Child Support Collection Program Ranked 1st in State

A Ventura County district attorney’s program that forces recalcitrant parents to make child-support payments has been ranked first in California by the state legislative analyst’s office for the second year in a row.

The analyst’s office, which reviews the budget for lawmakers, reported Wednesday that the Ventura program had a higher rate of collection during the 1988-89 fiscal year than any of the state’s other 57 counties.

No other large county ranked higher than seventh. Los Angeles County was next to last.

The state ranked the counties by comparing the money they spent on welfare programs for dependent children to how much they collected in delinquent payments.

Ventura County collected $19.20 cents for every $100 spent on Aid to Families With Dependent Children programs, about three times more than the average county, according to the state report.

“The bottom line for Ventura is that they’re really doing an exceptional job,” said Michael Genest, a principal consultant for the legislative analyst. “They spend a lot of money on their program, and they collect a lot.”

The district attorney’s child-support division projects that it will collect about $18 million in delinquent payments during the fiscal year ending in June, compared to program expenses of about $5.1 million.

About half of the $18 million will be collected from non-welfare parents and returned to their former spouses. The other $9 million will go to AFDC programs, said C. Stanley Trom, head of the child-support division.

Despite its $5.1-million cost, the program is expected to make a profit of about $500,000 this year, Trom said. About $3.7 million is offset in federal grants, another $1 million by efficiency bonuses from federal and state agencies and the rest by fees paid by parents, he said.

Ventura County is so effective in collecting child support because of Municipal Court judges who do not hesitate to jail people who are late with payments, Trom said.

“People who don’t pay child support go to jail every week in our county,” Trom said. “So there are known consequences for not paying.”

Arrests of parents who have failed to make child-support payments have become an annual pre-Father’s Day event for the district attorney. Last June, 23 men were arrested just before the holiday and charged with misdemeanor crimes.

Trom also noted that the county Board of Supervisors increased his staff by one-third this year despite a tight budget.

Of the 14 counties ranked highest for collections, Ventura is third in expenditures for its program, the state reported.

“A lot of the bigger counties are doing pretty poorly,” Genest said.

Los Angeles County, the state’s largest, spends more money on the program than any other county, but when expenditures are compared to AFDC caseloads, Ventura County spends about five times more than its southern neighbor, he said.

The top-ranking counties for collections were: Ventura, Napa, El Dorado, Plumas, Sonoma, Inyo, Santa Barbara, Nevada, San Mateo, Tuolumne, Madera, Sutter, Shasta and Alpine.