Department of Licensing sets new criteria for office consolidation
Chances improved to keep Walla Walla DOL office open

April 17, 2009

OLYMPIA… Sen. Mike Hewitt announced today that the state Department of Licensing is proposing new criteria for which offices will be considered for closure. The Walla Walla DOL office was one of 25 statewide identified for closure in mid-January. Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, has been working with the Department of Licensing since that time to find a way to keep citizens in and around Walla Walla from being cut off from DOL’s services.  

“This is excellent news,” said Hewitt. “First, we received the good news at the end of January that the Walla Walla office closure was pushed out 18 months. Now we’ve been able to get the office closure criteria changed – a move that makes it much more likely we’ll be able to keep the Walla Walla DOL office open. Things are definitely moving in the right direction.”  

Under the new criteria for a “non-metropolitan” area, defined as communities where a single DOL office currently exists and proximity to a consolidation site is greater than 15 miles (as is the case with the Walla Walla office), the consideration for office consolidation will be: 

• Travel distances of 25 miles or less each way to a consolidation site including shared facility sites which may include state, local government or sub-agent offices and fewer than 1,000 in-office average core transactions a month.

• Regardless of travel distance any office that conducts less than 100 in-office average core transactions per month.

• Transaction costs above the statewide average or within 10 percent below the statewide average.

• Achieve a minimum 40 percent of eligible driver renewals in the community through online, self-service station or mail-in activity.

For more information contact Senate Republican Caucus Communications Director  Rebecca Japhet at (360) 786-7516 or japhet.rebecca@leg.wa.gov.