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.