Springfield nets third licensing office

The move creates more competition in a new private market.

Contract agent Leslie Carter was awarded her third state contract to operate the new office at 3061 S. Fremont, in Fremont Shopping Center off of Battlefield. Carter runs a licensing office in Ozark and the former state-run office in downtown Springfield, 149 Park Central Square, Room 116.

In a cost-cutting move earlier this year, the state moved operations of its 11 motor vehicle and driver license bureaus to private contractors. The last of the state-run offices – which lost a combined $2.5 million in fiscal year 2004, according to the Missouri Department of Revenue – was converted Aug. 29 in downtown Kansas City.

Springfield financial adviser Ben Newhouse operates the Glenstone contract office at 1534 S. Glenstone in the Glen Isle Center, which opened in May. Both Carter and Newhouse have ties to Gov. Matt Blunt’s election campaign; Carter was campaign co-coordinator for Christian County.

Officials at the Glenstone contract office dispel the idea of competition and say they aren’t discouraged by the third office.

“We’re not trying to make it competitive,” said Jennifer Blake, office manager. “It can be, the way that it’s structured now. But I think there is enough business in Springfield to have three offices and have each one do all right.”

Department of Revenue spokeswoman Maura Browning said the state contracts simply award the right to run the office and do not guarantee the agents any income.

“There is no state money that is being shuttled to contract agents for them to run the office,” Browning said. “Their profit is entirely predicated on how well they run that office and how many people they get in the door.”

Contract agents – now 184 in the state – provide their own startup capital and advertising dollars while profits are dependent on license processing fees. The state sets those fees, generally between $2 and $3.50 for annual renewals, which puts a greater emphasis on customer service.

That structure essentially turns these offices into small businesses.

“All of the financial aspects of running a small business are the same with this particular business; it’s just that we are doing business for the state,” contract agent Carter said. “Your success or your failure depends on that (business plan) and how you run your business.”

Officials with the contract offices would not disclose revenues. But with their first quarter of business behind them, Carter said the downtown office did about half the business it did as a state-run office May through July last year. Blake only said the Glenstone office was “exceeding expectations.”

Carter said she proposed the new office to Blunt as a convenience to south Springfield residents. Carter followed the same process as other agents, submitting a business plan and budget, but no others were considered for the new office, DOR’s Browning said. The state is not planning to open additional licensing offices.

Carter employs 10 at the new office, none of which was among the 26 former state employees on the square. She said her employees make less than the roughly $22,300 the state paid its Springfield work force on average, largely because they are new to the business.

The South Fremont office is open 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m.–noon Saturday.

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