BOCC asks FEMA to end insurance inspections

By Steve Estes

The Monroe Board of County Commissioners Wednesday approved a resolution asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to terminate the flood insurance renewal inspection program.

And next week, county staffers are slated to sit down with officials from FEMA and try and hash out some changes to the existing downstairs enclosure inspection program.

This resolution may be atop the agenda.

County leaders have been trying to get FEMA to agree to some changes in the downstairs enclosure inspection program for about two years, mostly at the urging of the grass roots group Citizens Not Serfs, which was formed to keep the former commission from continuing to remove Monroe County from the area of critical state concern designation and to urge a fight against downstairs enclosure edicts.

The county has a three-phase lower enclosure inspection program, one at flood insurance renewal, one at time of sale and one when property owners attempt to pull building permits for other reasons.

All three programs were put in place as a result of threats from FEMA more than 10 years ago to suspend Monroe County from the National Flood Insurance Program after the federal agency chastised the county for a failure to control a proliferation of non-compliant downstairs enclosures.

FEMA claims that under-home enclosures create a hazard during storm events and cost the agency and county additional clean up fees after a major storm.

Once in place, the inspection programs proceeded without much fanfare for about six years. And during that time, property owners were forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars to tear out lower level enclosures that in some cases had been permitted by the county years before, claims Citizens Not Serfs organizer Phil Shannon.

He claims the county’s inspection protocols, not all of which were mandated by FEMA, have contributed to a significant population loss, cost property owners unnecessary millions in compliance, and county taxpayers unnecessary millions in pursuing code enforcement cases.

And now residents are beginning to look harder at what they feel is the questionable legality of the inspection programs.

“If the county enforces FEMA rules…I assume the county gets money to help pay for clean up of storm events…and we’re threatened with losing that,” said John Fitch. “That’s extortion, and it’s unconstitutional.”

County officials have trod very lightly concerning enclosure inspections over the last decade with FEMA threatening suspension from the NFIP. The NFIP provides subsidized flood insurance to high-risk communities. Most mortgage companies will not write a mortgage in Monroe County without flood insurance.

The resolution proposed “Will put us in no danger of losing our flood insurance subsidies,” said Commissioner Mario DiGennaro, sponsor of the item. “They (FEMA) can’t suspend us just for requesting they end the pilot program.”

“We believe there is no down side to asking FEMA to end the pilot program,” said John November, law fellow for Citizens Not Serfs.

Monroe County is the only entity in the country specifically identified by FEMA as a community non-compliant with FEMA flood plain regulations, says November. That singular identity comes about because Monroe County is named in the federal code with a one-of-a-kind flood-plain management program. Each of the 21,000 other FEMA communities are in line with the federal agency’s flood-plain regulations and will get the same level of consideration when FEMA begins phasing out flood-insurance subsidies and looking to raise rates in the coming year.

“FEMA will be looking to raise insurance rates and phase out subsidies to cover a $17 billion deficit,” said Shannon.

He claims that Congress is currently setting up a committee to look at covering FEMA deficits, and that by being the only community singled out as non-compliant in federal code, Monroe County residents will face a harder hit for flood insurance premiums than other communities.

Commissioner Heather Carruthers wasn’t sure she could agree with that aspect of the proposal, though she voted for it in the end.

“If we vote to lift the pilot, FEMA is not suddenly going to forget that we flood and give us lower rates,” said Carruthers.

The pilot program was established in 2002 and was to come to an end last year, but FEMA extended the program because it claimed Monroe County hadn’t yet finished. According to county records, there are still 417 homes remaining to be inspected under the insurance renewal program, but that doesn’t account for all the homes that may be in violation and will be swept up by the other two phases.

It is the third phase, the building permit application inspection that county staffers will be trying to eliminate or significantly modify when they meet with FEMA next week.

And this resolution might stand in the way of getting some movement from FEMA.

Commissioner George Neugent, who has been soundly attacked by Citizens Not Serfs for not taking an immediate shine to the proposal, said he feels FEMA will simply not bother to respond to the resolution, which it has done in the past.

“It’s hard for us to go looking for some compassion and open negotiation when we’re asking FEMA to end the program they forced us to implement,” said Neugent.