RMV-AAA trial pact gets mixed reviews

LYNN – Ingrid Biedron’s all for cutting down the waiting time at Registry of Motor Vehicle branches but she is not quite sure a proposed pilot partnership between the Registry and AAA is a good idea.”I’m a little leery of privatization. Making a profit does not always square with the interests of the taxpayer,” she said.Registry officials this week confirmed they hope to launch a six-month pilot program with AAA, which has two million Bay State members.Lloyd Albert, AAA senior vice president of government affairs, told the State House News Service that AAA, based on its developing relationship with the Registry, planned to launch a six-month pilot program out of its Newton and Worcester operations – AAA has 25 operation bases in Massachusetts.The North Shore could be ripe for an expanded partnership between the Registry and AAA with a new Registry branch operating in Revere and a AAA office in Saugus. “This initiative gives our customers more options in renewing their license and vehicle registrations and brings back Saturday hours,” said Registry spokeswoman Ann Dufresne. “We are hoping to launch this new customer convenience as early as April.”Public employee union workers say Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration is improperly steering driver’s license and registration work to AAA.The union representing registry workers wants Inspector General Greg Sullivan to investigate Patrick administration efforts to privatize Registry services, saying the change could jeopardize privacy rights of customers and appeared rigged to deliver registry business to AAA.David Holway, president of the National Association of Government Employees, said that language is intended to steer registry functions to AAA. Holway said AAA’s board of directors includes a number of politically connected individuals and suggested there was a “deal” being carried out that represented “backroom politics.””We have two basic questions for the Inspector General that the RMV will not answer. First, where does the law allow a political appointee simply to hand public jobs to a private company? Second and importantly, show us evidence that taxpayers benefit from this act,” Holway said.Attorney Ron Pressman said the merger raises potential driver identity security questions. He also questioned the wisdom of having non-state employees handling Registry functions for drivers who face fines, even criminal charges, if a mistake is made licensing them and registering their vehicle. Dufresne, responding to claims that the AAA alliance raised identity theft and privacy concerns, said the Registry takes personal information protection seriously. She said AAA would be subject to the same auditing and privacy protocols as the more than 800 car dealerships and insurance agents who perform limited Registry services. That includes a ban on using RMV data for anything other than registry transactions.Dufresne said the Registry expects the AAA alliance will reduce wait times for customers despite state government budget problems that are forcing spending cuts. In addition to the Registry pilot, Patrick in his fiscal 2010 budget included an outside section authorizing the registrar to enter into contracts, in the interests of efficiency and avoiding service disruptions, “only with an existing entity that provides automobile-related services to the general public, or to its own members of an automobile-related association and that maintains business offices that are open to the public during hours and at locations believed to be convenient for registry customers and in areas where a continuing need exists to provide registry services.”Albert said AAA hoped its Massachusetts members would embrace its license and registration renewal service options as have its members in Rhode Island. “We’ve had an incredibly good run of it here,” he said in an interview from the organization’s office in Providence.