Petition Seeks End to Pest Agency

Opening another line of attack on the embattled Moorpark Mosquito Abatement District, former City Councilwoman Eloise Brown has launched a petition drive demanding that the district be dissolved and most of its $1.4-million reserve be turned over to the city.

The petitions ask the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees the creation of districts, to approve disbanding the pest-control organization. If the commission agrees, the issue would be put before Moorpark voters in an election.

Brown started circulating the petitions Wednesday after growing tired of what she called the City Council’s lack of action on the issue. In amassing such a large reserve, she said, the mosquito district is wasting tax dollars.

“It’s time that we looked at the cost and what’s happening to our tax money,” she said. “Essentially, what I hope my petition will do is provide the city the impetus to go forward vigorously. But whether they do or not, this will go forward.”

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The district was formed in 1960 to fight the clouds of flies and mosquitoes generated by immense chicken ranches outside Moorpark, which at the time was a small, unincorporated farming town. But now, with many of the chicken coops gone, critics complain that the organization has outlived its usefulness.

The district has also come under fire for charging property owners an average of $14 each year while the county’s pest control service, which covers every other Ventura County community, charges $1.12.

City leaders are studying the issue but have not taken a formal position on the mosquito district’s future. The City Council on Wednesday asked Mayor Pat Hunter and Councilman Chris Evans to meet with district and county leaders to assess possible plans for improving, reshaping or dissolving the district.

“We have not been moving slowly,” Hunter said Thursday. “We have been doing research to see what our options are. That can be a time-consuming endeavor, but this is a complex case.”

Members of the district board, meanwhile, say they have their own ideas for cutting the size of the reserve fund. Members Jim Hartley and Bill La Perch are studying a plan under which the district would forgo all tax income for about 10 years and live off its reserve, Hartley said.

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But Hartley insisted that Moorpark still needs the district to protect against insects.

“Our consensus is there’s a need in the community for this type of agency to exist,” he said.

He added that the board would listen to any plan for providing the same services for less money. “If you can show a real cash savings, and keep the same level of service, we want to hear it,” he said.

Brown’s petition asks that the city of Moorpark be responsible for winding up the affairs of the mosquito district should voters decide to shut it down. The city could pay the county’s pest-control program to cover Moorpark, Brown said. Or Moorpark officials could hire the district’s employees to provide the same service they do now, an idea first floated by Councilman Chris Evans two weeks ago.

The district’s money would be distributed between Moorpark and Ventura County. Since most of the taxpayers who support the district live in Moorpark, the city would receive about 90% of the reserve, Brown said.