The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has downgraded
Clackamas County’s Community Rating System (CRS) from a Class 6 to a
Class 10 which will result in a loss of flood insurance premium discounts for
local policy holders.

It seems the county’s failure to provide documentation to the insurance
carrier is at the root of the downgrade, one that will result in premium cost
increases to policy holders on average of $180, according to Marlene Jacobs,
ISO/CRS Specialist for Insurance Services Office, Inc. of Portland.

The insurance spike will go into effect Oct. 1, 2016 or May 1, 2017.

“I regret to inform you that I will be recommending to FEMA that the County
retrograde from a CRS Class 6 to a CRS Class 10 rating,” Jacobs wrote June
14 in an email to Steve Hanschka, senior planner for the county. “This
recommendation will result in the loss of flood insurance premium discount for
NFIP policy holders within the County.”

Jacobs went on to write in the email that the recommendation is a result of
not receiving sufficient documentation from the county since March 2015.
Mountain resident and property owner Kip O’Connor cites the ineptitude of
county officials for the costly problem.

“Mike McCallister (county planning director) and Steve Hanschka have failed
at their jobs,” O’Connor wrote in an email to The Mountain Times. “The county
refused for one year and three months to furnish all Base Flood Elevation
(BFE) certificates associated with building permits (and) they did not furnish
repetitive loss paperwork as needed. They knew for a while they were not
following NFIP regs and that means they have been defrauding the NFIP and
insurance company all this time.”

McCallister wrote to O’Connor July 20 that the county has a project manager
who will be “looking at the County’s Floodplain management program over the
next year.”

At that time the project will consider future participation in the CRS program,
including where the program will be located organizationally in the county,
staffing resources, use of consultants, funding strategies and overall
coordination between divisions, McCallister added.

To reapply for the CRS program, the county would need to complete a
community assistance visit with FEMA and it be determined the county was
back in good standing with the National Flood Insurance Program.

Aside from the policy premium increase, it is uncertain what lies ahead for
Mountain residents.

But O’Connor has his own idea. “I think the county commissioners should
have to answer for this and act accordingly.”