Kansas City has two DMV offices serving more than 500,000 residents.

Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw thinks that’s a problem.

“If there’s anyone who has a regular 8-to-5 job, they have to give up work to renew their license,” she said. “There are often long waits, long lines.”

License offices are usually private and contracted by the Missouri Department of Revenue. Before 2009, the best way to get a contract in Missouri was to be on friendly terms with the governor.

This meant that DMV offices were not always open where needed. But in 2009, then-Gov. Jay Nixon abandoned the patronage system for a competitive bidding process.

Now, the Kansas City Council is trying to open and run its own publicly owned DMV office. Council approved a resolution on October 10 directing City Manager Brian Platt to review the process, estimate any costs and recommend a possible location.

How would a city-run Kansas City DMV work?

Parks-Shaw said she would like to follow in the footsteps of Grandview, which has had a city-owned DMV since 1984, when a private office operated it.

That would have left the city’s residents with no other options nearby. So Grandview’s mayor pulled some strings in Jefferson City to save it.

“From what I understand, (then Gov. Kit Bond) was very good friends with the mayor of Grandview,” said Valarie Poindexter, the city’s communications manager. “So when they lost that office, she said, ‘Hey, the city can take this over.'”

So Bond gave Grandview 12 weeks to do it and opened up in a small office in City Hall.

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Poindexter said the DMV has been an important asset to Grandview for 40 years. It processes about 1,750 driver’s licenses and car registrations a week, and residents can make their property tax payments in the same office rather than driving to Independence or the courthouse downtown.

The office is staffed by city employees, and any profits go to the city budget.

Financial issues for licensing offices

Poindexter said Grandview’s DMV makes enough money to cover the city’s water bill, but not much more.

Meanwhile, other DMVs around the state have struggled to keep their doors open. In 2023, the Missouri Department of Revenue could not find a single contractor willing to operate an office in downtown St. Louis – in part because he is becoming less and less financially viable.

Vehicle licensing and fees are set by the Missouri General Assembly, and the Statehouse has only approved a fee increase since 1999. This makes it difficult for DMV office operators to keep up with rising costs.

That’s a factor in the decision to potentially open a city-run DMV in Kansas City.

“If it turns out that Kansas City actually has one of our departments that we’re hiring to run it, we’ll be able to provide that sustainability,” Parks-Shaw said, “more than an outside or community business can. “

Poindexter said Grandview prides itself on its DMV office. The city recently opened a stand-alone building for its DMV across from City Hall in February.

What happens next?

Parks-Shaw isn’t sure where a new DMV might end up — it could be downtown, in the Northland or in her downtown district. She hopes it could be on a bus line so it would be easily accessible.

The two Kansas City DMV locations are at Troost Avenue and Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard and near Interstate 29 and Northwest 64th Street.

But just because the Kansas City Council wants a city-owned DMV like the one in Grandview doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to get one.

The 1980s system, when the mayor of Grandview could simply ask the governor for a license to run a DMV office, was replaced by a competitive bidding process by the Missouri Legislature in 2009.

Kansas City may request a new DMV, but that decision will ultimately depend on a feasibility study by the Department of Revenue. A study would consider factors such as population, how many other undergraduate offices are nearby and what kinds of businesses are in the area.

Josh Merchant

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lighthouse

And if the Department of Revenue eventually decides to open another location in Kansas City, it won’t necessarily be city-run.

Kansas City would submit a bid to run the office, but so could other businesses in the area.

Parks-Shaw said that regardless of the outcome, she sees the issue of DMVs not just as a matter of convenience, but of economics and democracy.

With the 2024 election fast approaching, she said Missouri’s voter ID law makes it all the more important to ensure Kansas citizens can keep a current driver’s license to vote. And keeping the record up to date can help drivers stay out of court and get to work.

“For those people who have expired car tags, the taxes keep going up,” she said. “They lose access to their vehicles, which creates a negative impact on them and their livelihoods and their family’s livelihoods and ultimately hurts Kansas City in general.”

How to get in and out of the DMV quickly

• Renew your car registration online to save a trip.
• Avoid Mondays and Fridays and the last day of the month. Poindexter said those are the busiest days at the licensing office and can have wait times of several hours.
• Use technology to line up before you arrive. Some DMVs, including Grandview, use an app called QLess that allows you to register from your phone. The app will send you a notification when you are next.
• If you don’t have the QLess app, you can also call some locations ahead of time to be added to the queue.
• Talk to the clerk at check-in to make sure you have all the documents you need. That way, you’ll know if you’re missing a document before you get to the front of the line.

This story was originally published by lighthousea fellow member of KC Media Collective.