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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer 8:48 PM Friday, August 12, 2011

They may collect millions of dollars from area residents in fees, but the operators of the region’s busiest license offices — called deputy registrars — say how they spend money running their offices is none of the public’s business.

Efforts to privatize Ohio government functions to cut costs could increase the number of private agencies that look and sound like government offices but claim to fall outside the state’s public accountability laws.

An attempt by the JournalNews 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 much they spend 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.

But with Ohio considering privatizing other functions — including prisons, charter schools and operations of the Ohio Turnpike — the position of the BMV illustrates a threat to the public’s ability to know how effectively its resources are being used, 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 Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, said of the BMV deputy registrar licensing agencies 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.

JournalNews requests for expense budgets from the busiest deputy registrar offices in the region were rebuffed by the people who run those offices. And state officials deny that these records are public, though public records law specifies that private entities’ records can be public in certain circumstances.

This illustrates concerns many have with handing public responsiblity to private contractors, according to Dennis Hetzel, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association.

“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.

‘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 or nonprofits, 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.

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City Address Deputy Registrar 2010 total transactions 2010 total revenue

Butler County

Hamilton (East) 1720 A South Erie Blvd. Bonita Davis 82,315 $340,877

Middletown 3232 Roosevelt Blvd. Kristy Gamble 79,268 $314,565

Fairfield 530 Wessel Drive Laine Tarter 76,247 $297,427

Hamilton (West) 138 N. Brookwood Ave. Tammy Blevins 61,602 $246,526

Warren

Lebanon 19 Dave Ave., Unit B Janis Craig 75,590 $314,609

Mason 775 Reading Road, Rte 42 Marceline Davis 83,818 $341,414

Franklin 245 S. Main St., Suite B Joni Lea Centers 72,399 $284,475

Source: Ohio Department of Public Safety