County-State Team Pursues Deadbeat Parents

No more threatening letters to delinquent parents who owe child support payments. Now it’s a warning, and then a direct dip into paychecks, bankbooks and Individual Retirement Accounts.

Under a new program, the Orange County district attorney’s office has teamed up with the state to get money out of deadbeat parents by garnishing their money or suspending their driver’s licenses or business licenses.

So far, the program seems to be working. Collections in Orange County in May were 32% higher than those of a year ago, with a 21% increase from the first of the year.

Data from the family support division of the district attorney’s office show that net child support collections were $7.33 million in May, representing an increase of $1.76 million from May 1995.

“With innovative new programs and increased operational efficiency, we’re getting better at collecting the money owed to Orange County’s kids,” said Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi.

The boost to collections comes from the state’s child support collection program, in which the State Franchise Tax Board takes money directly from payroll checks or bank accounts, and its power to suspend professional, business and driver’s licenses of delinquent parents.

Since February, when Orange County began participating in the program, the state has collected $1,634,000 in delinquent support payments for the county.

“They have a highly sophisticated computer system that’s programmed every 25 days to go through the financial data base they have to see if they can locate bank accounts, IRAs, employers and any other assets someone may have,” said Jan Sturla, deputy district attorney in charge of the family support division.

In a partnership that is becoming increasingly refined, the county works to locate a delinquent parent--the overwhelming majority of whom are men--to determine paternity, establish a court order and, if necessary, ask the state to get involved.

“The advantage they have, is if they find a bank account they can just go in an get the money,” Sturla said. “We have to go to court and fill out all kinds of paperwork and it’s much more complex.”

A job that would normally take local authorities five or six weeks can be done by the state in an hour.

But sometimes the assets of the worst culprits cannot be located by a computer check, Sturla said. Financially savvy or self-employed people skilled at hiding their assets--sometimes in others’ names or by working for cash--may be located more easily than their money.

“They’re real estate sales people, construction workers who finish one job and then move onto the next or anyone who’s self-employed,” Sturla said.

Suspension of a business, professional or driver’s license does not always mean a delinquent parent will begin to pay child support but it increases the odds, Sturla said.

“By taking away the license, they have to commit a crime to work,” he said. “We don’t want to deprive them of an ability to earn a living, but we want them to come to grips with the fact they owe money to their children and we need to have as much priority as their car payment.”

While it is difficult to gauge exactly how much money comes to the county because a professional license has been suspended and forces a parent to pay child support, the effect of suspending driver’s licenses is more visible, Sturla said.

“We have at least a hundred inquiries a week from people who received notices that their licenses are suspended,” Sturla said. “That’s 5,200 a year [from people who] in the past would not have been interested in dealing with us.”