TexasCHLforum.com

I wrote the letters etc. after day 60. I even have my own personal contact at DPS who is supposed to be helping me get this expedited. Now at day 95. I think they finally broke me. I'm not even mad or frustrated anymore. Actually, I'm just embarrassed at how inept our government employees are and the double standards that exist in our legal system.

Steve

To put our situation into perspective, I recently got a TWIC card which is administered by the Department of Homeland Security and authorizes me to work in refineries located on a port. There are two offices in Houston to get this card and by my estimates the one I went through at Woodbridge processes 500-1000 people per day. You have to go through a more stringent background check than the CHL, give fingerprints, take photo etc. My total wait time from application to card was 2-3 weeks. This is also a much more advanced card with RFID tag containing all of my information, impossible to forge, etc. etc. The fee is $132 which is on par with what we pay for our CHL and even considering the gross incompetence of our federal government employees they still kick the crap out of our DPS office in processing time. Our state will probably process 80-90K CHL applications this year. TWIC will probably do 10X that this year.

This is just ridiculous.

Steve

So if you read the original email on page 9 of this thread and the replies on page 10 this is what happened after that.

First, the reply from Jon telling me that no laws were being broken:

Mr. Stock,

You know, I completely understand where you're coming from on this. What helps us the most is that you're letting us know that this situation has occurred and we're able to get with DPS and find out what the problem is in your specific situation. Most of the time when we receive this complaint, by the time we get back in touch with the person who has issued the complaint they've already either received their license or their notice. Before the double whammy occurred of Ike plus fear of the new presidential administration (causing a record number of CHL applications) we never received a single complaint about the processing time.

On the question about DPS "breaking the law," the technical answer is that there is no penalty to be assessed. The 60 day guidelines are a target for the DPS to hit, and they appear to hit that most of the time. Like I said, as far as we know, they hit it all the time until just a few months ago when we began to receive these types of complaints. When we find out from constituents that there is a problem, we look into it and see what it takes to keep it from happening again. We are planning on taking a formal look at it this interim to see if there is a widespread problem that is trending the wrong direction, but the short answer we've received so far is that we've given DPS mandates that they cannot meet with the resources they've been given. We believe these new resources will make the department more efficient across the board, including in this area.

We'll call DPS today and see what the status is on your application. Thanks again for bringing it to our attention! We'll let you know what we find out.

Sincerely,
Jon English

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next, my reply to him on why I disagreed:

Mr. English,

Again, I appreciate your help with this matter and I'm trying not to take out my frustrations on you. I only want to make your office, as my representation, aware of what I am going through. However, I am not sure that I agree with your assessment that GC 411.177 is merely a guideline for DPS to follow. It clearly states that one of three things must happen no later than 60 days from them receiving and application. The language used in that section doesn't sound optional to me. If it is as you say a "guideline" or a "target" then which laws posted on their site are actually laws?

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/ftp/forms/ls-16.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Since this section falls under Chapter 1 "Laws Relating to the Carrying of A Concealed Handgun in Texas" I assumed that they were indeed laws that are to be followed by everyone. Perhaps maybe GC 411.189 which relates to the handgun proficiency requirement could be interpreted as a guideline or target and not really necessary. I'm not trying to be smart with you or give you a hard time, really. It was the complete lack of concern from the DPS and their "above the law" attitude that sparked my initial email. If they would have just followed option 3 and sent me a letter within the 60 days and explained that they wouldn't be able to meet the deadline for reasons listed and an estimate of when they thought it would be complete I would have been ok with that. Instead, I get someone on the phone who is unhelpful and basically unprofessional.

Thank you again for your help and don't let my griping ruin your day.

Regards,
Steve Stock

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon's repsone to add closure:

Mr. Stock,

I don't think you're being difficult at all! And you're right, not even being notified that DPS is not in under the deadline is a problem that is actually not common. The processing delay is common, but not hearing absolutely nothing. We've called DPS to find out what happened in your situation, and it's something we'll be specifically monitoring from now on. Please keep us informed and we'll give you a call when we hear something back.

Sincerely,

Jon English

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whatever, I got the phone call to DPS on my behalf that I wanted all along. If this guy wouldn't have tried to blow so much smoke up my rear, I wouldn't have been such a wise guy to him.

That's funny that everyone knows who Steve at DPS is.

The email chain between my Rep. and I continued. I feel it is pretty entertaining, I'll post it next.

This is the email response that I got from the email that I sent (posted on page 9) to my State Representative Debbie Riddle.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr. Stock,

Thank you so much for the e-mail. You're right, this is a very, very common complaint that has been made much worse since Hurricane Ike. Here's my understanding of the problem in a nutshell.

Harris County only has one trooper who processes CHLs. Like driver's licenses and other items in DPS, it is not something that is currently allowed to operate as a civilian system. A trooper, who honestly should not be chained to a desk and should be doing public safety work, has to be put in charge of processing, and DPS honestly can't spare more than one off the beat to take care of the backlog. When Ike hit, that trooper was forced back into the field, and the backlog got worse.

In the end, two things would make the problem better. First, the legislature could allow DPS to adopt a civilian model for processing things like Driver's Licenses and CHLs, so that civilians and not officers are handling the paper work, and secondly, it would require increased funding.

As the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Rep. Riddle just this week completed a round of recommendations and funding that would do the following:

1) Appropriates nearly $80 million to DPS to restructure the driver's license division and information technology architecture throughout the department to improve efficiency and

2) Appropriated $20 million for the purchase of 450 additional vehicles for DPS, which makes the entire department vastly more efficient and decreases need for overtime and reduces turnover.

We are also currently considering DPS payraises, which will help decrease turnover.

Now, because of the tight economic situation, we were not able to fund specific strategies that benefitted CHL programs and only CHL programs, because we had to consider the largest bang-for-the-buck available. However, by increasing the efficiency of the entire department, limiting turnover, helping DPS recruitment new troopers, adopting mainstream business practices, and employing civilians to do paperwork jobs, the theory is the CHL divisions will also become more efficient because DPS will be able to focus more of the freed-up resources towards neglected areas like CHLs.

In the meantime, I'll copy in our district director, Gail Gallien, and see if our staff might be able to inquire about the status of your application for you and see if anything can happen to speed it along. It's an issue that's very important to us, and something we will watch closely in the interim if the efficiency does not improve.

Sincerely,

Jon English

Chief of Staff
State Representative Debbie Riddle
phone: (512)-463-0572
fax: (512-463-1908
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768-2910
jon.english@house.state.tx.us

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you read between the lines, this is a polite way of telling me to get lost. In the same email, this guy has the nerve to tell me that due to tough economic times no programs that directly benefit the CHL can be funded however they will be requesting spending of over 100 MILLION dollars towards the DPS for everything else. In my response back to him, I told him that I appreciated his informative response and posed a situation to him. Say that I received a speeding ticket from the DPS and failed to pay the ticket, take defensive driving and submit paperwork or show up in court on the appointed date. Would the DPS listen intently to my excuses and be so understanding? NO, they would issue a warrant for my arrest. So I went further to tell him that while I understand the delay, it isn't excused and nothing in his email changes the fact that right now the DPS CHL issuing department is breaking the law and I am getting nothing but excuses telling me why it is ok for them to do so.

I just saw while looking at others on this forum that magically after contacting their rep and senator they received their licenses in a couple weeks, so I figured it couldn't hurt.

05kas05,

I'm curious, would you mind telling me what county you are in. I'm in Harris and was told that because I am in the Gulf Coast Region that my background check is being delayed. This is just absurd to me. I have no criminal record, I am an honorably discharged Army vet and I have lived in the same house that I own for about 7 years now. There is just no reason for it to be like this.

Steve

Normally I would have been more patient, but when I called DPS, the guy was so rude and unhelpful that I just had enough of it. They know the law and just don't care. He blatently threw his above the law attitude at me which made it even worse. I'm actually proud of myself because I didn't loose my cool with the guy. I'm glad that you got yours that shows progress.

Steve

If you want to find out who represents you:

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/welcome.php

To my fellow waiters. Following the lead on a couple of other posters on here and subscribing to the theory that the squeeky wheel gets the grease, I decided to contact my state rep and our senator after 57 days. This is the letter that I sent them, please feel free to modify/use if you wish.

Dear Representative _______,

I'm sure that I am not the first person to come to you about the extraordinary delays being encountered by Texas citizens who are trying to obtain a CHL. Today, I confirmed with Steve at the DPS on the phone that they received my application 57 days ago on 1/26/09.

I brought to Steve’s attention that according to Texas GC 411.177 their department is required to do one of three things within 60 days of receiving my application, 1) issue the license to me; 2) deny my application in writing; 3) explain in writing that they would not be able to meet this 60 day deadline and provide an estimate. The law goes on to say that if none of these 3 choices happen within 90 days of receiving my application that it constitutes a denial of my application. Steve was not helpful and offered no estimate of completion even when asked by me. I would be very appreciative if there is anything that you can do to ensure that our state employees at the DPS are held accountable to the same laws as you and I.

Sincerely,
Stephen Stock