26.1-52-03. Board

26.1-52-03. Board 1. A board of directors consisting of seven members shall direct the operations of the property insurance placement facility. The seven members are comprised of five directors from the insurance industry and two public directors as follows: a. Two of the five industry representatives must come from domestic insurance companies, one must come from county mutual insurance companies, one from foreign stock companies, and one from foreign mutual companies. The commissioner shall appoint the first board on a staggered basis. Subsequent board members are to be elected by facility members. b. The public directors must be appointed by the commissioner. Public directors may include licensed insurance agents. c. The term of each director is three years beginning on January first of the year the director is elected or appointed, except as staggered in the initial appointment process. A vacancy must be filled by election by the other directors for the remainder of the term. A vacancy to a public directorship must be filled by appointment by the commissioner for the remainder of the term. If the board fails to elect a replacement for an industry vacancy within thirty days, the commissioner shall appoint a replacement for the remainder of the term. 2. The board shall prepare and maintain a plan of operation which provides for the management of the facility, including the hiring of employees or contracting services to carry out the plan of operation, establishment of necessary facilities within the state, assessment of members to defray losses and expenses, negotiating commission agreements, establishing reasonable underwriting standards, developing reasonable cancellation and nonrenewal standards, acceptance and cession of reinsurance, adopting procedures for determining amounts of insurance to be provided, procedures for payment of claims, procedures for appealing adverse actions, procedures for reporting the plan experience to a statistical agent, and procedures for contracting facility functions to the private sector. The board has ninety days to submit the initial plan of operation to the commissioner for approval. All subsequent amendments to the plan of operation must be submitted to the commissioner for approval. The commissioner may require the board to waive the assessment requirement for an insurer if the assessment would cause a significant financial impairment to the insurer or would jeopardize the solvency of the insurer.