Question: Recently I went to a satellite city hall to register my wife’s car. I usually register our cars online, but when I tried to do it, the website said the safety check was expired — it wasn’t — and that I would have to either mail in the certificate of inspection or go to a satellite city hall to show it to them. This is the second time in a year that I had to do this. I find it to be a complete waste of time knowing that there is an online service available to do it (www4.honolulu.gov/mvrreg). This is not an isolated case because my mother recently had the same thing happen to her. Our cars were inspected at three different service stations. Is this situation in which the safety inspection information is not being sent in simply the fault of the stations, or is there some other reason why the county office is not being notified? The online registration system is great, but it seems that a portion of the system that supports its success is broken.
Answer: The problem is a backlog in updating the city’s computer files, a situation we described last September: www.staradvertiser.com/ news/20100924_Backlog_ has_police_ticket_car_ despite_its_new_safety_ sticker.html and www.staradvertiser.com/news/ 20100929_Only_authorized_ companies_city_workers_ can_collect_trash.html.
Unfortunately, the backlog has gotten worse, and the plan to set up an electronic reporting program for motor vehicle safety inspections won’t be in place any time soon.
A "loss in staffing" by Perfect Image, the Kirkland, Wash.-based company that has the contract to update the computer files, has resulted in a two-month backlog, Dennis Kamimura, administrator of the city Motor Vehicle and Licensing Division, told us yesterday.
Last September it was taking the company about four weeks to update records.
The city sent Perfect Image a warning letter last year for its "failure to meet the minimum requirements of the delivery schedule."
Its contract was to expire last December. However, Kamimura said last year that the contract was likely to be extended because the state Department of Transportation needed time to finalize details of a new statewide Electronic Periodic Vehicle Inspection Reporting Program.
"Perfect Image is still the contractor and was the only key-punching bidder," Kamimura said Thursday.
The planned electronic program would require all safety inspection stations to computerize inspections, instead of using paper as has been done since 1968, and reduce the time it takes to update records to overnight.
Asked the status of computerizing inspections, Kamimura said, "We are still working on the draft state DOT" request for proposals, or RFP.
He said he has requested RFP documentation from several jurisdictions that have similar reporting requirements, because he wants "to make sure that we do this right."
"I still anticipate giving the final (draft) of the RFP to state DOT before the end of this year," he said.
Auwe
To two drug-crazed addicts, who violently mugged me in broad daylight at Hawaiian Plantation Village in Waipahu. Although they only took my money, what they really stole was the peaceful serenity I always felt here. As an artist and past North Shore resident, I’ve spent countless hours drawing and painting the wonders of this magnificent island. I’ve traveled all over the world in search of beauty and never had a problem until this attack. I’m noticing more and more these desperate and dangerous people at the edges of society. What has happened to the safe, aloha paradise I remember? Thank goodness the Pearl City police were professional and amazing! — Yuriko Takata
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