PHONE
800-231-3236 (toll free)
707-285-2200 (office)
707-285-2210 (fax)
ADDRESS
595 Helman Lane
Cotati, California
94931-9736
HOURS
Monday through Friday
7:00AM to 3:30PM
Early 1900 was an exciting time for communities and public health. The role of mosquitoes and ticks as carriers of infectious organisms had just been discovered. Only a decade before, newspapers headlined the collapse of a $20 million dollar French attempt to dig a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, one of the most disease-ridden areas of the world. In 1904, William C. Gorgas of the U.S. Army Medical Corps began a campaign to eliminate disease-carrying mosquitoes and rodents in the Canal Zone. Within two years he had wiped out yellow fever, eliminated the rats that carried bubonic plague, and greatly reduced the malaria death rate.
A watching public suddenly realized it had the power to change nature. The Panama
Canal was finished and opened in 1914. The Rockefeller Foundation and the U.S.
Sanitary Commission (later to become the U.S. Public Health Service) started a
nation-wide 30-year-long program to control mosquitoes and eradicate endemic
malaria. Successful malaria and mosquito control demonstration programs in Penryn
and Oroville, California in 1910 received widespread publicity. And throughout the
country civic groups now knew that with planning and organization they could greatly
improve the health of their communities.
At that time, swampy marshes ringed the San Francisco Bay. Mosquitoes were so bad that
commuters wore head nets while waiting for the Marin-San Francisco ferry. Businesses in
San Rafael set out smudge pots beside their stores to discourage the insects. In 1904,
the first reported attempts in the state to control salt marsh mosquitoes were conducted
in San Rafael, by Professor William Herms from the University of California.
The San Rafael Women's Club invited entomologists from the University of California to organize a solution to the mosquito problem. Meanwhile, levee building and "marsh reclamation" projects were converting wetlands for agricultural, residential and commercial development. State health officials were organizing to control malaria. In 1915, under pressure from all these groups, the California legislature passed the Mosquito Abatement Act. On November 6, 1915, the Marin / Sonoma Mosquito Abatement District was officially launched, the first in California.
The 1915 Mosquito Abatement Act
California Health and Safety Code: Div.1, Pt.2, Ch.8, Sect ll22.7;
and Div.3, Ch.5, 5.5 and 8. California Government Code: Title 3,
Div.2, Pt.2, Ch.8, Sects 25842.5-2584.
The Mosquito Abatement Act allows groups of communities faced with serious mosquito problems to form their own regional abatement organization as an "independent special district", separate from other government agencies. A Board of Trustees is appointed by the elected officials of each city and county. The trustees hire an administrator to organize and carry out an effective control program, and to develop a budget adequate to staff and support the program.
Under the Code, landowners or those responsible for water that supports development of mosquito larvae are responsible for abating the existing nuisances. Mosquito districts can act on behalf of the district residents, and following a public hearing, charge individual landowners for the cost of controlling mosquitoes on their property. (In practice, this is rarely done except when the problem is extensive, or a landowner has refused to correct conditions causing mosquito problems.)
The Marin / Sonoma Mosquito & Vector Control District
Residents voted in 2004 to expand the District's service area to cover all of both Marin and Sonoma
counties. It now includes about 2,100 square miles, and serves approximately 715,000 residents.
District Timeline:
- Early 1900’s: San Rafael Improvement Club in charge of mosquito control.
- 1903-1905: Research on Salt Marsh mosquitoes conducted in Marin County by Professor C. W. Woodworth on salt marsh mosquitoes in 1903, and by Professor H. J. Quayle in 1905.
- May 25, 1915: California State Legislature pass the Mosquito Abatement Act. This act permitted local governments to collect revenues and Form special districts to protect the public from mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases.
- November 6, 1915: Mosquito Abatement District No. 1, a.k.a. Marin Mosquito Abatement District (MAD) was formed; the first District in California.
- 1976: MAD annexed "central Sonoma County" becoming the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito Abatement District.
- 1981: District office relocated to Petaluma
- 1982: Annexed the Town of Sonoma and surrounding areas in to the District.
- 1995: MAD changed its name to Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District (MSMVCD) to reflect additional services offered to the public. These services include eradication of in-ground yellowjacket nests and rodent control advice.
- 2000: District office moves to Cotati
- 2003: Voters approve annexation of the unincorporated areas of Marin and Sonoma County; allowing for services to be available to all residents of the two counties.
The District consists of 37 regular employees: Manager, Assistant Manager/Vector Ecologist, Financial/Benefits Manager, Receptionist, Assistant Vector Ecologist , 3 Biologists, Fish Culturist, Public Relations Director, Network Administrator, Community Education Specialist, Operations Director, 3 Field Supervisors, Special Projects Supervisor, Shop Facilities Coordinator, Assistant Shop Mechanic and 18 Vector Control Technicians.
In addition to their scheduled duties, district technicians respond to approximately 1500 service requests from the public each year. Many other requests are handled by office staff at the time of initial contact.
The Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District is governed by a BOARD OF TRUSTEES: one representing each of the twenty cities located within the District's service area, and four (two for each county) selected by the county Board of Supervisors to represent the unincorporated and newly annexed portions of the district:
Corte Madera: Nancy Barnard, President
Cotati: Henry Fuhs, Secretary
Fairfax: Frank Egger
Larkspur: Tom Bradner, Treasurer
Marin County at Large: Ed Schulze
Mill Valley: Sandra Ross
Novato: Herman Zwart
Petaluma: Steve Ayala
Rohnert Park: Paul Libeu
Ross: Wendy McPhee
San Anselmo: William "Billy" Holland
San Rafael: Cynthia Rodericks
Santa Rosa: Charlie Dill
Sebastopol: Craig Litwin, Vice President
Sonoma: Charles Bouey
Sonoma County at Large: Richard Stabler
Sonoma County at Large: Tamara Davis
Tiburon: Roger Smith
West Marin: Fred Smith
Windsor: Don Monk
Funding
California Independent Special Districts are funded by a small annual service charge assessed on all non-exempt land parcels in the service area. Like other forms of local government, the districts are audited and subject to state and local oversight. Marin and Sonoma county homeowners living within the district boundaries typically spend between $6 and $12 dollars per year for mosquito and vector control.
Prior to 1973 and the passage of Proposition 13, the Health and Safety code allowed mosquito control districts to set a tax rate sufficient to fund their proposed budget. Since Proposition 13, the District, like other public entities, receives a share of the 1% general county property tax, equivalent to its share in 1975 (the year Proposition 13 set as the starting point). In 1996, the District's Board of Directors formed a Benefit Assessment District, in order to retain the ability to continue funding the program at a level necessary to protect the health and maintain the living standard of area residents.