DOT gets an earful at safety check hearing

Testifiers at a statewide public hearing Thursday generally took a dim view of the Department of Transportation’s plan to hike fees and create an electronic system for annual vehicle safety checks.

The 10 testifiers, participating through videoconference sites set up on all the major islands, were mostly owners of inspection stations. But members of the public and a state representative who swelled their ranks also agreed that the state’s problems with the current system won’t be solved by simply putting the information on computers.

The state agency will evaluate the comments, along with written comments submitted by Monday, before making a decision Tuesday and forwarding it to the governor. But most of the public, as well as state and county employees in the audience, believe the plan is a done deal and will take effect Nov. 1.

The state has been wrestling with a backlog of inspection records, ranging from two to six months. A valid safety check is required to get annual vehicle registrations renewed.

The new program would add $4.49 to the cost of an inspection, bringing the cost of inspecting an automobile or truck to $19.19 and motorcycles or trailers to $13.24.

The price hike wasn’t the biggest concern, however. Several testifiers questioned why a safety sticker is required at all, when a valid registration is proof that the car has been inspected.

“If one’s a requirement for the other, why do we need two?” asked Tim Rees, testifying from Hilo. “I do not think the state DOT has looked into other ways of creating efficiencies.”

State Rep. Dee Morikawa, a Kauai Democrat, urged the state agency to hold off on its new program until the Legislature could address it. Bills abolishing the program come up every legislative session, she said.

“Stop. Step back,” Morikawa advised.

The fee increase would be split with the state receiving $1.70, the contractor for the electronic tablets and printer system receiving $1.69 and the inspection station receiving an extra $1.10, said DOT spokeswoman Carolyn Sluyter.

“This adds a middleman which increases costs,” noted Michael Preston, testifying from Honolulu.

The contractor, Parsons, an international engineering and management services firm that does a lot of work for the military in Hawaii, will provide tablet computers, printers and routers to each inspection station. The company’s compensation comes only from its share of the inspection fee, Sluyter said.

Morikawa said the cost is one factor, especially with the recent increase in vehicle registration fees and weight taxes, but even more of a burden to Kauai is the requirement that inspection stations have high-speed Internet connections.

“It’s very rural,” she said. “There are stations that don’t even have an Internet capacity or even need it.”

Morikawa’s comments were backed by a Kauai inspection station operator who said he doesn’t have a landline and the closest telephone pole is more than half a mile away. He questioned who would pay for a hookup.

Several testifiers, especially among inspection station operators, said the plan doesn’t include enough money for the stations, especially since they have to acquire Internet connections and train inspectors on new equipment.

Several said $25 to $30 wouldn’t be unrealistic for the amount of work going into the inspections, in light of inflation. Raising requirements while not raising the fee could cause inspectors to cut corners, reducing highway safety, they said.

Under the draft rules, inspection stations would get to keep $15.80, the first price increase since the late 1980s.

“Would you like to get paid what you got paid in 1990?” asked Carla Perea, who owns AutoTech in Kealakekua.

The proposed changes can be found at hidot.hawaii.gov/highways/files/2013/06/HAR19-133.2-to-Gov-6-7-13.pdf.

DOT is accepting written comments on the new rules through Monday. They can be mailed to Hawaii Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Safety Office, Room 511, 601 Kamokila Blvd., Kapolei, HI 96707.