MVD struggles by tech, staff issues

SANTA FE (AP) - A legislative committee review has found that New Mexico's agency for licensing drivers and vehicles continues to struggle with outdated technology and staffing problems that are frustrating to the public, despite state efforts to revamp major parts of the Motor Vehicle Division.

The head of the state agency that oversees MVD said she's working on the issues, but one lawmaker told the Santa Fe New Mexican for a report (http://bit.ly/Tgoa27) in Saturday's editions that the problems have persisted long enough and that he's ready to yank the division away from her department.

"I don't know when we're going to be able to come up with a responsive system that will respond in a timely basis to the driving public," Rep. Lucky Varela, D-Santa Fe, said Friday. "I'm at the point of throwing up my hands and saying 'Let's give up on Motor Vehicles.'"

Varela's committee noted several key issues, including a lack of a formal training program since a specialized training unit was cut four years ago, low pay and high turnover among employees and the inability of the department to accept one of the four major credit cards for payment.

Demesia Padilla, secretary of the Taxation and Revenue Department that oversees MVD, said her agency is doing the best it can, given the limited resources it gets from the state. She acknowledged that the issues in the report aren't new, in part because the department recently has undergone internal studies and created a business plan of ways it can better serve the public.

"None of the things in the LFC report were a real surprise to us," she said.

Padilla said she's said she's trying to figure out how to restart a training program for new hires and how to make any program efficient.

MVD staff earn less than in neighboring states, and overall staffing levels have dropped by almost 10 percent since the 2010 fiscal year, according to the committee. Some jobs are being filled with temporary workers.

"These are perceived by state employees as an entry-level position and as soon as something better comes along, they do the right thing and move on to better their lives," Padilla said.

The credit-card problem involves a $1.25 per transaction fee that Visa will not allow to be passed on to consumers as other card companies do.

Wait times in field offices have improved, going from 37 minutes in fiscal year 2011 to 25 minutes in 2012, according to the committee report, but customers still are frustrated by having to make more than one trip if they don't have all the required paperwork. And not everyone gets such quick service.

Mary McLaughlin Harris said in a letter to the editor published in Friday's New Mexican that she waited three hours to renew her driver's license, an amount of time she called "obscene."

The department also has had 10 directors in 12 years, something Varela called a sign something is wrong.

Still, Padilla insisted the department has made improvements, including analyzing its call centers and rearranging staff hours to be most responsive to when calls come in, and putting some of its functions, including vehicle registration renewal, online.

Varela has previously proposed legislation to take the MVD out of Taxation and Revenue and put it in a department that is more focused on transportation issues. He said he'd like to see that happen in the legislative session begins in January.

"I've been around (state government) for almost 50 years, and MVD has always been a problem," he said. "It needs to be separate from other functions."