Prospective Members

PERMA began offering coverage in 1985 and currently has 32 members in Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties. Each member has a seat on the Board, and members are asked to designate a director and alternate. PERMA has three Board meetings annually: March (remote only), June (hybrid – remote or in person attendance), and December (in person only). Meetings are held in the Coachella Valley. The Board selects an Executive Committee of seven members which meets monthly. PERMA has been Accredited with Excellence by the California Association of Joint Powers Authorities (CAJPA) since 1997.

Value added membership

In addition to the coverages listed on the website, PERMA provides the following for members:

  • Conference attendance reimbursement (approximately $2,000 – $3,000/year)
  • Risk control reimbursement (up to $3,000/year)
  • Actuarial estimates of outstanding liabilities within the member retention
  • Law enforcement services (through Benchmark and Lexipol)
  • Property Appraisals (every four years for members in the property program)
  • Hybrid liability claim handling (in-house claim manager + TPA services)
  • DIR OSIP reporting

Request more information or a coverage estimate

Please email us at info@permarisk.gov. At a minimum, PERMA requires the following to prepare an estimate:

  1. Payroll in a variety of formats.
  • Estimated, current year, payroll
  • Actual payroll, in Excel, (total subject wages from the state DE-9 form or federal Form 941)
    • Include the most recent ten (10) fiscal periods (July 1 – June 30)
      • Please display the payroll breakdown – for each year – as follows: Public Safety, Non-public Safety, and total payroll
    • If your agency is unable to provide fiscal years, please provide actual payroll for calendar years instead.
  • Quarterly payroll documents [DE-9 form or equivalent] for the past 6 quarters
  • A form must be completed to report payroll by class code. Contact PERMA at info@permarisk.gov to request the form.
  1. An electronic liability claim loss run, in Excel, by year, for the most recent ten (10) complete years plus the current year.  Please exclude employment practices liability claims from this loss run. The agency’s TPA should value the losses as of the last day of the previous month (for example, a loss run presented to PERMA in December should be valued as of November 30). At a minimum, the loss run should include the following for each claim:
  • Date of incident
  • Claim number (along with suffixes if there are multiple claims in one occurrence)
  • Description of the claim
  • Total Paid amount
  • Total Reserve amount
  • Total Recovery amount
  • Total Incurred amount
  • Please note: do not email loss information. A secure folder will be provided so you can safely upload the data.
  1. The agency’s preferred liability member retention limit (MRL). Please see the liability page for available retentions.
  1. Complete an online application which collects exposure data (street lane miles, number of parks, etc.). Contact us at info@permarisk.gov to request instructions and a link to the application.
  1. PERMA charges a $1,000 application fee. If the agency joins PERMA, the fee is applied toward the agency’s first invoice.

Coverage for other programs (e.g. workers’ compensation, employment practices liability, property, auto physical damage, crime, cyber, deadly weapons)  is available. Cost estimates to participate in these programs requires submission of additional information.

Before submitting information and materials, please contact PERMA (Beth Lyons) to schedule a brief discussion regarding the prospective member process.

We look forward to working with you. Thank you for thinking of PERMA for your agency’s coverage and risk management needs.