A friend of mine showed me a photograph the other day. It depicts long lines and frustrated people standing outside the motor vehicles office in Columbia -- in 1957. When I saw it, I could not help but think of the column by the chairman of the governor's Division of Motor Vehicles task force ("Reform bill will make DMV accountable," Feb. 25).

The Department of Public Safety and DMV, its subsidiary, suffer from many things, such as less than a full complement of employees, severe underfunding, low wages and growing responsibilities. Most of all, it suffers from having to operate under a near-constant cloud of misinformation.

DMV is regularly blamed for poor customer service and poor leadership without the slightest reference to the tremendous budget cuts of the past few years. While these reductions would be crippling in their own right, the impact at DPS is magnified by the agency's budget deficit, which has existed since its inception nearly 10 years ago. Given this, I am troubled when our executive branch and its representatives unfairly portray DMV as being an uncontrollable division.

I call this "perception over reality" politics, and the governor and his DMV task force leader, J.T. Gandolfo, should try a different approach.

No one ever says how DMV is really not accountable -- just that it isn't. The reality is the General Assembly has not fully funded DPS and other agencies. This has resulted in fewer DMV employees and related resources to serve our citizens. This has also directly resulted in longer lines at DMV.

Mr. Gandolfo needs to be recognized as the governor's political operative, whose sole charge is to create the perception that DMV is a shambles. That perception simply is not true. DMV is not perfect, and, yes, the agency can do a better job. The reality is that the wait times in line are down, and with each day, the new computer system continues to provide benefits to the public.

Think how much technology and business systems in the world have changed in the past 30 years. Then realize that DMV's technology and computer system, not to mention its facilities during this 30-year period, did not notably change, though the volume of work increased beyond imagination.

The conversion of old records to the new DMV system was not flawless. There have been brief periods where the system has gone down, but DMV continued to push the envelope. Officials pushed on because they knew that the new system, when fully operational, would allow DMV to provide quality customer service in a more efficient manner.

Replacing the old computer system at DMV was not simply a matter of buying new computers. Every piece of data maintained on the old system had to be reviewed and confirmed as accurate before it could be transferred to the new system. This process alone took over a year. There were over one million obsolete files that had to be purged.

Yes, the governor is trying to create a new DMV. Then he will proclaim that he has "fixed" it -- the perception he wants the public to believe. I am surprised that the governor, a proclaimed fiscal conservative, would increase the size and cost of government by millions of dollars just to market this concept.

However, there is a problem at DMV, and I urge the governor to work with the General Assembly to remedy it. In this instance, the remedy is that the General Assembly must replenish the funds it has taken from the DMV budget since 1993.

Before the 1993 government restructuring, revenue generated by DMV was used to fund DMV programs and operating cost; after 1993, all DMV revenue was required to be deposited into the general fund.

The governor's task force leader states that he wants DMV to operate like a private business. That notion is simply not practical. Unlike, say, a bank, DMV does not get to keep the moneys it collects for providing services. Banks can close unprofitable locations or discontinue selected services; it takes an act of the General Assembly for DMV to make these kinds of "business" decisions.

We can improve DMV, but we don't need to create a new agency to accomplish this objective. We don't need to take a program that is a national model, such as our State Transport Police, and hinder its success and effectiveness. The efforts of Public Safety workers, under the circumstances that we at the General Assembly have created, should be supported and commended.

I would ask that the governor endorse legislation to allow DMV to establish its own fee structure to implement, unless proactively disapproved by action of the General Assembly, and also provide that future fee adjustments would be based on inflation indices. I want to protect DMV funds by depositing them into a dedicated account for DMV use. This is the first step to ensuring quality service for our citizens.