The California Joint Powers Insurance Authority (California JPIA) recognizes the City of Carpinteria, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.
The city was incorporated in 1965 and maintains a delicate balance of staying true to its small-town roots while remaining welcoming to visitors. “The city takes pride in its community,” said California JPIA Senior Risk Manager Tim Karcz. “They have a lot of small, independently owned restaurants and places of business. It’s not a cookie-cutter kind of town—it’s very local.”
The city has completed several significant projects in recent years, including the construction of a skate park adjacent to City Hall. The city also manages extensive wetlands and is coordinating with other agencies on the removal of infrastructure connected to decommissioned offshore oil platforms. Looking ahead, Carpinteria is assuming stewardship of more natural spaces, including cliff areas and trails near the train tracks. “The city’s literally growing in size with this open space that it’s acquiring,” said Karcz. “And with that comes decisions and risk management.”
Carpinteria has been a California JPIA member for 33 years, joining the Authority in 1992. Building on their longstanding membership, the city continues to innovate. They recently formed a team with staff from every department to address liability concerns and safety issues identified in a risk management evaluation.
“They actively involve us and have been wonderful partners of ours for many years,” said Karcz, who has worked with Carpinteria for nearly 10 years and regularly participates in the city’s quarterly all-hands staff meetings to discuss risk management topics.
“The Authority empowers us to not only manage claims effectively but to proactively mitigate risk and liability exposure across our entire organization,” said City of Carpinteria Assistant City Manager Ryan Kintz. “In the coming years, we look forward to strengthening this partnership by leveraging the California JPIA’s extensive training catalog, collaborating more closely with Tim on new risk-related processes, policies, and procedures, and fully utilizing their dedicated experts and resources. Our collaboration with the Authority is fundamental to building a more resilient and secure future for the City of Carpinteria.”
Providing innovative risk management solutions for its public agency partners for more than 45 years, the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority (California JPIA) is one of the largest municipal self-insurance pools in the state, with more than 125 member cities and other governmental agencies. Members actively participate in shaping the organization to provide important coverage for their operations. The California JPIA provides innovative risk management solutions through a comprehensive portfolio of programs and services, including liability, workers’ compensation, pollution, property, and earthquake coverage, as well as extensive training and loss control services. For more information, please visit the California JPIA’s website at cjpia.org.