Pasco Mosquito Control Director’s Pay Exceeds Budget, and Any Comparison of Similar Positions in Government

Public records reviewed by Pasco Community Website show the executive director of the Pasco County Mosquito Control District received nearly $14,000 more in 2024 gross wages than the salary set in that year’s approved budget — and earned more than the directors of comparable mosquito control districts elsewhere in Florida. The findings come on the heels of a scrapped $37 million campus, a corrected $18.5 million budget-deficit filing, and one of the largest local outbreaks of dengue fever the state has seen in years.

What the records show

According to a 2024 W-2 wage statement reviewed by Pasco Community Website, Executive Director Adriane N. Rogers received gross pay of $190,167.76 from the Pasco County Mosquito Control District (PCMCD) last calendar year. The district’s approved Fiscal Year 2024 budget set the director’s salary at $176,374.90, with a planned increase to $183,430.90 for FY 2025, according to budget figures circulated by community advocates and consistent with the district’s published budget summaries.

Gross W-2 wages can legitimately include items beyond a base salary — such as accrued leave payouts, vehicle or technology stipends, board-approved bonuses, and other taxable compensation. PCMCD has not publicly explained, line by line, what accounts for the difference between the budgeted figure and what was actually paid out. Residents who have submitted written questions to the Pasco Legislative Delegation say they have not received a response.

How Pasco’s mosquito director compares to other Pasco leaders

To place Rogers’ compensation in context, Pasco Community Website examined publicly reported 2024 pay for the top of Pasco County’s public-sector pay scale and for executive directors of comparable Florida mosquito control districts.

The numbers tell a layered story. Pasco County Administrator Mike Carballa, who oversees roughly 4,000 employees and a budget exceeding $1 billion, earns approximately $104,000 more than Rogers. The highest-reported salary in the Pasco County Schools system — a district with 12,664 employees — sits within $1,800 of Rogers’ pay.

The more telling comparison is among directors of similar Florida mosquito control districts. Manatee County’s top mosquito-control employee earned about $11,400 less than Rogers in 2024. Collier County’s top earner — in a district that the Florida Legislature’s 2023 performance review classified as larger than Pasco by both expenditures and staff — earned about $17,800 less in 2023.

Director pay across comparable Florida mosquito control districts

Mosquito control is a specialized public health discipline that requires advanced credentials and FDACS Public Health Pest Control certification, and pay can reasonably reflect that. But peer districts subject to the same Florida statutory framework, similar regulatory environments, and comparable disease-surveillance demands provide the cleanest available baseline. Rogers tops both of the closest peers identified by the state’s 2023 performance review.

The district at a glance

PCMCD was created by referendum in 1951 and now provides mosquito control across the entire county, from coastal Hudson and New Port Richey to inland Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills, Dade City, and Holiday. According to the 2023 performance review prepared for the Florida Legislature by The Balmoral Group, the district had 59 paid staff in fiscal year 2021-22 and operated on roughly $7.2 million in expenditures that year. Three years later, the district’s budget has grown to more than three times that size — a jump driven largely by capital outlay and debt service tied to a major facility project that no longer exists.

The $37 million campus that wasn’t

For several years, the district’s most contested expense has been a planned new headquarters campus on roughly 42 acres along U.S. 41 in central Pasco County. The land was purchased for $2.16 million, and PCMCD reported spending an additional $1.5 million on permitting and design. Total projected construction cost: $37 million.

That price tag drew sharp criticism at the October 2023 Pasco County Legislative Delegation meeting. State Rep. Randy Maggard, R-Dade City, publicly questioned how a mosquito control facility could rival the cost of a new high school. State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, pressed the board on its bonding plans. State Rep. Kevin Steele, R-Dade City, sided with Maggard.

By December 2024, the political pressure had escalated. Two local bills had been filed for the 2025 session — one to dissolve the district entirely and fold its functions into Pasco County government, the other to restructure the board into three sub-districts with term limits. On December 10, the PCMCD board declared the U.S. 41 land surplus property. The site is now under contract for sale through Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group.

A rough fiscal year

The campus reversal was not the only fiscal turbulence to surface in 2024. According to reporting by the Tampa Bay Times, PCMCD submitted a state-required budget certification to the Florida Department of Agriculture in October 2023 that showed an $18.5 million deficit — a status not legally permitted for Florida governments, which must balance their books in both planning and practice. The district later said the filing was an error, that the underlying budget had been balanced, and that the document was corrected. The board chair at the time told reporters Rogers had “informed the commissioners that mistakes were made,” and the district’s finance manager was terminated on January 4, 2024.

The Florida Legislature’s September 2023 OPPAGA-contracted performance review found no material findings or weaknesses in PCMCD’s independent financial audits at that point and described the district’s financial position as sound. That review, however, did not examine the planned campus project specifically — a fact Rep. Maggard publicly noted after the audit was released.

The Moon Lake dengue outbreak

While the district navigated its fiscal turbulence, Pasco County experienced one of the most serious mosquito-borne disease seasons in recent memory. In September 2024, the Florida Department of Health issued a mosquito-borne illness alert for locally acquired dengue fever in West Pasco, with the first reported case located just north of Ridge Road. The outbreak spread, with the district’s own December 2024 press release confirming a local cluster in the Moon Lake area.

By year’s end, Pasco County recorded 13 locally acquired dengue cases in 2024 — the second-highest county total in Florida that year, behind only Miami-Dade. Eastern Equine Encephalitis was also detected in animal sentinels, and West Nile Virus was confirmed in two human patients after Hurricane Milton’s riverine flooding.

What residents are asking

A community-watchdog page known as Pasco Watch has circulated a public letter addressed to the Pasco Legislative Delegation requesting a formal explanation of the variance between budgeted and actual director compensation, the source of any additional funds used, and which body is responsible for ensuring adherence to the approved budget. The letter also raises broader questions about the board’s statutory oversight responsibilities.

Under Florida law, the three-member elected PCMCD board — currently composed of Commissioners Randy Evans, Matthew “Skeeter” Abbott, and Michael Cox — sets the district’s annual budget and millage rate, approves payroll and vendor checks, and is described in the district’s own governance documents as the “fiscal guardians of the tax-payers of Pasco County.” The board meets monthly at PCMCD headquarters in Odessa, with meetings open to the public and announced on the district’s website.

Where things stand

The district has continued its public health work through 2025, including a sterile insect technique pilot program and expanded outreach following the dengue outbreak. PCMCD was named a 2026 Top Workplace and is preparing to mark its 75th anniversary. On the financial side, the most recent budget summaries show a millage rate of 0.2242 mills for FY 2024-2025 — lower than the prior year — alongside more than $10 million in carried-forward cash reserves originally accumulated for the now-abandoned campus.

What happens next will largely play out in public meetings: the board’s monthly sessions on the second Tuesday of each month, the FY 2026 budget hearings each September, and any further action by the Pasco Legislative Delegation. Residents have the right to attend, request public records under Florida Statute 119, and address commissioners directly during public comment periods.

For more local news and continued coverage of Pasco County’s independent taxing districts, visit www.pascocommunity.com and follow Pasco Community Website on Facebook and Instagram.