[M]otor Vehicles Commissioner Rob Ide said Thursday he will retire in December after eight years leading the department.
The former lawmaker from Peacham said he decided to step down after recently turning 66 years old. He also said that for the first time he dreaded the winter commute.
“When you get here you know for a lot of reasons,” Ide said in an interview.
He said the department had excelled at “becoming more customer-centric and learned as an organization how to provide high-quality customer service and experience.”
Ide noted his tenure stretched over three governors and five secretaries of transportation. He was appointed to the post by Gov. Jim Douglas in 2009.
Ide, a seventh-generation Vermonter, served Caledonia County for 10 years as a state senator before Douglas tapped him in 2003 to serve as Vermont’s director of energy efficiency and later as the director of the Agency of Transportation’s rail division.
Gov. Phil Scott praised Ide’s service to the state.
“I’ve known Rob since I first ran for the state Senate and served with him there before he moved to the executive branch,” Scott said Thursday. “He’s been a committed public servant throughout his career, and I appreciate his work for the state and my administration. We all wish him the best in his retirement.”
Ide said he was moving to Rutland to be closer to family and had no immediate work plans.
In July, Attorney General TJ Donovan declared that the Department of Motor Vehicles’ facial recognition program violated state law against the use of biometric identifiers. The program had come under scrutiny from the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union because the state shared information with federal and out-of-state law enforcement officials.
The program had been in use since at least late 2012, records show. Scott ordered the department to halt it in May pending legal review.
