One state motor vehicle office will go back to a five-day workweek to improve customer service, although most employees will continue working four days a week, Gov. Gary Herbert announced Wednesday.

"Our top priority is to provide the best possible customer service to Utah citizens," Herbert said in a statement. "Utahns have told us they like the extra hours in the morning and evening, but that they also need access to these two areas of state government on Fridays, and we've listened."

A public opinion poll commissioned by the state found that 60 percent of Utahns believe the four-day workweek was a good idea and two-thirds believed it should be continued. Nearly 80 percent of those surveyed said that the change in the workweek had no impact on their families. State employees endorsed the four-day program with an 82 percent approval rating.

But not everyone is sold.

"In my mind, the public isn't being served as well as they were before. The DMV is a mess, particularly on the last Friday of the month," said Senate President Michael Waddoups.

On Feb. 12, the central driver license and motor vehicle office in Draper will begin opening for 11 hours every Friday. The remainder of state offices will continue the 10-hour, four-day schedule that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. initiated in August 2008.

Keeping the DMV office open on Fridays will cost about $500,000 a year, said Herbert's spokeswoman, Angie Welling.

That will wipe out nearly all of the energy savings the state realized from moving to the four-day workweek.

Huntsman predicted the four-day workweek pilot project would save the state about $3 million in energy costs when he announced the change. In October, officials from Herbert's administration told lawmakers the energy savings had amounted to about $500,000, plus another $200,000 in decreased janitorial costs.

If opening the DMV office on Friday will soak up all the savings, Waddoups said, "then it sounds to me like it's a failure and we ought to reevaluate the entire service concept."

Herbert's office has indicated there may be other savings: reduced sick leave, 161,000 fewer hours of overtime and the state fleet had seen 3 million fewer miles traveled, totaling some $4.8 million. Officials believed some of that was attributable to the four-day workweek, but don't know how much.

In October, Herbert expressed reservations about the four-day workweek, saying he had heard concerns from local government leaders and whether the public was best-served with the arrangement.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said the county looked at the four-day workweek, and has given divisions some flexibility to allow workers to work four days. But he doesn't think it is a good idea for the county to institute it across the board.

"Our concerns are that, as a government, we need to be accessible to the citizens and also, as a local government, we deal with people on a one-to-one basis more than the state government does," said Corroon, who is considering whether he will run against Herbert for governor next year.

Audry Wood, executive director for the Utah Public Employees Association, which represents state workers, said it could have been very disruptive for workers to have to shift back to the five-day workweek.

"I think employees had to make a lot of adjustments to their personal and professional lives to make this work and I'm glad to see them resolve it once and for all," she said.