An attempt by the Springfield News-Sun to get copies of records that would show how the local deputy registrar offices spend the public fees they collect was rejected by local operators of the largest license bureaus, as well as by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
State BMV officials say Ohio’s public records laws do not require local BMV-contractors to reveal how they spend the money to operate their offices. The state BMV itself does not know, a BMV spokesperson said.
Ohio’s public records law requires government agencies to disclose such records, and extends that requirement to private government contractors in some circumstances.
State data says the busiest license office in Clark County did 61,910 transactions last year, netting it $254,974, but it doesn’t say how much was spent running the office or how much the deputy registrar was paid.
“I’m not giving that out, sorry,” said Sandra Wolfe, who runs the Springfield office.
This illustrates concerns many have with handing public responsibility to private contractors, according to Dennis Hetzel, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association.
“As they privatize these items there is less ability to scrutinize how taxpayer money or the public’s money is spent,” said Hetzel. “How can you tell if you’re getting a good deal? How can you tell where their money is going?”
State Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chris Widener, R-Springfield, said, “I would expect if a public function has been contracted out to a private entity, that one of the requirements in that contract should be full disclosure of income and expenses.”
As to the BMVs specifically, “If it’s public dollars involved, we ought to disclose where it’s being spent,” said Widener.
‘It’s like a consignment shop’
Sheryl Green, whose Montgomery County license office is the busiest in the region with 111,162 transactions in 2010, said her office doesn’t keep an expense budget.
She said she has eight employees earning between $8 and $12 an hour and a payroll clerk, and she is paid whatever is left over after operating expenses at the end of the year.
The office took in $439,284 in revenue from fees last year, according to revenue reports from the Ohio Department of Public Safety, the only information publicly available.
Ohio’s 200 deputy registrars contract to run their offices for three years at a time based on a competitive bid. Some are run by county auditors or clerks of court, though the vast majority are run by private citizens.
Deputy registrars receive service fees of $3.50 for each vehicle, driver license and ID card transaction; and 90 cents for each vision screening performed.
The deputy registrars also get all the profit from other services the office provides at its own cost, such as title running services, passport photo services, license plate frames, keychains or nuts and bolts.
The state pays for the computers and equipment, and the deputy registrar provides the office and staffing.
“The BMV supplies all consumable inventory at our cost,” said Lindsey Bohrer, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, which oversees deputy registrars. “We absorb the costs for moves, installations, and pay for the computer and communications equipment and service.”
The state also provides about $100,000 per office in back-end administrative support.
“It’s like a consignment shop,” Green said. “They basically furnish the computer system and the plates, and they pay me a fee to (run the office).”
Deputy registrars only run the BMV license agencies. Driver exam stations are handled by the Highway Patrol, and title offices are run by each county’s clerk of courts.
Some estimates
Bonita Davis’s registrar office on the east side of Hamilton is the busiest in Butler County with $340,877 in revenue last year. She said she also doesn’t keep an expense budget.
But she said she doesn’t make much in salary, maybe $35,000 a year, plus benefits.
She said the costs of running her office include seven employees making about $13 an hour, plus benefits, as well as $2,800 a month in rent, $450 a month in utilities and $300 a month in telephone bills.
“My compensation is what’s left, if there is anything,” she said.
State guidelines require an office the size of Davis’ to have the equivalent of at least 5.7 full-time employees, and pay them at least minimum wage.
Davis was more forthcoming than other area deputy registrars. Michael Foley, whose Huber Heights license agency had the highest revenue in Montgomery County with $443,567 last year, referred all questions to state BMV officials. Those officials said they do not have records of how much he or his employees are compensated.
Wolfe, who runs the Springfield North Bechtle Avenue license office, also referred further questions to Columbus. She would say only that she employs six people and pays them between $9 and $16 an hour. State guidelines require an office her size to have at least 4.3 full-time workers and pay them at least minimum wage.
As for her salary: “I don’t believe I need to tell you that,” Wolfe said.
The state is considering closing the New Carlisle BMV because state officials say it fell short of 40,000 transactions. The office did 37,726 transactions last year and had $146,380 in revenue, prompting city and county leaders to begin urging the public to use that office more.
State shields private firms
The amount each office gets in license fees is reported to the Ohio Department of Public Safety. How much the offices as a whole make — and how much deputy registrars pay themselves — is not released.
“I’m a small business owner, basically just like any other small business owner in the state,” Green said. “How I spend it whether I make money or lose money is basically on my head, not theirs.”
A guide to the Ohio public records laws, produced by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, says “if there is clear and convincing evidence that a private entity is the functional equivalent of a public office, that entity will be subject to the Ohio Public Records Act.”
State officials side with the contractors.
Ohio Department of Public Safety officials told the newspaper that they don’t see that information as public record.
“(Their budgets) are not public, because they don’t document the function of a public entity,” said Robin Matthews, public records attorney for the Ohio Department of Public Safety. “How they run their own business has nothing to do with our function.”
‘You need a whole new set of rules’
This mirrors the stance of other for-profit public contractors, such as White Hat Management. The for-profit charter school management firm, with three schools in the Dayton region, was sued by the boards of nine northeast Ohio schools who say the company won’t reveal how many taxpayer dollars go for educating kids and how many end up in its corporate coffers.
A Franklin County judge this month ruled that the company must turn over its financial records.
Gov. John Kasich’s administration is forming an advisory team to look at privatizing operations of the Ohio Turnpike, and also plans to sell five state prisons to private firms to manage.
State Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, said of the deputy registrars not releasing their finances: “I have to admit that bothers me because certainly the collection of fees they do is a public function.”
“It almost appears you need a special category out there for a public entity that is being privately run, you need a whole new set of rules,” she said.
Lehner said she supports privatizing government functions if it will save money, “but we need to be more careful that we are assured that one: they are being better run ... two: that we are saving money; and three: that they are being operated in such a manner that the public can be assured that those two first parameters can be continually monitored.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374.
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