State DMV May Move to Rocky Mount, But Raleigh HQ Workers Object

By Tristan Dufresne 2/10/19 11:36AM

RALEIGH — The North Carolina Council of State, a group of 10 high-ranking executive branch officials, has delayed voting on a proposed move of the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters from Raleigh to Rocky Mount.

Submitting to pressure from members of the State Employee Association (SEA) and state representatives for Wake County, the council agreed on Tuesday, February 5, to delay for a month the vote on possible relocation of the agency's headquarters to a location in Rocky Mount, 55 driving miles from its present downtown Raleigh location.

The move would affect most of the approximately 600 workers at the state agency, which is a division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).

Asbestos and additional safety risks yet unspecified at the location on New Bern Avenue caused this move. DMV workers must vacate the agency's current premises by October of 2020 and transfer its day-to-day operations somewhere else in Wake or a bordering county, by order of a state budget bill passed in May of 2018.

According to a statement sent to media on Monday, February 4 by the NCDOT, "Should the Council of State vote to accept this bid, the N.C. General Assembly will be asked to allocate funding for the move."

All 16 of Wake County's representatives in the General Assembly oppose the idea of moving DMV's headquarters to Rocky Mount. Other representatives, such as House Speaker Tim Moore, support the move.

"We did a review and looked for the most cost-effective locations with our specifications and after the open bidding process," said Jamie Kritzer, communications director for the North Carolina Department of Transportation; "The Rocky Mount location...was identified as the most competitive bid."

State law requires accepting the lowest qualifying offer, Kritzer said.

Of the 12 proposals brought by Triangle-based developers, the site which once housed the corporate offices of fast food giant Hardee's (and more recently, Centura Bank and RBC Bank) offered the lowest rent while meeting all the department's spatial and IT requirements.

The lease offered for the proposed Rocky Mount site would cost the state over $2 million annually.

While it may have been sufficiently vetted for financial and architectural concerns, the logistics of transferring an entire team of specialized government workers with lives rooted in the capital are proving complicated. Employees who keep their jobs would either have to move or adjust to a much longer commute.

It was these concerns, expressed at a town-hall-style forum the evening of Monday, February 4 that was organized by SEA staffers for DMV employees affected by the move, that convinced Council members including Governor Roy Cooper to pause the process.

Not all employees stationed at the New Bern Avenue headquarters will be willing to stay on board through the move, raising the total cost of the endeavor to include new hires and their training.

When asked if the cost of training new DMV workers to replace those leaving figured into their budget plan, Kritzer did not answer, responding rather, "The bottom line is we have been given a legislative mandate, and we can't break the law.

"We are not in the business of convincing people of one thing or another," Kritzer said, referring to convincing DMV workers to move or stay. Although, he added, "We are not insensitive to what DMV employees are going through."

So what happens if the majority of the council members vote no on the cheapest offer, that of Rocky Mount — are they in violation of the law? "I don't know the answer to that," Kritzer said. He added that approving a different bid would require justification to the General Assembly and its budget office "that [the new location] is the most prudent use of taxpayer money."

The Council of State consists of the highest executive offices in the state, including North Carolina's governor and lieutenant governor, as well as secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, attorney general, commissioner of agriculture, commissioner of labor and commissioner of insurance. All members hold popularly elected office at the state level.