License bureau to continue; to relocate beginning in May

Judy Vyrostek has accepted a contract to serve as the fee agent at the Daviess County license bureau in Gallatin. Judy expects to be set up in the office by May 2 or 3. The office will move from its present location to 400 North Main, the office which formerly housed Investors Bank. The present office will close April 29 to allow the inventory to be moved to the new location.

Julie Vyrostek, Judy’s daughter, will be assisting at the license bureau. Judy and Julie will be attending training sessions April 11-15 at St. Joe.

The office will be open from 8-5 Monday through Friday and from 9-12 on the first and last Saturday of the month.

“We may be open every Saturday if we see there is a need for us to be,” said Judy. “Our goal is to work with the people.”

Filling the position at the license bureau has been a long and winding road paved with considerable controversy statewide. Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration chose to end contracts with 80 of the 171 privately run license bureaus across the state.

Critics say the governor wanted to take advantage of the age-old “patronage system” to reassign the jobs to friends, relatives or political supporters. (In the spirit of fair play, Democrats benefitted from the same patronage system while they were in power.)

Bearing that patronage system in mind, Judy’s name was submitted to Gov. Blunt’s transition team by the Daviess County Republican Central Committee, according to chairman Richard Dustman.

The committee was somewhat surprised to find out that Gallatin was among the 38 offices that was supposed to retain its current operator. The current operator is Carl Hullinger, a democrat.

“We tried to contact the governor’s office to find out what, if anything, went wrong,” said Mr. Dustman. “We thought that evidently there had been some kind of mix up.”

Gov. Blunt was not required to accept Judy’s name, Mr. Dustman said, “But he’s a republican and you’d think he’d pick his party.”

In the end it proved a moot point, because Carl decided to decline the contract he was offered anyway.

Carl has been the license agent for the past 12 years. He cited health problems and qualms with revisions in the contract as his reasons for not signing back on.

The new contract establishes penalties and financial responsibility for errors, requires agents to purchase equipment, sets notary law as a standard of operation, and requires agents to submit all deposits and reports electronically each day to the department.

“The new contract wasn’t to my liking,” said Carl. “It had changed considerably. It involved too much cost out of pocket.”

After Carl turned down the contract, the department offered the job to Judy. Along with the contract, Judy had to submit a business plan to the Missouri Department of Revenue. The “Plan for Success” is required by the administration of Gov. Blunt of all new contract agents and formalizes the agent’s vision for carrying out the technical responsibilities of the contract.

Carl is keeping the office open through the transition. He hired Mary Stark to assist him as clerk and manager of the office for the past 1 ½ years.

“I’ll stay until they get somebody to take over,” said Carl. “Most offices aren’t doing that. They want out and they’re leaving the Department of Revenue high and dry. I told them I’d stay until the end.”

Many area offices have closed either temporarily or permanently, requiring people to travel to other fee offices to renew their license or motor vehicle registration.

“It has affected a lot of people,” said Mary while she was working at the Gallatin License Bureau. “One man drove 70 miles from Hatfield. He said some of the license bureaus in his area, including Grant City and Bethany, were closed.”

Judy says she will work with Carl to facilitate the transition.

“It’s very nice of him to keep the office open in the interim,” Judy said. “It will make the transition easier. Ultimately, we’re all working for the people.”