Hate the California DMV? Here’s your chance to run it

SACRAMENTO — If you’re one of 30 million licensed motorists in California who’ve sat at the DMV grinding your teeth and thinking, “I sure could run this place a whole lot better,” now’s your chance: The agency is looking for a new director, and that person could be you.

One lucky, qualified applicant will have the opportunity to turn around the beleaguered state department, which came under fire last year as wait times at field offices crept upwards of eight hours, network outages left outposts in the dark, computer programs incorrectly signed up non-citizens to vote, and front-line employees complained of physical maladies from all the stress of working mandatory overtime.

She or he will be the fourth person since the end of December to helm the agency, which was left leaderless after Jean Shiomoto vacated her post. A month later, Kathleen Webb, the chief risk and compliance officer for CalPERS, replaced acting director Bill Davidson. But, she didn’t last long.

The job posting, published on Governor Gavin Newsom’s government page under “priority recruitment,” requires candidates to have at least a Bachelor’s Degree, with a preference for advanced degrees in business, law, organizational management or public administration.

Customers have more than a few requests for the new department head. Chief among them are shortening the long wait times, improving signage so people don’t end up in the wrong lines, updating the website to make it easier to know which documents to bring, training all employees properly and modernizing the department’s antiquated technology.

All those requests and more were echoed in recommendations for reforming the troubled agency, issued as part of a scathing audit released earlier this week from the Department of Finance.

The report found the DMV’s leadership was characterized by a “reactionary culture” focused on resolving issues only once they had become acute and often without the input of front-line employees. That’s a practice that should end first, said Demetrius Scales, of Antioch. Field office employees are the ones who know where the pinch-points are because they deal with those issues every day, he said.

“Take the advice from the employees who work there,” Scales said, “what can be tools, what do they need to expedite the process.”

Or, since California is the home of Silicon Valley, maybe the DMV could get an app, he said, so people can fill out forms in advance, send in picture copies of documents, or complete other transactions on their smartphones or desktop.

When it comes to technology, the DMV is working with 1980s software that only it uses — though the DMV is working to update their software now — the audit found.

“Something so it could be more modernized,” Scales said. “Because you come here and it’s four hours or six hours of work, and what if I’m not served today?”

A few signs to tell people where to go would be another great place to start, said Oakland resident Antionette Hopkins, who said an employee told her to stand in one line, but then came back 30 minutes later to apologize. She had told Hopkins to stand in the wrong line.

“She was like, ‘My bad.’ She apologized,” Hopkins said, “But, then I had to go and stand in another, longer line.”

“I just left,” she said, which meant she had to come back the next day to finish her business.

Signage at field offices was often not visible to people standing in line or hard to comprehend, the audit found. And, more than 20 percent of field office employees who are responsible for working with customers had not received either driver’s license or vehicle registration training, according to the audit. Around 30 percent of the windows were left open due to an absenteeism rate among employees that is twice as high as the state average.

Oakland resident Zachary Williamson is hoping the new director can make it easier for people to get appointments. He wanted to make an appointment to replace a stolen ID card, but would have had to wait nearly two months to get one.

The audit found the DMV’s appointment system allows for the reservation of multiple appointments, whether those are booked by a legitimate customer, a private company selling appointments to people, or Internet bots. As a result, some 40 percent of those appointments are for people who don’t appear, leaving those with legitimate business left waiting for weeks on end.

“So, I had to come in without one,” Williamson said, “which obviously wastes a lot more time.”

Think you’re up for the task of reforming the DMV? You can apply online at www.Gov.Ca.Gov/Application-For-Appointment.