D.C. fails to send renewal notices

The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles is failing to issue registration-renewal notifications to thousands of car owners, subjecting them to $100 fines for the violation.

“Renewal notices are not a legal requirement, but I absolutely believe they are mandatory for good customer service,” agency Director Anne C. Witt said.

Miss Witt said a problem with several older printers in the department’s 301 C St. NW headquarters has corrupted some batches of notifications. The printers are part of a system that automatically generates 60-day renewal notices each night.

“There have been issues with some of [the notices] getting out,” Miss Witt said. “We’re baby-sitting the printers.”

A typical notice lists the costs of renewing a vehicle registration, including the amount for outstanding tickets. It also provides the vehicle owner with payment options.

Miss Witt, who was confirmed as the department’s director by the D.C. Council in June 2003, said she does not know how many people failed to received a notice because of the problem, which began in at least September.

D.C. records show that there are 241,600 registered vehicles in the city, so about 40,000 of them could have been up for annual renewal in the past two months.

Several customers at the department’s Brentwood Plaza branch in Northeast said yesterday they did not receive notices, on which they depend.

“My intuition told me that something was wrong,” D.C. resident Joyce Caldwell said. “Something told me to look at the sticker.”

Ms. Caldwell said the city has notified her in the past, but this year, the tags on her white Camry expired without notice.

“The District government either doesn’t care, or they just want the [ticket] money,” she said. “They put everything else on TV, why didn’t [officials] tell people to check their stickers because [the agency] was having problems. …The District just doesn’t care, and it’s very sad.”

Wayne Dakins, a D.C. business owner, said he also was not notified and, in frustration, yesterday waved his $100 ticket for “failure to display current tags.”

Mr. Dakins said his tags expired Oct. 3 so his notice should have arrived the first week in August.

The District “could have notified residents instead of giving people $100 fines,” Mr. Dakins, 51, said. “I paid the $100 ticket today. This is an exercise in ignorance.”

Miss Witt said she told employees in the department’s Bureau of Traffic Adjudication to cancel tickets issued to vehicle owners whose registration lapsed because they did not get a notice.

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