Good decision was handled poorly

It was the right thing to do, but it was the wrong way to do it.
The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles displayed both competence and clumsiness last week in its handling of a decision to close the Albany license branch.
Competence was on display in the data marshaled in support of closing the branch. The BMV, under Commissioner Donald Snemis, is doing an outstanding job of monitoring activity and performance at license branches.
As Snemis put it, the BMV has “near-constant” analysis of how well branches are operating and how efficiently tax dollars are being spent.
In the case of the Albany branch, the BMV found a drop of about 79 percent in the number of transactions processed when compared to 2008 levels. Because addresses are recorded on licenses and car registrations, the BMV knows in great detail how its branches are being used. For instance, people who live in Albany only use the local branch about 29 percent of the time. The rest of the time, they go online or use another branch (probably Muncie) or do their business by mail.
But for all that competence, the clumsiness was undeniable.
In advance of a public hearing for input on the potential closing of the branch, Snemis sent a letter to lawmakers stating flatly that the BMV “has made the decision to permanently close the Albany Satellite Branch and consolidate its operations with the Muncie Branch.”
He tried to back away from that at the public hearing, calling the statement “only half true.”
But the words were his, despite his insistence that no decision had been made.
The clumsiness was compounded by the hurry-up nature of the public hearing, which didn’t give much in the way of notice and provided less than 48 hours for comments to be made online.
Anyone who believed public comment or public pressure could reverse the BMV’s position was kidding himself.
A steamroller gets the job done, but it doesn’t allow for much finesse. Competence is great, but the BMV needs to work on its clumsiness. — J.R.