Fiscal Year 2004 Proposed Budget

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DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

PROGRAM MISSION: To prevent disease from environmental sources. The mission is accomplished through education, identification of public health risks and enforcement of public health laws.

• The food safety program ensures sanitation standards are maintained in the approximately 1,700 food establishments under regulation.

• The swimming pool safety/sanitation program ensures sanitation and safety standards are maintained in the approximately 180 swimming pools under regulation.

• The centralized rodent control program responds to citizen complaints and assesses and reduces community rat populations in residential and commercial areas.

• The rabies control program minimizes human exposure to rabies through animal control, animal vaccination and education.

• The general environmental health program ensures sanitation and safety standards are maintained in day care centers, public and private schools and homes for adults, and monitors on site sewage disposal, well water quality and radiological sources.

• The arbovirus control program monitors vectors of arboviral diseases and uses physical, biological and chemical control methods to reduce the chances of transmission of the disease to humans.

SIGNIFICANT BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS:

• Due to state budget cuts affecting Public Health programs, Environmental Health fees have been increased ($20,000) to partially offset the loss of state funds.

• Personnel and FTEs increase to reflect the movement of West Nile Virus monitoring and larviciding from a contractual to an in-house program in FY 2003. The additional FTE was approved through supplemental County Board action.

• Non-personnel is reduced to reflect the shift of West Nile Virus monitoring and larviciding from a contractual to in-house program to achieve cost savings and enhance service quality. The reduction is partially offset by increased expenditures ($87,090) associated with implementation of a contract with Alexandria to provide them with larviciding and mosquito surveillance services.

• Fees increased primarily to reflect anticipated revenue for monitoring and larviciding from Alexandria ($135,522), and a proposed increase in the Food Establishment license application fee. The Food Establishment license application processing fee will be raised from $40 to $60 resulting in an increase of $20,000 in revenues. Prior to this fiscal year the food establishment application processing fee offset the cost of processing the annual license. New state law allows for an annual licensing fee to be charged and split between the state and the local government. In effect the law reduced the allocation to Arlington by $18,546. This proposed increase will offset the state's reduction in allocation.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

Inspection Program Objective: To ensure that food establishments found to be below standard (but not posing an immediate health hazard) are brought up to minimum standards or have their license to operate revoked.

• The numbers of food establishment inspections was reduced during FY 2002. This reduction was attributed to refocusing inspection efforts to higher risk establishments that require a greater time to perform the services.

• Because the number of food establishments is rising without increasing the staffing, the average number of inspections per establishment is declining. For example, extremely high risk food establishments receive an average of 3.1 inspections per year. The recommended frequency for extremely high risk establishments is six times per year. Medium risk food establishments receive an average of 1.7 inspections per year. The recommended frequency for medium risk food establishments is three times per year.

• Any establishment that represents an immediate health hazard is closed at once pending corrective action.

• The number of inspections for swimming pools was not tracked in FY 2001.

• The number of inspections for General Environmental Health facilities was not tracked in FY 2001 or FY 2002.

Animal and Rodent Control Program Objective: To safeguard the public from threatening animals as evidenced by the number of vaccinations and quarantine services provided.

• The number of animals vaccinated for rabies by Arlington Animal Welfare League will probably decline in FY 2003 because of an increasing number of alternative vaccination locations such as commercial pet food establishments.

Arbovirus Control Program Objective: To reduce the possibility of human arboviral diseases occurring in Arlington County.

• The projected increase in the number of arbovirus complaints (25% from FY 2002 to FY 2003) is based on the increase from FY 2001 to FY 2002 (29%).

• The increase in treating mosquito breeding sites, identified by complaint, can be attributed to a better trained staff and their ability to locate and eradicate mosquito breeding sites.

FUTURE BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS:

• Since the last increase in Environmental Health staff in 1992, the number of regulated establishments has risen from 1,563 in FY 1992 to 2,128 in FY 2002 (This includes both state and local code requirements). This trend of increased numbers of regulated establishments is expected to continue.

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