D.A. Seeks 101 More Employees

While county administrators are cutting staff, Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said Thursday he will ask to hire 101 more employees to handle two federally mandated child-support programs.

Under new federal laws being enforced by the state, the district attorney’s office after July 1 will be required to collect child-support and medical-insurance costs from absent parents of children on Medi-Cal, Bradbury said.

The district attorney’s office also will be mandated to review and update the child-support cases of welfare recipients if the file is more than 3 years old. Officials said the measure is needed to make sure parents are paying enough in child support and is intended to reduce the burden on the welfare system.

To hire the extra workers, the county would have to spend $652,000 annually, Bradbury said. But not implementing the programs could cost the county $910,000 annually in federal aid, he said.

Bradbury said he will ask the supervisors on Tuesday to either increase his personnel to handle the added cases, or agree not to comply with the new federal laws.

At a time when the county is facing the prospect of laying off 400 employees and closing fire stations, it will be difficult for the supervisors to authorize the additional staff for the programs, Supervisor Vicky Howard said.

But Howard said she doesn’t think the county has a choice.

“It’s another Catch-22,” Howard said. “I don’t like to add positions, but it will cost us if we don’t do it. Those parents should be taking care of their children.”

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said she would also support hiring the staff, but she believes it is “bad timing.”

“It makes us look like we are hiring left and right when all we are really trying to do is comply,” VanderKolk said. “If we don’t do it, we’ll end up losing revenue. It is frustrating from that respect. It’s an issue where we don’t have a lot of choice.”

But Supervisor Maggie Kildee said she will have a hard time supporting Bradbury’s proposal.

“I don’t know how we will sell it to people when we’ve told them we’re going to close fire stations,” Kildee said. “If this were an ordinary year, I would say, ‘Yes, Mike has to do what he has proposed.’ I think he makes a very good case. But it has to be evaluated in where we are in the budget.”

According to Bradbury’s plan, he would hire four full-time employees and 97 part-time employees to meet the requirements of the two programs.

He estimates that child support cases would double to 1,000 a month--raising the total number of active cases to 45,000 by March, 1994.

Bradbury said the government is “losing a fortune” by supporting children when absent parents could pick up the tab. The programs give federal officials the means of recouping some of the money.

“I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that these programs are valid, good, necessary programs,” he said.

Bradbury agreed, however, that implementing the measures at a time when the county is facing dramatic funding cuts will be a difficult choice for the supervisors.

“We are not coming in and saying, ‘You must do it,’ ” Bradbury said. “We are saying, ‘It’s a policy decision you must make.’ ”