Death Becomes a Government Capacity Issue: Big Questions for Local Government Death Management

Abstract

As local governments in the U.S. are largely responsible for managing death, questions emerge about organizational capacity loses for a public service that is everywhere yet often unknown and unseen. While mass fatality events and pandemics might bring death front and center, it abounds each day in land use questions, death investigation infrastructure, public personnel and resource allocation, training, leadership, and more. In this invited commentary, we introduce the death management capacity to frame a series of big questions facing the practice of local government death management while also setting a future-looking research agenda all guided by a practitioner co-author.

Keywords

death management big questions cemetery urban planning

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ansell

C. K.

Comfort

Keller

LaPorte

Schulman

(2021). The loss of capacity in public organizations: A public administration challenge. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 4(1), 24–29.

Baracskay

(2013). Future directions in intergovernmental relations. Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 36(2), 252–269.

Barton

M. A.

(2018, December 10). Undertakers of last resort: Indigent burials on the rise, denting county budgets. County News. https://www.naco.org/articles/undertakers-last-resort-indigent-burials-rise-denting-county-budgets

Basmajian

Coutts

(2010). Planning for the disposal of the dead. Journal of the American Planning Association, 76(3), 305–317.

Behn

R. D.

(1995). The big questions of public management. Public Administration Review, 55(4), 313–324.

Brite

Heiland

F. W.

Balk

(2025). Understanding deep disadvantage at the end of life: A nationwide analysis of unclaimed deaths. Social Science & Medicine, 365, Article 117551.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Coroner and medical examiner laws. https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/php/coroner/index.html

Clayden

Green

Hockey

Powell

(2018a). Cutting the lawn − Natural burial and its contribution to the delivery of ecosystem services in urban cemeteries. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 33, 99–106.

Clayden

Green

Hockey

Powell

(2018b). Natural burial: Landscape, practice and experience. Routledge.

10.

Coutts

Basmajian

Salkin

Merriam

(2013). Planning for the deceased (Planning Advisory Service Report No. 572). American Planning Association.

11.

Coutts

Basmajian

Sehee

Kelty

Williams

P. C.

(2018). Natural burial as a land conservation tool in the US. Landscape and Urban Planning, 178, 130–143.

12.

Davies

P. J.

Bennett

(2016). Planning, provision and perpetuity of deathscapes—Past and future trends and the impact for city planners. Land Use Policy, 55, 98–107.

13.

Dentzer

(2018). Cemeteries are known for perpetual care. Salt Lake City’s cemetery needs some. https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/04/22/cemeteries-are-known-for-perpetual-care-salt-lake-citys-cemetery-needs-some/

14.

Dick

(2025). Volunteers needed in Bemidji for Greenwood Cemetery storm cleanup. https://lptv.org/volunteers-needed-in-bemidji-for-greenwood-cemetery-storm-cleanup/

15.

Donahue

A. K.

Selden

S. C.

Ingraham

P. W.

(2000). Measuring government management capacity: A comparative analysis of city human resources management systems. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10(2), 381–412.

16.

Dritschilo

(2022, July 7). Evergreen Cemetery looks to city to stave off bankruptcy. Rutland Herald. https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/local/evergreen-cemetery-looks-to-city-to-stave-off-bankruptcy/article_cd382864-30b3-544c-9d2f-0eec6fa912c2.html

17.

Dritschilo

(2024, March 21). Rutland’s Evergreen Cemetery to cease operations. Rutland Herald. https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/local/rutlands-evergreen-cemetery-to-cease-operations/article_1f38f770-72eb-599c-82f3-1ffc05e08e61.html

18.

Dunlap

D. D.

(2012). Many cemeteries damaged, but Green-Wood bore the brunt of the storm. https://archive.nytimes.com/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/many-cemeteries-damaged-but-green-wood-bore-the-brunt-of-the-storm/

19.

Dutton

(2024). For decades, calls for reform to Idaho’s troubled coroner system have gone unanswered. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/idaho-coroner-law-failed-reform

20.

Ellig

(2015). State funeral regulations: Inside the black box. Journal of Regulatory Economics, 48(1), 97–123.

21.

Francis

Kellaher

Neophytou

(2005). The secret cemetery. Berg.

22.

G. Brown Design. (2017). Salt Lake City Cemetery master plan final draft. http://www.slcdocs.com/Cemetery/SLC%20Cemetery%20Master%20Plan_Final%20Draft.pdf

23.

Grindle

M. S.

Hilderbrand

M. E.

(1995). Building sustainable capacity in the public sector: What can be done? Public Administration and Development, 15(5), 441–463.

24.

Haneman

V. J.

(2021). Funeral poverty. Richmond Law Review, 55(2), 387–445.

25.

Hanzlick

(2006). Medical examiners, coroners, and public health: A review and update. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, 130(9), 1274–1282.

26.

International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association. (2025, October 13). New video resource available for cemeteries and funeral homes to promote the importance of permanent memorialization. https://iccfa.com/blog/new-video-resource-available-for-cemeteries-and-funeral-homes-to-promote-the-importance-of-permanent-memorialization/

27.

Iowa Administrative Code. (2018). Iowa Administrative Code § 126. State of Iowa. https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/iac/rule/641.126.3.pdf

28.

Jensen

(2025). Beyond census metrics: Toward a more inclusive understanding of rurality and its effects on organizational capacities in Georgia. The American Review of Public Administration, 55(7–8), 593–614.

29.

Laderman

(2003). Rest in peace: A cultural history of death and the funeral home in twentieth-century America. Oxford University Press.

30.

Longoria

(2014). Are we all equal at death?: Death competence in municipal cemetery management. Death Studies, 38(6), 355–364.

31.

McClymont

Sinnett

(2021). Planning cemeteries: Their potential contribution to green infrastructure and ecosystem services. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 3, Article 789925.

32.

Milligan

(2023). Resurrectionists, criminals, and the unclaimed. In Willey

Gavette

Bartelink

E. J.

Milligan

C. F.

(Eds.), Archaeology and bioarchaeology of anatomical dissection at a nineteenth-century army hospital in San Francisco (pp. 33–44). University of Florida Press.

33.

National Funeral Directors Association. (2025). Cremation and burial report. https://nfda.org/news/media-center/nfda-news-releases/id/9786/nfda-releases-2025-cremation-burial-report-comprehensive-insights-to-guide-the-future-of-funeral-service

34.

National Funeral Directors Association. (2024). Statistics. Retrieved from: https://nfda.org/news/statistics

35.

National Science and Technology Council. (2016). Strengthening the medicolegal death-investigation system: Improving data systems. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/NIJ/251423.pdf

36.

Neumann

F. X.

Jr. (1996). What makes public administration a science? Or, are its “big questions” really big? Public Administration Review, 56(5), 409–415.

37.

Nordh

Evensen

K. H.

(2018). Qualities and functions ascribed to urban cemeteries across the capital cities of Scandinavia. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 33, 80–91.

38.

Novak

Herguth

(2018, February 3). Despite law, medical examiner investigators go to fewer than 1 in 5 death scenes. https://chicago.suntimes.com/2018/2/3/18396467/despite-law-medical-examiner-investigators-go-to-fewer-than-1-in-5-death-scenes

39.

Olson

Wilson

(2024). The Affordable (Death) Care Act: Radical reformation of federal funeral regulation to address funeral poverty. Wake Forest Law Review, 59, 963–979.

40.

Olson

(2014). Flush and bone: Funeralizing alkaline hydrolysis in the United States. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 39(5), 666–693.

41.

Pablo

A. L.

Reay

Dewald

J. R.

Casebeer

A. L.

(2007). Identifying, enabling and managing dynamic capabilities in the public sector. Journal of Management Studies, 44(5), 687–708.

42.

Patterson

P. M.

Lofaro

R. J.

(2024). Death, actually: Emboldening theory and praxis when death is all around. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 46(1), 13–34.

43.

Paynter

Berner

(2014). Organizational capacity of nonprofit social service agencies. Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 37(1), 111–145.

44.

Prickett

Timmermans

(2024). The unclaimed: Abandonment and hope in the City of Angels. Crown.

45.

Pulver

D. V.

(2023). When the dead don’t stay buried: The grave situation at cemeteries amid climate change. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/14/climate-change-cemetery-effects/7882519001/

46.

Rugg

(2000). Defining the place of burial: What makes a cemetery a cemetery? Mortality, 5(3), 259–275.

47.

Säumel

Butenschoen

Kreibig

(2023). Gardens of life: Multifunctional and ecosystem services of urban cemeteries in Central Europe and beyond—Historical, structural, planning, nature and heritage conservation aspects. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10, Article 1077565.

48.

Seroka

(1989). Public administration and planning in rural areas. Journal of Planning Literature, 4(4), 430–444.

49.

Sloane

(1991). The last great necessity: Cemeteries in American history. Johns Hopkins University Press.

50.

Statista. (2025). Death care services in the U.S. – Statistics & facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/4731/death-care-services-in-the-us/

51.

Stevens

(2018). Graveyards of the contiguous USA. https://www.joshuastevens.net/blog/graveyards-of-the-contiguous-usa/

52.

Town of Blacksburg. (2025). Cemeteries. https://www.blacksburg.gov/departments/departments-l-z/town-of-blacksburg-cemeteries

53.

United States Census Bureau. (2024). Urban and rural. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/guidance/geo-areas/urban-rural.html

54.

Vinzant

D. H.

Vinzant

J. C.

(1996). Strategy and organizational capacity: Finding a fit. Public Productivity & Management Review, 20(2), 139–157.

55.

Weinberg

Weedn

V. W.

Weinberg

Fowler

(2013). Characteristics of medical examiner/coroner offices accredited by the National Association of Medical Examiners. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 58(5), 1193–1199.

56.

Wickersham

M. E.

Yehl

(2013). The public cemetery: Meeting new challenges in a time of change. Public Manager, 42(4), 62–65.

57.

Zavattaro

S. M.

McCue

C. P.

(2025). Dynamic capabilities, COVID-19, and public sector death management: Introducing the dirty work micro-foundational capability. Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 48(1–2), 37–49.

58.

Zavattaro

S. M.

Wright-Berryman

(2025). Equity at the end: The new American way of death. Emerald Publishing.