Jean Shiomoto, a 30-year staffer, retired as director at the end of 2018, following the troubled spring rollout of the state’s Motor Voter program. Launched in hopes of automatically registering people to vote when they visited DMV, the program instead improperly registered thousands of residents. In January, Newsom appointed Government Operations Agency Secretary Marybel Batjer to lead a strike force tasked with overhauling DMV — even as the agency faces a looming Oct. 1, 2020, deadline to implement federal Real ID identification cards. The new state budget includes $242.1 million in FY 2019-2020 and $199.8 million in FY 2020-2021 for those improvements — along with monthly and quarterly reporting requirements. Among the takeaways:
• The budget includes $14.2 million to stand up live chat/email functionality, including more customer service representatives to answer chat or email requests, according to the state Department of Finance. It also features $8.3 million to expand the deployment of self-serve kiosks inside DMVs and at stores around the state. The agency now deploys 179 DMV NOW Self-Serve Terminals statewide and plans to add another 200, DMV spokesman Jaime Garza told Techwire via email. Asked for comment on DMV tech funding in the new budget, Garza said the agency will not comment until Newsom signs it. The governor has 12 days to do so once the Legislature approves the budget, which happened on Thursday.
• Real ID gets funding, with $6 million dedicated to implementing new identity management application software, allowing residents to remotely upload and verify documents needed to apply for the card — federally mandated to fly domestically without a passport after Oct. 1, 2020. DMV is girding for an anticipated onslaught of Real ID applications as the deadline nears; in April, a one-day pop-up field office at Health Net offices in Rancho Cordova served 78 people.
“We are coordinating similar outreach with other companies whose teams are frequent fliers,” Garza said. From 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday, DMV will staff an information-only booth about Real ID at Monterey Regional Airport.
But Assemblyman Philip Ting, D-San Francisco, said the agency has been receiving state funding to upgrade its technology and needs to do a better job of deploying solutions and training employees. Previously, he said DMV has failed to adequately train employees, and has seen its planned use of tablets to shorten lines hamstrung by a lack of external Wi-Fi.
“That’s been the biggest frustration. We’ve done our part in giving them the money. They haven’t done their part in fully maximizing their tools,” said Ting, vice chair of the California Legislature’s Conference Committee on the Budget, which approved the budget last week ahead of the Legislature.
• The Legislature put in place monthly reporting and performance metrics aimed at monitoring the agency’s work, as well as quarterly legislative check-ins, Ting said, indicating lawmakers are well aware the agency will need to hire people and make resources available as soon as possible to meet the Real ID deadline. Legislators debated legislative approval requirements linked to deployments going into the next fiscal year, but decided against that, to help DMV move quickly.
“We’re not going to always argue with them in terms of how much money, how many people they need," Ting said. "Because this is the year. We couldn’t revisit it next budget year because by then, it would be too late.” He characterized the need for accountability as “a complete bipartisan issue.”
• Asked whether Newsom’s Request for Innovative Ideas (RFI2), a new flexible approach to procurement activated in January by Executive Order, could be wielded at DMV as it is currently against wildfires, Ting said, “Any system changes would be welcome,” but he indicated the agency faces “limited options to procure on the technology side” due to the age of its system.
• There’s considerable other tech funding in those operational improvements that could help DMV modernize its online infrastructure. The agency is getting $2 million to redesign its website to be more customer-friendly; $6.2 million to replace old PCs; $4.6 million to ensure network redundancy at busy offices; $3.1 million to replace old components and IT hardware; and $3 million for Document Authentication Devices to validate identification documents like passports and birth certificates. Garza said DMV is developing a revised website and hopes to implement improvements in coming months.
