Crowded Office Feels the Pinch of DMV Cutbacks

Gwynn Foxx sat wedged among dozens of anxious drivers at the Glendale office of the Department of Motor Vehicles on Wednesday, her raincoat on her shoulders and her 6-year-old daughter, Kai, asleep in her arms.

It was 4 p.m. -- more than two hours since Foxx had arrived -- and there were still two dozen names ahead of her on the list of people there to renew their licenses. The DMV office was so backed up that Foxx, who had clocked in at 1:45 p.m., had been able to leave to pick up Kai from Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Burbank, come back and still have hours of waiting ahead of her.

The Glendale office of the DMV was cited Wednesday by Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill as one of the slowest in the state. It has 45 employees to serve the hundreds of drivers who crowd its offices most days. That’s almost 15% fewer workers than the office had in June 2002, when the state’s budget crisis began to take hold.

On this rainy day, there were no vacant spaces in the parking lot, and about 250 people huddled in the small one-story building. People were squeezed against the walls and standing under doorways that had been blocked off for construction. Others jockeyed for one of the few open seats.

The night before, DMV workers had stayed until 8:30 to accommodate all of the drivers who had come in before the branch office closed its doors at 5:30 p.m., said the office supervisor, Christina Harden.

Under the 2004-05 state budget proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the DMV would be unable to fill about 600 jobs that have become vacant over the last couple of years, bringing the total jobs lost in the department to about 1,000. The DMV’s budget would be cut by 2%.

At the same time, however, the department’s workload has steadily increased, according to Hill. Since 2000, the total number of drivers licensed by the DMV has risen by more than 1 million, to 23 million. All told, Hill said, DMV employees handle about 44 million transactions a year -- primarily vehicle registration, license renewals and driver testing -- about 2 million more than four years ago.

Waits at the most crowded offices, including Glendale, Fullerton and San Mateo, can be as long as four hours for people without appointments. And the appointment schedule is booked 30 days or more in advance. Telephone operators are so swamped that the phone lines can be busy for hours, Hill said.

The state also wastes time and loses money administering driving tests, Hill said. For example, about half of the state’s license applicants fail the written test, but are not charged a new fee to take the exam a second or third time.

Knowing that there are several versions of the exam, some applicants shop around for an easy one or one already taken by a friend, returning repeatedly until they find one they can pass.

Hill pointed out several ways that the state could improve DMV services, including adding employees, cracking down on exam shopping and encouraging more people to renew their licenses by mail.

If nothing is done, she said, delays at DMV offices will grow ever longer, with the statewide average next year exceeding 80 minutes per transaction.

That figure does not count the length of time drivers wait in line simply to be assigned a number and have their names entered into the department’s computer.

By comparison, the department’s average wait time was 35 minutes in the 2002 fiscal year.

Carlos Torres spent all day Wednesday trying to register his new car.

First, he drove to the DMV’s Pasadena office. He was there at 9 a.m., but he said he counted 100 people already in line. So he drove over to Glendale. At 3 p.m., he was still waiting.