2008 Minutes

942nd MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT
October 8, 2008

President James Kohnen called the Board meeting to order at 5:01 p.m.

All Trustees were present for the meeting.

The minutes of the 941st meeting held September 10, 2008 were reviewed and approved (Garcia/Edwards – unanimous with abstentions from Bray, Centeno, Doggett, and Quinn).

Chairman Denny McLeod provided the report from the Long Range Planning Committee. The committee is continuing to move forward on succession planning. The committee reviewed updated and expanded job description for the District Manager a new job description for Administrative/Finance Manager. These job descriptions should be ready for the whole Board to consider at the November 10th meeting.

President Kohnen, Chairman of the West Nile Virus (WNV) Committee and District Entomologist, Bruce Kirkpatrick, provided an update on WNV activity. West Nile Virus (WNV) activity in Alameda County has been detected in fourteen birds, 1 squirrel, 1 mosquito pool, and 1 human so far in 2008. There are fewer mosquitoes being caught in traps and none have tested positive in the last month.

The Board discussed a memo from Richard Shanahan, MVCAC General Counsel, providing a legal opinion that Board members are employees of the District for IRS purposes. The Board members had several questions to take back to Mr. Shanahan and our audit firm concerning using 1099 forms versus W2s and whether we could retain our policy of only providing in-lieu of expenses payments for those attending a meeting of the Board or a committee meeting during the month. This item will be discussed again at the November Board meeting.

The Board approved a request from the District Manager for authorization to fill the vacant position of Environmental Specialist and if an in-house selection to backfill the newly vacated position (Golden/Edwards – unanimous).

The Board reviewed the warrants dated September 15, 2008 numbering 010809 through 013309 amounting to $203,484.24 and warrants dated September 30, 2008 numbering 013409 through 016409 amounting to $86,412.53.

The manager presented the Monthly Operational Report for September. The District received a total of 112 requests for service during the month. There were 24 mosquito-biting reports. The ten-year average for adult mosquito service requests in September is 35.5. 58 requests for mosquitofish were received and 30 requests for inspections of potential mosquito sources.

The Board received updates from the District Manager on several other outside agencies:

The Alameda County Chapter of the California Special Districts Association’s next chapter meeting is scheduled for November 12th at the Union Sanitary District office at 5072 Benson Road Union City, CA 94587-2508. There will be a LAFCO election held at the end of the meeting to select a new special district member on the LAFCO Board. The CSDA annual conference was held September 22-25 in Irvine, Jim Kohnen, who is now a CSDA Board Member and Bruce Kirkpatrick attended.

The next quarterly meeting of the association is October 29-31 in South Lake Tahoe. Dennis Bray, Denny McLeod, and John Hughes will attend along with the District Manager and Entomologist.

The Local Agency Investment Fund statement for August 31, 2008 shows a fund balance of $142, 911.24.

The District website, www.mosquitoes.org was not operational from the end of August until the second week of September due to a corrupted index page. It was back in operation shortly after the September Board meeting.

The District Manager reported that Trustee appointment letters will be sent to: Alameda, Berkeley, County, Fremont, Livermore, Pleasanton, and Union City by the end of October.

Under reports on conferences attended:

President Kohnen reported on the CSDA conference held in Irvine at the end of September. He said there were a number of motivational speakers and finance meetings but the emergency planning seminar was perhaps the most important. There was a brief discussion amongst the Board members about the District’s participation in the county OES system. Trustee Marisel Brown said she would provide some Emergency Planning information to the District since her agency just completed training.

President Kohnen asked if there were any items to add to agenda for the next Board meeting in November, hearing none, the meeting was adjourned at 5:53 p.m.

                                                                                                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                                                                          _________________________
                                                                                                                                         John D. Hughes, Secretary

Approved as written and/or corrected

at the 943rd meeting of the Board of

Trustees held November 12, 2008

__________________________

James Kohnen, President

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

941st MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT
September 10, 2008

President James Kohnen called the Board meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.

Trustees Bray, Centeno, Doggett, and Quinn were absent from the meeting.

The minutes of the 940 th meeting held August 13, 2008 were reviewed and approved (Edwards/Washburn – unanimous).

The Board approved a request from Sharon Mead, Systems Specialist with the District, for a 4 month leave of Absence beginning in November (McLeod/Prola – unanimous).

Chairman Denny McLeod provided the report from the Long Range Planning Committee. The committee is continuing to move forward on succession planning. An updated and expanded job description for the District Manager position will be brought to the Board in November and a new job description for Office Manager will be developed. The committee is also reviewing the recommendation of the LAFCO Municipal Service Review to include the city of Albany in our service area.

President Kohnen, Chairman of the West Nile Virus (WNV) Committee, provided an update on WNV activity.

West Nile Virus (WNV) activity in Alameda County has been limited to detection in six birds so far in 2008. The birds were found in Oakland (1), Pleasanton (2), Livermore (2), and Alameda (1). A pool of WNV positive mosquitoes was detected in Fremont near Auto Mall Parkway and Grimmer Bl..

The Second Reading of the Safety Boot policy was approved by the Board (Golden/Washburn – unanimous.). This adds an additional $25 to the safety boot allowance.

      §305. Safety Boots.  The District, in order to reduce injuries to workers,will provide an allowance not to exceed $125.00     

      $150.00 per fiscal year per employee to purchase safety boots that meet Cal/OSHA standards for toe and penetration   

      protection.  Safety shoes are to be above ankle height.  Employees are to be reimbursed up to the allowance set by the 

      Board upon presenting a receipt of purchase to the District.  Employees may have the option of purchasing safety boots at an

      approved supplier that will then bill the District.

The discussion on procedures for handling disruptive members of the public was held until Trustee Quinn has an opportunity to review a draft policy.

The Board reviewed a Notice of Non-Compliance from the City of Hayward for not submitting electronic reports on monitoring well sampling. The letter requires a work plan to be submitted within 90 days of receipt. The Board approved a proposal from Geocon Consultants Inc. to review the files, monitor the well, submit a summary report and remove the well for a not-to-exceed amount of $11,865 (Golden/McLeod – unanimous).

The Board reviewed the warrants dated August 15, 2008 numbering 005609 through 008109 amounting to $84,460.94 and warrants dated August 31, 2008 numbering 008209 through 010709 amounting to $90,885.03.

The manager presented the Monthly Operational Report for August. The District received a total of 130 requests for service during the month. There were 23 mosquito-biting reports. The ten-year average for adult mosquito service requests in August is 51.4. 66 requests for mosquitofish were received and 41 requests for inspections of potential mosquito sources.

The Board received updates from the District Manager on several other outside agencies:

The Alameda County Chapter of the California Special Districts Association’s met on September 10th at Zone 7. The main topic of discussion was water conservation as speakers from ACWD, EBMUD, DSRSD and Zone 7 described the conservation steps that each were taking and how the public has responded. The CSDA annual conference is September 22-25 in Irvine, Jim Kohnen, who is now a CSDA Board Member and Bruce Kirkpatrick will be attending.

The next quarterly meeting of the association is October 29-31 in South Lake Tahoe. Dennis Bray, Denny McLeod, and John Hughes will attend along with the District Manager and Entomologist.

The Manager also reported that the District website had been experiencing some problems (fixed as of September 11th). Also, Michael O’Connor from R.J. Ricciardi CPAs had met with President Kohnen and started work on the annual audit.

President Kohnen asked if there were any items to add to agenda for the next Board meeting in October, hearing none, the meeting was adjourned at 5:42 p.m.

                                                                                                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                                                                          _________________________
                                                                                                                                         John D. Hughes, Secretary

Approved as written and/or corrected

at the 942nd meeting of the Board of

Trustees held October 8, 2008

__________________________

James Kohnen, President

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

940th MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT
August 14, 2008

President James Kohnen called the Board meeting to order at 5:02 p.m.

Trustees Brown, Centeno, Garcia, Prola, Quinn and Spinola were absent from the meeting.

The minutes of the 939 th meeting held July 9, 2008 were reviewed and approved (Edwards/Golden – unanimous).

Chairman Denny McLeod provided the report from the Long Range Planning Committee. The committee is moving forward on succession planning. The committee is reviewing the curriculum vitaes of candidates interested in being considered for future promotion.

President Kohnen, Chairman of the West Nile Virus (WNV) Committee, provided an update on WNV activity.

West Nile Virus (WNV) activity in Alameda County has been limited to detection in two birds so far in 2008. One bird was a crow found at Merritt College in Oakland and the other a mallard duck found at the Dublin San Ramon Services District Water Treatment facility in Pleasanton . This is a similar amount of activity as that seen in 2007 when there were three WNV positive birds reported for Alameda County by the end of July. There is one human case listed for Alameda County that was an individual who was infected in Mendocino County based on travel history and incubation time.

David Edwards, Chair of the Personnel/Salary Committee reported that he had reviewed the Employee Manual which has recently been updated to include the latest MOU, Organization Chart, PERS Health Rates for 2009 and the VCJPA Driver selection program which includes a District DMV pull program. He also provided a first reading of a new safety boot policy which reads:

     §305.Safety Boots.  The District, in order to reduce injuries to workers,will provide an allowance not to exceed $125.00            

     $150.00 per fiscal year per employee to purchase safety boots that meet Cal/OSHA standards for toe and penetration               protection.  Safety shoes are to be above ankle height.  Employees are to be reimbursed up to the allowance set by the Board

     upon presenting a receipt of purchase to the District.  Employees may have the option of purchasing safety boots at an

     approved supplier that will then bill the District.

The first reading of the policy was approved by the Board (Golden/Hughes – unanimous).

Karen Sweet , Executive Officer of the Alameda County Resource Conservation District, provided information on her district and how our two districts interact on rural water sources. ACMAD’s mosquitofish planting protocol was changed to help protect Red-legged frogs and California Tiger Salamander habitat in stock ponds throughout the County. ACMAD no longer plants mosquitofish in stock ponds. There are over 800 stock ponds in the County.

The Board reviewed the warrants dated July 15, 2008 numbering 000109 through 001909 amounting to $66,433.22 and warrants dated July 31, 2008 numbering 002009 through 005509 amounting to $93,309.32.

The manager presented the Monthly Operational Report for July. The District received a total of 187 requests for service during the month. There were 29 mosquito-biting reports. The ten-year average for adult mosquito service requests in July is 47.0. 100 requests for mosquitofish were received and 55 requests for inspections of potential mosquito sources.

The Board received updates from the District Manager on several other outside agencies:

The Alameda County Chapter of the California Special Districts Association’s next chapter meeting is scheduled for September 10 th at the Zone 7 office at 100 North Canyons Parkway in Livermore . The CSDA annual conference is September 22-25 in Irvine, Jim Kohnen, who is now a CSDA Board Member and Bruce Kirkpatrick will be attending.

The latest Local Agency Investment Fund account statement for June 2008 is included in your packets. The balance is $141,818.16.

The Alameda County Fair ended July 6. We `won 2 first place ribbons for Appearance – Invitational Exhibit, and second place ribbons for Best of Class, Educational Value, Adherence to Theme, and Use of Special Effect & Creativity. The District received a check for $1280 for the Alameda County Fair awards. Part of the award was used to purchase a barbeque and food for an employee lunch last week.

The Summer Meeting was held on July 24th at Sac/Yolo MVCD in Elk Grove. The main business action was to approve the annual budget and provide the new management company, Smith Moore Associates with feedback from membership on areas that still need to be improved on as they complete the transition from the Blanning and Baker management. The MVCAC Board did approve the purchase of management software called Affiniscape that should improve the handling of membership information and registration for meetings and conferences. The next quarterly meeting of the association is October 29-31 in South Lake Tahoe .

The District’s Vector Control Joint Powers Authority member contingency and property fund balances for June 30, 2008 were $100,730 and $48,106 respectively. We paid the VCJPA insurance costs of $60,056.00 out of the member contingency fund in July.

Under announcements from the Board:

Jim Kohnen reported that he had already attended three meetings of the California Special Districts Association Board in Sacramento .

Jim Golden and Dave Edwards turned in their certifications for Public Service Ethics Education as required by AB 1234.

President Kohnen asked if there were any items to add to agenda for the next Board meeting in September, hearing none, the meeting was adjourned at 6:02 p.m.

                                                                                                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                                                                          _________________________
                                                                                                                                         John D. Hughes, Secretary

Approved as written and/or corrected

at the 941st meeting of the Board of

Trustees held September 10, 2008

__________________________

James Kohnen, President

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

939th MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT
July 9, 2008

President James Kohnen called the Board meeting to order at 5:02 p.m.

Trustee Washburn was absent from the meeting and Trustee Bray called in and participated via phone.

Due to scheduling conflicts the meeting agenda was changed so that all the action items could be completed.

District Manager John Rusmisel presented the final draft of the District budget for fiscal year 2008/2009. Services and Supplies, Capital Expenditures, Salaries, Benefits, and the Revenues and Expenditures were discussed in detail. The budget is based on $1.74 special tax and $2.50 benefit assessment rates.

President Kohnen opened the public hearing on the proposed budget and tax rate. There were no members of the public present. The public hearing had been posted in Alameda County newspapers on Sunday, July 6, 2008 and was posted on the District website and front window. Since there were no members of the public present the hearing was closed.

Resolution 939-1 was unanimously approved by the Board. (Spinola/Prola – unanimous.)

By a roll call vote, the manager's proposed 2008/09 budget was passed by the following Resolution:

           RESOLVED:

                     That the following be, and the same is hereby adopted as the estimate of the Board as the amount required for fiscal

                      year 2008/09

                                         Salaries and Employees' Benefits             $1,710,977

                                         Services and Supplies                                      534,810

                                         Capital Expenditures                                           98,000         

                                         Reserve for Contingencies                                 25,000

                                         General Reserve                                             1,404,043

                                         Debt Service                                                       222,071

           THE AMOUNT TO BE FUNDED BY THE FOLLOWING METHODS:

                                         Property Taxes                                              $1,550,000

                                         Special Taxes                                                     805,000

                                         Benefit Assessment                                        1,050,000

                                         Interest on pooled money                                     20,000         

                                         Charges for services                                               5,000

                                         Sale of property and equipment                            5,000

                    Cash carried over                                               990,200

           THE SPECIAL TAX TO BE FIXED AT THE FOLLOWING RATES PER PARCEL IN THE FISCAL YEAR 2008/09

           PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 50077:

                                         Single Family Residential                             $1.74/year

                                         Residential (2-4 units)                                      3.50/year

                                         Multiple dwellings (5 units or more)                 8.74/year

                                         Mobile Home Parcels                                      8.74/year

                                         All other parcels                                                1.74/year

THE BENEFIT ASSESSMENT TO BE SET AT RATE OF $2.50 PER SINGLE FAMILY EQUIVALENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE ENGINEER’S REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008-09 WITH ESTIMATED TOTAL REVENUES AS SET FORTH IN THE ENGINEER’S REPORT; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED : That a certified copy of the foregoing resolution be forwarded to the County Auditor and Board of Supervisors pursuant to law.

The minutes of the 938th meeting held June 11, 2008 were reviewed and approved (Garcia/Golden – unanimous with abstentions by Doggett, Edwards and Spinola).

Chairman Denny McLeod provided the report from the Long Range Planning Committee. The committee is moving forward on succession planning. Basic strategy was discussed in a closed session because of the personnel issues discussed. A more detailed job description for the manager will be developed and interviews with interested employees done in the future. The committee will meet at 4:30p.m., August 13th, prior to the next Board meeting to discuss succession.

President Kohnen, Chairman of the West Nile Virus (WNV) Committee, provided an update on WNV activity. Counts of Culex tarsalis have been increasing and they are being found in urban traps as well as rural trap locations. The prolonged heat wave will activate WNV throughout the State in the coming weeks. There are still no WNV positive birds or mosquito pools in Alameda County even though all the surrounding counties have had virus activity to report. Two seasonal employees have been hired to help with WNV surveillance and control. Trustee John Hughes had forwarded a news story about a change in the WNV that is allowing it to reproduce quicker during hot spells in areas thought to be too far north or too cool for the virus to be active. The committee will meet at 4:30p.m., August 13th , prior to the next Board meeting.

The Board reviewed the warrants dated June 15, 2008 numbering 060508 through 062908 amounting to $62,237.53 and warrants dated June 30, 2008 numbering 063008 through 065308 amounting to $80,318.98. Trustee Prola asked about using a different vendor in place of Walmart due to their employment practices.

The manager presented the Monthly Operational Report for June. The District received a total of 259 requests for service during the month. There were 27 mosquito-biting reports. The ten-year average for adult mosquito service requests in June is 55.5. 154 requests for mosquitofish were received and 73 requests for inspections of potential mosquito sources.

The Board received updates from the District Manager on several other outside agencies:

The Alameda County Chapter of the California Special Districts Association The Chapter met this morning at the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) office in Oakland . The featured speaker was Susan Muranishi, Alameda County Executive officer, she spoke on strategic planning being done by the County. There was also a film about Bob Walker, a photographer well known for his beautiful pictures of east bay parklands, he died in 1992. Elections were held for chapter officers for the next two years, Doug Siden, EBRPD Board Member, was reelected President and Tim Barry, GM for Livermore Parks and Recreation District, was elected Vice President/Treasurer.

The latest Local Agency Investment Fund account statement for May 2008 shows a balance of $140,818.16.

The Alameda County Fair ended July 6. The theme this year was “Out of the gate in 2008” celebrating 150 years of horse racing and the Agricultural building theme was “Corn”. We had an educational booth featuring a vacant home with an neglected swimming pool. We `won 2 first place ribbons for Appearance – Invitational Exhibit, and second place ribbons for Best of Class, Educational Value, Adherence to Theme, and Use of Special Effect & Creativity.

The Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California (MVCAC) Summer Meeting is Thursday, July 24th at 9:00 a.m. at Sac/Yolo MVCD in Elk Grove. This is a one day meeting with no committee meetings planned at this time.

Under announcements from the Board:

Jim Kohnen will be attending the California Special Districts Association Board Meeting next week in Sacramento . He asked the manager to register him for the annual conference that will be held in Irvine in September.

Trustee David Edwards asked if the DMV record pull plan had been added to the Employees manual. This item will be reported on at the next Board meeting.

President Kohnen asked if there were any items to add to agenda for the next Board meeting in August, hearing none, the meeting was adjourned at 5:45 p.m.

                                                                                                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                                                                          _________________________
                                                                                                                                         John D. Hughes, Secretary

Approved as written and/or corrected

at the 940th meeting of the Board of

Trustees held August 13, 2008

__________________________

James Kohnen, President

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

938th MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT
June 11, 2008

President James Kohnen called the Board meeting to order at 5:06 p.m.

Trustees Spinola, Doggett, Edwards, Flashman and Washburn were absent from the meeting.

John Ostarello, a resident of Hayward, was present at the meeting.

The minutes of the 937th meeting held May 14, 2008 were reviewed and approved (Golden/Garcia – unanimous).

Trustee Jim Golden provided the report from the Long Range Planning Committee. City by City results of the benefit assessment balloting were distributed (the highest level of approval was 85.89% from the city of Piedmont ). The Board needs to determine the benefit assessment rate so that the consultants at SCI can prepare the final engineering documents for the County Assessor. Now that the benefit assessment project has been completed the committee will focus on succession planning at the District. The committee will meet at 4:30p.m. July 9th, prior to the next Board meeting to discuss succession.

Trustee John Hughes provided the report for the Finance Committee. The committee interviewed representatives from R.J. Ricciardi, Inc. and Charles Z. Fedak and Company to determine which company to recommend for a three year contract to provide audit services. The committee’s recommendation was to contract with R.J. Ricciardi, Inc. because they had the lowest responsible bid and had great references from two other mosquito districts. The Board unanimously approved the recommendation (Bray/Quinn – unanimous).

President Kohnen asked District Entomologist Bruce Kirkpatrick to provide an update on West Nile Virus activity. Dr. Kirkpatrick stated that WNV was more advanced this year with four times more infected birds reported compared to the same time last year. There has also been a sharp increase in the number of mosquito pools found with the virus, mostly in the southern portion of the State. Contra Costa, San Joaquin, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties have all reported birds with WNV in the last week and Contra Costa and Santa Clara have had positive pools of mosquitoes. President Kohnen said the committee is recommending hiring two seasonals, one for the lab and one for field operations as soon as possible.

The Board reviewed the warrants dated May 15, 2008 numbering 055608 through 057808 amounting to $60,609.60 and warrants dated May 31, 2008 numbering 057908 through 060408 amounting to $78,114.53.

District Manager John Rusmisel presented the first draft of the District budget for fiscal year 2008/2009. Services and Supplies, Capital Expenditures, Salaries, Benefits, and the Revenues and Expenditures were discussed in detail. The budget is based on $1.74 special tax and $2.50 benefit assessment rates. The salaries and benefits have been agreed to in a two year MOU with employees, there will be a 3% increase in salaries and most of the health benefits remain the same except for a 15% increase in Delta Dental fees. There was discussion on the Environmental Specialist position and if and when it could be filled (and assuming an in house promotion, a new Mosquito Control Technician) the Board wants to discuss this more, so for now, the budget will be amended to show the position filled in January but no action taken until Board approval. Capital Expenditures includes replacing two vehicles and an ATV. The Services and Supplies section of the budget restores elements that had been cut in the past due to budget constraints and is $350K less than this year (due to benefit assessment costs this fiscal year). Several Board members and Mr. Ostarello asked about the cost of renting the color copier and the maintenance cost compared to owning a color printer. The Manager will provide a cost comparison at the July meeting. The final version of the budget will be approved at the July 9, 2008 Board Meeting.

The manager presented the Monthly Operational Report for May. The District received a total of 328 requests for service during the month. There were 43 mosquito-biting reports. The ten-year average for adult mosquito service requests in May is 79.3. 203 requests for mosquitofish were received and 82 requests for inspections of potential mosquito sources.

The Board received updates from the District Manager on several other outside agencies:

The Alameda County Chapter of the California Special Districts Association will meet on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at the EBRPD office in Oakland . The featured speaker will be Susan Muranishi, Alameda County Executive officer. There will also be a film about Bob Walker, a photographer well known for his beautiful pictures of east bay parklands who died in 1992. The officers for the next fiscal year will be selected, Mr. Rusmisel stated that he is not running for office after serving for the last six years as vice president.

The latest account statement for April 2008 is included in your packets. The balance is $140,818.16.

The Alameda County Fair is scheduled for June 20 - July 6. The theme this year is “Out of the gate in 2008” celebrating 150 years of horse racing and the Agricultural building theme is “Corn”. The District will have an educational booth featuring a vacant home with an unmaintained swimming pool and other mosquito sources around the yard.

The Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California (MVCAC) Summer Meeting is Thursday, July 24 th at 9:00 a.m. at Sac/Yolo MVCD in Elk Grove. This is a one day meeting with no committee meetings planned at this time.

Under announcements from the Board:

Dennis Bray asked for information on AB 2765 Huffman at the next meeting to see how it might impact mosquito abatement operations if enacted.

Jim Golden reminded trustees to get their ethics training certificates in to the District office. He asked the manager to send reminders to those who haven’t done so yet.

Ron Quinn requested directions to EBRPD offices so that he can attend the special district association meeting on July 9 th .

President Kohnen asked if there were any items to add to agenda for the next Board meeting in July, hearing none,

the meeting was adjourned at 6:44 p.m.

                                                                                                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                                                                          _________________________
                                                                                                                                         John D. Hughes, Secretary

Approved as written and/or corrected

at the 939th meeting of the Board of

Trustees held July 9, 2008

__________________________

James Kohnen, President

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

937th MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT
May 14, 2008

President James Kohnen called the Board meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.

Trustee Edgar Centeno was absent from the meeting.

John Ostarello, a resident of Hayward, spoke to the Board about the benefit assessment, criticizing the increase of 286% and asking what it would be used for in the future.

Sophia Limnios, a resident of Castro Valley, also spoke to the Board about the benefit assessment, she is unhappy with the 5:00 p.m. starting time for the meetings and the high increase of the benefit assessment.

The minutes of the 936th meeting held April 30, 2008 were reviewed and approved (Golden/Prola – unanimous).

The public hearing of April 30, 2008 was continued with Jeff Ira, a CPA with C.G. Uhlenberg LLP, providing the benefit assessment ballot tally information to the Board. He reported the following:

The canvass of the assessment ballots submitted by property owners is complete and certified by C.G. Uhlenberg, the independent tabulation firm contracted to tabulate the returned ballots, and the General Manager of the District, and the votes cast are as follows:

Total Number of Valid Ballots Processed:    96,360

Total Assessment Amount of Valid Ballots:     $595,157.62

Total Number of “Yes” Votes Processed:     71,949

Total Assessment Amount of “Yes” Votes Processed:    $417,766.96

Total Percentage of “Yes” Assessment Amount:     70.19%

Total Number of “No” Votes Processed:     24,411

Total Assessment Amount of “No” Votes Processed:     $177,390.66

Total Percentage of “No” Assessment Amount:     29.81%

Total Number of “Invalid” Ballots Processed:     1,534

Total Assessment Amount of “Invalid” Ballots:     $9,557.98

President Kohnen thanked Mr. Ira and asked if the District could receive a breakdown on the results by city or zip code.

John Bliss from SCI will work with C.G. Uhlenberg on obtaining the city by city breakdown of the ballots.

Resolution 937-1, a resolution of the Board of Trustees of the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District approving Engineer’s Report, confirming diagram and assessment, and ordering levy of the Mosquito and Disease Control Assessment for fiscal year 2008-2009 was unanimously approved by the Board (Golden/Washburn – unanimous).

In the discussion preceding the vote, Trustee Washburn asked about the amount of the assessment being approved on the resolution. John Bliss from SCI said the amount is up to $5.00 for the next fiscal year. Trustee McLeod thanked all the members of the Long Range Planning Committee, Trusees Golden, Washburn, Quinn and Bray for their hard work on the benefit assessment. He also thanked Bruce Kirkpatrick and other staff for answering the thousand of calls from the public. Trustee McLeod then thanked the District Manager and John Bliss and Laquel Wright from SCI Consulting for planning the benefit assessment program. Trustee Flashman said that he disagreed with the comments from the public at the beginning of the meeting, he believes the District has a very justified need for the additional funding and that without it we would have had to lay off some employees. He did note that 30% of the public were not in favor of the assessment.

The District Manager provided the Board with the results of the RFP for auditing services. Four accounting firms submitted proposals to the District. The Finance Committee will meet with several of the firms prior to the June 11, 2008 Board meeting and make a recommendation at that meeting.

President Kohnen reported that the West Nile Virus committee had met with District Entomologist Bruce Kirkpatrick prior to the Board meeting. West Nile Virus has gotten off to a slow start in the state this season but the warmer weather should change that. Two charts showing WNV activity in Alameda County for the years 2003-2007 and 2008 California activity were passed around. Trustee Doggett asked for copies to be provided to all Trustees at future.

The Board reviewed the warrants dated April 15, 2008 numbering 050308 through 052508 amounting to $467,434.04 and warrants dated April 30, 2008 numbering 052608 through 055508 amounting to $85,253.61. There was a question regarding the payment of virus testing to the MVCAC, this is a pass through that goes to the University of California.

The manager presented the Monthly Operational Report for April. The District received a total of 272 requests for service during the month. There were 49 mosquito-biting reports. The ten-year average for adult mosquito service requests in April is 51. 157 requests for mosquitofish were received and 54 requests for inspections of potential mosquito sources.

The Board received updates from the District Manager on several other outside agencies:

The Alameda County Chapter of the California Special Districts Association met on May 7th at Washington Hospital in Fremont. Dr. Moses Tagihoff, retired neurosurgeon gave a presentation on the future of neuroscience and later led a tour of the Gamma Knife facility. Carole Watson, Chief Investment Officer for United Way of the Bay Area gave a presentation on the quality of life challenges for Alameda County Residents. Next chapter meeting is July 9th at the EBRPD headquarters in Oakland . Katy Foulkes ran unopposed for the Enterprise Special District seat on Alameda County LAFCO so she will serve another two year term.

The CSDA Legislative Day was Monday, May 12th at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento . Jim Kohnen attended the event. The State Budget was the main topic of discussion. The CSDA Region 3 Board seat is open and Jim Kohnen has submitted an application to run for this position. President Kohnen reported that he had just been notified that he was appointed to the CSDA Board.

The Local Agency Investment Fund statement for March 2008 shows a balance of $140,362.99.

KCBS radio has put together a regional public awareness campaign for the Coastal Region mosquito abatement districts. If 6 districts participate there would be 132 infomercials on KCBS, 720 Streaming Infomercials on KCBS.com and banner ads with links to Bay Area West Nile Virus Info.com which will also have links to individual district websites. Cost is the same as last year, $5,000.

The Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California (MVCAC) Spring quarterly meeting of the association was held in Monterey May 1 & 2. Denny McLeod and the District Manager attended. All of the committees of the Association met and are busy working on a host of important issues including West Nile Virus surveillance, Continuing Education certification being taken away from the DPH budget, State-wide CEQA development, and finances. The next meeting will be a one day event at Sacramento Yolo MVCD in Elk Grove on July 24th.

Kristi Lawrence from Fresno MVCD and Margaret Finlay from San Gabriel Valley MVCD are running for the Alternative Trustee Representative on the Vector Control Joint Powers Agency Board of Directors.

Denny McLeod reported on the MVCAC meeting in Monterey. He sat in on most of the committee meetings. He reported that other districts have much higher benefit assessment rates than the one that Alameda County voters approved.

Jim Kohnen reported that he had completed all four of the training sessions for the CSDA Special Governance Certificate. He attended the CSDA legislative day in Sacramento on Monday and has been appointed to the Region 3 seat on the Board.

Dennis Bray asked to be notified about future mosquitofish give-aways so he can notify cattleman and horse groups. Trustee Bray also mentioned that Google has foreclosure maps available on their site that we can use for swimming pool searches.

Jan Washburn thanked John Rusmisel and Joseph Huston for staffing a table at the Bug Day event held at the UC Botanical garden on a recent weekend.

President Kohnen asked if there were any items to add to agenda for the next Board meeting in June, hearing none,

the meeting was adjourned at 6:40 p.m.

                                                                                                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                                                                          _________________________
                                                                                                                                         John D. Hughes, Secretary

Approved as written and/or corrected

at the 938th meeting of the Board of

Trustees held June 11, 2008

__________________________

James Kohnen, President

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

936th MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT
April 30, 2008

SPECIAL BOARD MEETING

President James Kohnen called the Board meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.

Approved as written and/or corrected

at the 937th meeting of the Board of

Trustees held May 14, 2008

__________________________

James Kohnen, President

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

935th MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT
April 9, 2008