Subcommittee to look at DMV problems

Ever since the DMV switched to the new system, Project Genesis, on Sept. 7, long lines have been the norm at offices across the state.

Beers, R-Las Vegas, who chairs a subcommittee that oversees the project, will try to find out what the problems are on Oct. 5, when his subcommittee meets at the Sawyer Building.

He believes one thing is clear: A small state like Nevada "shouldn't be writing custom computer software," he said Friday. "We should let a big state do it and then buy theirs."

Beers, a computer consultant, contended that the push in the mid-1990s to go with Microsoft's Windows operating system contributed to the problem.

"The Windows interface is slower for data entry, and that was ignored in the rush for all things Windows, which is a tribute to their marketing," he said.

Nevada's legislative and executive branches, which decided in the mid-1990s that the state would design its own software, also are to blame, he said, acknowledging that Gov. Kenny Guinn did not create but inherited the problem.

"In both cases, the state of Nevada exercised its ego, looked at what other states were doing to solve their problems and decided that wasn't good enough for it, and embarked on a plan to design its own software," Beers said.

"Ultimately, it's one of those things that, to some extent, you can blame everybody and you came blame nobody."

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