Five Republican County Commissioners Man-splaining Mosquito Control

"And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?"

Matthew 7:3

St. Johns County Commissioners on May 16th goofily discussed our independent Mosquito Control Commission.  They sounded like chauvinistic, sexist, stunningly ignorant control freaks attacking an all-woman elected county board.

It was as almost as  bizarre as if County Commissioners read a news article and decided to question Flagler County's spending decisions. 

On the one hand, perhaps this bodes well that Commissioners finally care about spending.

Miracle of miracles.   Like a barber shop quintet, five Republican County Commissioners actually inquiring about possible government waste!  

As Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. would say, "Surprise, surprise, surprise!"

Bring it on.  

Do it every day.  

Examine every government expenditure with a gimlet eye,

Socrates said, "the unexamined life is not worth living.:

The unexamined expenditure is not worth making.

What's going on here?

This is not the first time that St. Johns County Commissioners wasted our time talking about a county takeover of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County.  

Circa 2008-2010, then St Johns County Administrator Michael David Wanchick and Commissioners targeted Mosquito Control for hostile takeover.  Wanchick and Commissioner saw dollar signs in Mosquito Control's surplus, even getting financial advice from callow amateurs at PFM, ignorant of the fact that Mosquito Control funds could not be used for any other purpose. 

County Commission Chair Thomas G. Manuel wanted a county takeover of all independent special districts and municipalities, all to be run by five Commissioners.  Twice we, the people rejected his monarchical proposed County Charter, which rejected GLBTQ rights protections, contemplated takeovers of Mosquito Control, the Airport Authority, and local municipalities 

Chairman Manuel told me that if the County took over Mosquito Control, Commission would spend "maybe fifteen minutes a year" on it, leaving it to the tender mercies of the Road and Bridge Department. 

Under leadership of AMCD Chair Jeanne Moeller, a three-time cancer survivor, AMCD has become a world leader in the use of natural pesticides, reducing use of organophosphate poisons by 90%.  

Scientists from all over the world learn from AMCD.  

Florida has fifteen independent scientific and technical organizations for mosquito control for a reason: technical competence is vital in defeating mosquitos, the most dangerous animals on Earth -- some 700,000 people a year die from mosquito-borne diseases.  The next pandemic could be a mosquito-borne disease, 

There's little government oversight when Republicans are in power.  

In my experience St. Johns County Commissioners rarely do oversight. It is only after persistent concerns, like Sherrie Badgers' frequent non-agenda public comment testimony about flooding on West Collins Avenue.  

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners has violated the First Amendment, depriving us of a traditional public forum -- it has wrongfully moved non-agenda public comment to the end of meetings, suppressing concerns that blossom into actual oversight, 

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners is ineffectual, dithering and doesn't have a clue what it is doing. 

 Staff support is spotty.

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners rarely does oversight in their own jurisdiction, as established by the recent unanimous vote 5-0 to waste $786,305 on corporate welfare for ENCOMPASS, formerly HEALTHSOUTH, which paid $48 million to the Justice Department to settle fraud claims.

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners won't discuss embezzlement in the Sheriff's office or schedule an independent forensic audit 

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners won't require their favored lobbyists to register,

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners never investigated Open Records violations by County Attorney PATRICK FRANCIS McCORMACK, including the Johnson Controls, Inc. smart water meter hourly water use records for  the home of Deputy Jeremy Banks, the place where Michelle O'Connell was murdered on September 2, 2010.

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners actually have a McCORMACK-drafted  rule prohibiting you from speaking in public comment and "making a demand for immediate action," as revealing a wacky rule as ever written.  

Pompous pachyderms don't like uppity citizens asking them to do something. 

St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners won't even exercise their power under Florida Statute 129.03 to require by May 1 that constitutional officers share their proposed budgets, to allow for informed discussion at the annual budget hearing in the week before Memorial Day,

But, based on tendentious reports undisclosed ex parte discussions, presumably with unnamed pachyderms,  responding to a newspaper article, the County Commission is sending a letter to an independent scientific and technical district, asking it to explained its planned mosquito museum. 

Inconsiderate Commissioners showed a lack of comity and courtesy for their elected members of another collegial governmental body in St. Johns County.  

Every single mosquito control commissioner is elected, county-wide, 

All five County Commissioners are white, male Republicans.

None of the non-partisan elected Mosquito Control Commissioners are Republican.

All five Mosquito Control Commissioners are women.

This looks like political sexist, misognyist man-spraining to me. 

Refusing to keep campaign promises about combating waste, fraud and abuse, refusing to appoint an Independent Inspector General, refusing to conduct regular oversight of county operations, these five Republican County Commissioners want to bully another collegial body?

Bring it on,.  AMCD has competent counsel, and articulate Board members.

But be a man, Chairman Blocker.

Request a joint meeting of the two boards.

Treat the AMCD Board ladies as your equals because they are..

Stop acting like a bunch of bitchy bellyaching borderline bullies  or  demagogues based on a newspaper article. 

Do your damn homework before burdening us with wordy and unworthy discussions about another government agency's business decisions.

In the words of the musical Hamilton

"Talk less, smile more."

Sit up straight, 

Restore our First Amendment right to the longtime public forum of non-agenda public comment at the beginning of our meetings.

----

Watch discussion, and my response, here:

https://stjohnscountyfl.new.swagit.com/videos/116328

(Commissioner reports and public comment in response)

Article from St. Augustine Record, inter alia giving me the last word:

St. Johns County commissioners criticize plans for taxpayer-funded mosquito museum

Some say plans look like wasteful spending

Sheldon Gardner

St. Augustine Record

View Comments

St. Johns County commissioners criticized the Anastasia Mosquito Control District’s plans to build a mosquito museum and insect-focused education centerfor about $3 million, and the Commission is looking for more details on the project. 

Commissioner Jeremiah Blocker said even though the county's hands may be tied on the issue because the mosquito control district is a separate entity, he wanted more information. 

"But I would like to know what's going on with this because I think to me, at first glance, this strikes me as wasteful and not something that we need right now," he said.

St. Johns County commissioners run a budget separate from that of mosquito control, which runs its own special taxing district and levies its own property tax to provide mosquito control services in the county. 

The Anastasia Mosquito Control District board approved an increase in the millage from 0.1312 to 0.2450 for the 2014-15 fiscal year to help build its new facility. 

The district's current property tax rate is 0.2050 mills. For a property with a taxable value of $200,000, that's a tax bill of $41 for the year.

Commissioners still wanted more details about the project while ensuring residents understood the county had no part in approving a $3 million mosquito museum funded by taxpayer dollars. Commissioners agreed unanimously on Tuesday to send a letter to the district with questions about the project. The letter had not been written as of Thursday morning. 

Blocker said he wants to know more about the funding for the project and the purpose behind the effort. 

What to expect at the mosquito museum

The 6,000-square-foot education center at the district’s 120 EOC Drive complex will educate both children and adults about mosquitoes, mosquito control and insect-borne diseases, district Business Manager Richard Weaver said. 

The features will include an insect-themed playground; a flight simulator that takes people on a helicopter spray mission (a method of killing mosquitoes); a theater for demonstrations and films; an outdoor garden; a bat house; displays about mosquito life cycles and diseases; a large mosquito statue; and live-insect displays. 

The mosquito control district Attorney Wayne Flowers said the district built up reserves to pay for the project. 

District Commissioner Trish Becker said in a recent interview with The Record that she believes the cost will be worth it. 

"I hope that a kid goes in there and walks through and goes, 'Wow, maybe I could be a scientist or maybe I could find the cure for Zika,'" Becker said.

More coverage: Modified mosquitoes released in St. Augustine as part of pilot project

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Officials question 'wasteful spending'

County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst agreed with Blocker's concerns. 

"I think it's important to make a strong line in the sand and say, 'Hey, look, this is perhaps wasteful spending and we don't support this, so people understand the board of county commissioners is not funding this or supporting this or in any way associated with this,'" he said. 

Commissioner Henry Dean said he has “some serious questions” about the project. He said, as a resident and taxpayer, he didn't see the justification for the project. He also referenced a previous attempt by the county to have the state dissolve the mosquito control district. 

"So that would be the vehicle if we were to take action, but the first step, I think, is to get some questions answered so that we can tell our constituents. And I agree with Commissioner Whitehurst: This sort of thing is the kind of thing, you know, when the mud starts flying it can land on us, too," he said. 

In 2010, the County Commission voted to ask the county's legislative delegation to seek the dissolution of the district and allow the county to take control of its funds and assets.

The mosquito control district and its board members opposed the move, saying that an independent district will respond better to taxpayers and threats posed by mosquitoes. The state commissioner of agriculture at the time, Charles Bronson, agreed. 

“The advantages of an independent district are that the funds and activities of the program are focused on the single objective of mosquito control without the inevitable distractions of other county programs,” Bronson wrote in a letter to the county in 2008. 

Commissioner Paul Waldron criticized the district's millage increases in recent years, which have gone to pay for things such as their facility on EOC Drive. 

"That's wasteful to me," he said.

During public comment, blogger Ed Slavin supported the mosquito control project and keeping an independent mosquito control district. He criticized commissioners for bringing the issue up during commissioner comments at Tuesday's meeting instead of making it an agenda item and inviting members of mosquito control to comment. 

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” he said of the project.