87 More to Be Hired to Aid in Collection of Child Support

County supervisors agreed Tuesday to hire 87 more workers to help parents collect child support but told Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi to explore privatizing some of that work.

The 4-1 vote by the Board of Supervisors followed an emotional five-hour hearing in which more than two dozen parents related their frustrations with the county’s family support office.

Patty Donavan of Huntington Beach said she was forced to do her own detective work to find her ex-husband when “the district attorney’s office could not help me because of a lack of resources and workers.”

Supervisors said the testimony made it clear to them that the office needs more resources. They also called on Capizzi to study contracting out some collection duties to determine whether the private sector can do a more efficient job.

“This is a golden opportunity to set up a private model, study it and contrast it with a public model,” Supervisor Todd Spitzer said. “We need to find a way to fix a system that is clearly broken.”

After the meeting, however, Capizzi said state law prohibits the kind of privatization proposed by some supervisors, and that the state Legislature is unlikely to amend the rules any time soon.

“It would take a change of legislation, and it’s doubtful the Legislature would approve it,” Capizzi said, noting that Orange County unsuccessfully sought a similar change in 1995. “We’ve looked at it before; we’ll look at it again.”

The family support division has come under criticism in recent years for its collection record. A 1996 study by Children Now, a legal advocacy group, ranked Orange County 47th of California’s 58 counties in terms of collecting support for children from their absent parents.

On Tuesday, Capizzi acknowledged shortcomings in the office but said his staff is moving to improve operations. Child support collections jumped 22% to $65.6 million last year and are expected to rise another 30% to $85 million this year, he said.

With the additional staff, officials predicted total collections should jump to $100 million by 1998.

Capizzi blamed problems in the family support office on several factors, including rising caseloads and a faulty state computer system that has diverted staff time and resources.

But Spitzer criticized the district attorney for failing to use more than $2 million in available reserve funds to improve the operation.

“He used bad judgment by not using that money to help with cases,” Spitzer said. “He sounded like a defendant. He blames everyone but himself.”

Capizzi said he is keeping the $2 million in reserves in case collection revenue falls short of projections. A portion of those collections are used to pay for operation costs. He also noted that he was prohibited under county policy from hiring more workers during the county’s 18-month bankruptcy.

Supervisor Charles V. Smith cast the lone dissenting vote, saying the privatization proposal “ties the district attorney’s hands too drastically.”

Before the board vote, some parents under court order to pay child support said the office is too aggressive in its collection efforts, while other parents with custody of their children said it isn’t aggressive enough.

A 20-year-old woman told the board that her father failed to pay family support for most of her childhood, despite efforts by her and her mother to collect.

“I feel the system failed me,” she said. “Not paying child support is abuse--I know because I experienced it.