News Briefs
Pest Control Operators of California
November 2012
The impressive thing about the General Election was not who won. Individuals can agree to disagree on the details. No, what is impressive is the fact that our great nation went to the polls in a peaceful fashion when you think about the stark differences that faced us when you and I voted on November 6, the huge disparity in candidates and issues that we faced. Just here in California the options and alternatives were incredible. The statewide ballot propositions alone presented a dizzying array of issues!
I want to turn your thinking for a moment away from the partisan rhetoric and the prognostications on what may or may not happen in Washington D.C. or Sacramento next year. I want to focus, during this time of Thanksgiving, on the actual process of what happened in the United States of America on Election Day, 2012.
In many parts of the world, a peaceful election is impossible. Individuals are bribed, threatened and beaten for their votes. There is no such thing as democracy. Freedom is, at best, an aspiration...and notably not among those in power. The people in power want to retain their power at all cost. No matter what it takes. Legal or illegal. In fact, the thought of freedom in those parts of the world is usually synonymous with going to America.
America—this country where we are privileged to live. Which gives us the challenges and joys of belonging to a profession where we can earn an honest living.
Yes, we had an election this month. We have something to be truly thankful for at this time of year, when we come together for Thanksgiving Day. Despite the changes and challenges represented by the variations in the political landscape, both for good and for bad. We can be extraordinarily grateful for where we live, for the freedom to run our businesses and be productive, for our system of government...and yes, even for the fact that we can have a peaceful election.
Let's not take these things for granted!
PEST ED 2013
Before you know it, June will arrive, and licensees will be scrambling to get the rest of their continuing education hours. Frantic technicians will bombard their employers about getting hours to renew their licenses. Why wait until June?
Pest Ed is here.
PCOC's annual Pest Ed is Tuesday, January 8, 2013 in Montebello for Southern California and Wednesday, January 9, 2013 in Sacramento for Northern California. There will be one morning session and three afternoon breakout sessions covering rules and regulations, Branch 2, and Branch 1 and 3. We have also applied for DPR hours.
We will have exciting talks about green pest management, new methods for controlling wood destroying insects, new inspection technologies, fly, cockroach, bed bug and rodent control, lead safety regulations, worker's comp, driver's safety and more.
Don't miss this great opportunity. We will shortly be posting a link to the brochure on our website under "Upcoming Events." We will also be sending a copy out soon.
SAN FRANCISCO TO TRACK BEDBUGS' TRAILS
November 13, 2012 | Katharine Mieszkowski, The Bay Citizen
San Francisco bedbugs: Stand up and be counted.
That is the message from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which approved an ordinance last week that aims to give the city a more accurate picture of where the pests lurk.
Exterminators will now be required to report to the Department of Public Health about the number of units that they treat for bedbugs each month. While they won't have to include the address of the infested apartments or hotels, they will be required to identify each unit's census tract to help chart the bugs' distribution around the city.
"From a public health point of view, it's very important to be able to target your resources, and this will give us a chance to do this," said Karen Cohn, a program manager at the department's Environmental Health section.
While the bedbug population has increased nationally in recent years, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the city of San Francisco does not have reliable data on the persistent pests' prevalence here.
The ordinance, backed by Supervisor Jane Kim, reflects concern among tenants advocates that the city remains unaware of how widespread the blood-sucking bugs really are.
"Tenants advocates have been saying for years that we're experiencing a grave problem, if not an epidemic, of bed bugs in the city," said Tommi Avicolli Mecca, director of the counseling program for the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, a tenants rights organization. "I think that a lot of people thought that we were exaggerating or being alarmist. But I think by better tracking, everyone will have a better sense of how widespread the problem is," she said.
In 2010, the San Francisco health department received 370 complaints about bedbugs. Of these, the department was able to confirm infestation in 152 cases. But these complaints by no means reflect all such infestations in the city. "Most people can resolve these problems without coming to us," said Cohn from the health department.
Brad Bishop, owner of Sleep Tight Pest Control, said his firm alone treats about 500 units a year, primarily in San Francisco.
Some San Franciscans may be surprised where the bugs turn up. "Better data will get rid of some of the stigma around this issue that bedbugs only happen to poor people or in neighborhoods that are struggling," said Matthias Mormino, Kim's legislative aide.
The new ordinance, which amends the city's health code, also requires more transparency from landlords. When a prospective tenant asks a landlord or property manager about an apartment or room's bedbug history, the landlord or property manager will be required to disclose in writing the unit's history of infestation and abatement over the previous two years. "That is taken from a provision that New York introduced two years ago," Mormino said. "It's really for the tenants' protection."
Under the San Francisco ordinance, the landlord is only required to provide the bedbug disclosure to prospective tenants who ask.
Sorry, tourists: Hotels and motels that cater to visitors are not required to disclose to guests their bedbug history. "We don't want to scare people off," said Bishop, who serves on San Francisco's Bedbug Working Group, which crafted the ordinance. "The hotels are required to do everything else in our legislation, except tell potential people when they're coming in."
The ordinance also requires the health department to produce literature about the rights and responsibilities of pest control operators, tenants, and property owners and managers in bedbug abatement.
The common bedbug – Cimex lectularius – feeds on the blood of warm-blooded animals, with humans as the preferred hosts, causing itchy bites. "Bed bugs do not discriminate," wrote Joshua Vining, community organizer for the Mission SRO Collaborative, which is a program of Dolores Street Community Services, who is part of the city's bedbug working group, in an email. "As long as a person is alive and breathing, and creating heat, they are a target for these pests."
Tenants advocates hope that the new data about bedbugs in San Francisco, which should begin coming out early next year, will unleash more resources for fighting the pest, including potential funding for laundry services to rid clothes of bedbugs for low-income tenants and incentives for landlords to seal pathways between units, according to Vining.
Bedbugs, which live up to 18 months, can be tough to fight, requiring multiple treatments to vanquish them. The bugs sometimes persist after they're thought to be long-gone because they can remain dormant for long periods of time after feeding.
While irritating, the pest is not known to transmit any disease, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The adult bugs are reddish brown with microscopic hairs that gives them a banded appearance, according to San Francisco's health department. The wingless bugs are oval after a blood meal.
"It's kind of like having little vampires living in your apartment," said Avicolli Mecca, of the Housing Rights Committee. "It's not like having ants."
2012 PCOC Golf Tournament
SilverRock Resort
La Quinta, CA
2013
Pest Ed South
Quiet Cannon
Pest Ed North
Red Lion Inn
Sacramento, CA
March 22-23
IN MEMORIAM
John T. Munro died of cancer on Friday, Oct. 12, 2012 at the age of 62. John was a long-time PCOC member and a former employee of PCOC. John worked in the pest management industry in Florida for some years before being transferred to California in the early 1970s while in the employ of Orkin. John worked for Pest Control Operators of California during the 1980s and '90s as the Director of Education and later as a meeting planner. John left PCOC in the mid 1990s to start his own pest management and consulting firm. For the past few years John had been working as a quality assurance supervisor for Proctor & Gamble while continuing the occasional consulting work for law firms conducting pest management defense. John is survived by his wife Jan and his two daughters Mellissa and Miranda. No services are planned. Condolence cards may be sent to Jan Munro, 5235 Bamford Drive, Sacramento, CA 95823-4706.
Visit http://www.naylornetwork.com/cpc-nwl/pdf/Endorsed_Programs.pdf to view the full article online.
Like Goldilocks testing chairs, a review might find reserves for a workers' compensation claim too high, too low or just right. This article will discuss the function of reserves and why you want them to be "just right."
A loss reserve is money the insurer sets aside to pay future claims expenses. In the case of a workers' compensation policy, a claim could potentially last a lifetime, making estimating reserves a difficult task. A workers' compensation claim reserve could have three components:
• Indemnity reserves, or estimated lost-time payments
• Medical reserves, or estimated costs of medical treatments
• Expense reserves, or costs of adjusting and administering the claim. These might include the costs of hiring investigators, independent medical examiners and vocational rehabilitation specialists in connection with the claim.
Claims adjusters use past experience and statistical information to make these estimates. Factors that can complicate the process include:
• Medical cost inflation/advances in medicine and pharmaceuticals. In the last 20 years, medical costs have increased from 49 percent of total workers' compensation loss costs to 58 percent.
• Legislation that increases benefit levels or adds to types of claims covered by workers' compensation (such as laws that presume that a healthcare worker who contracts AIDS became infected through work).
• Increases in longevity.
If the claims adjuster underestimates the amount of money needed to pay a claim, under reserving occurs. A pattern of under reserving can make an insurer's policies look more affordable, but can jeopardize its ability to pay claims over the long term.
Insurers can also over reserve for workers' compensation claims by putting aside too much to pay future claim costs. Insurers may invest their reserves; however, state laws generally require them to invest reserves extremely conservatively. This makes funds unavailable for other uses — for example, making higher-profit investments and writing new policies.
Over reserving also affects employers. If you have an experience modified policy, over reserving could affect your experience modification and ultimately your premiums. It will also distort your loss profile and make your firm a less attractive risk if you want to "shop" your coverage.
When calculating your experience modification, the insurer will look at your loss experience, of which loss reserves are a component. The formula includes losses of less than $5,000 in full and discounts losses in excess of $5,000. In this way, larger losses have a smaller relative impact on your ex-mod than small ones do.
Each state also sets a "maximum single loss" amount, which caps the amount of any single workers' compensation claim that can be considered when calculating experience modifications. This prevents a single claim from having too disproportionate an effect on your experience modification. Still, larger losses do affect your ex-mod, so if you can get a reserve amount dropped significantly, your experience modification could improve.
The nature of any claim can change over time. You will want to conduct periodic claim reviews to ensure that reserves for any particular claim are not too high, not too low, but just right. For help or further information, please contact the PCOC Insurance Program department of Jenkins Insurance Services at (877) 860-7378 or, email us at ProPest@Leavitt.com.
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Department of Fish & Game
www.dfg.ca.gov
Department of Food & Agriculture
www.cdfa.ca.gov
Department of Pesticide Regulation
www.cdpr.ca.gov
Find Your Legislator
www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
Healthy Schools Act
www.schoolipm.info
Structural Pest Control Board
www.pestboard.ca.gov
