RMV REVIEW ROAD BUMP
Legislator ‘not satisfied’ with only a few people answering questions
The head of the Legislature’s transportation committee fired back at the Baker administration Friday for refusing to make available officials responsible for the failure to process thousands of out-of-state driving violations — including the one for a trucker accused of killing seven motorcyclists.
State Rep. William Straus was told Friday that Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, acting Registrar Jamey Tesler and a representative from Grant Thornton, the auditing firm conducting a review of the Registry of Motor Vehicles, will attend Monday’s hearing on the tragic breakdown at the agency.
Everyone else said “No,” Pollack texted him just before 5 p.m., Straus told the Herald.
The Mattapoisett Democrat, co-chairman of the Joint Transportation Committee, pushed for seven officials to show up — including RMV Merit Rating Board Director Thomas Bowes, head of the office that was last responsible for processing out-of-state notifications.
“We asked for all witnesses because we believe they are necessary and relevant to the questions that need to be answered,” Straus said. “I am therefore, not satisfied with the response from the secretary.”
The late text message was Pollack’s response to a July 17 letter from the chairmen of the Joint Transportation Committee, Straus and state Sen. Joseph Boncore (D-Winthrop), requesting specific officials, including former Registrar Erin Deveney, who resigned because of the oversight, as well as Bowes.
Deveney did not respond to a letter mailed to her address, Straus said, and the secretary said she had “no way to reach her.”
Bowes was overseeing the Merit Rating Board when it stopped processing out-ofstate notifications in March 2018. The timing coincides with the installation of a new ATLAS system, according to MassDOT progress reports, which is why Straus said it was “so important to this inquiry” to question Fast Enterprises LLC, the vendor that will install the RMV’s new records management system.
“Whether those are connected or not is an important line of inquiry,” Straus said. “If Fast or the person who now directs the Merit Board are for some reason not made available to the committee, that’s something we’ll have to figure out and react to.”
Straus and Boncore had also requested that relevant documents be given to them ahead of time, including system manuals, employee communications, RMV and Merit Rating Board audits, and monthly staffing levels dating to 2015.
Pollack wrote in her Friday text message that “some documents” would be delivered to the committee “shortly.” Pollack’s office did not return multiple requests for comment Friday.
A member of the state police will also attend the hearing to provide information about the commercial driver licensing process.
The hearing comes after West Springfield trucker Volodymyr Zhukovskyy was charged with killing seven motorcyclists in a Randolph, N.H., crash on June 21. His trucking license should have been suspended at the time following a drunken driving arrest in Connecticut in May.