Goodwin to step down as NCDMV Commissioner

North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles (NCDMV) Commissioner Wayne Goodwin will step down when his term ends.

Goodwin announced he would not reapply for the position during a Joint House and Senate Transportation Committee Hearing Wednesday morning. The state advertised his position on the state’s online job portal two weeks ago. The site says the application window will close today.

According to his bio, before coming to the Department of Transportation, Goodwin was president and CEO of Seaboard Strategic Consulting, where he provided counsel to insurance entities, businesses, associations, and consumers.

He also previously served as state insurance commissioner for eight years.

An attorney, Goodwin served four terms as a state representative from 1997-2004 and later served as chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party from 2017 to 2021.

The NCDMV has faced much criticism during Goodwin’s tenure for long wait times and delays in issuing driver licenses, among other issues. State legislators criticized Goodwin’s ‘broken’ operations at the DMV at a Transportation Committee hearing in March.

Legislators condemned the NCDMV, the largest customer-facing agency in the state government, for ongoing dysfunction and questioned why the DMV “does not serve its customers well.” The NCDMV is often a source of disruption for law-abiding citizens who make the inconvenient and time-intensive trek to a DMV office. 

Complaints date back years and include a lack of available appointments at DMV offices, long wait times, and simply being told to come back on a different day. A frequent pain point for parents of teenagers looking to become licensed drivers is making three different trips to the DMV within just 18 months. Under state law, individuals new to North Carolina must obtain an ID within 60 days of moving, but it’s rare to find an available slot two months out in the DMV’s online booking system; the state’s major cities don’t even offer booking times. 

“A broken DMV is a broken promise to our constituents,” Co-Chair Michael Lazzara said at the meeting. “Real change must be systematic, which comes from the top.” He commented at another hearing in July, “If there was a private sector, there would be no agency. They’d be out of business.”

Last year, State Auditor Dave Boliek told Carolina Journal last year that if elected, his first order of business would be to conduct a full-scale audit of the DMV.

“We’re going to start day one with a comprehensive audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and I’m not backing off that,” he said. “I think the people of North Carolina deserve a well-functioning, efficient DMV. It hasn’t been addressed in many, many years. Because of that, I will conduct a comprehensive financial and economic efficiency audit of the DMV, and we will come up with some solid recommendations to the legislature and the governor’s office on how to make that agency work better for the people.”

A spokesman for Boliek’s office told Carolina Journal Wednesday that he met with DMV leadership officials in Rocky Mount last week and that the DMV is being actively audited.

The post Goodwin to step down as NCDMV Commissioner first appeared on Carolina Journal.