Judge Orders DMV to Halt Work on New Driver’s Licenses

SACRAMENTO —  A Superior Court judge Friday ordered the state Department of Motor Vehicles to immediately halt further work on crafting new high-security driver’s licenses because of a disputed $24-million contract to provide the licenses.

Acting less than three weeks before the new licenses were to be issued to motorists, Judge Cecily Bond said she meant it last month when she ruled the contract, awarded to a consortium headed by Polaroid Corp., invalid because it violated conflict-of-interest prohibitions.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Eileen Gray said state officials must review the situation before deciding what to do next.

The high-tech licenses are designed to be secure against tampering and counterfeiting.

The contract was challenged in court by the losing bidder, NBS Imaging Systems Inc., which had held the DMV’s driver’s license contract 34 years. The new contract was awarded in October to Polaroid and its business partners, Computers Deductions Inc. and AT&T; Global Solutions.

In a lawsuit brought by NBS, Bond on May 13 found the contract illegal because Computer Deductions, an independent consultant to the DMV, had provided comments to the agency on a proposed rewriting of bid specifications.

State law and DMV rules bar department consultants from bidding on or receiving projects on which they have offered advice.

Bond ordered work on the project stopped pending a rebidding or award of the contract to NBS. But the DMV appealed, which put Bond’s order on hold, and proceeded with installation work. NBS protested in the courts.