North Carolina lawmakers peppered outgoing Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Wayne Goodwin with complaints, questions and criticism as he testified under oath for over an hour Thursday — a tense meeting during which they blamed him for long waits and other longstanding problems at the DMV.

“It's been a failure under your tenure,” Rep. Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, told Goodwin. “Why not just go ahead and leave?”

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Goodwin has led the agency since 2022. He announced his resignation Wednesday, not long after he had been required to reapply for his job by the incoming administration of Gov. Josh Stein. But he said he plans to stay on until Stein finds a replacement to take over the agency.

“I don’t quit while I’m still in the job,” Goodwin told Jones.

Goodwin was one of several state officials summoned to testify Thursday before the House Oversight Committee, as Republican leaders call for more scrutiny of state government agencies. But many faced a relatively warm reception. The most intense questioning was reserved for the leader of one of North Carolina’s most complained-about agencies.

Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union,, said he’s heard of people being forced to wait outside DMV offices in the cold weather for hours, only to eventually be told to just go home. “The No. 1 complaint that everybody gets is the DMV,” Arp said, adding that “the frustration level is excruciating.”

He said wholesale changes might be needed at the agency to ensure that good customer service is employees’ top priority.

Goodwin told Arp, who’s a top state budget writer, that the legislature itself has “competing priorities” on that front. Lawmakers have often been unwilling to pay for what’s needed to improve customer service at the DMV, Goodwin said, such as opening new offices, hiring more staff, or raising salaries.

For example, Goodwin said, the DMV has employees whose job is to triage the lines at busy DMV offices. They make sure elderly people get seats or get helped to faster service. They figure out what customers are going to need when they get to the front of the line. And they identify people with complicated issues who might require special help. But 80% of those jobs aren’t filled, he said, because the state won’t allow those workers to qualify for benefits.

North Carolina’s population is booming, Goodwin said, adding hundreds of thousands of new residents — and new DMV customers — just in the last few years. He said the legislature needs to pay to hire more staff, open more offices, invest in new technology and take other steps a private business would, if its customer base was booming in the same way.

“If we stay with the same way we're doing things at the DMV, it’s going to get worse, all right?” Goodwin told the committee. “As we grow, it’s going to get worse if we do the same thing the same way — the same number of employees, the same number of offices.”

Some of the lawmakers weren’t happy to hear a suggestion that they might share in the blame.

“You take responsibility for the failures,” Jones told Goodwin. He also called the DMV “one of the most dysfunctional agencies in state government.”

Goodwin didn’t disagree. “There are many causes for dysfunction,” he responded. “I'm frustrated by it as well.”

Later in the hearing, Jones told Goodwin that he thought he was a good person, but that good people don’t always make good leaders, and referenced his resignation.

“There's been years to fix these problems,” Jones said. “You decided to bail on it. Understandable.”

Goodwin objected, saying he didn’t bail on the job. He said he thinks he made many substantial improvements to the DMV in the past three years, and would have made a compelling case for Stein to rehire him. He originally told WRAL he would reapply for his job, but on Thursday told lawmakers he wanted to move on.

“I have chosen a happier life,” he said.

DMV facing audit

Former Gov. Roy Cooper tapped Goodwin — the former state Insurance Commissioner and chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party — to take over the DMV in 2022, after the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated problems in the agency.

Under Goodwin's leadership, and before, the agency faced criticism over long wait times, delays in issuing driver's licenses and identification cards and other problems. Since 2022, Goodwin has taken steps to improve DMV's services and alleviate lines by opening some offices on Saturdays, pushing for electronic driver’s licenses that could be stored on smartphones and installing self-service kiosks at grocery stores. Despite those efforts, complaints have continued.

“In terms of wait times, we have seen an improvement,” Goodwin said Thursday. “It's not where we want to be. But it's better than where we were.”

State Auditor Dave Boliek this month launched an audit into the DMV's operations, spending and technology in an effort to help improve financial and operational efficiency.

Helene recovery also in focus

While the oversight committee fought with Goodwin Thursday, they were effusive with praise for his boss, N.C. Department of Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins.

Hopkins will ultimately work with Stein to pick a new DMV commissioner. In the meantime lawmakers are happy with the response by DOT crews to Hurricane Helene recovery in the western part of the state. Hopkins said a section of Interstate 40 that had been washed away west of Asheville is expected to reopen Friday.

“The work that you have done in the western part of the state is absolutely phenomenal,” said Rep. Alan Chesser, R-Nash.

Hopkins thanked him but noted it was far from just DOT doing the work. Kentucky sent a team of people who lived here for two-plus months after the storm helping rebuild roads, he said, and many others from inside and outside North Carolina pitched in. He said there’s widespread recognition that rebuilding that part of the state will help the entire regional economy.

“When it’s built back up it’s better for all of us, and transportation is a big part of this,” Hopkins said.