El Paso County readies for statewide DMV upgrade; go‑live set for Feb. 17

Steve Schleicher, El Paso County clerk and recorder, briefed the Board of County Commissioners on a statewide modernization of Colorado’s motor‑vehicle system — Core 21 — and laid out the county’s plan to limit customer disruption during the conversion.

Schleicher said Core 21 (Colorado Revenue Enterprise for the 21st Century) replaces the legacy DRIVES platform with a cloud‑based system intended to improve security, reliability and scalability. "Our goal is 0 increase in wait times," he said, adding that county staff have been testing and training to be ready for the conversion.

Why it matters: the upgrade is statewide and will require a short outage of online services, kiosks and branch functionality. The county advised customers to complete registrations and title work ahead of the planned downtime and described how it will manage staffing and monitoring during the transition.

By the numbers and schedule: Schleicher said staff completed an intensive preparation and training period (reported as seven weeks, Jan. 1–Feb. 17), and that the county has achieved 100% completion of web‑based training modules for motor‑vehicle employees. County branches will close at noon Friday, Feb. 13, and the Union Town Center location will be closed Saturday, Feb. 14, for final preparation. The statewide go‑live is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 17; the county expects to return to normal operations by Thursday, Feb. 19, with two days of enhanced monitoring immediately after launch. "Core 21 is gonna go live ... on February 17," Schleicher said.

Operational impacts: all 13 county motor‑vehicle kiosks and statewide e‑services will be unavailable during the conversion. Schleicher warned lobbies may be congested as customers return after the outage, and the county has plans for leadership presence at branches, real‑time monitoring, immediate escalation channels to state IT and temporary staff redistribution if needed. He estimated county lobbies could see "probably a 100, if not more customers in each one of our lobbies." The county emphasized there are no planned, permanent service reductions and that eligibility, documentation and fee requirements remain unchanged.

Costs and questions: commissioners asked about fiscal impacts. Schleicher said direct county costs were minimal — overtime paid for staff participating in Saturday test runs — and said he did not know the state’s final fiscal total for the project but would seek it from Electra Bussell, director of the state Motor Vehicle Division. "I do not know the final fiscal amount, but I can absolutely get that from Electra Bussell," he said.

Next steps: the county will publish outage notices, post signage at kiosks and continue customer outreach through media and community partners. The board did not take any formal action beyond receiving the briefing.

Ending: Schleicher closed the briefing by noting lessons learned from previous statewide transitions and saying the county’s priority is to maintain customer service during the migration.