July 27, 2002

Government services tour is educational

Through A Glass Darkly, by John Myers, Internet Photojournalist

Yogi Berra once said, "You can see a lot just by just by listening," and I learned a lot by watching and listening on a recent morning.

I was escorting my new wife on a tour of Richmond County's state and federal governmental offices to conduct the various bits and pieces that come with uprooting her from Pennsylvania.

I had heard some anecdotal evidence that the line at the N.C. Driver's License office might be a problem so we started there.

I now have firsthand evidence that they most definitely have a problem with this particular branch of our state government.

One overworked lady civil servant was manning the office when we arrived, and no help arrived for her during our nearly two-hour stay. Perhaps this office is one of the victims of our state's current fiscal crisis, I don't know.

I do know that poor lady needs some help. Surely one person is not "fully staffed."

But the old saw about civil servants -- why do they call them that when they're not civil and they don't give service -- most definitely didn't apply to this particular overworked soul.

For nearly two hours, she answered the phone, answered questions of those waiting in line, administered the license exams and did the road tests for those required to take them.

And by my unscientific count -- hanging around and using my fingers to arrive at the total -- she gave out six licenses in one hour and 50 minutes. She also administered two road tests and had at least two people who took and failed the written test.

I counted 13 people jammed into the office at one point, and when I asked quietly for some comments, I got quite an earful.

One lady informed me she had been there twice before and had to leave on her third visit to go to work without a license.

She said she called for an appointment and was told she couldn't get one, while others told her they got appointments only to have to wait in line like everybody else when they arrived. "It ain't right," she told me as she got in her car to go.

My dear wife finally prevailed, emerging with her new N.C. driver's license successfully, passing the test with only one wrong answer. Of course, she's smart and a school teacher, so she dutifully prepared by studying the state driver's license manual.

They even took a good picture of her, but she didn't like it. And she even got her voter registration done at that same office.

Our next stop was a federal facility, the local Social Services Administration office. The new Wendy Myers was in and out of there in a virtual flash, updating records with her new name.

We were on a roll now, with our next stop almost as brief to get her new N.C. license plate for her vehicle. A couple of hundred bucks lighter -- gotta pay that state tax before they let you have the plate -- I was thankful that the license plate offices are a state government function farmed out to private business.

Next stop was even better. After a trip to the bank to update her records there and then an abortive stop at a service station too busy to do a vehicle inspection, we found a local business ready for action. They not only did the vehicle inspection with "xpress" action, they even put the new license plate on, too.

(I can't name the local business. No free advertising here. But you can look up the business in the Rockingham phone book under "x" for "XPress Lube".)

That completed our tour, and I shall make a prediction. I wouldn't want to be a state politician running for reelection.

If we've ever had a "throw the bums out" election, this might be one, particularly for any incumbent holding a state office.

The folks waiting in line down at the driver's license office were highly ticked off and all the news they've been reading about state government cutbacks didn't improve their mood.

Their chance for revenge will come at the voting booths soon.