15 - RFP for third party administrator - grant funding for BCEGS rating improvement

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Memorandum Item No. 15 TO: Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council Grayson Path, City Manager FROM: Duke McGee, MCP Building Official, Asst. Director Community Development SUBJECT: Grant Administrative Services RFP DATE: March 25, 2024 BACKGROUND The Building Department is seeking to improve our BCEGS rating and to receive Building Department Accreditation. BCEGS (Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule) is a program administered by ISO which evaluates building departments in jurisdictions across the country pertaining to their building code adoption and enforcement and grades them on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being best and 10 being worst. Our current rating is a 6. With an improved BCEGS rating for the Building Department, the community's insurance (commercial and residential) rates will improve (lower). In addition to improving insurance ratings, better BCEGS ratings (closer to 1) for a Community's Building Department increases the ability of the community to receive Federal relief funding in the case of natural or declared disasters. A bad BCEGS rating may be used to limit our deny relief funding. Insurance Service Office (ISO) is now a subsidiary of Verisk Analytics and the publisher and administrator of FEMA's BCATS (Building Code Adoption Tracking System). In 2023 FEMA became the primary customer (80%) of ISO, and has since required an update to the rating system. One of these is for triennial grading, our last grading was in 2021 and we are currently due for a new rating. By implementing best practices, quality control measures, legacy and document retention and control measures we will be able to increase our ratings with the aim towards getting as low as a 2. We are currently working with both FEMA and BOAT (Building Officials Association of Texas) on a way to receive a rating of 1 (due to current State Law prohibitions on sprinkler system enforcement in the IRC, Texas communities cannot receive a I rating). Building Department accreditation is based on the IAS Accreditation Criteria (AC251), which aligns with the International Building Code and related industry standards. The assessment covers areas such as: Service goals (timeliness, quality, budget), Documents and records, Complaints and appeals, Plan reviews, Emergency response plans, Personnel, Inspections, Quality management system, Permitting and Management reviews. There are currently only 4 cities in the State of Texas that have received this accreditation. Building Department accreditation also helps improve our BCEGS.