1. (a) Each licensed funeral establishment must at all times have a designated funeral director in charge, who is ultimately responsible for compliance with all mortuary, health, and vital statistics laws in the funeral establishment. A funeral establishment must designate a funeral director in charge at the time it receives its establishment license, and any time the funeral director in charge changes, the funeral establishment must notify the commission, on a form prescribed by the commission, within 15 days.
2. (b) The funeral director in charge must be generally available in the routine functions of the funeral establishment in order to personally carry out his or her responsibilities.
3. (c) the funeral director in charge may be served with administrative process when violations are alleged to have been committed in a funeral establishment.
4. (d) An individual may not be designated as the funeral director in charge of more than one establishment unless the additional establishments are operated as branches or satellites of a primary establishment, all of the establishments are under the same ownership, same general management, and no establishment is more than 60 miles from any other establishment held under the same ownership conditions.
5. (e) In order to be designated funeral director in charge of more than one establishment, the licensee must submit a petition to the commission that clearly explains how each of the criteria in subsection (d) have been met. The executive director shall decide whether to grant the petition. The request and decision will be made part of the permanent licensing file. The executive director's decision may be appealed, in writing, to the commission, and the appeal will be considered at the commission's next regularly scheduled meeting. The executive director shall advise interested parties of the action taken by the commission in writing.

Source Note:The provisions of this §203.3 adopted to be effective December 1, 1993, 18 TexReg 8532; amended to be effective December 23, 2001, 26 TexReg 10290.