State officials back moving DMV headquarters from Raleigh to Rocky Mount

The vote was unanimous and without discussion, despite a month-long delay so council members could get more information on the proposal.

The vote was crucial, but not final.

The General Assembly still must agree to fund the move, and an effort is afoot to tinker with the plan. State employees have pushed back hard against the move, arguing that it's unfair to take the office an hour east and force the old building's 400 employees to commute – or quit.

"That one decision affects a lot of lives, a lot of families, a lot of people, a lot of communities," DMV worker Nicole Hunter said.

Hunter said the move move creates a serious hardship for her because she helps take care of her grandson and her aging parents. She said it's unfair for the state to force DMV workers to choose between their families and their jobs.

Recent DMV listening sessions on the move ginned up responses from 255 of those employees, and 145 said they'd leave their jobs rather than commute. Forty-eight said they'd move with the headquarters, with the rest unsure, according to a DMV summary of the meetings.

Those findings got some media coverage Monday but weren't submitted to the Council of State, which State Employees Association of North Carolina Executive Director Robert Broome called "disrespectful" after the council's quick Tuesday morning vote. The council is made up of Gov. Roy Cooper and nine other statewide-elected officials, and it signs off on state government property decisions.

"They delayed it a month so they could hear employee concerns," Broome said.

Cooper said Council of State members heard over the last month from employees and from DMV officials, and that "people knew what they wanted to do" when the meeting began Tuesday morning.

"I think it's a good move," the governor told reporters after the vote. "I think we're being wise using taxpayer dollars."

Rocky Mount Mayor David Combs said the DMV offices would be a boon to his community, and he urged Hunter and other workers to consider making the move.

"If they came down and gave it a chance, I think they might change their mind," Combs said.

"I think the initial reaction from anybody is, 'No, I don't want to do that. I don't want to move. I don't want to relocate," he said. "If people are open-minded and come to look at Rocky Mount, they'll find a lot to offer."

Rocky Mount residents agreed that their city is a good fit for the DMV.

"There's a great community here waiting to welcome [DMV workers] if they decide to come," Judy Smith said.

"This is the move that Rocky Mount needs to move forward and bring jobs in," James Talbott said. "I just feel like there's a lot of advancement to come to Rocky Mount, and I think this is great – this is part of it."

The DMV's current headquarters on New Bern Avenue has a number of issues, so many that the General Assembly ordered the division through the budget last year to find a new home, either in Wake County or an adjacent one.

The DMV took bids and accepted the lowest one: $2.4 million a year for a building on North Church Street in Rocky Mount that once housed the headquarters of the Hardee's fast-food chain.

Over 15 years, the lease amounts to $36 million, a price tag opponents of the move quickly compared to the building's value. Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, said the building sold for $1.3 million in 2016.

“The proposed lease agreement is a bad deal all around," Blue, whose district includes the current headquarters, said in a statement. "It’s a bad deal for hundreds of low-pay DMV employees that now face a 2-hour daily commute to work. It’s a bad deal for taxpayers."

But it was the state budget that required the DMV to lease space, not buy.

It's unclear why the language was written that way. Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, a budget negotiator in the legislature, said Tuesday that he couldn't recall those conversations, though they may have flowed from an assumption the headquarters would stay in Raleigh, where property values are high.

Regardless, it's something the General Assembly may change now, Brown said.

Blue, SEANC and others are also concerned about hidden costs from the move, including training for new employees hired to replace the ones who won't make the move.

DMV spokesman Steve Abbott said there's "still a long ways to go" in this process. Division officials have not yet drawn up a final lease, which will need General Assembly approval.

Cooper, who is from Nash County, spoke highly Tuesday about the concept of moving offices away from Raleigh to decentralize government where possible. He said there are no plans at this time to move other agencies but that the state might learn important lessons from the DMV move.

"I think it's important that, particularly in the stage where we communicate in all different ways, that you don't have to necessarily be centrally located in Raleigh," he said.

Combs agrees.

"I think it gives the state opportunities outside of the Raleigh area to invest in other parts of the state with agencies that would help the economic development and help communities grow," he said.