Pasco Mosquito Control stung by new financial red flags

In its official submittal to the state on how much tax money it planned to spend this year, Pasco County Mosquito Control projected an $18.5 million budget deficit.

Its chairperson signed the document even though running a deficit is a no-no for governments in Florida, which are required to balance their books both when budgeting and in practice.

Adriane Rogers, executive director of the taxing district, said the document was submitted in error, has since been corrected and that the budget was balanced all along.

But that was one in a series of mistakes by the agency while preparing its current budget, including a handful of others the state found so egregious that it ordered that part of Mosquito Control’s tax revenue get cut off for two months until they were fixed. They included improperly advertising a proposed tax range change and overstating how much money would be brought in.

The state Department of Revenue had warned about similar errors by the agency in each of the previous two years. This year, Mosquito Control was forced to conduct a new public hearing on the budget nearly three weeks after a Sept. 30 deadline to submit it to the state.

The errors come as Rogers and Mosquito Control float a plan to build a new $37 million headquarters, a proposal that has attracted scrutiny from state lawmakers.

Michael Cox, who was chairperson of the board last year and who signed off on the document with the negative $18.5 million fund balance, said he did so because he thought it was just a formality and he knew that the actual budget was correct and balanced as required.

“We need to learn from our mistakes ... and not repeat them,” Cox said. “I hope that our staff learns from this and I will review things much more closely in the future.”

As it turns out, Mosquito Control never had its tax revenue cut off. The Department of Revenue sent Mosquito Control a notice of violation Oct. 10.

The agency ordered Mosquito Control to fix those problems with another advertisement and a new hearing. Then, Rene Lewis, program director for property tax oversight, wrote, “By copy of this notice, the Department is notifying and directing the tax collector to withhold ad valorem tax revenue collected in excess of the rolled-back rate until the taxing authority meets the requirements of law.”

While the letter lists Pasco Tax Collector Mike Fasano as being copied on that letter, he said Monday his office never received it, so it did not hold back money.

After the Mosquito Control District held a new public hearing, Lewis wrote to Rogers again Dec. 12, saying that with her compliance, the state would notify the Tax Collector to return to Mosquito Control the tax funds that had been held back.

Fasano said that second letter left his staff wondering what the notice was about, since they had not been told to hold back the taxes in the first place.

The agency also sent warning letters to Rogers in 2021 and 2022 for problems with their tax notices and the warning that if Mosquito Control continued to have problems, it could have tax money withheld.

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When the Tampa Bay Times asked Rogers whether she had been in noncompliance with the rules of the Department of Revenue, she said she had not. When asked specifically about the violation letter and previous warning letters, Rogers said that the district came into compliance as the state required and so there was no ongoing issue.

She also said that steps are being taken to ensure that the district will be in compliance in the future, including training that she has undertaken along with her finance manager. She said they will also undergo continuing education.

Rogers said that the document that projected a $18.5 million deficit came to be because her finance manager had problems with the auto-filling function on the electronic form from the Department of Agriculture. She said she fired the finance manager, whom she declined to name, and that was when she saw the negative fund balance. She said she sought to fix the problem in January. The Department of Agriculture approved the new spending plan April 10.

Mosquito Control District board chairperson Randy Evans said in an email that the agency has done what it needs to do to be in compliance and past audits show that to be the case.

He also said that Rogers has taken the actions necessary. She “informed the commissioners that mistakes were made on the 2023 certification. Commissioners, Executive Director Rogers, and staff, remedied the discrepancies in concert. On January 4, 2024, Executive Director Rogers took decisive action and terminated the former finance manager.”

The Times posed questions to the Department of Agriculture Monday via email about its review process on mosquito control budgets but it did not respond with answers by the end of the business day on Tuesday.

Mosquito Control board member Matthew Abbott said that the department held more scrutiny over districts in the past when they received state money.

“The finance director didn’t work in government before and unfortunately failed, which is what we’re seeing now” in filing the appropriate documents, Abbott said. “But obviously the responsibility lies with the director.”

Abbott said the he believes the Pasco Mosquito Control operation is one of the best around and he believes the issues have been addressed.