David Bryce walked up to a Norfolk office of the Department of Motor Vehicles with a title in his hand Friday afternoon.
Because of the state’s coronavirus-inspired procedures, he made an appointment weeks ago. He’d bought his son a car and needed to finalize the paperwork.
But Bryce then realized the doors were locked.
Gov. Ralph Northam, with three days notice, had deemed Friday a holiday for most state employees. The governor wanted to recognize Juneteenth, the oldest known commemoration to the end slavery in the United States, and in the process canceled 5,952 DMV appointments.
All were pushed back 35 days — to July 24.
“We’re trying to register it and get it in his name,” Bryce said of his son’s car. “Now his car’s going to have to sit in the garage for another month.
DMV spokeswoman Jessica Cowardin said the agency sent emails this week to all customers impacted by the postponements to the addressed the customers previously provided. “We certainly apologize for any inconvenience,” she said.
Customers across Hampton Roads voiced frustration Friday at the sudden delays in the appointments, some of them made more than a month ago. Standing outside local DMV branches, many said they either did not receive the email notification or did not notice it reach their inboxes.
“What?” more than one customer said as they arrived at the DMV office on Roanoke Avenue in Hampton.
“Oh my God,” said another.
“This is ridiculous,” said a third.
Several said they had nothing against Juneteenth, even if they didn’t know what it was about before meeting a reporter, but were concerned what the delays would mean for them.
Meme Christian, 72, said her Hampton apartment complex told her it would tow her car by next Wednesday because the vehicle tags are out of date.
And Hampton’s Michael Webb, 75, carrying a form showing a 12:10 p.m. appointment, said he still can’t use his old pickup truck to haul debris because it doesn’t have tags.
“What good is this?” he asked of the paper appointment form he was carrying.
Hampton’s Melanie Reynolds, 24, said the DMV sent her a letter on May 27 indicating that her driver’s license would be canceled next week if she didn’t prove in-state residency. After her cancelled appointment, she doesn’t know what to do.
“They said I have to prove my residency,” she said. “So here I am to prove my residence.”
Ernest Daniels, 36, of Newport News, had an 11:50 a.m. appointment to get a new driver’s license.
“I got things I need to do, man, and I got places I need to get — and I can’t do it with no license,” he said as he walked to the bus stop to get back home after finding the DMV’s doors locked. “I guess it’s something good that they have the holiday like that, but I think they should have done something different.”
Alan Ludka, 53, a Newport News musician who scheduled his appointment for a new driver’s license more than a month ago, added his voice to the chorus.
“I guess they don’t plan to compensate us for our time,” he said. “We’re law-abiding citizens trying to follow the law.”
He had never heard of Juneteenth, he said. “I guess it’s legitimate, but they should have notified us,” he said.
Cowardin said the DMV staff first emailed customers after Northam’s news conference Tuesday in which he said he would declare Juneteenth a state holiday. The agency sent a second message with the new July 24 appointment date, she said.
“We made clear that if (the new dates) don’t work for you, please reach back out to us and we’ll make sure we can accommodate you,” she said.
Robert Hopson, 24, of Newport News, said he took the day off from his shipyard job to get a new driver’s license and do other errands. He was afraid what would happen if he got stopped without one.
“If a cop pulled me over, and he say, ‘Where’s your license?’, well, so what am I supposed to do now?” Hopson said outside the Hampton DMV. “You think he’s gonna believe me? … A man in (dreadlocks) driving a car? I mean, come on now.”
Cowardin said that for people with expired credentials — such as driver’s licenses and registrations — Northam previously extended expiration dates statewide to late August.
But for many, the complaints focused on the state’s last-minute decision to postpone the appointments.
“It’s fine to do the holiday,” said Donald Newsome, 58, a retired Marine who arrived at the Hampton DMV with his wife an hour early for a 1 p.m. appointment to get her a new identification card required for air travel. “But come on, give people a break.”
Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com
