County off child support watch list

Los Angeles County’s child support system has met minimum federal standards for the first time in a decade, ending a streak of failures that contributed to the state’s racking up more than $1 billion in fines, state officials said Tuesday.

“Today is a double win,” said David Maxwell-Jolly, director of California’s Department of Child Support Services.

Since 1998, Maxwell-Jolly said, the state had been forced to pay fines as high as $200 million for each year it failed to automate and connect county child support case management systems. Los Angeles County was the last to bring its system online and meet the requirements.

The county’s department -- the largest in the nation -- currently handles about 471,000 of the state’s 1.6 million cases, according to a state spokeswoman.

The department, with a staff of about 1,800 in six regional offices, was created in 2001 as part of a statewide overhaul of child support services by then-Gov. Gray Davis. Before that, child support collection in L.A. County was overseen by the district attorney’s office.

But the new department also struggled to meet minimum standards. In 2003, just 37% of support was collected, far short of the state’s requirement of more than half. State monitors then placed the county on a list of departments that required monthly checks.

Maxwell-Jolly told county supervisors Tuesday that his office was removing the county’s department from that list, effective immediately. The move was made after the county collected an average 48% of support owed over the most recent fiscal year. County records show that as of October, the most recent month available, the department collected about 51% of support owed, compared with 46% during the same month last year.

“I’m confident this is the foundation for improvement in years to come,” Maxwell-Jolly said.

Steven Golightly, who was appointed director of the county child support department in April 2007, said he had worked to monitor collection rates at the six regional offices and improve customer service countywide. He said L.A. County faces added challenges, with caseworkers pursuing support from parents in other states (about 50,000 cases this year) and overseas (about 1,600 cases this year).

Department leaders drew criticism in the past from children’s advocates for manipulating collection numbers in their favor.

On Tuesday, Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Zev Yaroslavsky said they were confident that the latest collection numbers, vetted by federal officials, were accurate and an indication of progress.

“We’ve been working very hard for a long time to improve our child support operation,” Yaroslavsky said, noting that the flood of calls he once received from constituents berating the department had slowed. “I have had zero for quite a number of years.”

Antonovich, who held hearings 10 years ago to allow parents to air complaints about the child support collection system, said the department had “really taken steps forward” to ensure that people were not wrongly identified and pursued.

“This festering problem was hurting innocent individuals and children,” Antonovich said, adding that Tuesday’s announcement marks “a great achievement.”

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molly.hennessy-fiske @latimes.com