Wayne Goodwin, a frequent target of GOP criticism, stepping down as DMV commissioner
Wayne Goodwin announced Wednesday that he will step down as head of the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.
Goodwin, a former state representative who once led the state Department of Insurance and later the state Democratic Party, was appointed DMV commissioner in January 2022. He told legislators Wednesday morning that he would stay on until Gov. Josh Stein and Secretary of Transportation Joey Hopkins have found his successor.
“More and more over the course of the last year, especially the last six months, I’ve been considering what the next chapters in my professional life will be and what I’d like to do to be happy and happier, as we all do, while still doing my part to make the state a better place than we found it,” he said.
Goodwin has been the target of criticism from GOP lawmakers unhappy with how the DMV has been managed, including complaints about long lines and wait times at driver’s license offices. Sen. Michael Lazzara, a Republican from Onslow County who co-chairs two transportation committees, told Goodwin last year that his agency was “broken.”
“This division has the largest customer-facing role in our state’s government,” Lazzara said. “And instead of providing service, it’s a source of frustration and disruption to the lives of our citizens. Commissioner Goodwin, unfortunately this responsibility belongs to you.”
Goodwin acknowledged again Wednesday that the DMV needs improvement. But he touted some progress, including the hiring of 400 new employees statewide during his three-year tenure, which he said has reduced the DMV’s once-high vacancy rate to the lowest in state government.
Goodwin has also challenged lawmakers to provide more support, particularly in staffing, which he says has not kept up with the state’s growing population. North Carolina has 2.4 million more residents than it did in 2003, but the DMV says since then it has been authorized to open only three new driver’s license offices and hire no additional driver’s license examiners.
This year, the agency will ask lawmakers for money and authority to hire 61 additional people to fill holes at its driver’s license offices, particularly in the Triangle and Charlotte areas, and another 24 driver’s license examiners to open new offices in fast-growing Brunswick and Cabarrus counties and to expand the South Durham office.
State already seeking applicants for the job
Hopkins, the Transportation Secretary, said he had spoken with Stein’s office in recent weeks about the need to improve the DMV and make it a more “customer-friendly experience.” They agreed to post the commissioner’s job in hopes of finding someone with more business and management skills, he told members of the Senate Transportation Committee on Wednesday.
They set a deadline for applicants of midnight Wednesday, March 5. (A previous version of this story reported an earlier deadline for applications, but that deadline has been extended.)
Hopkins said the agency has made some good changes but needs to focus more on results.
“I could talk about this program or that software or this system that we’ve done or that we plan to do,” Hopkins told the committee. “But until it starts making a difference to the wait times and the services that the citizens get, it’s not serving anybody.”
Hopkins was asked about the possibility of a new board to oversee the DMV. Leaders of the Senate Transportation Committee have introduced a bill that would create a nine-member Board of Motor Vehicles, including four members chosen by the General Assembly, that would appoint the DMV commissioner and oversee the agency. Hopkins said he had no problem with that.
“I think that would provide some oversight, and I think that would provide a fresh look for the members of that board,” he said. “Quite frankly, I think it would provide some responsibility to the General Assembly on getting it right, too, which could be a benefit.”
Goodwin was named DMV commissioner in January 2022, as the agency was still recovering from the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He grew up in Hamlet and attended UNC Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar and later as a law student. Starting in 1997, he served eight years in the state House, representing rural counties east of Charlotte.
He told lawmakers Wednesday that changes in his private life factored into his decision to leave. His wife, former state Rep. Melanie Wade Goodwin, died of cancer in 2020, and he has been a single parent since.
But he is now engaged to be married again, and said he owes it to his children and his fiancee to “focus on new beginnings.”
“While my professional plans this morning may come as a surprise to some folks,” he told lawmakers, “my family members and friends closest to me in my life know that I have been truly mulling this decision in earnest for quite some time, especially as I begin the process of merging two families into one.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 8:57 AM.
