Officials blister DMV chief

Legislators told of brief wait times — and aren’t buying it for a minute

SACRAMENTO — The Department of Motor Vehicles says the average wait time at its offices is 23 minutes with an appointment and one hour 23 minutes without. Don’t believe that? Neither did lawmakers Tuesday at a Capitol hearing to review the DMV director’s request for millions in additional funding to reduce wait times.

Their constituents have bombarded them with stories of daylong waits to renew driver’s licenses or obtain new Real ID licenses, which will be needed to board domestic airline flights starting in 2020 unless people show a passport. Even people who have made appointments have reported waiting for hours, and the appointments themselves are booked up to three months out.

The DMV released its wait times July 27 as part of a request for more money, prompting questions about the accuracy and when the clock begins for calculating that total. The DMV says its calculation begins when a person checks in and receives a number, although many people have reported waiting for hours just to take a number.

Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale (Los Angeles County), called the DMV’s figures bogus and said

they were an insult to countless thousands of people who have endured far longer waits.

“You have perpetuated the feeling that people can’t trust your agency,” Friedman told DMV Director Jean Shiomoto, who sat through a 2½-hour torrent of complaints.

Lawmakers unleashed story after story — both their own and those of their constituents — of terrible experiences at the DMV. They demanded to know why the agency’s customer service has all but collapsed despite millions of additional funding from the state to ramp up the Real ID program.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, chair of the committee that was reviewing the DMV’s request for an additional $16 million to hire 230 staffers for offices with the longest wait times. No vote was taken Tuesday as the budget subcommittee and transportation committee considered the request.

Shiomoto is a 30-year veteran of the DMV who was named to the top job by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013. She said Tuesday she hoped lawmakers would toss in more money if the $16 million doesn’t reduce the long waits for Real IDs.

Shiomoto said her department did not anticipate how long it would take to explain requirements for a Real ID. DMV employees have also been slowed by an outdated technology system that is being upgraded, she said.

She said offices have extended daily hours and some are opening on Saturdays. The DMV is adding text notifications to let people know when to return to the DMV instead of having to wait in lines that have stretched outside offices and into shadeless parking lots.

“The wait times are not acceptable to me, and the public deserves better,” Shiomoto said.

The new Real ID cards require that applicants show up at DMV offices. Over the next five years, the department estimates 23 million Californians will request a Real ID.

Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon, brought a stack of complaints her office has received about the DMV, which she flipped through at the hearing. She said in one incident reported to her office, an elderly woman fainted while waiting.

“She was told by the staff that if she were to leave to be treated that she would have to come back to the DMV another day, so she insisted that emergency personnel treat her there so she could stay in line,” Baker said.

Ting said he went to a DMV office in San Francisco last month to renew his license and found a line wrapped around the block. He said he went online during Tuesday’s hearing to see how long it would take to get an appointment at the San Francisco DMV. The earliest appointment was Oct. 17.

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, said issues in the department go far beyond the long lines. She said the agency’s customer service is a cause for outrage, particularly in low-income communities.

“How long is it going to take to see some progress?” Weber asked. “We can lament all day long.”

Last year, the state added $47 million to the DMV’s budget for 550 new positions intended to reduce wait times. Shiomoto said 500 of those employees have begun working and that another 31 will be in place by the end of the month. Still, the department has been averaging 72,000 overtime hours a month since January at its 172 offices.

Shiomoto said that with the added hires, customers can expect to see reduced wait times by mid-September.

“I’m a bit resistant to the idea that the solution here is just throw more money at the DMV,” said Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno. “We have done that, over and over again. We did it over a year ago, and we have the same problems that were promised to be fixed at that time.”

A different hearing by a joint audit committee on Wednesday will consider whether the state should audit the DMV. Shiomoto said the audit would slow the department’s ability to reduce wait times, a contention that angered Patterson.

“You should have that information in front of you now,” Patterson said. “An audit is merely going to ask you to divulge and disclose and report.”