Bug District Seeks to Shrink Cash Stockpile

Under fire for stockpiling a $1.4-million reserve, the Moorpark Mosquito Abatement District may either stop collecting property tax money for about 16 years or try to give most of the stockpile away.

A report discussed Tuesday by district trustees presented those two options for cutting the size of the reserve and, at the same time, ending the current furor over the district and its finances.

If trustees select the first option, they would simply notify the county each year that they did not need the percentage of property tax receipts that the county now sets aside for the district. For most Moorpark taxpayers, they said, this would create an annual tax cut of about $9. The district would live off its reserves until it again needed the income, which isn’t expected until about 2013.

“If we can reduce it, we’ve got the cash reserve, we’d be tickled to do it,” said trustee Jim Hartley, who prepared the report with trustee Bill La Perch.

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Under the second option, the district could try to give about $1.1 million back to the taxpayers. However, because giving the money to individual taxpayers could prove difficult, perhaps impossible, the district would give it instead to Ventura County and the city of Moorpark to use for pest control.

The trustees held off making any decision about which route to take, preferring to wait until after Hartley and La Perch had a chance to meet with city and county officials.

The proposals, however, did not quiet critics of the district, which was created in 1960 to fight insect infestations in and around Moorpark.

City Councilman Chris Evans, who has proposed that the city take over the district and hire its two full-time employees, said the first option could prove disastrous. He doubted assurances given by Ventura County Auditor Thomas Mahon that the district could give up its assessment and get it back when needed.

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“If we did that, I would want some ironclad guarantees, and some collateral,” he said.

He worried that once the district gave up its share of the property tax, some other government agency might try to take it.

Keith Jajko, an aide to Supervisor Judy Mikels, said before the meeting that cutting the district’s share of tax revenue to zero still would not address the fundamental question concerning the district’s future.

“Finances kind of spurred the interest in this special district, but the real question remains: Do we need this level of government?” he said.

Mikels and others have questioned whether Moorpark still needs its own pest-control service. Many of the chicken ranches that were once located just outside of town have closed, and the clouds of flies they bred have disappeared.

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Critics have also noted that all other residents of Ventura County pay just $1.12 annually for pest-control services provided by a county-run office. Moorpark is the only city in Ventura County with an independent insect control agency.

Although Moorpark officials have not yet taken an official position on the board’s future, they have appointed Evans and Mayor Pat Hunter to meet with Mikels and district trustees to examine the district’s finances and fate.

And former city councilwoman Eloise Brown recently launched a petition drive hoping to force the Local Agency Formation Commission to call for a public vote on dissolving the district.

Evans said after Tuesday’s meeting that had the board voted to stop accepting taxes, the city might have been forced to take legal action to stop them. He was pleased the trustees chose to postpone making a decision until after meeting with him and Hunter, which is tentatively scheduled for April 23.

“We’d rather work with them than against them,” he said.