Tuesday, June 12th 2007, 4:00 AM
Vehicle registered to Metro New York Search and Rescue with official plate parked outside synagogue.
The state department of Motor Vehicles has been handing out coveted official government license plates to vehicle owners who aren't entitled to them, a month-long Daily News investigation reveals.
The News found "official plates" on vehicles belonging to Columbia University, the ASPCA, Lindenwood Volunteer Ambulance Service of Ozone Park and three Brooklyn-based search and rescue teams, even though none qualifies for the plates.
Yesterday, confronted with The News' findings, the DMV launched a full-scale investigation, promising to review the qualifications for each of the 154,000 official license plates it has issued statewide.
Official plates can only be mounted on vehicles owned by state and local government organizations.
There are many benefits of having an official license plate, including:
- No original registration fees.
- No yearly renewal fees because official plates are issued on one-time permanent basis.
- Access usually denied to the general public.
After the 9/11 terror attacks, the city banned vehicles with only one passenger from entering Manhattan through any bridge or tunnel south of 63rd St. during the morning rush. Vehicles with official plates were among those exempt from that ban.
Vehicles with official plates are required to obey parking regulations in the city, but The News recently watched a traffic agent walk past an illegally parked vehicle with official plates in Brooklyn without writing a ticket.
"Of course you avoid tickets, but I don't abuse it," said Brooklynite Sam Lichtenstein, 23, of Metro New York Search and Rescue.
In announcing the statewide crackdown yesterday, DMV spokeswoman Gail Tyner-Taylor told The News that Commissioner David Swarts has established an internal team to "review all of our active official plate registrations, and any questionable ones will be thoroughly investigated."
She said holders of official plates would have to recertify their eligibility.
"We're also looking into the need to clarify a political subdivision in the law and will be exploring other ways to verify eligibility for official plates," she said. "This may lead to the development of new guidelines and procedures."
Asked to explain how Metro New York, along with New York Rescue Response Team and New York Rescue Squad, had received the special plates, DMV spokesman Ken Brown said he did not know, but conceded the groups did not meet the requirements and should not have received them.
Tyner-Taylor said she did not know how or why Columbia University and the Lindenwood Ambulance Service got their plates.
Improperly issued official plates may be attached to many other vehicles. Because of limitations in searching DMV records, The News reviewed only several hundred official plate registrations.
The DMV began quietly moving to quell the fiasco within days of the first inquiry from The News. The agency sent two e-mails, the second last Friday, advising district offices to be careful when reviewing applications for official plates.
The e-mails, obtained by The News, directed that "no official plate should be issued unless the transaction is reviewed and approved by a supervisor."
Another Brooklyn rescue group, New York Rescue Response Team, has been issued three official plates since the group was established in July. Its address in DMV records is a mail drop on McDonald Ave. in Borough Park, Brooklyn.
The third group, New York Rescue Squad, has two vehicles with official plates, DMV records show. The group was created in February listing a post office box in upstate Parksville as its mailing address.
An unrelated emergency organization, the Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Service, was forced to surrender its official plates last fall "because we were not a municipality," said Vice President Aviv Citron.
Also, the New York City ASPCA has official plates on at least seven vehicles, DMV records show.
An ASPCA spokeswoman said the organization has official plates because they enforce animal cruelty laws.
"If we didn't have official plates we wouldn't be able to move animals out of danger quickly," said Steve Musso, ASPCA executive vice president.
Yesterday, officials from the DMV and the ASPCA said the organization's vehicles also were entitled to the special plates because it is a law enforcement agency.
In seizing official plates from a vehicle owned by the Sullivan County SPCA last year, Undersheriff Eric Chaboty said the group was not a government entity.
He said people and organizations want the special plates because they present "the air of authority."
Clueless at Columbia U. on why cars have the tags
Columbia University has been issued at least five official license plates, according to DMV records.
The Daily News found two of the plates on Crown Victorias assigned to the public safety office.
"I don't know why we got these plates," said an official at the private university who did not want to be identified for fear of angering DMV officials. He said the university has had the plates for a number of years.
"No one can think of any reason other than reducing paperwork," he said.
The Columbia spokesman said the vehicles with official plates are used by public safety officers and "buildings grounds people."
A News reporter recently witnessed one of the cars being driven by an employee of AlliedBarton, a private security firm employed by the university.
Biz got 'em cuz 'we asked'
DMV records show that Metro New York Search and Rescue has been issued 11 official plates since 2005, nine of which are still active.
The owner of one of the vehicles is a corporation with an upstate Binghamton address, DMV records show.
Chaim Gottlieb, who leads Metro New York Search and Rescue, contended its members could receive official plates because they were emergency first responders.
"These plates were not swindled out of DMV," he said. "We asked for the plates, and they gave them to us."
State incorporation records show that Metro New York is a not-for-profit corporation.
Gottlieb said Metro New York members joined a search for a missing 11-year-old boy on Staten Island last month but he was less forthcoming when asked about the group's other emergency responses.
Here's the message the Department of Motor Vehicles e-mailed to agents May 18:
It has come to our attention that there are private corporations that, because of their business name, are requesting and being issued official plates.
Effective immediately, no MVR [clerk] is to issue official plates unless the transaction is reviewed and signed as approved by a supervisor.
Please advise your staff to be careful when reviewing applications for official plates. These corporations may have been issued official plates by other offices in error and are using the registrations as proof they are part of the state, city, county, village, town, school district, fire district, or county extension service.
