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August 27, 2012 minutes CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES August 27, 2012 After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council of the City of Denton, Texas convened in a Special Called Meeting on Monday, August 27, 2012 at 7:30 a.m. in the Council Work Session Room. PRESENT: Council Member Watts, Council Member King, Council Member Roden, Mayor Pro Tem Kamp, Council Member Gregory, Mayor Burroughs ABSENT: Council Member Engelbrecht 1.Hold a discussion regarding the Disaster Declaration by the Denton County Judge concerning a West Nile Virus Health Emergency, which calls for State assistance for response and mitigation support to combat West Nile Virus, including aerial spraying to minimize and control mosquito populations. Ken Banks, Director of Environmental Services and Sustainability, stated that the City had received a letter from Denton County Judge Mary Horn indicating that the Judge had issued a Disaster Declaration and Executive Order to request State assistance for support to combat West Nile Virus. The Denton County Health Department was recommending more aggressive strategies of mosquito control in the form of aerial spraying. The County had indicated that municipalities could participate in the aerial spraying but the municipalities had to make a formal request to be included. Banks presented the number of West Nile Virus cases for Denton County which currently had the highest West Nile Virus incidence rate in the State of Texas. He reviewed the statistics regarding % of traps testing positive, total number of and number of quinq mosquitoes by trap per night, % of quinq, and cumulative human cases (total 22). Mayor Burroughs asked about the total number of traps out each night. Banks stated that there were approximately 20 traps per trapping event. He indicated that it was hard to determine the efficiency of the ground level spraying due to all of the variables involved. He felt that the trapping network was not set up to gauge the efficiency of ground level spraying. The conclusion was that there was a decrease in the % of quinq in the traps but he was not comfortable contributing that to spraying. Spraying had an influence but other factors were also included such as weather, larvicide, etc. Council Member Roden asked if Denton was the only city in the County with traps. Banks stated that other cities in the County had traps but Denton had the largest trapping network in the County. Denton had about 50 traps that tested positive. Mayor Burroughs noted that it appeared that each week it looked like one or two human cases were being added to the count. Banks replied that was correct and that it was following an upward trend. Mayor Burroughs asked if it was normal for this type of tracking that it would get worse at the end of the summer. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 27, 2012 Page2 Banks stated that the County graph showed the highest incidence rate for humans was in September. Council Member Watts asked about the incubation in humans after exposure. Banks stated that it ranged from 2-12 days after exposure. These were diagnosed human cases. The person had to become ill enough to be tested. Three days to 1 week was not an unreasonable time from infection to the data showing up. Council Member Gregory stated that it was probably a good assumption that some people never get diagnosed. He asked if there was any data to suggest for every case diagnosed there were x number of cases not diagnosed. Juan Rodriguez, Chief Epidemiologist for Denton County Health Department, stated that for every one diagnosed case there were 20 people not diagnosed. There were many more with fever than was reported. Council Member Roden asked about the breakdown of the cases in terms of fever versus neurological cases. Banks stated that of the 22 cases, 14 were the fever variety. He noted that areas were ground sprayed when a human case was diagnosed in an area or there were 3 or more traps with positive mosquitoes. He presented information on the spraying locations. Mayor Burroughs asked what was the most recognized variable to account for the increases and decreases in the population of the mosquito. Banks stated that weather played a huge role and to keep in mind that all mosquitoes were going downward in population but the quinq mosquito was going up in population. Mayor Burroughs felt that one of the issues was trying to identify the variables because if the variables changed next week such as rainfall, heat, etc. those would play into the mosquito population. Banks stated that rainfall and temperature would probably be the two most important variables. Mayor Burroughs stated that the temperature over the last couple of weeks was lower than normal and would that decrease the mosquito population. Banks stated that it could cause the life cycle to be longer. A rainfall event would wash much of the larva away but if water stayed, it could become a potential habitat. Rainfall with cool spells could actually increase mosquito population. He stated that irrigation also needed to be factored in as these mosquitoes migrated into urban areas with irrigation. Mayor Burroughs asked about the larvicide program and the effectiveness of the program. Banks stated that the City was using more larvicide this year than ever. City personnel were treating stagnant water and keeping track of when that was done so as to rotate back when City of Denton City Council Minutes August 27, 2012 Page3 necessary. Approximately 5000 treatments were done so far this year and 3000 treatments were given out to citizens. This very intense effort had an influence on the larva. For every drainage ditch that was treated there were probably other areas not visible or underground that were missed. Council Member Roden stated that according to the Mosquito Response Plan and current trends the plan would require additional methods or maintain the status quo. Banks stated the plan did not address a state or county level emergency other than they took precedence over the city's issues. Council Member Roden asked what the City would do if it did not get involved with the County. Banks stated that in the absence of County action, the City would continue with ground level spraying. However, that could change very quickly as the County was looking at the situation hitting a peak next month. Mayor Pro Tem Kamp stated that she did not see a mosquito in her yard this season and felt that had to do with the natural habitat in her yard. She was concerned with human lives but needed convincing that this was the right thing to do. She did not think it was the right thing to do for the environment and that the City’s plan was working. She was not convinced that aerial spraying was the right thing to do. She questioned how aerial spraying would affect beneficial insects and the environment. Banks stated that the process sprayed insecticide from the air and even though it was done at night, it would impact other organisms. The product used was Duet which was the same used for ground spraying and was applied at a very low level. The night time frame avoided the time when other insects were flying around. This was a contact only insecticide and bigger insects did better than smaller insects. It had a broad scale application of a pesticide and measures were taken to minimize the effects but it was not totally avoidable. Dr. Bing Burton, Director-Denton County Health Department, stated that ground spraying and other efforts were great. However, the County was in the midst of an epidemic and it was not known where the cycle was going. This was a serious disease and aerial spraying could interrupt the cycle. Human cases continued to go up and that was the main concern. The best information on aerial spraying was from a spraying done in California in 2005. Data from that spraying showed that the part of the California county that was not sprayed was six time more likely to have West Nile than that part sprayed. It appeared to be an effective method and was believed to be safe per the Center for Disease Control and others. Dallas County was already doing aerial spraying on the recommendation of the Medical Society to Dallas. He shared the concerns about putting pesticides in the air and this was not a common approach but this was unusual situation. Aerial spraying could accomplish what 40 ground spraying trucks could do. There would be no cost to the City or County. Mayor Burroughs asked how the number of cases had been tracking in the County for the past several weeks. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 27, 2012 Page4 Burton stated that was the primary reason for recommending a different strategy. Over the last several weeks there were four to six new cases every day. Council Member Roden asked what the County recommendation was for aerial spraying and their plans for frequency. Burton stated that there would be two nights of spraying with the intent to be Thursday and Friday night weather permitting. The spraying would start about 9 p.m. and end about 2 a.m. Council Member Roden asked if the County came back and declared an additional emergency could the City be included in that. Burton stated that he only knew that the County could do two nights of spraying this week and beyond that he did not know of any other time. Council Member Roden stated that if the peak time was in September, would there be a similar situation in two weeks. He questioned the timing and rational of timing for this week and how the effect would be in the later weeks. Burton stated that the County was in the midst of an epidemic and something needed to be done to interrupt transmission. He did not know when the peak would be and felt that evidence from other years did not apply this year. Council Member Gregory stated that he had received communications from citizens on aerial spraying rather than ground spraying. Research indicated that of all the strategies, spraying was the least effective. Burton stated that the best information he had was from the case study in California. Council Member Gregory asked about what research said about short term effects of spraying. Banks stated that the whole idea of effectiveness was a general approach to managing the population through habitat larvicide and adulticide. Adulticide was the least effective of the three. It was effective but was the least effective. The intention was to minimize the impact but did not eliminate it. Council Member Gregory asked about aerial spraying in areas with lots of trees. Banks stated that it would be more difficult to penetrate but that was the same situation as the ground spraying. It did appear to be more effective to get to areas that could not be driven through. Council Member Watts stated that it seemed that the human cases were going up but the number of positive traps was going down. Banks stated that one of the issues was the effectiveness of the trapping. A second issue was the large number of undiagnosed cases. It was not as simple as looking at graph to say the risk was gone. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 27, 2012 Page5 Mayor Pro Tem Kamp asked about the plans if the City did not participate in the aerial spraying. Banks stated that with no aerial spraying the City would continue to do what it was doing now in terms of public education, larvicide and targeted ground spraying. Mayor Pro Tem Kamp asked about providing the briquettes to citizens Banks stated that citizens could come to Service Center and at the Composing Operation to get them. The intention was to provide a place during the week during normal business hours or a place on weekend. Mayor Pro Tem Kamp asked about the cost to citizens. Banks stated that there was no cost for Denton residents. Mayor Burroughs asked about the cost if the City were to do its own aerial spraying. Banks that that a rough estimate would be $225,000-250,000 for two applications. Mayor Burroughs asked if Denton did not opt into the spraying now and later it was decided that Denton County wanted to do a second round of aerial spraying, could Denton opt in for that second spraying. Banks stated that the current Declaration of Disaster was only effective for a certain period of time and did not know about a second spraying and second Declaration. The current spraying was for two applications this week. Mayor Burroughs questioned if staff could contact Dallas County to find out about a second spraying they might have if in September there were much more cases and Dallas County wanted to opt in and how that would happen. Mayor Pro Tem Kamp asked what the unincorporated areas of Denton County were doing. Burton stated that the County Judge had responsibility for unincorporated areas. The north and west areas of the County did not have any cases so there might not be any spraying in those area. The spraying would be concentrated on those areas where there were cases. Council Member Gregory asked if there had been any reports from hospitals or doctors about citizens having bad reactions from coming into contact with Duet or other chemicals and what was the knowledge of long term health implications. Burton stated that the Health Department did not have any contact with doctors concerned about exposure to pesticides and he did not know about long term effects. Council Member Gregory questioned what happened to targeted ground spraying if aerial spraying was done. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 27, 2012 Page6 Banks stated that pending ground spraying would be canceled to wait for additional human cases before starting again. There was no reason to apply the product twice in targeted areas. City Manager Campbell stated that a second round might be possibly paid for by the State if resources were available and the County declared another emergency. If the City opted out of this round it might be able to opt in for a second round. However, it was unlikely that a second round would happen. Mayor Burroughs asked about the City doing its own aerial spraying. Banks stated that it could be a possibility if the City was willing to pay for the service and several steps were completed first. A congestive air plan would have to be filed with the FAA and a request would have to be filed with the State for a pesticide permit. Both of those could take up to 2-3 weeks for approval. Council Member Watts asked about the effectiveness of two nights of aerial spraying. Banks stated that the intention was to be as effective as possible. With two nights of aerial spraying, the majority of the mosquitoes would be affected and others would be affected the second night to break the life cycle. The intention was to get the numbers down so there would not be enough by the end of the season to continue the cycle. This time of year it was a more effective strategy to do two nights in a row to reduce population. Council Member King expressed concern about citizens coming into contact with aerial spraying and city spraying. Banks stated that aerial spraying would cover the entire city while ground spraying would only target specific areas. Mayor Burroughs stated that if the mosquito population was not significantly reduced now that the fear would be that they would populate over winter and be far worse next summer. Banks stated that was a concern. Mayor Burroughs stated that it was better to get the mosquito population down at the end of the season rather than now. Banks stated that there were two subsets of the mosquito population to deal with - those that currently had the virus and those that might get the virus later. The intention was to get rid of those with the current virus with the hope that the mosquitoes with the virus would not have as great an opportunity to build back up later. Mayor Pro Tem Kamp asked for Jim Kennedy’s opinion regarding the aerial and ground spraying and what it would do to the environment. Jim Kennedy, Regents Professor of Biology-UNT, stated that they were in uncharted grounds in terms of what was going on with human cases. In the past they had seen a downtrend about this time of the year with West Nile Virus. He felt the comments about the pesticide applications City of Denton City Council Minutes August 27, 2012 Page7 were accurate and that the management plan as put forward had minimal effects on the environment but still would have some type of impact. In terms of effectiveness, it appeared that the mosquito population was down but rain might increase population again. There were non- targeted effects but it would have to be seen if those outweighed the effects for the number of human cases. There had been good education this year because of the number of mosquitoes in May with the virus. There were far more positive West Nile mosquitoes in Denton County than in the past and the number had been sustained. Mayor Burroughs noted that quinq mosquitoes were territorial and did not travel long distances. This would not be a situation where spraying outside the city limits would drive them into the city. Kennedy stated that this was not a mosquito that was known to travel large distances to move from one area to another. Treatment of habitats was the most effective means of control. Mayor Burroughs noted that getting rid of standing water, etc. was effective. Kennedy stated that an important component was public education both this year and next year. It made a big difference to have citizens remove habitats. Council Member Gregory stated that rain barrels were promoted to capture water and questioned if the ones with screens were sufficient to protect them from the mosquitoes. Banks stated that it would depend on the size of the screen but that it was generally best to put a larvicide in the water for protection. Council Member Roden left the meeting. Following the completion of the Work Session, the Council convened into a Special Called Session in the Council Work Session Room. 1. Consider approval of a resolution of the City of Denton expressing its desire to participate with and be included in aerial spraying to control mosquitoes that spread West Nile Virus as a result of a Disaster Declaration by the Denton County Judge concerning a West Nile Virus Health Emergency, which Declaration calls for State assistance for response and mitigation support to combat West Nile Virus, including aerial spraying to minimize and control populations of mosquitoes; and providing an effective date. The following individual submitted Speaker Cards: Jay McElhinney, 605 Austin, Denton, 76201 - opposed Laura Mauelshagen, 1110 N. Austin, Denton, 76201 – opposed Michael Olaya, 308 W. Hickory, Denton, 76201 - opposed Marisa Mulvaney, 1321 Norman Street, Denton, 76201 – opposed Comments Cards were received from the following: City of Denton City Council Minutes August 27, 2012 Page8 Toni McElhinney, 605 N. Austin, Denton, 76201 - opposed Alena Veteto, 2006 Camellia, Denton, 872-5 – opposed Council Member Watts asked that if the City opted out of this spraying and another emergency were declared, could the City then opt in for a second aerial spraying. It was his understanding that this was a onetime shot. Mayor Burroughs stated that it sounded like it might be possible to opt in at a second spraying but the likelihood of a second aerial spraying was very low. It might be possible to opt in if there were a new wave of mosquitoes with the virus. City Manager Campbell stated that this was the most viable time to do this and that there was a remote opportunity to do it at a later time but not impossible. Mayor Burroughs stated that it was clear that this was a dangerous infection and those at risk were not here at the meeting – the elderly and very young whole lives were at risk. There was a fear factor involved on both sides of the issue. Council had to weigh through the fear to find the right answer as there were so many variables that were unknown. Because of the number of variables, the effects of aerial spraying were not definitive. The most effective methods were in the hands of Denton citizens and they could do something about that. The City was already doing measures in public places. Council Member Gregory stated that he had received emails encouraging him to vote against the aerial spraying. At first he felt he would be voting for the spraying but more information changed his mind. The current program appeared to be effective. Staff had researched what other cities were doing to educate citizens but that was not always effective. He was sure people were not checking for stagnant water. Spraying was the least effective method but not totally ineffective. The City had an opportunity to reduce risk and probably should do it. However, his feeling right now was to opt out and stay with the program the City had in place. Mayor Pro Tem Kamp stated that this was a very difficult decision as there was so much information on both sides. There were major concerns with the epidemic but with the strategies the City was using, she felt it was effective. She encouraged the citizens who sent emails on the issue to spread the word to eradicate the possible habitats. She was not in support of the aerial spraying. Mayor Burroughs stated that from the County standpoint aerial spraying was the more efficient way to address the problem. Denton had a more focused method to the spraying. If the problem remerged to an extreme level, the City could invest in spraying itself. A second alternative was that there might be a second round of spraying that the City would participate in. The City had engaged the problem early and aggressively to keep the population down. That focus would continue and would be more prudent to not press the overkill issue which aerial sparing might envision. He was in favor of observing how effective the aerial spraying was on the County and to continue with Denton's program. Mayor Pro Tem Kamp motioned to deny the resolution. Council Member Gregory seconded the motion. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 27, 2012 Page9 Council Member Watts stated that he would be supporting motion to deny. He appreciated the opportunity offered by the County but seeing the data and the very particular criteria for ground spraying, he was hesitant to participate in the aerial spraying. If conditions got worse, the City would have to look at what choices they had and would have to bear the responsibility of that. Council Member King stated that the emails he received indicated that people did not like aerial or ground spraying. He had heard from parents that in the last three weeks that they were afraid to let the children outside. He had seen firsthand a child with the virus and once infected, there was no way to remove it from people. He would be voting against the motion. On roll call vote: Council Member Watts, Council Member Gregory, Mayor Pro Tem Kamp and Mayor Burroughs – “aye”; Council Member King “nay”. Motion carried with a 4-1 vote and the resolution was denied. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:40 a.m. ____________________________________ MARK A. BURROUGHS MAYOR CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS ____________________________________ JENNIFER WALTERS CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS