Butte County Grand Jury
• 2007-2008
Butte County Grand Jury Report Mosquito Abatement Districts*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F4, F6
Findings and Recommendations 5 findings
F2
All pesticide technicians at Butte County's three MADs are licensed, certified applicators. In addition to their initial qualifications, they are required by the state to acquire an additional forty hours of continuing education every two years. Classroom training at annual conferences or district meetings, as well as self-directed educational videos, satisfies this requirement.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
BCMVCD should expand their use of the internet for educating the public. We recommend a website with links under "Local Resources" at the Butte County website, modeled after that of the Butte County Air Quality Management District. It should include information about but not limited to: Fogging schedules • News releases • Special assessment fees and policies · Information about pesticides used · Balancing health risks of mosquito caused illnesses versus control methods
F3
During the course of the Grand Jury investigation, employee-management relation issues and employee morale came to our attention. We intentionally chose not to describe these issues specifically. We decided, without prejudice, that these issues were best resolved in other forums available. These forums include, but are not limited to, those outlined in the BCMVCD District Policy Manual, those negotiated by the Labor Union representing some employees, the District Trustees and ultimately, the City Councils and County Board of Supervisors that appoint them. The mosquito abatement districts serving Butte County residents use pesticides in very low volumes that are also considered safe, as permitted by law, for controlling the mosquito population and for preventing diseases transmitted from mosquitoes. West Nile Virus and other mosquito borne diseases present a far greater danger to the public than the pesticide control methods used.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
The Grand Jury encourages BCMVCD management to take affirmative steps to improve employee-management relations for the sake of improved efficiency that comes with employee morale. We do not believe the Grand Jury can be an effective mediator of such issues.
F5
There are local landowners who, by the nature of their land use, cause extraordinary quantities of mosquitoes to breed, resulting in a public nuisance and a potential health hazard. These typically have large areas with standing water such as wildlife refuges, rice growers, and duck clubs. BCMVCD has a policy to bill these landowners the cost of the pesticides used to control the mosquito populations on their property. During the 2007 calendar year, at least 32 land tracts were billed between $200.00 and $48,000.00 each, a total of approximately $200,000.00. Owners that fail to pay these costs voluntarily are subject to formal abatement proceedings in accordance with the Health and Safety Code. These costs are dependent on several factors, as required to bring the mosquito population under control, as defined by the policy. Some landowners are concerned that they are being singled out or unfairly charged so we are including this policy, a sample invoice, and a recent material cost sheet (Appendix B). All three districts are represented and are actively involved in the West Nile Virus Task Force.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
Butte County LAFCO should proceed with a Municipal Service Review for MADs in
F7
Educational materials and information about pesticides used, mosquito prevention methods, and mosquito borne diseases can be obtained by contacting MAD offices. See an example in Appendix C. Free mosquito fish are available for the public at each of the district offices. Additional information about mosquito borne diseases can be obtained at Butte County Department of Public Health. The county's MADs do not have their own website but the following websites have information about West Nile Virus: http://www.buttecounty.net/publichealth/cder/wnv.html • http://www.westnile.ca.gov/ •
No recommendations for this finding
F8
Butte LAFCO has scheduled another Municipal Service Review for MADs for 2009
No recommendations for this finding
Additional Recommendations 2
These recommendations are not explicitly linked to specific findings.
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R1The districts continue participation in the West Nile Virus Task Force and provide ongoing education to the public.
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R4This Grand Jury has chosen not to make a recommendation on whether the three districts should consolidate, but to try and make the voters aware of all options. In the event of future ballot measures for additional special parcel tax assessments, voters should be aware of the consolidation alternative.
No Responses Found 1
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
Butte County Mosquito and Vector Control District
Special District
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.