Millions of Californians have their drivers license suspended for child support issues each year. In researching this subject I recently requested several items of information from the California Department of Motor Vehicles including:
1. “Request the name of point of contact(s) who will be providing me this information on behalf of the state with their name, phone, e-mail, agency.
2. “The process and guidelines for suspending driver’s licenses on Child Support cases.
3. “The number of males in the state of California that currently have their Drivers License suspended as the result of a child support case.
4. “The number of females in the state of California that currently have their Drivers License suspended as the result of a child support case.”
I was informed that my point of contact (#1) would be Roger Sato. (monkey) Roger J. Sato is Senior Staff Counsel for the Legal Affairs Division of the California Department of Motor Vehicles. His phone number is (916) 657-6469 and his email address is rsato@dmv.ca.gov . Sato’s response is below.
The Department has determined that there are documents responsive to item # 2. There are no documents responsive to items # 3 and 4 except as noted below. My contact information is also noted below in response to item # 1. The Department will mail the documents requested in item # 2 upon receipt of a check in the amount of fifty-one dollars and eighty cents ($51.80) payable to the DMV for the statutory fee, which shall be mailed to:
Department of Motor Vehicles
Legal Affairs Division, C-128
P.O. Box 932382
Sacramento, CA 94232-3820
Attention: ROGER J. SATO
California Government Code Section 6253, subdivision (b), provides that the state agency make the identifiable public records available “upon payment of fees covering the direct costs of duplication, or a statutory fee, if applicable.” California Vehicle Code section 1811 allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to charge “at least the entire actual cost to the department of the copies.” See also Shippen v. DMV (1984) 161 Cal.App.3d 1119.
Regarding items # 3 and 4, the Department has the annual total statistics by calendar year, but the statistical information is not broken down by gender. Please let me know if you would like a copy of the annual totals back to the year 2000, and I will be able to provide that information.
Furthermore, in order to identify and extract statistics that distinguish the number of males and the number of females who are currently suspended as a result of a child support case from the Department of Motor Vehicles’ driver license database would require what is called a “file pass.” A “file pass” consists of writing a special software program at a cost of $135 per hour and requires a deposit before beginning the task necessary to complete this portion of your request. In addition, the Department is charged a fee of approximately $1,514 per hour to load the numerous records and run the program with an estimated time of two to ten hours necessary to search the entire driver license database. Any record found will be charged at an additional cost of ten cents ($0.10) per record. (California Code of Regulations, Title 13, Section 350.44(c), Government Code Sections 6253, subdivision (b), and 6253.9, subdivision (b)(2), and Vehicle Code section 1811. See also Shippen v. DMV (1984) 161 Cal.App.3d 1119.) Based on the priority of this request under applicable regulations, this request would be processed after any priority needs for the Department, law enforcement entities, and other governmental agencies. (13 CCR sections 350.12 and 350.30.)
Sato is proposing I pay up to $25,000 USD, or more, to obtain information that should be transparent to the public. The public has a right to know! I would like Mr. Sato to know that I do not wish to purchase my own DMV branch. I simply wish to have the information that should be available to the public made available.
Let me clarify some things for Roger Sato and the readers. Under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) and the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) there are very clear rules regarding inspection of documents and fees.
Prompt Disclosure: Government Code Section 6253 (b), (d) Records not exempt from disclosure are to be made "promptly available." No provision of the CPRA and FOIA, shall be construed to permit an agency to delay or obstruct the inspection or copying of public records."
Fees: Government Code Section 6253 (b) There is no fee chargeable for inspection of a record (Attorney General's Opinion No. 01-605)
So why is Roger Sato and the Department of Motor Vehicles so secretive about the information that I requested and why are they resorting to making the records unobtainable by charging exorbitant amounts of money? The answer is quite simple. The courts and the DMV generate millions of dollars in revenue each year by suspending drivers licenses.
Roger Sato is skating the thin line between ethical and unethical behavior. As an attorney in a public servant position he should be acting on behalf of the public he serves rather than the government agency by which he is employed.
Comments
MR SATO: As a 30 year software engineer - I know that this is a SINGLE LINE SQL call into your database - and ONE LINE of print.
This is another reason why DMV should NOT exist. After all, how did we survive before its United Nations Protocol placed it into existance?
Thanks for this story...I had a friend attempt to get certain information out of DCSE and DMV in Virginia about their license suspensions...she got a response that she'd have to pay in excess of $175,000 as a deposit.
In Virginia, DCSE can turn a driver's license on and off at their will, with no notice to a non-custodial parent...and they can now do so with NCPs having judicial child support orders...so they can now cause a parent to fall into arrears, and in contempt of court, merely by turning off a driver's license and calling the police while the NCP is in their office. Happens all of the time here in Virginia.
I agree with SD Victim. Why in the name of god would they need to custom write a piece of software that does nothing more than what a simple filter or a SQL command would do if not to harass you from exercising your rights under the DMV. I do disagree with him about DMV, though--if it wasn't DMV doing this it would be another organization.
I would suggest two more questsions for the DMV, though. First I would ask the average amount of arrears for those who have their licenses suspended, and second, I would also ask for the average number of months those licenses were suspended then reinstituted. And finally, I would also ask for the percentage of licenses suspended that were reinstituted within three months or less.
DMV joins the thralls of yet one more of the government and societal profiteers of gender bias against men. I'll ad it to my list.
"I would like Mr. Sato to know that I do not wish to purchase my own DMV branch." Love it!
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