City staff outline ISO building code and PPC findings; Marion holds a class‑3 PPC

Marion’s fire and building staff presented two Insurance Services Office (ISO) assessments that affect insurance underwriting and local building classification. Gary reviewed the Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule and said Marion aims to move closer to a class 2; he reported commercial at class 3 and residential at class 4 and described recent improvements in inspection checklists, administrative training, and zoning/floodplain enforcement.

Chief Tom reviewed the Public Protection Classification (PPC) used to evaluate structural firefighting capability; he said Marion’s PPC is class 3 with a total credit of about 72 out of 105.5. He explained ISO’s component weighting (emergency communications ~10%, fire department ~50%, water supply ~40%, plus up to 5 points for community risk reduction) and noted a divergence penalty applied when areas are imbalanced. “I would preface this that this is modeling and not necessarily always applicable in all areas,” Tom said when asked about direct impacts on homeowner premiums.

Staff said the city has several ongoing steps to strengthen scores: completion of the Public Safety Training Center, improved training records, an automatic‑aid agreement with Cedar Rapids (credit pending until sufficient joint response data is logged), and a CIP to purchase an additional aerial apparatus (expected multi‑year delivery). Council members asked about timing for a reassessment and benchmarking against ISO class‑1 communities; staff said a special assessment could be requested once sufficient new data are in the ISO system.