D.A.’s Office Pins Hopes on New Child Support Computer System

After bailing out of a troubled statewide child support computer system that frequently lost information and delayed payments, the Ventura County district attorney’s office is hoping to link up with a more reliable system developed by Kern County.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury will ask the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for permission to use excess money to get the computer system, known as KIDZ, underway in Ventura County. Because the county must have a system in place by October to meet federal welfare reform requirements, it must get the system up and running quickly.

The proposal requires a four-fifths vote.

The KIDZ system is expected to cost about $2 million to implement in the county, with most of the money coming from state and federal funds or $480,000 in excess cash sitting in a county child-support fund. Only $16,707 would come from the county’s general fund if the state and federal funding is approved.

State officials pulled the plug in November on the boondoggle known as the Statewide Automated Child Support System developed and implemented by Lockheed. Initially projected to cost $99 million, it wound up costing three times that amount, and contained more than 2,000 computer glitches and bugs.

Even before the state’s action, Bradbury had announced his Child Support Division would abandon the faulty system despite a federal law requiring all counties to tie in with an integrated computer system.

Employees were frustrated over missing records, and child-support recipients were angry over computer errors that left them with inaccurate payments--all part of a general chaos caused by what was supposed to be a more efficient technology.

“The system was outdated, older technology,” said Barbara Burris, deputy director of the county’s Child Support Division. “When it was actually installed, it was full of errors. It did not process information accurately, and it was a nightmare to teach people how to use it. It simply did not work.”

After reviewing a variety of computer systems developed in California and other states, county officials settled on KIDZ. Implementing the new system will be a huge task, requiring employees to transfer all information from the old computer system and train nearly 300 people on how to use the new one--all in a six-month span.

But Burris said it is more than worth the time, considering the troubles the Child Support Division was facing before. Kern County representatives unveiled the system to county child-support workers last week, and the employees could not contain their excitement over a system that actually works, she said.

“As our staff said, this system appears to have been developed by people who actually understand the child-support system,” Burris said.

“We feel like now we can hopefully get back to doing our business,” she said.