ANSON COUNTY — County Manager Leonard Sossoman introduced renewing the county’s contract with the Department of Motor Vehicles during his manager’s report Tuesday, sharing a letter he received from the state regarding the county’s lease and its approaching deadline for renewal. Following discussion, the board decided to renew the license plate agency contract.

Sossoman said, “Some people call it a DMV, Department of Motor Vehicles office. Some people call it the license plate agency. I was asked to look into our contract with the state. I’m going to read to you, so I don’t mess it up,” prefaced Sossoman. He continued, “This is a letter I got back from Robin Cunningham, who is the program supervisor of the ULPA liaison North Carolina division of motor vehicles. It says, ‘Your LPA contract expired February 14, 2024, and was extended for two years, making your new expiration date February 14, 2026. We are required by statute to post for applicants when a contract ends. We will publish the post for applicants today, August 14, 2025, which was last Thursday. I will send this to all LPAs via email, but you may also access it at NCDOT.gov under news releases. We encourage you to apply for the new contract and look forward to your submission.’”

Following his reading, Sossoman said he needed the board to decide if they would like to put together a proposal to be sent to the DMV. Commissioner Jarvis Woodburn said he felt the board should put in a request to renew their contract.

“Since we have our tax administrator here, I would like to hear a recommendation or summary of his thoughts on the license plate agency,” said Commissioner Chair James Caudle.

County Tax Administrator Larry Newton said he received the application for the renewal August 14.

“It is due August 28. I actually have a copy of the application sent to them. I think that it is a good service the county provides. It is not really a money-making service, but it is what we consider a one-stop shop. I was told, not recently, but in the past, that if we didn’t renew it, that they probably would not place another DMV in Anson County. Which means, in other words, our citizens would have to go to the adjoining counties. In other words, to get the service,” said Newton.

He added, “I think it is a worthwhile service. There is a cost to it, cost of the taxpayers, but they are the ones who get the opportunity to use it. It is a tough department to staff, even though I have had longevity in the past, in those positions. But it is difficult a lot of times when you have only got two people in a department, and one is out.”

Newton also said he felt it was a tough department to run because it is a lot of paperwork and he feels staffing is the biggest issue.

He added, “I have two employees up there that have some medical issues that may need some attention to where they might have to go out on FMLA for a while. When we actually put the collections and the DMV together, sort of all in an umbrella, the goal was to cross-train from collections to DMV, and really from DMV to collections.”

Newton said he feels it is easier to cross train from collections than it is to cross train over into DMV.

He said, “But it is possible. It is done, and we have started that. It is a manageable thing, and I think it is a service the county provides that the taxpayers would miss if we did not have it. It would be easy to say, ‘Let’s just do away with it,’ but I really think it is worth considering keeping and providing that service.”

Highlighting one way taxpayers might miss the DMV, Newton sited a hypothetical example of an Anson County resident going to the DMV in another nearby county and finding they have a renewal issue.

“The state will handle all of their issues, but if it is a tax issue or a situs issue, and they want it changed, they are going to have to leave where they are at, and come back here, and let the tax office here correct it in our VTS [Vehicle traffic service], and then go back to that office to complete the renewal, the transfer, or whatever it is,” explained Newton.

He also mentioned the department already had Spectrum run fiber optic cables through the building, with the idea they would be continuing to work in the county.

Chairperson Caudle asked, “Your main concern is that if the county does not renew it, the citizens would not be able to go to the tax office to correct an issue if we didn’t run it ourselves?”

Following Newton’s answer in the affirmative, Caudle said, “So, if we leased the office space to a private entity that would solve that problem.”

Commissioner Joshua Ellerbe said he understood the only reason the county currently has a DMV option is because the state had taken it over. He said, “So there is a strong possibility the citizens may not have this provided at all. Strong possibility that if Anson County don’t do it, it won’t be done.”

Commissioner Jarvis Woodburn agreed with Ellerbe, pointing out that the tag office used to be privately operated for years. He reminded the board, “They got into some situation and that was going away. In order to continue to be able to provide that service to the citizens, Anson County government took it over. Since we are in the situation we are in now, where everything is together, it is really like [Larry] Newton said, it’s really a good service to the county. Because it is convenient.”

Commissioner Robert Mims again sited the profit loss statement provided by Newton when he asked, “How can we get the numbers up? I understand that it is not a money-making business, but since 2018, we have lost $217, 469.”

Newton explained that he reviewed the budget figures to assess the department’s cost to the county for the 2024-2025 cycle and found that the department generated just under $91,000 in revenue. He said the budget to run it was “probably inflated some,” and was set in 2024-2025 at $122,000.

Continuing to chew on the numbers, Mims returned to the profit loss sheet he had in front of him. “Now, my loss for 2025 was $37,296.04,” he said.

Answering Mims, Newton said his numbers showed $91,122.00.

Chairman Caudle interjected to point out if a private company wanted to take over providing the service, the county would no longer be out $31,000, or the 2024-2025 loss for the county in costs to operate the department.

When Mims said he was concerned residents will lose out on the service altogether, Chairperson Caudle answered, “I don’t know that we can state that it is high probability. The state has not said that. Did the email state that?”

Newton reminded commissioners the decision was theirs to make, saying it really came down to whether the board wanted somebody else in the government center.

Newton said, “I mean an outside firm inside the government center. You will find out from the DMV, they’ll tell you, we love for counties to take it. We love towns, municipalities to take it. We love for Chamber of Commerce to take it. They always run better, and they are always more efficient.”

Chairman Caudle said he disagreed with the tax administrator’s statement. He said, “I am going to have to dispute that. I do not think our government is running our license plate more efficiently than a private entity would. We lose a lot of service. You talk about citizens coming to get a tag here and having to dispute a tax claim. A lot of citizens are already going to other agencies and then having to come back here because we cannot perform the job here in our own county. I know it for a fact.”

He added, “That is why our $91,000 intake is where it is at, because we are losing a lot of business going outside of Anson County to get a tag renewed. I promise you.”

Commissioner Ellerbe introduced a motion to accept the renewal, seconded by Commissioner Priscilla Little Reid.

The motion to renew the license plate agency passed without dissent.