Rest Easy – City has taken the risk out of being a city?

The City of Seal Beach is a proud member of the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority (California JPIA); the California JPIA handles the City’s risk management program.

In May of this year, the City Manager asked the California JPIA to perform a comprehensive risk management audit of city operations and on September 30th met with California JPIA representatives and City Department Directors to review the findings and recommendations of the audit.  Bob May, California JPIA’s Senior Risk Consultant, presented a thorough report.

The main principles are to manage risk by transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk.  “By having such an audit done prospectively, pre-incident or claim, and by implementing the findings, the city can do a better job of making careful choices and help keep risk management a priority”, said City Manager David Carmany.  Follow-up action items will be recommended for funding in next year’s municipal budget.

The California JPIA, as authorized by its joint powers agreement, operates as a membership organization.  More than 120 public agencies with good loss experience and risk management efforts help make California JPIA a success.