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12-29-2023, 09:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-29-2023, 10:08 PM by terracore.)
When I was there recently a guy was there on his 5th or 6th attempt to satisfy the residency documentation. He was in some sort of catch-22 because he couldn't get the documentation they were requiring to get an ID because whatever it was they were asking for some other agency required him to have an ID to obtain. He had a stack of documents, mostly military stuff because he had spent his whole adult life in the service. He was down on his luck and living in his car and needed an ID to get a job and move on with his life. His car didn't run so every time they sent him away to get documentation it involved a full day of hitchhiking and walking. It was sad watching him go through the 5 stages of grief getting crushed by the bureaucracy- and he got hung up on anger. The employee did a reasonable job trying to help him keep his cool but I don't think anybody was convinced the poor guy wasn't going to snap and return later and do something awful.
Oh and to revisit the fiasco with them wanting me to get my car towed to the weigh station. How would that work exactly? The tow truck would have to drop the car on the scale and drive away to get an accurate weight, and then charge me a second hookup fee to tow it away? Pay for two towings, yeah right. Screw that, it's cheaper to buy a go-cart and a fez hat.
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I'm reminded of the way Hawaii DMV collected "all the documentation" needed to satisfy the REAL ID requirements, then conveniently "forgot" to actually put the star on the license, so everyone had to go back to the DMV to get their license reissued.
Then there was the recent "oops our vendor printed the license with the wrong font" but it was supposed to be OK because Hawaii made sure the police and TSA knew these licenses were legit. People who got these had to go back for a reissue. (My new state prints their own -- with much better technology -- despite having a much smaller population.)
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It was Homeland Security that allowed states to opt out of the star, then they changed their mind.
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"States may submit for DHS review and approval alternative methods of marking documents to clearly differentiate a compliant card from a non-compliant card. Those methods could include differentiations in color, lettering, and/or format."
The gold star is merely a "recommendation". Hawaii could have followed through, but I guess they changed their mind.
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(12-30-2023, 04:52 PM)kalakoa Wrote: I'm reminded of the way Hawaii DMV collected "all the documentation" needed to satisfy the REAL ID requirements, then conveniently "forgot" to actually put the star on the license, so everyone had to go back to the DMV to get their license reissued.
On Oahu one could go online and pay a $5 fee and they would mail a license with the star on it.
Here you had to make an appointment to go stand in line and do it in person.
Hawaii is a "large" state with varying levels of backwardness.
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Hawaii is a "large" state with varying levels of backwardness.
Obviously, but I can't figure out why. Other states seem able to provide consistent service levels throughout.
It probably doesn't help that the State delegates certain functions to the Counties.
Favorite DMV experience: nice Hawaiian lady wouldn't issue me a license "because you have an out-of-state hold" (which I did not) .Went back the next day, nice haole lady had no problem giving me a license. Varying levels of backwardness, indeed.
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* Transferring my license from Alaska to Hawaii- took 5 hours including the hour they forced us all outside and locked the door to go to lunch. The written test was old school pencil and paper, and one of their answers was wrong. I was so adamant about it I discussed it with the lady and she admitted that they knew their answer key was incorrect for that question, but they weren't allowed to change it. The written test was a copy of a copy of a copy like so many times it wasn't very legible, obviously a very old test. How many people had to retake the test and continue feeding the bureaucracy because of that wrong answer? Fortunately not me, because it was the only question I got "wrong".
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Describes the exact experience I had in 2009.
I also had the "we don't know the weight of your vehicle thing happen.It was a Honda CR-V. Like no one else on the island ever registered one? I think they only do this unknown weight thing to new folks just moving here.
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01-02-2024, 12:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-02-2024, 12:57 AM by terracore.)
(01-01-2024, 06:23 PM)leilanidude Wrote: * Transferring my license from Alaska to Hawaii- took 5 hours including the hour they forced us all outside and locked the door to go to lunch. The written test was old school pencil and paper, and one of their answers was wrong. I was so adamant about it I discussed it with the lady and she admitted that they knew their answer key was incorrect for that question, but they weren't allowed to change it. The written test was a copy of a copy of a copy like so many times it wasn't very legible, obviously a very old test. How many people had to retake the test and continue feeding the bureaucracy because of that wrong answer? Fortunately not me, because it was the only question I got "wrong".
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Describes the exact experience I had in 2009.
I also had the "we don't know the weight of your vehicle thing happen.It was a Honda CR-V. Like no one else on the island ever registered one? I think they only do this unknown weight thing to new folks just moving here.
This happened to me just a few months ago so nothing to do about just moving here. Though the car was shipped from Oahu so I guess it was new here.
In the application for registration, there is a place to enter vehicle weight, and I put the vehicle weight in there from the VIN decoding. They had the weight. They could have decoded it themselves to verify it. They didn't want to. They wanted me to tow my car back and forth from the weigh station for the same reasons they didn't want to correct a decades-old incorrect answer key: Brainless bureaucracy isn't allowed to budge no matter how hard it's being poked by common sense.
At least they gave me a "hall pass" so I could return the same day and not have to make another appointment for 30ish days in the future.
Looking back, I guess I'm fortunate they didn't demand to see two receipts from the towing company to get the car weighed to avoid a couple of extra fines.
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01-02-2024, 01:43 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-02-2024, 04:51 AM by HereOnThePrimalEdge.)
Looking back, I guess I'm fortunate they didn't demand to see two receipts from the towing company
The key to County employment is moving as slowly as possible while doing the least amount of work. So even though they could easily complete 30 tasks in a day, if they only finish 20, they’ve created 1/2 of a position for one of their children when and if they graduate from high school. Win-win, the keiki are our (their) future. Bonus points for making you, the taxpayer, do the most amount of work to accomplish any and all County mandated requirements, for entertainment purposes only.
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(01-02-2024, 01:43 AM)HereOnThePrimalEdge Wrote: Looking back, I guess I'm fortunate they didn't demand to see two receipts from the towing company
The key to County employment is moving as slowly as possible while doing the least amount of work. So even though they could easily complete 30 tasks in a day, if they only finish 20, they’ve created 1/2 of a position for one of their children when and if they graduate from high school. Win-win, the keiki are our (their) future. Bonus points for making you, the taxpayer, do the most amount of work to accomplish any and all County mandated requirements, for entertainment purposes only.
Not all of them work for the county.
Some of them drive tow trucks.
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