I went to a subcommittee meeting yesterday run by City Council member Barbara S. Ware. On the agenda was the subject of auto inspections. Bill Boyd was there as was Janet Hooks, Director of Public Services and Neighborhoods. Ms. Hooks gave a report and said that the recent waiting times were unusual due to staff cutbacks and fleet inspections. She went on to say that the new 4th station and new equipment would help. Ms. Ware questioned her about the cutbacks in staff due to budget problems. At the end of the session I asked Ms. Ware if the public could have some input and she allowed me to speak. I pointed out that safety inspections were not necessary and that I doubted that they were required by local ordinance as claimed by Ms. Hooks. I checked on this ordinance later. If you will read this section you will find the following.
- The director of public service is authorized to promulgate rules and regulations subject to approval of the council for the inspection of motor vehicles, setting forth the equipment of such vehicles to be inspected in accordance with the standards and provisions of this title and such other standards as approved in such rules and regulations. In other words, they could do away with the safety inspections as they have done in Nashville and Chattanooga. Also I found the following.
- The city of Memphis has the following charges in the $117.00 license plate fee. Title fee $13, Registration $24, Wheel tax $50 (the wheel tax was passed in 1988 to fund new school construction and has never gone away) and City Fee, $30. The City fee is called a municipality fee (another word for a tax). It goes to the city’s general fund, but a chunk of it covers the cost to operate the Memphis vehicle inspection stations.
- This $30 fee times 450,000 vehicles equals $13.5 million dollars.
- The budget figure for vehicle inspections for 2010 budget is $1.511 million including 32 employees. This leaves $12 million which is a tax going into the general budget, not auto inspections.
I pointed out that Nashville and Chattanooga contract their emission inspections out to a private firm and the wait time is 10 to 15 minutes. I pointed out that Nashville and Chattanooga do not pay for the inspection stations as this is done by the private contractors. (Memphis is currently paying for and building another inspection station at a cost of $1.086 million). I pointed out that the safety inspections are not necessary and are not required. However Ms. Ware continued to favor inspections done by the City of Memphis. Could it be that she wants to preserve the jobs of the 32 city employees and the new employees that will be required to man the 4th station? It is outrageous that the public cannot get the same services and convenience enjoyed by our brother cities because our city council refuses to hear the citizens and continues to protect unneeded jobs.