Legislators seek review of DMV practices

State lawmakers say they want to take a look at two areas under the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles that have raised questions about underworked employees and undertaxed vehicles.

House and Senate leaders want to review the DMV's emissions program to determine whether there are too many employees and whether workers should be given more meaningful duties. Leaders also say state laws on vintage vehicles may need to be changed so that those who improperly get vehicles classified as antiques to evade taxes face consequences.

In the past week, the DMV has acknowledged that the workloads of emissions specialists are light. The state's 61 specialists have been auditing roughly 4,000 service stations and car dealerships four times a year to make sure emissions inspections are done properly. That amounts to roughly one audit per day for each specialist. An audit takes about 45 minutes to two hours to perform.

The specialists have other tasks, such as testing inspection mechanics, but when The News & Observer raised questions about the audit workload, the DMV responded by tripling the number of audits the specialists must perform. DMV officials also created a new task for the specialists: inspecting vehicles parked at shopping centers and other large lots to see whether the inspection sticker tracks back to the vehicle.

Some state lawmakers said the increased workload makes little sense, since the federal Environmental Protection Agency has set a quarterly test requirement for inspection station audits.

"These are things that need to be looked into," said Rep. Nelson Cole, a Reidsville Democrat and a transportation budget writer. "I'm pretty adamant about the fact that when we take revenue from the general public, it's incumbent upon us to use those dollars the most effective way we can. You can't just triple the work."

Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican who sits on two transportation committees, laughed at the DMV's solution to its workload dilemma. He called it "make-work."

"More so, it just sounds like another example of poor planning and poor management," Berger said.

DMV Commissioner Bill Gore, a former state judge who was appointed to lead the DMV in August, said he does not want to let people go to resolve the workload question, but he may not fill positions as workers leave.

Gore succeeded George Tatum, who resigned after controversy surrounding a vintage title granted to a longtime friend for his replica of a 1937 Ford truck. Tatum said he played no role in his friend's obtaining the title.

One of Tatum's last acts was to call for a review of DMV policies for titling vintage cars. That review, released this week, says the DMV had a flawed process that may have allowed roughly 1,000 vehicles to be titled as antiques on the basis of fraudulent or nonexistent documentation.

DMV officials say there is no civil or criminal penalty under motor vehicle laws for those who falsely claim their cars as antiques to save on taxes and fees.

"That should be fixed," said House Speaker Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat. The DMV "should have the tools they need to fix the law."

Both issues are the subjects of criminal probes. The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into how Tatum's friend got the vintage title and has been asked to look into how an emissions specialist who is a friend of a DMV director got his job. Meanwhile, the DMV's License & Theft Bureau is investigating whether approximately 900 vehicles may have received vintage titles based on paperwork from an Alabama company known for selling false documentation.