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Vector control charge unchanged
By Joe Naiman
The Alpine Sun
SAN DIEGO — For the second consecutive
year, the County of San Diego left its vector control assessment
rate unchanged from the previous year.
The assessment for Fiscal Year 2009-10 will be $5.92
for a single-family home, which is the same rate adopted for
2007-08 and 2008-09. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors,
who serve as the board of the county’s Vector Control District,
voted July 22 to continue the assessment at its existing level.
“We continue doing some real good work,” said county
Department of Environmental Health assistant director Jack
Miller. “We are controlling our costs at the same time.”
The vector control assessment is in addition to a
service charge, which remains at $3.00 for the coastal region
and $2.28 for the suburban and rural regions.
“It’s an important time to try to control costs,”
Miller said.
The primary goal of the county’s vector control
program, which is administered by the Department of
Environmental Health, is to prevent vectors from reaching public
nuisance or disease thresholds by managing vector habitat while
protecting habitat values for vector predators and other
beneficial species. The vector control program’s functions
include early detection of public health threats through
comprehensive surveillance, protection of public health by
controlling vectors and exposure to vectors, and appropriate and
timely responses to customer service requests.
The California Health and Safety Code defines a vector
as any animal capable of transmitting an agent of human disease
or producing human discomfort or injury. This includes rodents,
bats, and other small vertebrae along with insects such as
mosquitoes, flies, mites, and ticks. The county’s vector control
program identifies vector species, recommends techniques for
their prevention and control, and anticipates and minimizes any
new interactions between vectors and humans.
The county’s vector control program is funded by a
vector control district, which levies a benefit service charge.
The original rate when the service charge was adopted in 1989
was $3.80 per property, and in 1995 the assessment was reduced.
Three regions were established to address differing service
levels, and from 1995 to 2005 the base rates defined as a
single-family home were $3 per property for the coastal region
and $2.28 per property for the suburban and rural regions.
In 2003 the county adopted its West Nile Virus
Strategic Response Plan which won awards from both health and
government organizations but reduced the level of effort against
other vectors and depleted the vector control program’s
reserves. Hantavirus and plague monitoring was reduced by 75
percent, and in 2004 the county’s first hantavirus case was
discovered in Campo.
Rather than seeking additional funding only to restore
previous levels, a larger assessment to fund an enhanced program
was proposed. In 2005 the county’s property owners voted to
approve an additional assessment of $8.55, which raised $9.5
million for the program.
The enhanced program increased program staff,
surveillance for the detection of plague and hantavirus, tick
testing, and mosquito traps. Aerial applications were expanded
from 27 sites in 2005 to 39 in 2006 and 42 in 2007, potential
breeding sources were treated monthly, and approximately 2,000
known mosquito breeding sites are now monitored and treated.
Public education and burrow dusting for plague were also
expanded. The average response time for complaints was reduced
from eight days to three and field responses were provided for
all rat complaints. The vector control program also developed a
rat control starter kit and implemented on-line reporting of
dead birds.
The 2008-09 activities included increasing mosquito
larvicide treatment by aerial application on sites not treatable
by land, development of a vector habitat remediation program
which is scheduled to be presented to the Board of Supervisors
in November along with a Program Environmental Impact Report,
response to a 125 percent increase in complaints from the
public, and distribution of 1,300 rat control starter kits to
residents and business owners during site inspections.
The assessment covers all properties in San Diego
County, including those in incorporated cities and those owned
by government agencies. A single-family home is assessed the
base rate, agricultural property with a house is assessed the
base rate plus nine cents per acre, and agricultural property
without a house is assessed the base rate per 100 acres.
The 2009-10 budget expects to draw upon $550,662
currently in the Vector Trust Fund along with $440,000 of
interest income from that trust fund. The benefit assessment
will fund $5,346,536 while the service charge will raise
$2,360,936.
The $8,698,134 in anticipated revenue will allow for
$8,698,133 in planned spending which will cover $4,004,557 in
salaries and benefits for permanent staff and seasonal workers,
$2,404,281 for services and supplies including larvacides and
aerial applications as well as outreach materials, $1,377,252
for the vector habitat remediation program, $609,377 for
external overhead and other incidental costs, and $302,666 for
transportation and equipment costs.
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