California JPIA Receives Accreditation with Excellence

The California JPIA has been awarded Accreditation with Excellence by the California Association of Joint Powers Authorities (CAJPA) for a three-year term from 2022-2025.

Created in 1981, CAJPA is a statewide association for insurance-based risk-sharing pools that provides continuing education, legislative advocacy, and active involvement in regulatory matters on behalf of its joint powers authority members. CAJPA is California’s leading voice for pools, risk management, and JPAs.

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CAJPA sponsors the nation’s first risk management accreditation program. Established in 1988, the program forms a set of professional standards which serve as a guideline for all risk management pools regardless of size, the scope of operation, or membership structure.

“Accreditation by CAJPA, particularly Accreditation with Excellence, provides confidence to our members. It assures them that there has been an external examination of our pool’s legal, contractual, and operational documents and procedures, as well as our risk management, loss control, and claims management programs. It confirms that we are meeting and exceeding statutory compliance and best risk management practices,” said Chief Executive Officer Jon Shull. “We are proud to have been awarded CAJPA’s highest recognition, Accreditation with Excellence, a title reserved for those JPAs who exceed the mandatory requirements for accreditation.”

“To put this recognition in context,” said the Authority’s Business Projects Manager, Carl Sandstrom, who serves on CAJPA’s technology and accreditation committees, “there are about 135 risk-sharing pools in California. Of those, about 100 are members of CAJPA, and of those, about 60 have achieved CAJPA’s rigorous accreditation.”

The CAJPA accreditation factors are comprehensive: more than 30 pages of standards encompassing governance, operations, claims management, finance, and accounting. The foundation of the accreditation program is:

• To promote professional management and fiscally sound practices
• To provide industry standards that can be used in evaluating levels of performance and compliance
• To develop a self-regulating process that is thorough, responsive, and cost-effective
• To assist managers in achieving and assure governing boards of meeting high standards
• To provide an opportunity to compare specific policies and procedures to the accreditation standards and other pools in the industry

“The accreditation process was created, and continues to be cultivated, to ensure the long-term health of the risk-sharing pool industry,” said Sandstrom. “By formalizing a self-regulating program through accreditation, members of pools benefit from higher operating standards and financial controls. It is CAJPA’s answer to the question: ‘Who can help us ensure our JPA is being operated in the best way possible?’”

Learn more about CAJPA and its accreditation program.

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