Letters for June 7, 2023

DOL clerk failed simple friendly test

At the top of the customer comment card for the Department of Licensing are the words “friendly and helpful.” My recent experience at the office on North Country Homes was neither one.

Since my driver’s license is due for renewal next month, I decided that I would get an enhanced driver’s license. Consulting the DOL website, I gathered the required documents: birth certificate, current driver’s license, marriage certificate, proof of residence. The birth certificate is the original one with an embossed seal given to my mother at the hospital in Colorado, my birthplace. In addition, I have a Notification of Birth Registration issued by the Department of Commerce, again the original document. This was all back in 1943, so these are old pieces of paper.

I have used these two documents to receive my original Social Security card, to apply for my Social Security benefits, and to receive a U.S. passport. They were acceptable to those federal agencies, but not to the clerk that I dealt with at the Washington Department of Licensing.

The clerk was not friendly or helpful, telling me that I had to write to the state of Colorado, but neither suggesting what agency nor a name of the document she required. She said details were on the website, but I looked again and could find no definitive information there.

Apart from not getting the desired license, the most upsetting part of my experience was the hostile attitude of the clerk.

Janet Grossman

Spokane

Spokane Humane Society needs to remember mission

I was disheartened to read about the amount of volunteers quitting at the Humane Society, and the concern over management working with the volunteers. I know there are two sides to every story, but when that many volunteers quit, something is wrong. Is it a power grab or what? The Big Red Barn is another example of money being diverted away from what it was intended for. That barn seems big enough to fill the needs of the animals and some improvement to whatever office space they have.

I donate money every month to the Spokane Humane Society. I will continue to do so for the animals. Management and volunteers should know they are hurting the animals by not working together, the very creatures they are paid to take care of.

Norma Watkins

Mead

Take your hands off my Social Security

Every time I turn on my computer, it says that Social Security is in trouble.

If the government would keep its hands off it and quit borrowing and never paying back, we wouldn’t be in trouble. We would have enough for generations to come.

Carleen Reilly

Spokane