be stricken from the public record.
The statement that was made by me during an administrative report at the June 11th meeting was in response to the Kern Valley Sun article on June 5th, 2024 regarding Mr. Rob Guidry, owner of the local mortuary. In that article, Mr. Guidry made an accusation against the District regarding funds potentially being misused. The article stated “Guidry told the press that he believes the (district’s annual) budget was not properly distributed at the cemetery; and that “I know that taking money from consumers before they die and spending it is not within the law of the state.” This accusation seemed to be in relation to how the District was investing it’s pre-need money and insinuating that it was an impropriety. According to the District’s Board Chairman Harry Schustz, Mr. Guidry subsequently called him in the latter part of May to discuss this very issue. In addition, after talking to Cody Criswell, field representative for Supervisor Philip Peters, shortly after this article was published, Mr. Criswell also indicated that Mr. Guidry made the same accusations and Mr. Criswell tried to help clarify with relation to Mr. Guidry’s concerns, but was apparently not accepting of it.
In my report at the June 11 board meeting, I was specifically addressing Mr. Guidry’s accusations that he had made because he was in the audience and I felt it was necessary to address his comments that he made which were not accurate in the Kern Valley Sun article dated June 5th. Because he did not seem to want to let it go, that’s when I said I would refer it to Mr. Danny Brown (the district cemetery consultant who the board had retained) to look into it. It was a way to try and satisfy Mr. Guidry’s continued complaints that he was accusing the district of because I personally did not believe Mr. Guidry’s claims in all of my years associated with the District.
For the record, I DO NOT believe there were any improprieties with district pre-need money as it has been a common practice for nearly all of the public cemetery districts in the State of California to invest money to earn interest off of. The District has had a financial adviser, Sandra Wheeler out of San Luis Obispo since before I had come on the board in 2012. She was originally with Wells Fargo Advisors and she is now with Stifel Investments and specifically helps California special districts with fund accounts they are holding to earn interest as long as they are within the guidelines of the California Government Code. Mrs. Wheeler gives an annual report about these funds every year and will be either in person or over the phone at the District’s August board meeting. In all of my years serving on the Board of Trustees, Mr. Guidry never came to a board meeting to express this belief why he felt this was wrong for the District to be doing this or at least ask for clarification and as far as I know, he did not report his concerns to former manager Randy Kyt or former secretary Laura Kyt.
After conferring with an attorney, Mr. Guidry already went to the Kern Valley Sun to air his grievances about this issue, so therefore it is already out in the public and he has apparently made public comments about this matter since then.
