VENTURA : DMV and Court to Trade Clerks

In a pilot program scheduled to kick off this month, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Ventura County Municipal Court will trade clerks in an effort to trim administrative costs and save time for residents who have business with both agencies.

The yearlong program, which will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Municipal Court on Jan. 17, will place a DMV clerk at the Hall of Justice and a court clerk at the Oxnard DMV field office, said Gary Quinliven, a spokesman for the DMV in Sacramento.

The DMV clerk assigned to the court will have the capacity to do all the transactions performed at a DMV office except issue a driving test, Quinliven said. At the same time, the court clerk in the DMV office will be able to process all court-related transactions, such as scheduling appointments and accepting payments for fines, he said.

“Anytime we can improve service to the public we will do it,” Quinliven said. “That’s our aim.”

Court Executive Officer Sheila Gonzalez, who conceived the plan with Ventura DMV Director Frank Zolin, said the pilot will be used to gauge the need for such a program on a permanent basis.

“If it turns out that additional people are needed, we will cross-train staff from both agencies,” Gonzalez said. “I think it will be a success, in which case we hope to institute it statewide.”

In some aspects, the program is not entirely new.

A similar pilot program was instituted in San Mateo County on June 10, said John Fitton, San Mateo County’s deputy court administrator.

The difference between the programs in the two counties is that the DMV and court clerks in San Mateo do not trade places. Instead, the San Mateo program has a DMV clerk at the municipal court three days a week, Quinliven said.

The San Mateo program--a collaborative effort between Judge Mark R. Forcum and court administrator Peggy Thompson--was instituted when the number of citations for driving with a suspended license in the county had climbed by an unprecedented 40% over the previous year, Fitton said.

“It added tremendously to the costs of administering the criminal justice system,” Fitton said.

Now, San Mateo residents can satisfy DMV and the courts at the same location, Fitton said. “It’s one-stop shopping,” he said.

Since the start of San Mateo’s program, the number of citations for driving with a suspended license has decreased by 28%, Fitton said. “It represents government working at its best,” he said.