Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2009
SLO County Supervisors to come up with ways to control spread of diseases by rodents, insects after failed vector control vote
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closeThe failure of the county-wide vector control vote last month will force the county to react to vector-caused crises rather than head them off, Supervisor Chairman Bruce Gibson said Tuesday.
At a meeting at which Health Director Jeff Hamm formally declared that property owners had rejected the measure by a 2-1 margin, supervisors sought some assurance that residents would have some protection against Valley fever, mosquitoes and other vectors.
A vector is an organism that carries pathogens from one host to another, such as rodents or mosquitoes.
Hamm didn’t have much optimism for supervisors, beyond pointing out that the existing program will last through the end of this year.
Curt Batson, county environmental health director, said last week that “Essentially, we are dismantling the existing program so that come Jan. 1 there will be no mosquito abatement services provided by the county."
“We will react to public health threats,” Gibson reassured the public, but he said he regretted that the county had to be “reactive rather than proactive.”
Asked what the county can do, Hamm said supervisors had asked departments to slash budgets and he did so with vector control, which, he added, was only one item on a long list of cuts.
Supervisors asked him to come back before the end of the year with suggestions on how to control the spread of disease by vectors
Hamm said he won’t be able to provide concrete information until he sees how badly the state has cut its apportionment to counties.
Two audience members assailed the vector control vote. North County cattle rancher Charlie Whitney called the vote “a tremendous waste of time…and money.”
Atascadero citizen activist Eric Greening said the county spent a quarter of a million dollars on the vector vote. That money “is gone, and we’re not getting it back,” Greening said.
He urged the county to do a better job of informing and persuading the public the next time it puts such a vote on the ballot.
If the measure had passed, the owner of an average single-family home would have paid $9.80 more in property taxes. This would have generated $1.1 million annually for a comprehensive program to control disease-carrying pests, and staffing for that work would have gone from two to five and a half positions with three seasonal employees.
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