Putting the bite on taxpayers

The board of the San Joaquin County Mosquito and Vector Control District has voted to keep biting taxpayers.
With 10 of the 11 board members voting, the district trustees voted 5-5 Monday to keep giving members the same health insurance package provided the district's full-time workers (the tie vote allows the benefit package to continue). Oh, and board members also will keep their $100 per meeting stipend.
Not bad for volunteer, part-time work.
To be fair, not all board members participate in the district's health insurance program. But clearly some trustees feel they have it coming and at least one, Michael Manna, called it "sad" that members of the media showed up at Monday's meeting to cover the vote.
Why, the district is trying to protect citizens from West Nile virus, Manna said, and that's what the press should be writing about.
The statement was a classic deflection tactic. Nobody is suggesting fighting mosquitoes and the diseases they carry isn't important. The media have reported those efforts widely, including a report that just this week county health officials had found the first bird infected with the West Nile virus this season.
What is being suggested by the San Joaquin Taxpayer's Association is that mosquito district trustees shouldn't be tapping county taxpayers for their health insurance. The benefit also has drawn the ire of the county grand jury.
Former Stockton Councilman Dale Fritchen noted that City Council members don't receive health care benefits for their service even though they have much greater responsibilities than the mosquito district trustees.
That brought a response from trustee Jay Colombini who said the taxpayers' group should be going after examples of egregious waste rather than the district "where we're actually doing our job and have a reserve."
"You ought to be ashamed of yourselves," Colombini said.
Who should be ashamed?
Was Colombini really suggesting mosquito board trustees are entitled since the district somehow didn't face the problems faced by the City of Stockton?
Talk about a deflection tactic.
 "At this agency, service has morphed into a sense of entitlement," Renison complained.
That brought an angry response from trustee Francis Groen who said Renison's rhetoric was "totally vicious (and) wrong."
Actually, the only thing wrong with Renison's statement was it's scope. A "sense of entitlement" infects far too many elected officials who enter office with the best of intentions but, over time, let good intentions mutate into prerogatives.