Jackson Jambalaya

Fire them all!

No waiting today!

The Department of Information Technology Services is currently working to fix the problem.

Speaking as an ex-state employee that used to manage the States electeonic tax system and dealt with ITS on a regular basis, before the agency wrested control away from ITS that gave me a good chuckle. ITS is a cluster***k. The taxpaying citizens are getting scammed. Especially ever since they became a general fund agency (around 2015-2016).

If you've tried to do anything at the Jackson location in the last few months, you know this is just par for the course. The system went down twice yesterday. People have to take off work to sit there all day just to do simple things like get a replacement license.

Apparently the new system take significantly longer to process each person (when it is actually working). Whoever is overseeing this cluster should be looking for other employment today.

Don't need to fire any of the staff up in Kosciusko. They rock.

Kingfish,

I'm betting the department is working hard to figure out how to pay a bitcoin ransom to unlock their computers. Expect the announcement of a breach of all the private information on firearm permit holders in the coming weeks.

Incompetence?

The good news is since the system is down, the Russians can’t hack into it.

If there is no other reason to vote for Michael Watson for Secretary of State, his idea to move the DL over to that office is worthy of a vote. That office runs very well. DPS is a sh*tshow.

...and Ken Brown was just recently promoted from Major to Lt Colonel. He has been in charge of Driver Services for the past few years. Never mind that Driver Services is the worst ran division of DPS but, instead of fixing the problems, he is more concerned with his employees who have facial hair.

Need photo ID to vote. Runoff elections coming up. Governmental office responsible for issuing ID’s closed. Not a good look.

Another great service of our fine Republican leadership. Should make Tater proud.

Kosciusko does rock, as does Batesville, and they issue gun permits too (in Batesville).

I sat in the DMV office for 8 hours and was never seen. About the 6 hour mark I knew there was no chance they would call my number but I stayed to watch the drama unfold. Sick, I know. But it was really something to see how poorly the DMV is run and how poorly the staff treats the taxpayer. Plus I couldn't resist the drama.

One lady left and her number was called. She came back later and the staff told her she would not be seen. She walked out and slammed the door then turned right around and came back in. Saying she knew so and so.

Can you believe that the DMV staff took 30 plus minutes to tell her she could not be seen out of order. WTF. It took longer to keep telling her she would not be seen then it would to actually renew her license. Of course while telling her this the staff person was essentially out of commission. Pathetic.

I’ve been by there at least five times in the past few months to try to get a renewal on my now expired drivers license (expired a few days ago). Each time I’ve been told it would be a two the three hour wait, no matter the time of day. I don’t have time to take off a whole day of work to get my damn license renewed. It is far past ridiculous. I did take the advice of the posters here and tried Kosciusko once, on a day I was in the area for work. To my bad luck I showed up on a day where three high schoolers were in line for drivers tests and there were about ten other people behind them. I left. I’ve also tried Pearl once but there were about 50 people loitering in the parking lot outside the drivers license office so I just kept on driving.

I guess I’ll be driving with an expired license for the foreseeable future. I refuse to give my time to an inept agency, though I’ve probably already wasted a whole day on all the unsuccessful attempts.

When Mr. Highway patrol pulls me over and sees my expired license I’m sure he’ll understand, right?!

Sigh

This happened because ITS cut a fiber line they were working on, shutting the whole system down. Classy for DPS to take the lumps when it wasn't remotely its fault.

10:21

This is because ITS has a shared environment that handles ALL systems for the state (with a few exceptions where the state agency application hardware is colocated on ITS second floor but managed by the agency itself). This is a virtual machine environment with no regard for how resource hungry a particular application can be. When one application requires resources it can take away from another application and cause massive slowdown or outright halt/crash. I make no excuses for ITS, just relaying my experience with ITS from November 2014 through July 2017.

Need photo ID to vote. Runoff elections coming up. Governmental office responsible for issuing ID’s closed. Not a good look.

My sentiments exactly! How convenient of a time to have this kind of problem, when there's a runoff in the Republican primary for Governor.

A bunch of cops need to be out doing cop things, not trying to administer drivers license renewals.

The clock is ticking until you will not be able to fly without the new compliant drivers license. It might end up being quicker to go get yourself a passport than trying to get a new license.

Not sure where the fault lies in this specific instance, but the entire drivers' license division of the Department of Public Safety is a farce, in every possible sense of the word.

You already know how poorly the DL renewal operations are run. And you know they're regularly shut down due to failure to hire workers.

But also consider this: one reason the lines for renewal are so long is that the online renewal site doesn't work for anyone with a change of address. It hasn't worked for months. Call them and ask them when it will be fixed. They have no idea. Their operators will tell you frankly they don't know if DPS even plans to fix it at all.

Phil Bryant needs to fire Commissioner Marshall Fisher. He's sat idly by and done nothing, totally indifferent to his agency's decline from very bad to totally dysfunctional.

Rumor, and I do mean rumor, floating around that Fisher wants to retire and Guillard wants to move up to that spot. Rumor so only time will tell if its true.

Shouldn't be a problem using an recently expired license to vote. Poll workers are not the police.

Between this and the ice cream machine being broken at McDonald's, my day is rooned!

"Be grateful you're not getting all the government you're paying for."

H. Ross Perot (RIP)

I talked personally with Fisher months ago, and he had already mentally checked out then.

@11:50am - Can also confirm ITS is a goat rodeo. We pull away from their services years ago and manage our own servers. Sad thing is, they’re doing everything in their power to stop the bleeding and get the legislature to mandate that all agencies must use them for all technical infrastructure and network services. This is how we continue to stay in last place. Flee while you can millennials. Our “leadership” is determine to keep us in the Stone Age.

The funniest part of dealing with ITS is listening to their Executive Director (Who requests to be called DOCTOR) bloviate as if he were a successful silicon valley Tech Guru hosting a TED talk, when as others have stated, MS ITS is a clown circus shit show.

There is more to this than meets the eye. ITS selected a large tech company to replace an antiquated Driver Services System with a new, modern system. The company that received the work lobbied heavily in Mississippi for this contract worth tens of millions of dollars. I have heard that they were about three years overdue on implementation and that ITS refused to implement the liquidated damages provisions in the contract to penalize them for their lack of production.

Word is that the old system, which was purchased in the early 1990s, actually works better than this new system...which is apparently not working at all since it is down.

Driver Services needs to be removed from DPS and Shad White needs to investigate the company the state paid millions of dollars to for a complete failure of a product.

If Watson can successfully move Driver Services to the Secretary of State Office and likewise implement a private sector customer service model, then they will need to place a statue of him outside of the Secretary of State building.

12:38, true - he's been retired on duty for quite a while now, not sure who is actually running the show at DPS, if anybody...

@ 2:06pm

States like Ohio and Illinois, the duties of driver services fall under the purview of the Secretary of State. They conduct the road test, written test, etc etc

While we are at it - can we have them handle the car tags too?

I just don't think it's fair that two people can go to Roger Dabbs in Brandon - both can buy a 2019 Chevy Silverado LT - same bells and whistles - the one person can live in Hinds County and the other can live in Madison County - but the person that lives in Hinds county gets stuck paying more taxes on the same vehicle, than the person in Madison.

Something has to give!

@1:34, jealous much? Dr. O is pretty well respected on the national level, it's the clowns who work for him (who he can't fire or replace) that are the real problem.

2:06, I think it was REAL ID Grant money that paid for the conversion, take one look a the fool who was in charge of administering the grant.

It's not just driver license. Try getting a firearm permit.
Same thing, just sit all day and wait forever.

Can anyone tell me one government run office or service that actually performs well? There surely aren't many.

2:39...why on earth would you buy a chevy??

Hey Phil and Tate,

You talk about job growth and business opportunity in MS.

Do you really think and employer wants to move here so that their employee can miss work and sit in the DMV for the entire day? Sometimes two days?

There are truck drivers that aren't out on the road earning income because they have to sit around all day and listen to the DPS employees gossip, complain and slowly process applicants.

I believe someone could win statewide office with just three campaign promises;

1. I will not steal.
2. I will not embarrass this state
3. I will shit can leadership at DPS and get the DMV problems fixed.

Once elected they will promptly hire all their relatives, steal grant money designated for the Boys and Girls Club and elderly veterans and use the word mother fucker instead of Motherfucker.

Sigh

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

DMV seems nice.

From SOS website:

"You may use an expired photo ID as long as it is an acceptable form of photo ID and is not more than 10 years old. The expired ID must contain the name and photograph of the voter, and have been validly issued by the federal or a state government."

11:08, and others. Photo IDS required for Voter ID can be issued by the Circuit Clerks' offices. And, looking at the records for the past two years, very few have been required to be issued in order for a person to vote. This herring isn't even red enough to try to drag across the road to stink things up.

Come back later and try again once you can find a better thing to bitch about.

Anybody that think that Michael Watson's lame-brained idea of letting the Sec of State handle drivers licensing represents the ultimate foolishness of governing.

Anybody ever looked at the transfer of an agency responsibility in the state to another agency? With the job go the personnel - you think Michael Watson is going to fire all those civil service protected emnployees?

Where is the SOS going to issue these licenses from? Build new offices throughout the state for the SOS? That sounds damned efficient and reasonable expenditure of tax dollars.

And why, pray tell, should this responsibility fall under the SOS responsibilities, other than the fact that the current SOS has tried to build a pyramid within the department taking on anything and everything he could get the legislature to hand him - cemeteries, scrap metal, whatever he could get. Now the job of issuing drivers licenses - guess we can all go line up on Mississippi Street in front of the Ladner Building to get our renewal.

On a side note, I renewed my license two months ago - went into the office around 8:30 a.m. on a Tuesday - was out before 9 with a new license. That was at the DL Bureau by MHP HQ, Woodrow Wilson and I-55.

Just like going into the tax collectors' offices - if you go in on the 3rd or 4th of the month when the checks hit the mailboxes, or if you go on paydays you can wait. Pick your times and find out that the process can and often does run relatively smoothly for a government operation.

The Mississippi Dept. of "Public Safety" has to be one of the worst state agencies in America. It is TRASH!

@2:43
Nobody respects bureaucrats except other bureaucrats. The man's bio is a tedious list of committees, academia, and government. Just like all bureaucrats and politicians it's not about results it's about the intent. Hey, you know we tried our best. No accountability though, and no worries because it's not even our money!

@ 3:07pm

I like Chevy's, LOL!!! But don't get me wrong, If I can get a good deal on a Ford, I won't turn it down.

But still, even with a Ford its the same problem. People in the Metropolitan Jackson area whether they live in Hinds, Madison, or Rankin county pretty much uses the same roads together - going back and forth shopping or going to work. We should be paying the same amount of costs for tag fees to drive in Mississippi

The tax codes to own a new vehicle in this state are ridiculous.

@5:05 I'll help you out. The reason residents of different counties pay different prices for the same vehicle is because in Mississippi (unlike other states like Alabama) you must pay personal property aka ad valorem taxes on the vehicle. Property taxes are based upon/set by the county where you live and go to maintain the roads and bridges but also go towards the schools and other county functions. Basically a car tag doesn't only go toward State road and bridges which is what you implied the tag fees went toward (only).

3:58, Is that you Tate?

The buck stops with the governor as DPS is an office of the governor. Hire leaders who can fix it and if the ones there now can’t fire them. Fisher is an at will employee and can be terminated anytime for any reason. DPS is incompetent but only because Phill allows it b

4:06 - There is no such thing as 'civil service protection' in Mississippi. You're welcome.

12:08, its not called that, but there kinda is such protection. There's a whole department that Lynn Fitch used to run. Try firing a state employee.

7:42 is right. Ad Valorem taxes are the only taxes counties are allowed to assess. So all functions of the county.....sheriff, courts, roads and bridges, are paid for by assessing a tax on the value of your house and your car.

Makes a lot of sense doesn't it?

@12:08, sure there is...it's called the good 'ole boy system. The good 'ole boy system is an informal system of protections put in place to protect lazy, dumb, and feckless employees, wherein ineffective employees are circulated among agencies, commissions, boards and offices for 25 years until they are eligible to retire.

I’m sure ITS has some complicity in all this, but Fisher could pull a few troopers off the road for 3 hours a day and have offices open until 8:00 at night. There IS NO EXCUSE for what has been happening for months. It hasn’t always been this way, and doesn’t have to be this way now. Another example, pull some of the workers out of the line that services DUI license reinstatements (which are service hogs) and let them wait even longer than they do now, and let ordinary citizens go back to work or school.

5:05- You are correct. New car taxes are too high. I only drive older vehicles because I am not going to pay $600 a year for tags.

What makes a bunch of cops qualified to run a computer system that produces identification for 99% of the population; ID that is used to for getting through TSA and used to vote. At what point of cadet school do they teach the cops-to-be how to oversea and operate a multi multi million dollar software system?

ITS can't do it, so why the heck are a bunch of Highway Patrolmen trying to do it?

Has anybody seen the pic floating around on social media of the sign they put up on one of the DPS doors? They could not even spell "temporarily".

And these folks are operating a multi-million dollar computer system for us.

I used to be a contractor for DPS providing a variety of information technology services. You would be shocked and amazed at how dense and indecisive the leadership at DPS is. There is only so much time I could devote to explaining and re-explaining the most basic concepts of how networks work and how to protect them before I began losing money for the extra time I was spending revisiting what should have been easy decisions. I finally gave up when I couldn't get anyone to make basic project-related decisions, or find anyone who understood the basics of information management and security, and when I couldn't get paid on time. From a non-employee insider's POV, DPS is just as broken (if not more) as all of the commenter have stated. I'm glad my information isn't being maintained my the Mississippi DPS.

"...overSEA and operate..." Ooo---

Love the spelling and grammar police on an anonymous blog. Probably the troopers sitting in the DL office with nothing better to du.

Most of the uniformed people at DMV ate uniformed civilian employees.

The mess is Fishers fault and redponsibility. He is just coasting or has dementia.

DPS Commish has to be the easiest job in the state, all you have to do is be a little smarter than the last guy (which really isn't all that hard), you don't have to try that hard and the expectation is that DPS is an unfixable shithole agency anyway - do your eight years (under whatever governor) and skate! The incoming Commish will make a nice speech about how hard it will be be to fill the shoes of the outgoing bozo, and make all kinds of promises about trooper schools and such, when in reality its the same shit, different day.

Terminating a state employee is no more difficult than terminating a private sector employee in a business that has any sort of decent HR process in place. Documentation, a counseling attempt, reasonable written procedures and policies in place. But, if you're dumb enough to think public employees can or should be be fired for no reason or by managers who say "I just want his ass gone", you're nuts.

Policies in writing. Training. Attempts to coach. Document. Document. Terminate.

Linn Fatch didn't run shit.

3:54, wrong...just as soon as you start the progressive discipline process you describe, the employee calls his connected friend and the agency director gets a phone call from some politico to the effect of "you know so-and-so is my third cousin, and he's a good fella, he only has 7 more years until he can retire...you can help him out, right?"

While Larry Gregory was the Executive Director of the Gaming Commission, he created an entire division for their problem employees and assigned them meaningless bullshit projects to keep them busy in hopes that they would either retire or leave. In fact, one guy sat in his office and played X Box for nearly a year.
Several years later that same employee negligently discharged a firearm during a training exercise and killed the agency's director of investigations.

Call it the butterfly effect, but who knows might have happened (or not happened) if Larry just would have done his job.

3 Very Important Things ...

1. Not sure where the fault lies in this specific instance, but the entire drivers license division of the Department of Public Safety is a farce, in every possible sense of the word.

You already know how poorly the DL renewal operations are run. And you know they're regularly shut down due to failure to hire workers.

Phil Bryant needs to fire Commissioner Marshall Fisher. He's sat idly by and done nothing, totally indifferent to his agency's decline from very bad to totally dysfunctional.


2. Ken Brown was just recently promoted from Major to Lt Colonel. He has been in charge of Driver Services for the past few years. Never mind that Driver Services is the worst ran division of DPS but, instead of fixing the problems, he is more concerned with his employees who have facial hair.


3. Driver Services needs to be removed from DPS and Shad White needs to investigate the company the state paid millions of dollars to for a complete failure of a product.

Move Driver Services to the Secretary of State Office and likewise implement a private sector customer service model, then they will need to place a statue of him outside of the Secretary of State building.

Those troopers working Driver Services should go back to the road since MHP is so short of troopers.