D.A.’s Family Support Office to Hire 32 Temporary Workers

The district attorney’s office plans to hire 32 more workers for their family support division to track down deadbeat parents who are not paying child support.

Through a state-funded program, the county could be eligible for $1.4 million to fund the temporary positions. With that funding, the district attorney plans to form a new prosecution team to go after parents who fail to make their child support payments and to review more cases.

The county must collect a 14% increase from its projected amount of $90 million this year. If the district attorney’s office fails to reach that goal, then it must repay $440,000 of the grant to the state.

During the past three years, the family support division’s collections have increased 50.3% from $65 million in 1995-96 to nearly $99 million in 1997-98.

The new positions will expire in June 1999.