(Columbia) May 15, 2003 - Governor Mark Sanford says passage of a DMV improvement bill, along with a series of "internal" reforms, will make the agency more efficient, cost-effective and consumer-friendly, "Great people, flawed systems. This is about changing a number of those systems."

The measures announced Thursday will augment a DMV bill scheduled for debate in the Senate. The bill would restructure the department, making it a stand-alone agency accountable to the governor.

House members passed the legislation in March. Approval came this week from the Senate Transportation Committee.

Democrats called a news conference Wednesday to question Republican, and in particular the governor's, leadership on the budget and education.

Governor Sanford was joined Thursday by key lawmakers including House Speaker David Wilkins and Charleston Senator Glenn McConnell to promote passage of the bill. The message from the governor at an afternoon news conference was reform at one of state government's most criticized agencies is being lead by the GOP.

Speaker Wilkins, "DMV will never be dealt with as an afterthought. This bill brings accountability and efficiency to DMV."

DMV task force member J.T. Gandolfo says the agency is looking at a bigger goal, "Given time and attention, given proper appropriations, that is an organization that can produce not just good customer service, but our goal is outrageous customer service."

The reforms outlined Thursday include Information Technology savings of $2 million a year by bringing DMV's "Project Phoenix" operations in-house. The department would also save up to a half million dollars annually by contracting services with the Corrections Department.

Plans are also being finalized for online delivery of nine primary DMV services, among them, driver record and points status, renewal of identification cards and drivers license and change of address. Web-based delivery of services is expected to begin in June.

A Sanford task force reported earlier this year that the DMV had slow mail-in services, inefficient call centers, cramped offices and a multimillion-dollar computer system that is not completely functional.

In March, the House passed a bill changing license renewals from being required every five years to every ten years. The bill also privatizes driving tests and allows drivers to get tag renewal stickers and registration from county treasurers' offices and private entities.

The House bill also removes the DMV from the Department of Public Safety and setting it up as a separate cabinet agency with the director appointed by and accountable to the governor and confirmed by the Senate.

Rick Johnson can't believe it. He finished up at the Shop Road DMV office in less than 20 minutes and that included spending time talking to WIS, "Just from my being around, looking at things, coming out here actually quite often, there's been a big improvement. There's been a big improvement."

Paige Mathias is another satisfied customer, "It's extremely pleasant. The best it's ever been. I've been here for hours before, trying to renew a license and I was in and out in less than 15 minutes today."

Reformers talk of out-of-the-box thinking, designed to make DMV even better. Some of it will happen later this month at the Koger Center in Columbia when DMV closes all of its offices for a day to bring employees there to talk about ways to improve customer service.

Also in the works are Saturday hours at six high-traffic offices this summer. Offices in Florence,
Aiken, Irmo, Greenville, Charleston and Rock Hill will be open on weekends.

Senator McConnell says the DMV bill will be debated and possibly changed by the Senate "soon," after senators come up with a budget plan.

By Jack Kuenzie
Updated 6:58pm by BrettWitt