LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — 13 Investigates is unveiling a new way to connect with our local Las Vegas community. We're calling it, "Darcy, What's the Deal?"
You've got questions, and we want to help you get answers.
As part of our commitment to fight for what's right, when you ask, "Darcy, What's the Deal?" KTNV's chief investigator Darcy Spears, will work to get an explanation and help to ensure accountability.
In this kickoff of our news coverage, she explains "what's the deal" with delays, disconnections and staffing shortages at the Nevada DMV.
What's the deal with DMV offices not being open 24 hours?
"A 24-hour scenario would require significant changes to their operations and staffing structures... Which would likely outweigh any benefit the public might see. It's not something DMV is currently considering, but if the right proposal comes along and it's very clearly the right thing to do, they are open-minded to any solutions that would help serve Nevadans better."
What's the deal with applying for a DMV Services Technician job?
"DMV services technician applications are now considered "App to agency," meaning the DMV can intake those applications directly without having applicants go through the state job board posting. A prospective applicant can simply email dmvrecruit@dmv.Nv.Gov with a statement of interest and a copy of their resume and someone from the DMV human resources team will reach out."
The DMV has long been the agency we all love to hate. Notorious for long wait times, slow processing and frustrated customers. So, when she recently had some business processing a car title, she decided to put the agency to the test to see if anything had changed since we spoke to Cherlyn Branton in February.
"It's been very frustrating. I mean, a couple of times, I wanted to just throw my hands up and go home and never go anywhere else again," Branton said, describing her weeks-long wait to get her handicap placard replaced after it was stolen.
Nine months later, I discovered that little has changed.
My journey started with trying to get someone on the phone to answer a title question.
"It's a tough situation there," said DMV Public Information Officer Eli Rohl, explaining that the DMV currently has 130 vacant positions and about 90 of those are services technicians.
DMV Services Technicians are the people who process titles, registrations, license renewals, and answer phones.
When I called to ask my title question, I got the following recorded message:
"Thank you for calling the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. We are currently handling a high volume of calls and are unable to answer your call at this time. Please try your call again later. We apologize for any inconvenience."
I asked Rohl why callers don't even have the option of staying on hold.
"The phone system has a capacity of 35 people waiting in the queue," Rohl explained. "And so, if you are not one of the 35 people in that queue, the recording comes back and says, 'Please try again later' and disconnects you."
Despite a budget for 14 positions, the DMV currently has only six to eight people answering phones on any given day.
"Everyone in the state of Nevada, when you call the DMV, you go to one of those eight people in Carson City," Rohl said.
You heard that right. On a good day, there are only eight people in the entire state to answer questions on any topic.
"Again," Rohl said, "it's budgeted for more, but it hasn't been fully staffed since I've been here."
My next step was to make an appointment to get my title paperwork processed.
"No one would be surprised to hear that appointments are about two months out right now," Rohl said.
That's exactly how long it took me to get an appointment at the office on W. Flamingo. Once I checked in, I got a text that included a link to view my place in line. But when I clicked it, a warning popped up saying, "This website may be impersonating" the DMV's site "to steal your personal or financial information. You should close this page."
I reported it, and the DMV's IT department investigated. They learned that a server update inadvertently pointed traffic back to an old URL the DMV no longer uses.
That, at least, was a quick fix. As for getting my title, Rohl says the backlog is so severe it's taken over an entire room in Carson City.
He said the wait time is 10-12 weeks.
"We have approximately 60,000 titles waiting at any one given time, so when you mail in your title documents, there are only 60,000 people ahead of you. We process them by date, and we have as many people as we can working on them. We pull staff from other departments to try to get through the backlog, but for as many as we crank through in a day, it never stops."
Plagued by outages and other glitches, the DMV's online reform effort has had hits and misses over the years. Still, the agency is working toward an eventual transformation with a target date sometime in 2025.
Part of that includes building a phone contact center and another update of their online platform.
"Basically, the big DMV system that runs everything was invented before the iPhone," Rohl explained. "It has no concept... Upload a PDF? What's a PDF? It's ridiculous."
The update will also ultimately allow customers to chat with a live agent online. For now, it's just a bot able to handle a few prescribed questions and answers.
"They call it an Einstein bot," Rohl said.
"Is it that smart, really, though?" Spears asked.
"It's not right now, no. Right now, we have to spoon-feed the bot every answer," he said. "When it gets stumped, we need to know about that."
As for the offices, the agency is hiring new employees. Rohl says that's not an issue. The challenge is keeping them.
"And it's because you can come to the DMV, get a lot of broadly applicable experience, and then once you're in with the state, you can move to other departments that offer better pay. And you're not going to find a state employee who's going to argue with getting more money."
The 2023 legislature approved significant pay raises for all state agencies. Despite that, some have even higher vacancy rates than the DMV.
"We just tend to feel the impacts more because of how connected we are to the whole customer experience," he said. "Ultimately, we're asking for the public to be patient with us."
If you're willing to gamble with your time, you can roll the dice on Walk-in Wednesdays at any of the Las Vegas or Henderson offices. You can walk in without an appointment on any Wednesday if you're willing to wait as long as it takes.
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