Sheriff blasts transportation department for driver's licensing issues

Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger lashed out at the Idaho Transportation Department’s management of the state’s driver’s licensing system in a news release issued by his office Tuesday afternoon.

Driver’s license offices throughout the state have been plagued with slow processing processing times and periodic shut downs of the statewide system used to process licenses.

From Sheriff Ben Wolfinger:

“Unfortunately, for the past 18 months or more, Idaho Sheriffs and their staffs have taken the brunt of the complaints for a system that is dictated by the Idaho Transportation Department, but mandatorily vended by Sheriff’s Offices.

System failures have cost tax payers thousands of dollars in staff time when no transactions could take place. The Idaho Transportation Department, the agency ultimately responsible for driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations, continues down a road of low-bid, you get what you pay for, poor performance software systems that frustrates drivers and staff alike.

This week, the ‘GEM SYSTEM’ began with extremely slow processing. Help desks in Boise required hours of waiting on the phone and local ITD assistants had few to no answers for problems and had to call the Boise help desk as well.”

Wolfinger noted Idaho is one of two states in the nation where the sheriff is responsible for vending driver’s licenses. The other is Nebraska.

“It is time for the local property tax payers to quit supplementing the Transportation Department and get sheriffs out of the driver’s license issuing business,” Wolfinger said.