California's Department of Motor Vehicles made a big announcement Monday that many could say they saw coming.
The DMV confirmed this morning that its director, Jean Shiomoto, will retire after 30 years with the department.
“Director Shiomoto announced to staff last month her intent to retire at the end of the year after 38 years in state service,” the DMV said in a statement.
Shiomoto had quite the final year in her position after the DMV received a lot of flak for improperly registering thousands of Californians in the state's Motor Voter program.
Shiomoto, previously served as an auditor at the California Department of Developmental Services then took over as acting director in January 2013.
Republican Assemblyman Jim Patterson told the Sac Bee the news of her retirement was “inevitable, given the history of the failures of the DMV.”
“This gives the incoming governor the opportunity of taking a very deep, hard look at the director position and team of people that the director puts around them,” Patterson said. “The DMV failure has been a leadership failure.”
Shiomoto will have a retirement dinner in Sacramento on Jan. 23 to celebrate her decades-long service in state government.
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