Northerners winning war of the wait at DMV offices

In past year, disparity between Nevada’s regions has exploded

Steve Marcus

People wait in line near unstaffed stations Thursday at the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Henderson. Officials say staff vacancies resulting from a hiring freeze are partly responsible for growing wait times in Southern Nevada, but, at a Northern Nevada office with the state’s highest proportion of vacancies, the average wait time has barely budged.

By David McGrath Schwartz (contact)

Saturday, April 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Las Vegas area DMV locations

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Steve Marcus

A woman shows her number as she waits at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Henderson, where average wait times are longer than a year ago.

Chris Morris

Editorial: Return of long lines? (3-17-2009)
Plan: Make DMV more infernal (3-15-2009)
High-security driver's license system coming to DMV (10-22-2008)

Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles

CARSON CITY — Frustrated by long DMV lines in Clark County? Try an office anywhere else in the state.

Wait times at Clark County Department of Motor Vehicles offices have always been longer than those in the rest of the state, but over the past year that disparity has exploded. Southern Nevadans wait as much as six times longer at the DMV than their Northern counterparts, according to February figures, the latest available.

At the Decatur office, waits jumped from 42 minutes in February 2008 to 69 minutes. At the Henderson office, they have gone from 43 minutes to 60 minutes; at the West Flamingo office, from 48 minutes to 74 minutes.

In the same 12 months, the North has seen a different trend. At the Galletti DMV in Reno, the wait has inched up 2 minutes, to 22 minutes, and in Carson City it dropped from 14 minutes to 11 minutes. (The state has 10 more offices in rural areas throughout the state, but does not track wait times at them.)

DMV Director Edgar Roberts, who took over the department in December, said he is trying to address the disparity in part by closing one of the two express offices in Northern Nevada and opening an express office in North Las Vegas. An express office handles most, but not all, the business performed by a regular office.

“There’s less wait time in the North and a higher need in Las Vegas,” Roberts said. “I’d move both express offices down there, but I figured I’d try with one.”

Closing an office would require legislative approval because the leases are active until the Legislature votes to stop funding them, Roberts said. And such a request could prove controversial.

“These offices are political things,” he said. “If you start closing them, people start calling and saying, ‘How dare you?’ ”

Roberts testified about his proposal last week, but lawmakers didn’t take action.

DMV officials blame a combination of factors for skyrocketing wait times in the South, as the number of customers being served statewide has declined.

Roberts said a hiring freeze prompted by the state’s fiscal crisis has left 150 DMV positions vacant statewide.

Yet the Galletti office in Reno, which has seen just a two-minute uptick in wait times, has also had vacancies. In fact, the Northern Nevada office has a higher share of vacancies than the rest of the state’s DMV offices, except Henderson.

Roberts said another cause for the longer waits may be that more of those visiting Southern Nevada offices are from out of state and require more services. He acknowledged, however, that based on the number of driver’s licenses surrendered by such motorists, the DMV is seeing fewer customers arriving from out of state this year.

Roberts said he would not consider moving personnel from Reno or Carson City to Southern Nevada offices.

The disparity is also the result of a failure to keep pace with the state’s population boom. The last new office to open was the Decatur office in 1998, Roberts said.

As agency spokesman Tom Jacobs put it, “We’re shoveling against the tide.”

The department’s budget has been targeted for cuts. In a memo obtained by the Las Vegas Sun last month, Gov. Jim Gibbons’ indicated he was prepared to close the Sparks and Reno express offices and eliminate Saturday hours throughout the state. After DMV staff met with Democratic legislative leaders, Gibbons put the plan on hold.

Gibbons’ spokesman, Dan Burns, said the governor is aware of the Las Vegas wait times.

“If we find closing certain offices and moving them someplace else will even out wait times for people across the state, that would be something he’d support,” Burns said.

He noted, however, that the decision is in the Legislature’s hands.

Democrats control both the Assembly and Senate for the first time in more than a decade, and Southern Nevadans lead both houses. (Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, was long seen as a protector of Northern Nevada interests.)

Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, acknowledged that Southern Nevadans aren’t getting equal services, but downplayed the regional rivalry.

“We’re trying not to make it a North-South thing like in the past,” he said. “In reality, Clark County deserves a little more.”

Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, said the inequity is obvious.

“Seventy-four minutes versus 22 minutes — I don’t think you need to be a brain surgeon to figure out what needs to be done,” he said.

The Legislature has not addressed Roberts’ call to end a lease on one Northern Nevada express office and open an express office in North Las Vegas. Lawmakers have asked Roberts to come up with additional cuts.

College of Southern Nevada professor Michael Green said Northern Nevada legislators have a long tradition of standing together to protect their region’s interests.

“Legislators from Northern Nevada are doing their job. They’re protecting their area, whether or not it really needs it,” he said. “I want to know what Clark County legislators are doing to protect Southern Nevada.”

Discussion: 8 comments so far…

By brst

4/4/09 at 7:44 a.m.

Suggest removal

In an economic climate like today, I hope the Las Vegas Sun will try to avoid sparking a fight between northern and southern Nevadans. Now's the time for us all to act as one state -- not two competing ones.

Otherwise, instead of all Nevadans coming together to support important services like education, the debate will deterioate into a never-ending argument over what region better deserves education funding.
By mar100

4/4/09 at 8:12 a.m.

Suggest removal

The problem with funding anything in Southern Nevada including more DMV Offices is Senator Raggio from Reno. During the 43 years I have lived in Clark County this Senator has been able steal most of the taxes generated here and steer them to projects in the north. Remember the only way the cow counties survive is from the taxes we collect in Clark County. Their is a north and south problem, we in the south pay the taxes for most of the state and they spend it up north.
By neiman1

4/4/09 at 8:29 a.m.

Suggest removal

Great picture. Now imagine your hospital or doctors office JUST LIKE IT. Long lines, empty rooms or beds, and no one to staff them. When the government is the only answer, they will set the staffing and we will wait and die.
By CronkyVoddy

4/4/09 at 11:31 a.m.

Suggest removal

neiman1,

Jeez, at least try to stay on the subject. Try a week without FOX news and Glen Beck; they are twisting your mind.
By feed_the_pigeon

4/4/09 at 12:52 p.m.

Suggest removal

Mass deportation of all the illegal aliens will cut down the wait.
By TransAm1986

4/4/09 at 5:52 p.m.

Suggest removal

The lines at the Elko DMV are also long. People are lined up outside before the doors are opened. When the gold mines are booming, the population increases. Also, it has always been Las Vegas vs. the rest of the state. For what ever reason, most people throughout the state hate Las Vegas.
By NevadaFive

4/5/09 at 2:33 p.m.

Suggest removal

Mass deportation of all the illegal aliens will cut down the wait.

Sounds a bit racist to me, feeder? Guess what - anyone who wants to register a vehicle in Nevada - even if they're from lily white Sweeden can do so. It's the law. So, feeder, write or call your legislator in Carson City and demand that only AMERICANS (who can speak english) can register their vehicles in Nevada. Can't imagine the auto dealer lobbyists will mind one bit, do you? Less cars for them to sell and service. Less need for all those employees on the sales floor, accounting department, and in the garage. Less time wasted counting their profits, too. What a blessing - mass deportation!!
By getalife

4/5/09 at 3:33 p.m.

Suggest removal

Nevada, as for illegals buying cars, the only "dealerships" that will effected are the used car lots littering, oops I mean lining Boulder Hwy. The only maintenance shops feeling the pinch will be somebody's front yard.

DMV, one more reason to let the government run anything.