Insurance Services Office
BELLEVUE,
NEBRASKA
BUILDING CODE ENFORCEMENT
ONE OF TOP RATED IN THE NATION SAYS INSURANCE INDUSTRY ADVISORY COMPANY
On April 5, 2005, Bellevue, Nebraska became the fifth U.S. city to
receive the highest rating for enforcing building codes from the Insurance
Services Office, Inc. (ISO), the national firm that evaluates municipalities
capabilities for property and casualty insurers.
Bellevue, a suburb of Omaha Nebraska, located in Sarpy County became the
fifth city in the United States to achieve a Class 1 distinction for building
code enforcement in both the residential and commercial categories, after the
cities of Fremont CA, Coral Gables FL, Asheville NC and Orem UT, according to
Ralph Dorio, Technical Coordinator for ISO.
ISO's Building Code Effectiveness Grading program, (BCEGS)
evaluates the effectiveness of local building code enforcement to help determine
how well residential and commercial structures in a given community will hold up
in high wind, heavy snow load, earthquake and other natural hazard areas. ISO
grades communities building code enforcement on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being
the best. Insurers now use the building code evaluations as a key factor in
assessing risk and determining premiums fo homeowners and commercial properties
According to Mr. Dorio, ISO performs approximately 2600 BCEGS evaluations
a year and completes an entire evaluation of all communities in the United
States on a five year cycle.
Bellevue is the first community in the nation to receive the
coveted class one distinction in the Midwest.
Bellevue improved from it's Class 2 rating in 2000 by evaluating the
deficiencies of that grading period
and focusing resources on the areas of plan review and field inspections, which
included a rigorous training program for all staff, the utilization of licensed
engineers for plans examination, and an in depth analysis of the protocol of
plans submission, plans examination and subsequent issuance of construction
permits. Bellevue also instituted an in depth public education program
concerning building safety and compliance measures, attempting to make the
experience of obtaining permits for minor construction a much more simplified
process for the public.
Bellevue, first occupied as a fur trading post in 1821, is
the oldest continuously occupied community in
Nebraska and one of the oldest West of the
Missouri, and was formally incorporated as a city in 1855.
It is a jurisdiction of 43 square miles, and an estimated population of 70,000.
It
is an extremely diverse community, situated adjacent to the headquarters
of STRATCOM, located at Offutt Air Force Base and the City of
Omaha. Bellevue has experienced tremendous growth in the
last twenty years.
The Permits and Inspections Department will be an integral part of
the inspection team for the privatization of military housing on Offutt, which
will include the demolition and re-construction of some 1400 dwelling units for
our men and women in uniform. This project, estimated to last seven years, is
the largest military privatization program in the United States.
ISO's building-code program was
developed in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew (18.4 billion)
and the Northridge Earthquake
(12.2 billion) when it became clear that the lack of adequate building-code
enforcement contributed to almost one fourth of the total insured property
losses for these disasters.
Jerry Ryan, Mayor of the City
of Bellevue said of the award,
" I am honored that our city has achieved a Class
One rating from the Insurance Services Office (ISO). This rating, a direct
result of Chief Building Official Steven Carmichael's leadership is going to have
a positive and dynamic impact on insurance rates in Bellevue. I am appreciative
of the dedication and hard work by all the members of the Permits and
Inspections Department and the leadership that ultimately made the award/high
rating possible."
Dennis Gage, Manager of ISO's Risk Decisions Services unit said,
"In endorsing ISO=s building-code effectiveness program countrywide,
the property/casualty insurance industry is sending a compelling message to
community residents and businesses: municipalities with effective and well
enforced codes should demonstrate better loss experience, and insurance premiums
can reflect that." Since Hurricane Andrew, which set a record for
insured catastrophe losses and caused widespread suffering and economic
disruption, the insurance industry and leaders in emergency-preparedness
management and construction have focused on the value of well-enforced,
effective codes.
AIn communities with favorable grades, ISO's program provides credits on personal and
commercial property insurance premiums ranging from 1 to 25 percent for
buildings constructed in the year ISO's evaluation is completed or
later, explained Gage.
"The prospect of lower
catastrophe-related damage and improved loss experience is a powerful financial
incentive for communities to enforce building codes more rigorously, especially
codes which relate to windstorms and earthquakes."
ISO evaluates these three broad based categories of factors in
building-code enforcement by communities, with the greatest emphasis on code
enforcement as it relates to natural hazards:
* Municipal administrative support for code enforcement
* Enforcement functions that determine levels of compliance
* Quality of field inspections
The building-code initiative is similar to ISO's program to evaluate the effectiveness of
communities fire-fighting capabilities, which has long been a factor used by
insurers in determining rates for commercial property and homeowners insurance.
The City of
Bellevue Volunteer
Fire Department
has achieved a Class 3 rating, which places them in the top 1800 departments
nationally out of approximately 43,000 fire departments in the ISO database.
For more information you can contact:
Steven Carmichael C.B.O.
City of Bellevue
(402)293-3015
Stevec@bellevue.net