Bowes called on to resign
Merit Rating Board head ‘alerted multiple times’ about docs backlog
The head of the Registry of Motor Vehicles’ Merit Rating Board — which allowed out-of-state violation notices to pile up unprocessed for years — is now being pressured to resign over the scandal, while his campaign for Braintree mayor appears to have been suspended.
Merit Rating Board Director Thomas Bowes is being singled out by state Sen. Eric Lesser, a member of the Joint Transportation Committee, as the person “most directly responsible” for the failure to process out-ofstate notifications, which allowed thousands of drivers to stay on the road when their licenses should have been suspended. One of those drivers, Ukrainian trucker Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, is now accused of killing seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire in June.
“Mr. Bowes was alerted multiple times, by multiple state entities, from the state auditor to a MassDOT internal auditor to other officials at the RMV, that there were boxes of unprocessed documents that could put public safety at risk, and he failed to act,” Lesser said. “Mr. Bowes has lost the confidence of the public that he can continue in his current role, and he should resign.”
Bowes admitted at Tuesday’s hearing that he knew about a three-year backlog of tens of thousands of unprocessed citations, which date back to 2011. The responsibility of processing them was transferred to his unit in 2016.
Lesser said that the hearing “made clear that there were repeated red flags that out-of-state notifications were not being processed, allowing thousands of dangerous drivers to remain on the road.”
But Gov. Charlie Baker indicated that Bowes will stay in place for now. Baker said he wants to see the results of the ongoing outside audit before making more personnel moves.
MassDOT spokeswoman Jacquelyn Goddard declined to comment.
Bowes, a Braintree town councilor, remains on the ballot for mayor. Bowes’ campaign continued to submit signatures up through July 24 — nearly a full month after the RMV admitted serious problems — and he is eligible for the September preliminary election, according to Braintree Town Clerk James Casey. However, Bowes’ campaign Facebook page has been deleted, and The Braintree Forum reported that Bowes said at a meeting two weeks ago that “everything’s on hold for the moment” regarding his campaign.
Bowes, who couldn’t be reached for comment, has until Aug. 15 to withdraw from the race.