WILDOMAR: Soon-to-be city secures insurance coverage
Sacramento-based joint powers authority will provide service
By AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer | ∞
WILDOMAR ---- The Wildomar City Council-elect tackled some of the nitty gritty aspects of cityhood ---- insurance and office equipment ---- during its meeting Wednesday.
In one of its most significant actions, the council-elect, which will be seated as the inaugural council July 1 when the community incorporates, voted 5-0 to approve joining a Sacramento-based risk-sharing joint powers authority that will provide insurance coverage.
The group is called the Public Agency Risk Sharing Authority of California, and members include the cities of Canyon Lake, Rancho Cucamonga, South Lake Tahoe and Elk Grove.
Wildomar's interim city manager, John Danielson, served as city manager of Elk Grove for six years before his resignation late last year.
A risk-sharing authority is a government-regulated public entity formed by two or more agencies to pool resources and pay claims on behalf of its members. Other types of authorities, such as the joint powers authority formed to build a regional animal shelter in Wildomar, pool resources to pay for a specific civic project.
Canyon Lake City Councilmember John Zaitz told the Wildomar council-elect that the authority, which charges each member rates based in part on a city's payroll, would be happy to count Wildomar as a member. Zaitz serves on the authority's executive board.
Joanne Rennie, the authority's general manager, used a computerized slide-show presentation to explain what the authority is and what it does and how it would provide Wildomar with the insurance coverage the soon-to-be city will need.
After her presentation, the council-elect voted, without discussion, to approve joining the authority.
Later in the meeting, the council-elect voted 5-0 to buy $14,000 worth of office equipment that will be used inside the Wildomar city hall, which likely will be a two-story office building in the Albertsons Shopping Center off Clinton Keith Road.
Council-elect member Sheryl Ade asked the interim staff to provide more details about what sort of equipment would be purchased.
Specifically, she said she wanted to know the fire safety rating of the city's safe and the versions of software that would be purchased.
Michael Kashiwagi, the interim director of engineering, said he would provide those details to the council-elect as soon as possible.
The chairman of the council-elect, Bob Cashman, asked if the computer systems would be robust enough to last some time.
Both Kashiwagi and Danielson said the system they will be installing is a "simplified system" that will need to be updated at a later date.
During the council-elect's previous meeting, which saw the council-elect offering contracts to a new finance director and human resources director, Danielson said that one of the benefits of the finance director, Steve Stark, is his expertise in setting up sophisticated financial systems for cities. Stark is a former finance director of Pasadena.
Danielson said then that running a city requires more than just Quick Books, a popular home finance software program.
Cashman, recalling that conversation, asked why staff was proposing buying versions of Quick Books for city hall.
Danielson said the software would be used to track simple "cash in, cash out" transactions.
Danielson said Stark said it would be impossible to put together a more complicated system, tying together the city's various departments, by July 1.
As the city of Wildomar starts to develop a workflow pattern over the years, the council could start to consider the myriad number of computing solutions, Danielson said.
Contact staff writer Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or aclaverie@californian.com.
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WildomarWatcher wrote on Jun 12, 2008 8:01 AM:Amazing! Where in this thundering rush towards Wildomar’s incorporation is the financial prudence taxpayers should be able to expect from their city council-elect? Where are the clear statements about the total cost of all these hasty expenditures, where are the competitive bids and the analysis regarding whether equipment should be purchased or leased for cost effectiveness? More importantly, where are the disclosures regarding vendor and supplier relationships with members of the council-elect and/or the recently hired city staff? The answers to these questions aren’t just something nice to know. They are essential to fiscal responsibility. Taxpayers should insist Wildomar’s “leaders” get swiftly past all these self-congratulatory antics, and promptly put in place a set of procedures that will ensure all future decisions on expenditures are made based on solid analysis and competitive bids.
Randy wrote on Jun 16, 2008 2:20 AM:The software better be much more sophisticated than quick books. If ever there was a program where funds could be misappropriated, either knowingly or unknowingly, it would be quick books. The council need to get a management control system in place or they may find a large amount of funds missing.
I agree with Wildomar Watcher, there is too many gaps in this new government that lead it wide open for nepotism, kick backs, and sweet heart deals for many persons who are looking to make an extra buck, or steal it, at city expense. "Watch the dolars closely, if you don't they will disappear in a New York minute."
MLB wrote on Jun 17, 2008 3:11 PM:Wildomar’s council-elect seems to emphasize publicity spin and overly positive rhetoric, while failing to make salient facts available to their constituents. It's unfortunate the public and the press seem accepting of this methodology, and appear unwilling to ask necessary hard questions, which would provide them essential facts.
This article notes the decision selecting PARSAC as Wildomar’s insurance provider was taken without (public) discussion, but fails to include Sheryl Ade’s comments after the PARSAC public presentation...thanking their representatives for taking the time to visit individually with each of the council-elect members. Surely the public needs to know about those comments and what they may imply?
A wealth of business “best practices” procedures and information appears missing from both the council-elect’s decision process and, more importantly, the public view. Was there an RFP defining the city’s insurance needs? What criteria were used in selecting potential bidders? Where are the disclosure statements clarifying any relationships between bidders and the city council-elect and staff?
Was more than one proposal requested or received? And if we ended up with only one, how did that happen? Was
this crucial, expensive decision made simply on the basis of city staff’s recommendations, and rushed through because of a self-created time crunch?
Similar questions should be asked about all previous and future city expenditures. Unless the council-elect’s decisions are supported by this information, the public is justified in suspecting their taxpayers' dollars are being spent unwisely or that they may be being used to repay elected officials political debts.
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