INTERIM MANAGER’S REPORT

April 2008

1. The District’s spam filter has been in place for several years and is no longer effectively preventing unwanted spam-type mail from reaching employees. During the last week of March 2008, an update with a Barracuda Spam Filter was installed. This appliance replaces the outdated GFI software which was installed on our exchange server.

2. On March 21, 2008, a Staff Meeting was held. After coffee, juice, and rolls, an update was provided of the events of the March 20 Special Board meeting and a lively question and answer session followed. It was a positive experience, I believe, for all in attendance. With the advent of warmer weather, safety training was provided on the signs of heat exhaustion and stroke and safeguards to prevent their occurrence.

3. At the Staff Meeting, technicians expressed a desire to move to earlier hours prior to the usual May 1st start date because of the early warmer temperatures. Effective April 14, summer hours will begin for all represented staff.

4. RIFA Field Supervisor Phil Boeing attended the RIFA Conference in Charleston, South Carolina March 24-27. He made a presentation on the Progress of RIFA Suppression in the Coachella Valley at the Conference which was extremely well received.

5. Rod Chamberlain, Victor Teran, Geneva Ginn, and Oldembour Avalos attended the 23^rd Vertebrate Pest Conference on March 18^th to the 20^th. All the speakers were very current and knowledgeable on their subjects and gave interesting power-point presentations and discussions. Of special interest were the topics that discussed rodents and mammals.

6. The Finance Committee has begun its meetings to prepare the 2008-09 District budget. Strategic Chair Sharon Lock was added as a committee member during the budget planning process in order to coordinate more effectively a number of areas of mutual responsibility, such as capital improvement plans.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM

On March 3rd at the Indian Wells monthly Rotary meeting, Field Supervisor Rod Chamberlain made a short presentation describing the District’s services with an emphasis on mosquitoes and the diseases they vector. The meeting was attended by approximately 60 members. The District received a unique thank you for the presentation in the form of a certificate that provided, in our name, surgical sight restoration for Lakshmi in Coonoor, a 63 year old woman, through the efforts of Operation Eyesight. Coonoor is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Surgery was provided by Emmanuel Blind Relief Society

Field Supervisor Phil Boeing gave a 40-minute Red Imported Fire Ant presentation to second grade students at Cesar Chavez Elementary School. The PowerPoint presentation was followed by a lively question and answer period which everyone truly enjoyed. We have since received a beautifully bound hand made Thank You booklet from the all the students. They have asked us to come back to do a presentation on another popular topic – mosquitoes.

March 11th found Operations Manager Jim Saulnier and Assistant Vector Ecologist Melissa Snelling in Sky Valley giving a presentation on West Nile virus (WNv) to area residents. The presentation included information on potential breeding sites, as well as suggestions for protecting themselves and their animals from mosquito bites. There were about 50 attendees.

The following represents the activities of the Community Outreach since the February Board Report.

Community Outreach for February 20 - March 20, 2008
Group Presentations	Est. Audience
Civic and Community Groups
Indian Wells Rotary	60
Sky Valley	50
Schools
Cesar Chavez Elementary School	40
Events
	0
Total Individuals Reached	150

2007 - 2008 Totals

Finance

The financial reports included in the packet show the balance sheet, receipts, and the revenue and expenditure report for the month ending February 29, 2008. The revenue and expenditure report shows that total expenditure for July 1 to February 29, 2008, is $6,473,342; total revenue is $5,745,184, resulting in a deficit for the year to February 29, 2008, of $728,158. This item is shown on the balance sheet as Excess Revenue over (under) Expenditures.

The District’s investment fund balance for the period ending February 29, 2008, is $13,190,192; the portfolio composition is shown in the, following chart. Local Agency Investment Fund (LAIF) accounts form 41 % of the District’s investments; the Riverside County Pooled Investment Fund is 35 % of the total. The LAIF yield for the end of February, 2008, was 4.16 %; the Riverside County Pooled Investment Fund was 4.42 %; this gives an overall weighted yield for District investments of 4.03 %.

District Investment Portfolio 2/29/2008

The new auditors Mayer Hoffman McCann have scheduled the interim audit for April 28, 2008. Michael Harrison is the partner and Ron Lopez the auditing manager.

DISTRICT FIELD OPERATIONS

The prevailing warm spring weather conditions during the past month have greatly increase invertebrate breeding and activity in the Valley. Mosquito abundance and breeding, especially along the Salton Sea Shores and duck clubs, have increased considerably, requiring increased District control activities in those areas. Surveillance and treatment activities have also increased in residential areas with the advent of warmer weather. Culex mosquito breeding continues in flooded desert areas surrounding the duck clubs resulting from leakage and seepage issues around ponds. Most of the club ponds have either dried out or have reduced in volume, leaving stagnant water unfavorable for Culex tarsalis breeding.

Urban mosquito surveillance and control activities remain a high priority in order to continue to protect residents from the threat of West Nile virus infection. Mosquito abundance suppression through continual surveillance and treatments (70 percent of the treatments and 77 percent of the surveys) is ongoing. Agricultural irrigation is increasing, creating additional mosquito breeding sources and breeding. Surveillance and treatments within these areas is well underway in response to the need for control

MOSQUITO CONTROL ACTIVITIES:

13	FIELD EVALUATIONS BY SUPERVISORS
1	SERVICE REQUEST EVALUATIONS
4	OPERATIONAL MEETINGS
2	FIELD SAFETY CHECKS
16	STANDING ATER REQUESTS
55	GREEN POOL ADVISORIES RECEIVED
4	MEETINGS WITH OWNERS/REPRESENTATIVES
6	NEW MOSQUITO BREEDING SOURCES
64	SERVICE REQUESTS
1,507	FIELD INSPECTIONS BY TECHNICIANS
485	MOSQUITO TREATMENTS (Larval)
0	URBAN/SUBURBAN ACREAGE ADULTICIDED
0	RURAL ACREAGE FOGGED
0	ADULTICIDE NIGHTS 0 Ground 0 Aerial
0	AERIAL TREATMENTS 0 Larvicide 6 Adulticide
0	MAJOR MOSQUITO SOURCE REDUCTION ACTIONS

COMPARATIVE MOSQUITO HABITAT ACREAGE TREATED

TREATED THIS MONTH	ACREAGE TREATED FEBRRUARY 2008	ACREAGE TREATED FEBRUARY 2007
LARVACIDING ADULTICIDING	261.32 Acres 0 Acres	46 Acres 0 Acres
FISCAL YEAR TOTALS	LARVACIDING	ADULTICIDING
2007/2008 YTD	3,0298Acres	8,522 Acres
2006/2007	2,073 Acres	5,075 Acres
2005/2006	1,580 Acres	20,172 Acres

PERCENTAGES OF MOSQUITO HABITAT ACREAGE TREATED

HABITAT	January 2008		February 2008		March 2008
	Acres	%	Acres	%	Acres	%
Salton Sea	0	0	3	1	89	34
Duck Clubs	50	89	202	88	143	55
Residential	4	7	8	3	15	6
Agriculture	2	4	19	8	14	5
Totals	56	100	232	100	261	100

MOSQUITO INSPECTIONS

HABITAT	January 2008		February 2008		March 2008
	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
Salton Sea	3	1	22	2	12	1
Duck Clubs	72	15	242	16	224	15
Residential	359	74	1,267	80	1158	77
Agricultural	39	10	177	12	113	7
Totals	473	100	1708	100	1507	100

MOSQUITO HABITAT TREATMENTS

HABITAT	January 2008		February 2008		March 2008
	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
Salton Sea	1	1	9	2	12	3
Duck Clubs	19	13	92	21	106	22
Residential	119	82	292	68	339	70
Agricultural	7	4	37	9	28	5
Totals	146	100	430	100	485	100

RED IMPORTED FIRE ANTS

The majority of control activities for RIFA continue to be focused in the cities of Cathedral City, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, and Rancho Mirage where infestation continues to be the most extreme. And, most of 106 RIFA service requests were also from these areas. Operations surveillance and treatments continue to be focused on homeowner associations, common areas in country clubs, parks and schools, city greenbelt areas, and response to service requests.

Saturday control activities and surveillance continues to be focused on surveillance and treatment of Valley school campuses and service requests responses to residents who are unavailable for contact during the workweek.

RIFA foraging and activity has greatly increased with the warmer weather conditions. District control operations have intensified in the past month relating to increased RIFA foraging activity. Golf course contracts and treatment activity has greatly increased with the warmer weather as well.

INSPECTIONS, TREATMENTS AND ACREAGE

CITY	Inspections	Positive Sites	Treatments	Treated Acreage
Bermuda Dunes	3	3	3	1.96
Cathedral City	9	27	27	51.66
Coachella	1	10	10	74
Desert Hot Sprs.	1	1	1