Local DMV to be closed every other Friday
The periodic furlough of state workers that began last week had
an impact on local vehicle owners, as the Hollister branch of the
Department of Motor Vehicles on Sally Street closed its doors on
Friday, Feb. 6.
Local DMV to be closed every other Friday
The periodic furlough of state workers that began last week had an impact on local vehicle owners, as the Hollister branch of the Department of Motor Vehicles on Sally Street closed its doors on Friday, Feb. 6.
While the office will be open on Friday the 13th, it will close again on Feb. 20, and every other Friday for the foreseeable future in the wake of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s order that more than 200,000 state workers take the day off without pay to help ease California’s budget crisis. The governor ordered employees, including the six at the local DMV branch, to take the first and third Fridays of each month off in an effort to save $1.3 billion through June 2010, when the furloughs are expected to end.
Under the state furlough order, critical services such as state fire stations and centers that process unemployment insurance claims will remain open, as will state parks. The forced days off will trim the average state worker’s salary by 9.2 percent.
Customer traffic at the DMV on Monday of this week was “higher than normal” in Hollister and elsewhere, much like it would be on the first business day after a state holiday, state DMV spokesman Mike Marando said.
“We began notifying customers early in the week [of the sixth] as part of the governor’s plan,” Marando said. “Right now we’re running a $42 billion deficit in California. This action is necessary to tighten our belts. While we are furloughing employees, we are not laying [DMV] employees off.”
The department discontinued Saturday service in August 2008 in an effort to save money.
“We’re treating the furlough days as we would typically treat the days after a holiday,” Marando said. “We are closely monitoring the wait times and managers in each branch have the latitude to reallocate resources as they see fit” to help alleviate the expected crush of customers every other Monday.
Customers whose vehicle registration payments are due on one of the furlough Fridays may make their payment on the next business day without penalty, which Marando said is department policy following a vacation day.
“We always encourage alternative methods of doing business with the department,” Marando said. “We have approximately 18 business options that customers can use to take care of their DMV business online. We also tell folks to make an advance appointment and treat a DMV appointment the same way that they’d treat a doctor or dentist appointment.”
The DMV recently announced that more than 7 million customers used its Web site in 2008, an increase of 15 percent over 2007.
The site – www.dmv.ca.gov – “Offers a convenient alternative for our customers to renew their vehicle registrations, driver licenses and other important activities,” said DMV Director George Valverde.
Vehicle registration is the most popular online option, according to the DMV, as more than 5.5 million vehicles were registered using that method last year. Online driver license renewals were up nearly 32 percent in 2008.
Another option for San Benito County residents is to visit the local branch of the California Automobile Association, located at 351 Tres Pinos Road near Fortino’s Total Home.
Like many offices around California, the local branch offers AAA members the opportunity to renew their vehicle registration, transfer ownership of a vehicle, request duplicate registration, title or license plate stickers, and conduct license plate transactions, including personalized plates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
