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My turn: Gavin Newsom is right to order a DMV overhaul
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My turn: Gavin Newsom is right to order a DMV overhaul
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By Jim Patterson
Assemblyman Jim Patterson represents the 23rd Assembly District in the Fresno area, Assemblymember.Patterson@assembly.ca.gov. He wrote this commentary for CALmatters.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has been a source of frustration for employees and customers for as long as anyone can remember.
I started pushing for major reforms of this department in 2016 when my office was flooded with calls from truck driving students who were waiting 12 weeks to take the commercial driver’s license test. Many of them, low income and minority students, lost job offers due to this outrageous delay.
Last year was atomic for the DMV. The federal Real ID deadline and computer system failures created unbearable wait times for customers and forced six-day work weeks for many DMV employees.
The mounting fury Californians, and my subsequent audit request, came as a surprise to the then-DMV director Jean Shiomoto.
It was clear that this crisis demanded immediate action at the top levels.
We may finally have that action in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s DMV Reinvention Strike Team. In Sacramento, talk is cheap. Politicians say a lot of things to get elected. It’s what they do after they win that shows what their priorities are.
This is one of those issues that must be a priority for Republicans and Democrats in California – and if Gov. Newsom is serious about overhauling the DMV, I’ll be the first to applaud his efforts.
Newsom’s swift action on the DMV is a welcome change. In the next few weeks, we will get an early look at the findings of the ongoing Department of Finance’s DMV performance audit. This internal glimpse of current operations, and the many technological failures that are plaguing the DMV, will help us chart a course for change.
As the Reinvention Strike Team takes the first steps to dragging this agency out of the dark-ages, I urge them to keep a few things in mind:
Decades of management failures have left them with little hope for change. As the DMV is revamped, management needs a refreshed view of customer service – where people are treated as paying customers – not annoyances.
An overhauled 21st Century DMV will benefit all Californians. The DMV Reinvention Strike Team must go boldly forward. The hopes of millions of drivers are with you.