N.J. motor unit chief: Lines will ease a little

LODI, N.J. - New Jerseyans tired of long lines at motor vehicle offices will have to endure them for another year until some services will be available online or by mail, but they could see incremental improvements over the next few months, the head of the Motor Vehicle Commission said Thursday.

Raymond Martinez spoke at a meeting of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee convened to address rising anger at long delays at his agency's centers, as well as glitches last month that crashed its computers for 90 minutes on one day and four hours on another.

The issues are not necessarily intertwined, according to Martinez. He attributed the longer lines to an uptick in license renewals caused by the change last decade from four-year licenses to six-year licenses.

Many of those are beginning to come due, he said, citing statistics showing that the number of license transactions handled by the commission was expected to double, to about two million, between 2009 and 2011.

The solution is to make those services available online or by mail, he said. Technology will be in place by the end of next year to enable online renewals, but Martinez said he hoped to offer some license transactions by mail before then.

"The simplest and most obvious solution is reducing the number of people physically coming to the office," he said.

That leaves the present, which for some customers has meant delays of several hours. Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D., Bergen) recounted stories from people who said they waited in line for five hours before being told to come back the following day.

Martinez said the commission was addressing the problem in a number of ways, including adding 22 cameras to speed up license transactions at high-volume offices and opening offices on Mondays and for longer hours on other days. The effects of those changes should be felt over the next two to three months as people become more aware of the new hours, he said.

Sen. Paul Sarlo (D., Bergen), the committee chair, grilled Martinez on why his commission closed four offices due to budget cuts.

Martinez said that the offices were small - "no bigger than a medium-size deli" - and inefficient, and that the agency was working on renovating and expanding high-volume offices in Edison, Cherry Hill, Rahway, and Lodi, and adding a new building at Baker's Basin outside Trenton.

The commission is using $50 million in bonds to revamp an aging computer system that Martinez likened to an old jalopy "that I hope is going to start up every day." The work is on schedule to be completed by the end of next year. But Martinez cautioned that it was a glitch in the state's computer systems that caused the July meltdowns affecting the commission and other agencies.

Sarlo reiterated that Democrats in the Legislature had cut $5.5 million from the budget for information technology, not the $35 million Gov. Christie recently claimed they had. Sarlo said the $5.5 million covered three projects that were replaced by three different ones that the commission did not have enough time to review thoroughly. None had to do with upgrades to the Motor Vehicle Commission's computers, he said.

"I'm willing to restore it when someone can explain to me what it means," Sarlo said.

On Wednesday, Christie said the state's IT office is undergoing a review by the state treasurer, who will deliver recommendations in September. The governor said he would approve more funds for computer upgrades.

"Pass a supplemental [bill] on upgrading our computer systems and I'll sign it," he said. "This should warm the heart of every member of the majority, that I'm actually agreeing to spend more money. Don't let me change my mind."