CHARLESTON — While the West Virginia National Guard had much to celebrate Friday morning with the naming of an aircraft and positive news on the Guard’s economic impact on the state, its current challenge is fixing a bungled post-flood recovery effort.

Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, adjutant general of the National Guard, gave reporters an update on flood relief progress since taking over the management of RISE West Virginia, a program entrusted with nearly $150 million for rebuilding homes destroyed by massive flooding in 2016.

Just as important to Hoyer is rebuilding the trust lost by those whose homes were destroyed, by the public and by lawmakers who were accused of grandstanding Monday by Brian Abraham, general counsel for the governor’s office.

Two Department of Commerce officials slated to testify June 26 before the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding resigned days before without notifying the committee.

Abraham, during a July 2 press conference, said lawmakers were aware and had planned to remove the agenda item, accusing committee members of trying to “make a show.” Members of the committee denied this, and with one calling on Abraham to testify at the next committee meeting.

Hoyer, who also gave a report to the committee the same day, told reporters Friday that there had been a communication error and plans to talk with committee leadership weekly to keep them apprised of the efforts with RISE. He said his office and Jeff Wood, his assistant, would do a better job.

“It was a communication failure,” Hoyer said. “Jeff and I were there. We had some knowledge on what we could answer based on what we were engaged in. I probably should have jumped up and brought Jeff up and we should have talked a bit more. Again, it was a communications failure all the way around.”

“We’re working to fix that with the Legislature,” Hoyer said. “I’m going to appear before the Flood Committee every month and I’m going to have weekly conversations with the two chairmen and any other member of the Legislature who need to.”

Hoyer said the National Guard is moving with deliberate speed to fix the problems with RISE. As of Friday, there are 448 cases in its case management system. Of that number, 131 are in the construction management phase and assigned to a contractor. Another 164 cases are in the case management process, some awaiting environmental assessments.

But to Hoyer, it’s the 153 cases currently unassigned that annoys him. The cases are awaiting assessments to put them in one of three categories: reconstruction of homes, rehabilitation of current homes and replacement of mobile homes.

“Where I’m not happy with the deliberate speed and where we have a little bit of work and tweaking to do is we have 153 case that are unassigned cases,” Hoyer said. “We still have 153 cases where we don’t know which of those three categories they fall into.

“We had a gap in the number of people we needed to go out and do those assessments,” Hoyer said. “We’ve fixed that. We have the people we need, but we still have to get those 153 cases. That helps us determine who and what we’re going to need in the way of manpower and structure to get to where we need to go.”

The Guard was given a mandate of 30 days to get RISE working. With that happening, Hoyer said it will take another 30 days to figure out the153 pending cases. RISE is working with officials in the Department of Commerce, Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety Secretary Jeff Sandy, on compliance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s grant rules.

This comes after a legislative audit dinged the Commerce Department for approving contracts with vendors and construction contractors in violation of state purchasing rules and before HUD granted the state approval to spend grant money.

Some lawmakers have questioned whether post-flood relief should be under the Commerce Department. Hoyer said they are amending the state’s HUD action plan to allow giving micro-grants to other state agencies, such as the Housing Development Fund, that have more experience with home construction.

“I’ve already had some members of the staff and the Legislature ask if it should be under the National Guard,” Hoyer said. “I don’t know if that is the question, but we’ll come up with some ideas where it should go. We need a whole-of-government approach.”

Prior to the RISE update, the Guard held a ceremony at the 130th Airlift Wing’s McLaughlin Air National Guard Base naming a C-130 Hercules the “Pride of West Virginia.” It is one of four C-130s with names, including the “Spirit of Charleston,” the “Spirit of the Kanawha Valley,” and “General Mac.”

During that ceremony, Hoyer said the Guard has hired 203 full-time federal employees since October 2017 and contributes $500 million to the state’s economy.