Thread by @APDillon_

The Gov Ops Hurricane Subcommittee start is running behind. Here is the agenda & links to documents/audio & video stream:
ncleg.gov/Committees/Com…
Tweets to follow.
#ncpol #ncga

The meeting is coming to order now. Administrative issues are being dispensed with before proceeding.

First on the agenda is testimony from Richard Trumper, Office of State Budget and Management Disaster Recovery.

Sen. Brent Jackson is giving some opening remarks, listing the damage statistics, relief funding etc. from hurricanes Matthew and Florence.
Talks about the people whose lives are still not whole and "recovery efforts have failed them..." for some it's been six years.

"It is this slow and bumbling recovery process that has triggered this hearing today." - Jackson.

Jackson concludes with remarks; Richard Trumper is being called to testify now.
He is being sworn in.

Trumper describes the efforts, worked with over 900 families impacted. Says his own home was damaged and had to be repaired.
Page 1 describing OSBM's disaster recovery team:

Trumper telling a story about a family in Jacksonville where they rebuilt their home. The family did not fit FEMA/HUD relief requirements.

"The goal is to find a way to help," says Trumper.

Here are some of the stats Trumper mentioned in his opening statement.

Trumper says their process has three steps:
Application intake
Eligibility determination
Funding award

Trumper says they achieved the goal of spending $4M by June 2019.
He says they have spent or encumbers 97% of Mattew funds and around 90% of Florence funds.

There were hindrances. Trumper mentions poor performance of two contractors but doesn't name them. He also mentions COVID interruption.

Here's a list from his presentation of open projects

Trumper says of the 24 open projects; 7 will be completed in 45 days, 2 in approx 180 days, other 15 have varying dates from 60-120 days.

Trumper lists off his team; 14 people under him.
Also lists the names of those needing help and is getting emotional and choked up.
He closes with 'There is so much yet to be done and OSBM will help however we can '

Majority Leader Rep. John Bell reiterates why this committee has been reconvened - the families still homeless after over 2,600 days.

I want to make sure this committee and the public knows this is real people with real lives - Bell

Sen. Perry to Trumper: asks how he keeps general contractors moving along on a job site, noting Trumper is also a general contractor.

Perry asks if anyone quit; Trumper says no but they have had to 'let some of them go'.

Trumper asked about nonprofit involvement, says they help them achieve things faster and cheaper than some contractors.

Trumper asked if they have enough staff to do what they need to in order to achieve goals; he responds that they are hiring 2 more staffers.
Fol.up: Is there a number of staffers you need?
Trumper: additional staff would increase capacity to do good things

Sen. DeViere asks about coordination with other agencies trying to determine if people are falling through the cracks.

Deviere: How did the other agencies hand you that person?
Trumper: I wish I could tell you there was a formal process. It was usually very informal, we take a look and try to help them.

Rep. Charles Graham asks how they assess folks with severe medical issues.
Trumper recalls a situation with person in a wheelchair; if we become aware of a family with an issue like that we try to get in the car and go see them the next day.

Graham asks if it would help to have someone with medical expertise on his team.
Trumper says yes.

Graham is concerned about the number of hours Trumper's team is working and if they are overwhelmed.

Rep. Bell: Matthew hit in 2016. COVID hit in 2020. What happened in that four years?
"We should have been a whole lot further along than we are now." Asks him, 'tell me why that happened'.
Trumper: I joined in 2019. What happened before I can't comment on.

Bell asks Trumper about contractor process and adds he has talked to contractors who won't participate because of bureaucratic red tape.
Trumper says they have a simple 2 page application; our process is easy.

Bell asks about contractor pay structure.
Trumper: we strive for a weekly system
Bell: strive?
Trumper: achieve most of the time
Bell: Contractors tell me they aren't getting paid

Jackson asks a few final questions and dismisses Trumper.
Up next NCORR:
Laura Hogshead, North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency
Ivan Duncan, North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency

Hogshead and Duncan are sworn in for testimony.

NCORR presentation (14 pages)
webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewDocSiteFil…

Hogshead giving opening remarks, says this recovery is not going as anyone wants it to and "that is on me."

Hogshead talking about ReBuildNC and policy changes.
Says they are simplifying processes down to bare minimum HUD will accept.

Hogshead moves on to NCORR's purpose and why it was created:
'We were funded by the federal govt and will go away when that funding ends'

Hogshead
"HUD tells us where to spend it and who to spend it on."

Chart of the impacted counties where they must spend the money:

HUD funds come last, says Hogshead. The last time NC got these kind of funds was 2004 & had no infrastructure for spending these funds.

Timeline:

Hogshead talks about the lack of specificity in HUD funding.
Because there is no codification in law, you have to wait for that federal notice

Hogshead: We were the first applicant to apply and were first in nation to get that funding.

Hogshead says by the time they get the funds, the home is often worse; mold has set in, structural issues.
Shows an example

Hogshead has a slide outlining their process. Says that application is still open.

Application status shows 183 still open, 789 complete.
More breakdown here:

Hogshead explaining why there were a lot of documents asked for.
'HUD will come and ask for the money back if you don't do it right'
She says they have since slimmed down the app process.

On accounting of duplication of benefits, Hogshead says '807 folks are stuck in this process, they did what they needed to survive'
She says they are working with them on the issue.

Hogshead says this is 'a big one' referring to being able to keep the same case manager all the way through because they brought the process in-house.

Here's the list of other changes Hogshead says are in process or are being implemented:

Hogshead talks about payment of contractors and notes that was a Q asked of OSBM that really is "our question."

Sen. Danny Britt: You and I have talked a lot and you know what is happening is unacceptable. The idea the pandemic has caused the backlog is ridiculous to me.

Britt: What is your agency doing to pair contractors with jobs?
Hogshead: We follow state policy; we award to the lowest responsive bidder.

Hogshead says changes were made recently.
Britt asks why changes weren't made earlier.
Hogshead refers to bid policy, but says she wishes she made the change earlier.

Hogshead asked for decline in projects completed in 2021. She says COVID, supply chain, contractor award issues.

Britt: How long will it take to get the 2k homes still in process complete.
Hogshead: Assignment $ thresholds are an issue; they need to be raised.

Britt: You would need a 600% increase in output to meet the Florence deadline, right?
Hoghead: Yes

Jarvis asks about how many contractors are working on projects.
Duncan says there are 5 companies right now.

Jarvis asks what they are doing to step it up.
Hogshead says they want to use NC vendors first
Jarvis: why so few contractors?
Hogshead: We put out large packages; we've lumped them together. Now we are allowing contractors to pick and choose.

Jarvis: How much money have we recouped from contractors that didn't do the work in time?
Hogshead: so far no liquidated damages

Hogshead gives example; says some projects on hold are because homeowner hasn't paid taxes & permits can't be issued.
Says that's not the contractors fault.

Jarvis: Contractors not taking jobs because of the piles of paperwork. Why has your agency not taken steps?
What are you doing to hold sites accountable?
Hogshead doesn't answer the first part.

Duncan says no contractor has failed to complete a home.

There is some back and forth going on about why recovery home building is so far behind tied to number of or lack thereof of enough contractors doing work.
General answer is there is NCORR is using a prequalified list; tight time frames scare them off.

Jarvis wants confirmation 50% of the housing is manufactured
Hogshead says yes, and 5 modular manufacturers are being worked with.

Jarvis: What is your expectation of the next 50?
Duncan: Before the end of the year.
Hogshead gives more detail on projects bid in June that will be done by Dec.

Perry: When I look at your throughput the fact is we have a lot of categories with less than 5% in construction today... 75% in process. That means nothing to the people involved.

Perry talks about why awards are being made to entities with things already on their plate.

Duncan says all GC's (gen. contractors) have scorecards which helps determine who gets bids

Perry reiterates Britt's point that NCORR hasn't upped the number of GCs they will need to meet the 2025 & 2026 deadlines.

Perry: It's going to take drastic changes. What drastic changes are you going to take? How will you increase the numbers?
Hogshead: The changes we intro'd are not small. We will pay faster, easier. We had more join pre-qualified list.

Hogshead assures Perry they think their changes will work and they will "hit that mark."

Perry: What percentage of your 300+ employees are out checking on sites?
Duncan: 20
Hogshead: we are hiring more to increase that number.

Perry asks how many of those are GCs?
Duncan says they had one with exper. and others have exper.
Perry redirects: So zero?
Duncan: yes.

Perry talks about 100 families being out of their homes for a year; walk me through how that happened.

Hogshead: It's unacceptable.
We had 2 contractors that were dismissed. The MHU's were rebid. There were supply chain issues from pandemic.

Perry: Where are the assurance to the families?
Hogshead: They are our priority, we have offered different floor plans. Knows families do not want to be in a hotel.

Perry presses, what assurance can you give us of when this will end?
Hogshead: I will commit to doing my absolute best

Rep. Brendan Jones gives some open remarks, talks about his constituents impacted.
"they have become family"
"this is personal"
"I have been seeing this since 2016."
Invites NCORR down to see the destruction that is still there.

Jones runs down the numbers again of the number of applicants & how many are incomplete.

Jones: Do you believe we are running out of time before we run out of money?
Hogsmead: no sir

Jones asks who hired her.
Basic answer: Sprayberry, Gov. Cooper's admin

There is some back and forth about staff hires and if any of the Cooper admin has "had boots on the ground" in the process.

Jones asks why anyone should trust you to get this done when you are not getting it done?
Hogshead says the ways they are measured are not of interest to those impacted, COVID issues are easing, more GC's coming on board.

Jones: Town just over the border was 85% complete compared to us. (He's talking about Fair Bluff)
Hogshead: we can't put ppl back in the flood plane, we are trying to work with Fair Bluff to do that.
Jones: Over the border, they did an elevation...

Jones: What would you say to those who have died and never get to go home?
Hogshead: There's nothing I can say to them.

Rep. Willingham: Fed govt is slow.
Our people in NC have done a good job; you are not going to satisfy everyone.

Graham: What can you say today to reassure these families with us today that a better day is coming sooner not later?
Hogshead: I wils do my best.
She said they've hired a constituent services case manager and "we will get them home."

Deviere: Will you take responsibility for delay in sevices?
Duncan: Yes I will

Deviere: These changes happened in last 6 months, you have been there since 2019. We hear about COVID, but the NCGA was in session & Gov. had exec. orders.
Why did we only start making changes 6 months ago?

Hogshead says they've been asking for changes from HUD for a while. Says data sharing is an issue, so is a universal application and waiting on a fed. register notice.

Hogshead: With the federal funds there is just not that much you can do

Asks about increasing threshold currently at $30k

Deviere: We should have had policy changes before now. COVID stopped us. If it isn't something we can do at the state level we should have been standing on people's desks in congress.

Deviere: Is there a triage process in place for when people go over a certain number of days...
Duncan: We update homeowners on the status of their projects. they don't like what they hear sometimes but we can only give them the info we have.

Hogshead says everyone has a unique issue. You have to do an individual look.

Deviere: how many homes in construction are assigned to GCs?
Duncan refers to step 7 in their presentation.
The type has to be evaluated to determine what bucket it goes in.

Deviere asks about the pricing model software which dates back to 2018.
Duncan says delays prompted them to bring the pricing up to current rates. Even when they do that, it's still not matching what the costs in the field are.

Hogshead says they do cost analysis and share that with HUD to rectify things.

Hogshead confirms spending of $12.7M for temporary housing.
Deviere: Have we helped people to offset other costs like food/transport?
Hogshead: No, we don't cover that. It's not something all states offer; other states see people drop out at step 5 because they have nowhere to go

Hogshead says they have increase supplements for leasing to get more people into renting versus hotels.

Deviere says these displaced folks should maybe be on a per diem.
Invites them down to Cumberland; there is a sense of urgency.

Deviere: We have to see these people every day. This is about restoring trust.

Stevens asks for clarification when the most people are caught/displaced. (Step 5 and 6)

Hogshead: NCORR is funding or fully funding the gap to get the 1k homes built that need to be.
Contractors hired by NCHFA.

Stevens: So we are building 1k homes in the same time it took to help 789 people?
Hogshead: Yes

Stevens: Did you ask anyone from NCGA or Gov Cooper admin for extra help?
Hogsmead: We've had discussions but not officially asked.

Stevens asks if former Dir. Sprayberry has expressed satisfaction with progress?
Hogshead basically says yes.
Stevens: When did you decide you needed to change course?
Hogshead says in the last 9 months

Stevens: We got the first finding for Florence, who came behind us? Who was 2nd and 3rd?
Hogshead: Not sure I can check.
Stevens: SC seemed to get moving faster, I am trying to understand why.

Hoghead said SC had staff and cert. before Matthew hit. NC did not, we had to hire staff.

Hogshead asked about more GCs; she said they have added more. Now at 14.

Stevens: You only completed 5 homes?
Hogshead: No, that is the average.

Stevens pressures Hogshead on giving a number of homes that can be done in the next 4 months.
Hogshead responds there are a lot of things that determine that.

Stevens asks about "lack of communication" related to the application process.
Hogshead: there were 2 different vendors working on different steps. We have brought that inhouse so all comms are from one source.

More back and forth on communications; Stevens presses on the group that had experience and asks why they weren't used all the way through.

Hoghead says ideas on comms were given to a staffer who is no longer there and never made it to her.

Stevens: Who has the power to let you go if they are not satisfied with your work?
Hogshead: Head of DPS (public safety)

Stevens: What respon. does NCORR take for lack of contractors?
Hogshead: I take full responsiblity. We've implemented changes. The pandemic caused issues and I didn't adjust fast enough.

Jackson takes over.
This is a dire situation.
You have around 300 employees. You worked through the pandemic. How many were actually working remotely?
Hogshead: A lot. Many in eastern NC.

Jackson: 20 ppl in the field? What do the 280 others do?
Hogshead: Case managers, navigators who answer calls, inspectors, construction liaisons, most of the work can be done remotely but we show up when we need to.

Jackson confirms completion for just 789 out of over 4100 projects.

Jackson points out Hogshead was part of the organization that she currently 'laments'.

She used to work at HUD.

Jackson reading from Horne's comment that NCORR has issues & their recommendations.

There's a memo from Horne
webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewDocSiteFil…

Jackson says committee will reconvene in 90 days to see where NCORR stands.

The meeting is only half done. A recess is called and the committee will reconvene at 12:30.