At the invitation of New York State Sen. Joseph Griffo, New York State Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Mark Schroeder visited Utica today to meet with Oneida County Clerk Mary Finegan and Madison County Clerk Michael Keville to discuss recent upgrades to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles system and how the changes have affected local offices.
In February, the DMV system was shut down and overhauled. The initiative was intended to modernize the system to give customers better and more streamlined service and to help DMV staff serve New Yorkers more efficiently.
However, since the system was upgraded and back online, many DMV users have experienced complications, including problems with credit card machines, a delay in reimbursements, and customers receiving Real IDs and other identification cards with old photos.
Oneida County Clerk Finegan, with support from Sen. Griffo, who communicated with Commissioner Schroeder, has taken steps to address system delays and problems and ensure that the system works properly.
On Thursday, Commissioner Schroeder heard directly about what Oneida County Clerk Finegan and Madison County Clerk Keville have done to improve the customer experience at their DMVs and future initiatives that are planned.
“I appreciate Commissioner Schroeder’s willingness to listen and learn more about what Oneida County Clerk Finegan and Madison County Clerk Keville and their teams have done and are doing to enhance customer service at their local DMV offices,” Sen. Griffo said. “When she first noticed problems following updates to the DMV’s statewide system, Oneida County Clerk Finegan diligently worked to address them, including contacting my office to see what support could be provided by the state. Issues occurred following the system that the state required and initiated. New York should be a good partner in this effort, and I was pleased to engage directly with Commissioner Schroeder in support of Oneida County Clerk Finegan’s proactive efforts to provide a better overall experience for DMV customers.”
“I appreciate Commissioner Schroeder’s willingness to come to the Utica DMV and listen to what my team has done and are doing to enhance customer service at the Oneida County DMV,” Oneida County Clerk Finegan said. “When we first noticed problems following updates to the DMV’s statewide system, myself and my staff diligently worked to address them. Many issues occurred following the new NYS software mandated roll out. We reached out to Senator Griffo’s office to see what support could be provided by the state. I felt reaching out directly to our partners through New York State would be the best way to work together to solve the multiple problems we were experiencing. I was pleased to learn that Senator Griffo spoke directly with Commissioner Schroeder in support of our efforts to provide a better overall experience for DMV customers, in both the Utica and Rome locations.”
“One of goals of the new system was to enhance security and decrease the opportunity for fraud or malfeasance,” Madison County Clerk Keville said. “Due to those aims, some simple processes have become more involved, thereby increasing the time necessary to complete such transactions. Although I’m confident the new system will eventually yield positive returns on efficiency, we’re not there at this time. There was a hope that we would be able to trim our staff slightly by attrition this year, but partly because of the slowness of processing under the new system, we will be replacing those who retire from our DMV office, this year.”
Oneida County Clerk Finegan also urged the public to consider becoming an organ donor through the DMV as part of the Donate Life New York State campaign.
