Advertisement Mass. Registry of Motor Vehicles flies employees to work Agency rings up more than $100K on airfare, rooms, and restaurants Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Just another day at work at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.Hop on a plane and fly to Nantucket for an all-expenses paid trip courtesy of the people of Massachusetts.Watch reportThis was the routine for registry workers day after day, month after month, year after year.The registry started flying people over to a sleepy RMV office tucked away in Nantucket’s town hall in 2013 in response to a staffing shortage, but the expenses didn't end with the airfare.After a day at work on the resort island, the RMV employees needed a place to stay, and the home away from home for the registry workers became the Jared Coffin House in historic downtown Nantucket.“It's not exactly a lean-to. It's a beautiful place,” said Chip Faulkner of Citizens for Limited Taxation. “It's the arrogance of a state agency, and a state agency with plenty of money to spend and they don't care about economizing because they don't have to.”Records obtained by 5 Investigates show the registry spent tens of thousands of dollars over the last three years on this unusual arrangement with staff shortages on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.The flights cost $39,175 and rooms at the inn cost another $12,555. And then there were trips on the ferries adding up to $47,412 and taxi fares totaling $18,948.It all added up to $118,091 in public money, the records show.And that doesn't even include the cost to feed employees staying overnight, parking fees, and mileage reimbursement when the workers used their personal vehicles.5 Investigates found the RMV spending was making waves on Nantucket.“That's a lot of money to waste, traveling back and forth,” said one resident.Nantucket has an unemployment rate of 7.5 percent, which is 63 percent higher than the rest of the state.“I'm sure there are plenty of people on island who would be looking for a state job with the state benefits,” said another resident.In an interview with 5 Investigates, Registrar of Motor Vehicles Erin Deveney did not address the wisdom or cost of flying employees to Nantucket and putting them up at the local inn.“The registry was really lucky,” Deveney said. “Last year we had two staff people ready to hire within two months.“The great thing is that we're now servicing the residents of Nantucket with the same level of service that all the residents of the commonwealth deserve,” she added.Deveney was chief of staff at the registry when it started flying workers to the islands. She then left for another state job before returning to the RMV last March. At that time, she said she immediately began working to fix the staffing shortages.“What the registry's been thinking since March 2015 is that we have an obligation to run a lean efficient business process,” Deveney said.Before last year, when employees were flying back and forth to islands, Deveney said the RMV “maintained services in a way so we would not completely disenfranchise the residents.”The spending and the explanations now raising only more questions.The registry pointed out that the expenses related to its Nantucket branch included the ongoing cost of sending road test examiners to both Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.The registry offices on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard are among the least busy in the state.Those branches were open part-time during the staffing shortages, but now two full-time employees are assigned to each location five days a week. Deveney said two full-time employees are needed for various reasons, including occasions when one employee has to use the bathroom.