WHAT WOULD EUGENE A.BARIL DO?

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." (Romans 13:1)

This past Saturday's Boston Herald featured a story about a Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles worker at the RMV's administrative building in Quincy who was fired for practicing deplorable customer service and bragging about it in his "tweets". The guy was like the Biblical judge from Luke's Gospel who did not fear God nor man,and tossed profanities around like a longshoreman. (Oops, I guess I owe an apology to the longshoremen.) The story can be found at:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1342870&srvc=rss

I caught just a tiny bit of Michael Graham's radio show on BostonTalks 96.9 WTKK today, but found it interesting that Michael stressed the irony of Registrar Rachel Kaprelian firing the guy when she herself has essentially bragged on the air that the RMV no longer mails out reminders of when driver's licenses are about to expire and essentially said the RMV does not have to practice good customer service. I am too far away to check Knollwood Memorial Park today, but once again I suspect my father, Eugene A. Baril is turning over in his grave.

My father was in law enforcement for thirty years, and served from 1956 to 1982 with the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Dad started out giving driving tests, later investigated fatal accidents, and spent the last thirteen or so years of his career as a Supervisor at the Registry's old 100 Nashua St. Boston headquarters. I remember (humorously) that when we'd go with my father to shop at Murray's Clothing Outlet in downtown Norwood back in the 1960s, the stores old Jewish proprietors, Murray and Sammy, would come walking up to him, smiling and smoking, and asking, "Gene, When they gonna make you Registrar?!"

My father would have made a good Registrar! If he were here today and of sound mind, here is some of what I think he would say about the Massachusetts RMV:

First, I know this is sexist, but he would be dead against having a female Registrar! To Dad,the Registrar needed to be a man's man, and a leader.

Second, he would be furious about "civilians" giving driving tests. A friend of mine recently told me his daughter went for her license test and it was a JOKE. All she had to do was drive around the block and get her license. My father, dressed in his uniform, would have people turning around on steep hills, backing up in "impossible" spots and all sorts of scary stuff. He failed a lot of teens, but those he passed truly had a handle on driving.

Third, this might surprise you, but Dad would NOT oppose lowering the age for Learner's Permits to 15 and a half. Dad tended to believe the younger the better when it came to learning to drive. He would definitely feel the idea of some to make people to wait until 18 or even 21 is a big mistake.

Dad was old fashioned. He would NOT have liked the on-line registration renewal stuff. Dad would have liked people to have to come in to the RMV for license and registration renewals,BUT he would NEVER have favored closing RMV offices. He'd have favored ADDING them. And, I suspect he would have LIKED the fact that several AAA locations (including Framingham) now offer RMV services.

As far as disgruntled employees "tweeting" profanities at work and ignoring customers, that would never have gone over. This is not politically incorrect, but to use one of his expressions, he would have said that someone should "mop the street" with such an employee!

Well, it's all a fantasy. Eugene A. Baril passed away in 2000, and the RMV in Massachusetts can be, well, disappointing, to say the least.

Incidentally, you can see a photo of my Dad at:

http://www.mass.gov/rmv/history/