§ 90-210.23.  Powers and duties of the Board.

(a) The Board is authorized to adopt and promulgate such rules and regulations for transaction of its business and for the carrying out and enforcement of the provisions of this Article as may be necessary and as are consistent with the laws of this State and of the United States.

(b) The Board shall elect from its members a president, a vice-president and a secretary, no two offices to be held by the same person. The president and vice-president and secretary shall serve for one year and until their successors shall be elected and qualified. The Board shall have authority to engage adequate staff as deemed necessary to perform its duties.

(c) The members of the Board shall serve without compensation provided that such members shall be reimbursed for their necessary traveling expenses and the necessary expenses incident to their attendance upon the business of the Board, and in addition thereto they shall receive per diem and expense reimbursement as provided in G.S. 93B-5 for every day actually spent by such member upon the business of the Board. All expenses, salaries and per diem provided for in this Article shall be paid from funds received under the provisions of this Article and shall in no manner be an expense to the State.

(d) Every person licensed by the Board and every resident trainee shall furnish all information required by the Board reasonably relevant to the practice of the profession or business for which the person is a licensee or resident trainee. Every funeral service establishment and its records and every place of business where the practice of funeral service or embalming is carried on and its records shall be subject to inspection by the Board during normal hours of operation and periods shortly before or after normal hours of operation and shall furnish all information required by the Board reasonably relevant to the business therein conducted. Every licensee, resident trainee, embalming facility, and funeral service establishment shall provide the Board with a current post-office address which shall be placed on the appropriate register and all notices required by law or by any rule or regulation of the Board to be mailed to any licensee, resident trainee, embalming facility, or funeral service establishment shall be validly given when mailed to the address so provided.

(d1) The Board is empowered to hold hearings in accordance with the provisions of this Article and of Chapter 150B to subpoena witnesses and to administer oaths to or receive the affirmation of witnesses before the Board.

In any show cause hearing before the Board held under the authority of Chapter 150B of the General Statutes where the Board imposes discipline against a licensee, the Board may recover the costs, other than attorneys' fees, of holding the hearing against all respondents jointly, not to exceed two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500).

(e) The Board is empowered to regulate and inspect, according to law, funeral service establishments and embalming facilities, their operation, and the licenses under which they are operated, and to enforce as provided by law the rules, regulations, and requirements of the Division of Health Services and of the city, town, or county in which the funeral service establishment or embalming facility is maintained and operated. Any funeral establishment or embalming facility that, upon inspection, is found not to meet all of the requirements of this Article shall pay a reinspection fee to the Board for each additional inspection that is made to ascertain that the deficiency or other violation has been corrected. The Board is also empowered to enforce compliance with the standards set forth in Funeral Industry Practices, 16 C.F.R. 453 (1984), as amended from time to time.

(f) The Board may establish, supervise, regulate and control programs for the resident trainee. It may approve schools of mortuary science or funeral service, graduation from which is required by this Article as a qualification for the granting of any license, and may establish essential requirements and standards for such approval of mortuary science or funeral service schools.

(g) Schools for teaching mortuary science which are approved by the Board shall have extended to them the same privileges as to the use of bodies for dissecting while teaching as those granted in this State to medical colleges, but such bodies shall be obtained through the same agencies which provide bodies for medical colleges.

(h) The Board shall adopt a common seal.

(h1) The Board shall have the power to acquire, hold, rent, encumber, alienate, and otherwise deal with real property in the same manner as a private person or corporation, subject only to approval of the Governor and the Council of State. Collateral pledged by the Board for an encumbrance is limited to the assets, income, and revenues of the Board.

(h2) The Board may employ legal counsel and clerical and technical assistance, and fix the compensation therefor, and incur such other expenses as may be deemed necessary in the performance of its duties and the enforcement of the provisions of this Article or as otherwise required by law and as may be necessary to carry out the powers herein conferred.

(i) The Board may perform such other acts and exercise such other powers and duties as may be provided elsewhere in this Article or otherwise by law and as may be necessary to carry out the powers herein conferred. (1901, c. 338, ss. 5, 6, 7, 8, 11; Rev., ss. 4386, 4387, 4389; C.S., ss. 6779, 6780, 6783; 1949, c. 951, s. 3; 1957, c. 1240, s. 2; 1969, c. 584, s. 2; 1973, c. 476, s. 128; 1975, c. 571; 1979, c. 461, ss. 8, 9; 1987, c. 827, s. 1; 1991, c. 528, s. 3; 1993, c. 164, s. 1; 1997-399, ss. 2, 3; 2003-420, s. 5(a), (b); 2007-531, s. 3.)