Mo. awards first fee office bid to manager

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state Revenue Department has awarded its first competitively bid contract to run a vehicle and driver's license office to a longtime manager of the office.

The contract for the west St. Louis County office in Ballwin was awarded to Ryker Enterprises, which is run by Danah Lewis. Lewis has managed that office for nine years under both Democratic and Republican gubernatorial appointees, the department said.

Missouri has 183 privately run offices that collect vehicle sales taxes and issue vehicle and driver's licenses on behalf of the state. The offices commonly are referred to as "fee offices," because the contractors get to keep a fee for each transaction.

Governors traditionally have given the offices to supporters. But after Blunt's appointee for the Ballwin office said she was resigning, the department decided to seek a competitive bid as a pilot project. The process drew a total of eight bids, and Blunt said he was pleased so far.

"I will be following the results to see what the implications are for cost and customer services," he said in a written statement.

The office in Ballwin handled nearly 138,000 transactions and collected $452,968 in fees in fiscal 2005, making it among the busier offices in the state, the department said.