Expert Studies Glitches in New Child-Support Computer Network

With a new statewide child-support computer network still plagued with problems, an independent consultant hired by Gov. Pete Wilson’s office visited Ventura County on Friday to evaluate the system and determine whether it shouldbe expanded to include all 58 California counties.

Michael Graham of the Logicon Corp. met with county officials to discuss problems with the Statewide Automated Child Support System that have led to delays in processing child-support payments.

Logicon will submit its final recommendation to the state by the end of the month.

Both Graham and Logicon were unavailable for comment.

Of the 23 counties that converted to SACSS last November, Ventura County has the most cases, with more than 36,000.

Every month, the county distributes $2.5 million to $3.5 million to child-support dependents.

However, none of the counties has been able to make the new system match its promise.

Specifically, SACSS was supposed to have streamlined the processing, collection and distribution of child support.

However, according to C. Stanley Trom, director of the Ventura County district attorney’s Child Support Division, converting to the system has only added to his employees’ work and has made the agency less effective for those dependent on child support.

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“The staff is under a great deal of pressure and they’re frustrated,” he said. “They’re spending more and more time identifying the problems than actually handling cases.”

Trom said that although the county has still been able to distribute most child-support money, there are still about 300 cases that are lost in an electronic no man’s land each month.

The real problem, he added, is that the new program hasn’t been able to generate the documents that county child-support employees need to manage their cases.

Trom estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 people are affected every month by glitches in the system.

One case officer who asked not to be identified said using the new system has led to an overall work slowdown because employees spend more time correcting the computer-generated errors and doing the work by hand.

Trom said that the county has given the system’s designer, Lockheed-Marietta, 60 to 90 days to correct the problem.

A spokesman at Lockheed said engineers have been working to eliminate the bugs.

They expect to release an updated version of the software Feb. 24 followed by another upgraded version in March.

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So far, converting 23 counties to SACSS has cost more than $82 million.

Because it is a federally mandated program signed into law by President Reagan as part of the 1984 welfare reform package, the government has paid 90% of the cost.

Converting Ventura County’s system has cost more than $1 million, of which the county paid about $100,000.

Trom was not sure whether the county would continue to use the SACSS program, but said his department is developing a contingency plan if the system is abandoned.

Trom did not know how much converting to another system would cost, but said it would be substantial.