Help wanted at the DMV: NC posts job opening for commissioner to lead Division of Motor Vehicles

The leader of North Carolina’s embattled Division of Motor Vehicles will have to reapply for his job under new Gov. Josh Stein, if he wants to continue in the role.

And he plans to do just that. Wayne Goodwin has led the DMV since 2022 and told WRAL Friday he plans to reapply for the opening for his job, which the state has posted online.

Goodwin still serves in the position, a spokesman for the DMV said Friday. The job opening post lists the salary as anywhere between $20,000 and $250,000 per year; state records show Goodwin makes $163,000 a year.

The DMV is part of Stein's administration, under the Department of Transportation. A Stein spokeswoman said Friday that: "North Carolinians need and expect a DMV that is easy to access and use. The Stein Administration is committed to doing everything we can to make that happen."

Goodwin was named head of the DMV in 2022 by former Gov. Roy Cooper, taking over an agency that had struggled to serve people efficiently during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Stein has kept some of Cooper's political appointees to top government jobs since becoming governor, but he has also replaced several others, including leaders of cabinet agencies.

Goodwin has attempted to modernize the DMV during his tenure, including by opening some offices on Saturdays, pushing for electronic driver’s licenses that could be stored on smart phones, and installing self-service kiosks at grocery stores around the state to let people handle some basic DMV tasks without needing to go to a DMV office.

But he has also faced criticism over long wait times, computer outages, canceled contracts and other problems.

State lawmakers have hauled Goodwin in front of oversight committees multiple times, requiring him to answer questions under oath about the DMV’s operations. The new State Auditor Dave Boliek made auditing the DMV a key promise of his successful 2024 political campaign. Boliek, a Republican, announced when he was sworn in that a DMV audit would be a top priority.

Boliek said Friday that he has launched a multi-pronged probe of the DMV, seeking to fulfill a campaign pledge to audit the agency after hearing from constituents on the campaign trail who shared what he described as horror stories of long waits and poor service.

Boliek said he notified the division of the audit on Monday and said he was scheduled to meet next week with Goodwin and Secretary of Transportation Joey Hopkins to discuss his office’s plans to review the DMV’s functions, spending and technology.

“We anticipate it having some real-life solutions and some real-life meaning to everyday, average North Carolinians,” Boliek told WRAL in an interview Friday. “And it will set the tone of how we're going to approach performance audits in the future in this office.”

A spokesperson for the DMV said Friday that the division’s leaders look forward to working with Boliek on the audit.