A Note from Roger Cousineau, Candidate for Mosquito Control Board District 2

I am Roger Cousineau, and I am running to be your Mosquito Control District Commissioner in District 2. I’m a 20 year resident of the Keys. I have a BA in English, served in the US Army, am a former school teacher, an active real estate agent for the past 18 years, and a volunteer with Hospice/VNA of the Florida Keys. As a hobby I manage several honeybee hives. I’m proud and happy to call the Florida Keys my home!

The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) has a rich and checkered history. In a period of 15 years Mosquito Control (MC) moved from a reactionary force simply dumping toxins of unknown utility into the environment to a 21st Century science- / evidence-based operation that we rely on today. MC has become a model for mosquito control districts in the US and beyond. We should all be proud.

Sadly, the agency that responded so effectively to the Lower Keys dengue outbreak in 2009 has been in decline for the past three years. The dog whistle politics of “fiscal conservative” and operating a public service agency “like a business” has resulted in a 20% reduction in staff and a corresponding loss of service – with calls by the District 2 incumbent and a District 5 candidate for even more staff reduction, more budget cuts, and, wherever possible the real possibility of outsourcing and automating bits and pieces of the overall operation.

It is the motivated, inventive employees in a supportive environment – with neither direct support nor hindrance from any past or present commissioner – who developed and brought on line liquid larvicide in defeating dengue in the Lower Keys several years ago, fabricated a makeshift mosquito catcher  that provides hands-on data to tweak the spray schedule to kill more adult mosquitoes, and  it was an inventive, resourceful employee who cross-purposed standard farm equipment to develop an autoloader that streamlines the aerial larviciding process. These are just three examples of the amazing people who are doing the work of mosquito control and, probably more interesting to the average reader, saving the taxpayers a ton of money. With the constant drumbeat from the District 2 incumbent and District 5 candidate for staff reduction combined with ever increasing budget reduction, many of these same workers question the security of their professional jobs. You and I would do the same.

FKMCD would be hard pressed to respond to a new outbreak of dengue as it did in 2009. I have concerns that the changes in the past three years may prevent an appropriate response to the eventual arrival of chikungunya which has spread throughout the Caribbean, devastating the population and their economies. It’s a reality that we face. And, if not dealt with swiftly and effectively, could deal a truly heavy blow to our health and our economy. Will we be ready? When fingers get to pointing blame for an inadequate response, it won’t be to the so called “protectors of the public purse” but directly to the employees who really did do the best they could with what they had. The public dissatisfaction will most assuredly be used by the very ones who degraded service in the first place as a talking point to gin up support for privatization.

Commissioners are not elected to micromanage the organization; they are to provide appropriate oversight and insure that staff, tools and resources are available to protect our health. To repeatedly speak of cutting the workforce and budget is recklessly endangering our wellbeing and our economy.

As your Mosquito Control Commissioner, I seek to represent all the Citizens of the Florida Keys in combating mosquitoes to provide for our comfort and the safeguarding of our health from exotic disease. I will make sound decisions based on evidence and science.

I support environmentally sound practices – such as reducing habitat around homes as well as larviciding, and I also support research that will continue to reduce the need of harmful pesticides into the environment.

I know the best way to meet the challenges of combating mosquitoes on all levels is by supporting an independent and strong mosquito control that is always ready to act at any moment and is never beholden to any special interest, private enterprise, or political ideology but to remain faithful, fully accountable, and transparent to the citizens it serves. An independent Mosquito Control can remain proactive in a changing environment and not reactive as others have been when tied to a general revenue fund.

Please Vote for Roger Cousineau, Mosquito Control District Commissioner for District 2. You’ll be glad you did.