Most people have heard of the adage "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" In our industry around California, a similar question should be posed as to whether if governmental activity is occurring and you or no one in the pest management business hears about it, does it have an impact on the industry? The answer is an emphatic yes.

Over my twenty-five plus years in the association legislative and regulatory arena, I can assure you pest management issues are the focus of conversations every single day in your local area and around the state. While you might not hear about them, these conversations might not affect your business today, but somewhere down the line they have the potential to significantly challenge your economic interests in the marketplace.

To help manage these potentially detrimental conversations, the Pest Control Operators of California (PCOC) serves as your general insurance policy that helps defend your business operations from known and unforeseen regulatory and legislative risks. For most companies, the costs to engage in these significant advocacy efforts are typically cost prohibitive and not as successful if limited to one or a few operations.

It is imperative that pest management operators, staff and technicians engage in PCOC’s governmental activity both financially and with their personal time. I can guarantee you that if a significant number of pest control operators and employees did not heed the call to service in the governmental arena, there would be serious consequences. Indifference or inadequate action by pest professionals would foster unfavorable rules and restrictions affecting industry employment opportunities and the financial bottom line of many companies.

While lots of pest management professionals lament government and politics, the reality is that both have a significant effect on the success of individual businesses. While many entrepreneurs overcome governmental barriers to run a prosperous operation, the question is at what cost? What capital improvements or equipment could have been secured if a rule or regulation were prevented before the significant financial burdens ever came into effect? Just like in your operations every day, I can assure you that any upfront treatment of a regulatory rule or legislative requirement is significantly less expensive than the industry virus that infects your business operations afterwards.

Just as the tree falling in the woods produces sound waves that reverberate whether someone is there or not, so too will the effects of unrestricted governmental activity. If you choose not to actively participate, it does not mean you won’t be affected. It just means you have to pay whatever the invoice others determined you must pay — not once but many times contentiously for as long as you are in business. 

Are you willing to actively participate in the process to address these concerns? As mentioned several times since joining PCOC, pest management professionals should heed the Irish statesman Edmund Burke’s famous quote, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”

It is turning out that 2023 is going to be a very eventful year with full frontal assaults on the way pest management professionals conduct business. The time is now to be involved in PCOC. It is professional pest management contributors that should determine the decisions that drive the future of our companies, not the desire of a few environmental groups or individuals that ignore scientific facts and launch their pest management positions with completely contrary views. If you are a pest management professional and not a member, please join PCOC. If you are a PCOC member and not currently active, we strongly encourage you to engage yourself at district and state levels starting today.

Michael E. Wilson
Executive Director
Pest Control Operators of California

I want to start by thanking everyone who attended Legislative Day for participating in making it a great event. The PCOC has always fought above its weight because of the strength of all the districts, and that comes from all of your participation in bringing issues to the table and solving them together to benefit the trade association. 

We each help make each other better businesspeople, and I encourage those of you who may not participate in the committee or districts as much to step up with new enthusiasm. Your participation is vital to strengthening the association in the year ahead, and the stronger our association is, the more we can accomplish for the good of all of our businesses and the industry as a whole.

Now that Legislative Day is over, I encourage everyone to put our next big event on their calendars. The Expo in beautiful Monterey, CA is just around the corner, taking place from June 21st to 23rd. Thanks to the recommendations of our Strategic Planning Task Force, our terrific coordinating committee made up of Mary Hernandez, Doug Bell, Gregg Gransie, and others is working hard to put an excellent expo together. They are coordinating insightful educational seminars, great speakers, and an exhibit hall full of the latest and greatest our industry has to offer. You won’t want to miss it!

For those of you who are interested in our expo golf tournament at Poppy Hills Golf Course, tee off will be June 21 at 9:00 am. We’ve secured a terrific rate of $189.00, so don’t forget to sign up by June 1st to save your spot. If you won’t be joining us for golf, there are many other things to enjoy in Monterey like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Fisherman’s Wharf, and plenty of historical sights you can visit. 

I look forward to seeing you all there soon for yet another terrific association event.

Greg Augustine
PCOC President

All Event Information can be found at WWW.PCOC.ORG/EVENTS

The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) regulation now requires employers to address COVID-19 workplace safety measures either in their existing written Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) or in a separate document.

California employers are required to maintain an effective general workplace safety and health program per Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 3203, but now must also address COVID-19 as a workplace hazard and include measures to prevent workplace transmission, employee training, and methods for responding to COVID-19 cases at the workplace per Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 3205–3205.3.

Additionally, the regulations also define “close contact” and “infectious period” along with a review of applicable guidance regarding ventilation of indoor workplaces. Furthermore, the regulations require employers to make COVID-19 testing available at no cost and during employees’ paid time regardless of vaccination status for all workers who had a close contact in the workplace.

These regulations will be in effect through February 3, 2025, including a record-keeping requirement in the regulation that will be in effect through February 3, 2026.

General Facts can be found here: https://bit.ly/3lU05cE

Frequently Asked Questions: https://bit.ly/3lTKABn

For more information or help, contact the Insurance professionals of EPIC’s PCOC Insurance Program.

Well, this year is turning out to be a busy one on the legislative front. While we were hoping for a quiet year with another win with the Structural Fumigation Enforcement Program (AB 307), many anti-pesticide bills have been added to the docket making this another busy year.

Starting the year off, AB 363 (the neonic re-evaluation bill) was introduced in February along with AB 652. AB 363 would mandate a re-evaluation of neonics with unreasonable time frames and the assumption that mitigation will be needed. DPR has already started this process under the direction of the Governor’s office from the veto message of last year’s neonic ban bill. This issue should not be addressed by the legislature as there is a department to handle these issues. That is one of the reasons that we OPPOSE AB 363.  AB 652 is a bill that would form an Environmental Justice Advisory Committee to give input on DPR’s priorities and initiatives. This could result in DPR not being able to regulate as a science-based organization. This is one of the many reasons we OPPOSE AB 652.

Assembly Member Friedman also introduced AB 1322 which would add all of the restrictions in AB 1788 (the SGAR Ban bill) to the rodenticide Diphacinone. Again, like AB 363, this is a pesticide based issue that belongs in DPR. We OPPOSE AB 1322 and will be fighting this bill at every opportunity that we can. 

There are a couple of other bills that PCOC is watching that have to do with the license side of the business. AB 996 is a DCA bill that addresses the providers of CEU’s and AB 1101 is a bill that talks about inspecting and certifying exterior elevated elements on muti-family homes (raised decks). There are conversations happening with the authors of these bills and we will keep you posted as this develops.

However, on the positive front, DPR is moving forward with the SGAR re-evaluation. This helps that cause with regards to removing the temporary restrictions with SGAR’s listed in AB 1788. Once this process is completed and DPR adopts the mitigation from their findings, then the restrictions listed in AB 1788 can be lifted and these other mitigations can be adopted on a permanent basis. PCOC is working with DPR on this.

Michael Wilson, our new EVP, has walked into a year that is busier than most and will get to know this industry through trial by fire. Welcome Michael!

Darren Van Steenwyk, M.S., BCE
PCOC Legislative Committee Chair
Clark Pest Control
Mobile: (209) 224-4629
darrenv@clarkpest.com

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