VERO BEACH — The three-member board of the Indian River Mosquito Control District, has been roiled by infighting and animosity, including an ethics complaint, potential conflicts of interest and the recent exits of its executive director and one commissioner.
The elected board oversees a budget of almost $12 million to control mosquitoes in Indian River County. Tensions between board members began in the autumn of 2025.
Two commissioners convened a special meeting in October 2025 when Chairman Matt Erpenbeck was out of town to talk about not renewing the contract of longtime Executive Director Sherry Burroughs.
That move set off a series of events that led to Burroughs’ exit earlier this year.
In official meeting minutes, Commissioner Janice Broda said the district should conduct a national search for an executive director as the current executive director’s contract was up for renewal.
The Indian River Mosquito Control District’s board meeting agenda lists the executive director’s contract on the Feb. 10, 2026, agenda despite her having already left.
Erpenbeck left in the wake of the turbulence, as soon began ethics complaint against the board—though there are no clear details about that particular allegation. Only Janice Broda and Anna Kirkland now sit on the board.
The Florida Commission on Ethics declined to say whether there are any active investigations.
It’s one of the few government bodies that doesn’t have video of its meetings posted on a website or social media, unlike most agencies which videotape their sessions so residents can follow along. The latest video on the site and YouTube as of this article’s writing was posted nine months ago.
Indian River County depends on the district to track and kill mosquito breeding sites, particularly in marshes and after hard rains.
Field inspectors of Indian River Mosquito Control District can be seen trudging through mosquito-breeding environments, spotting larvae and recording when they were seen in a computer database.
The board’s dysfunction follows a time of heightened risk from diseases like dengue and West Nile virus in Florida. State health officials have warned that the recent storms led to an increase in mosquito populations, another reason for steady leadership.
The next regular meeting of the district will be on March 10, 2026.
Burroughs received a presidential award for outstanding service from the district in 2025 and had kept operations running smoothly amid growing mosquito-borne disease threats in Florida.
The district, created by state legislation, elects commissioners for four-year terms.
