Parents Get Tips but No Relief at Support Forum

As state and local officials called Saturday for reforms in Los Angeles’ beleaguered child support program, hundreds of parents at a forum shared tales of desperate attempts to deal with the district attorney’s bureau of family support.

Those complaints went largely unanswered because Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, as expected, did not attend the Santa Clarita event, sponsored by county Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Assemblyman George Runner Jr. (R-Lancaster) and state Sen. William “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale).

Garcetti, whose office had cited death threats as a reason he would skip this year’s child support forums, instead showed up at a journalists convention in Universal City.

Garcetti’s office sent invitations Oct. 15 to the Santa Clarita forum and another one Oct. 17 in Carson that drew only about 50 people. Organizers proclaimed Saturday’s event, which garnered a crowd of about 200, a success and used it to speak of the need for reform.

“The Board of Supervisors is committed to overseeing and, if necessary, overhauling the current child support system,” Antonovich said of Garcetti’s child support unit, which has a $100-million annual budget.

Runner also spoke of a need for broad changes.

“The state of California has decided many times to stick its head in the sand and say the system is working when it is not,” he said. “We have a system that needs to be looked at, a system that needs to be reexamined.”

A cluster of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies stood watch as parents milled about the gymnasium at College of the Canyons. Last year a forum in Carson drew a sometimes unruly crowd of 2,000, but this month’s events were peaceful.

Some parents broke into tears as they told family law attorneys and court officials of their child support struggles. But attendees had to be satisfied with pamphlets, a list of phone numbers for legal help and words of encouragement from child support advocates and other officials.

The two prosecutors who represented the district attorney’s office Saturday stressed that they could not respond to individual cases.

“I can’t even talk without getting upset,” attendee Sally Jimenez said at one panel, her voiced choked with emotion.

For the last six years, she told the group, her husband has had part of his wages garnished to help support a child from a previous relationship. Yet, month after month, she said, his child support bill fluctuates wildly without explanation. And even when her husband overpaid, Garcetti’s office continued to press for money, she said.

“We are constantly harassed. We are constantly threatened,” she said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lorraine Cain told the couple and others at the forum that if their cases are not resolved to their satisfaction, one option is to seek a new judicial order.

“If the district attorney’s office isn’t giving you the answers you need . . . you always have the ability to go to court,” she said.

But that advice was hardly welcome in a crowd of people who said they have been waiting years for the district attorney’s office to sort out their cases.

“You say go to court, but it’s not that easy,” responded Jimenez, 33, of Whittier, who said she and her husband already have been to court.

And trying to resolve the billings by calling Garcetti’s office has not worked either, she said. “I never once in six years had a telephone call returned,” she said.

John Ladner, a Municipal Court commissioner, said people cannot understand why an agency with a sizable budget and a large staff cannot resolve their problems.

Even with the millions being spent, the needs remain overwhelming, said Ladner, who oversees the nation’s only courtroom dedicated to criminally prosecuting delinquent parents.

In January, he told the group, a new criminal courtroom will open. “But even with two criminal courts, in half a year, they will both have too many cases” to handle, Ladner said. “And that is why . . . I feel we are suffering so.”

The forum left some parents with a bit more information but not the relief they had sought.

Tom Newfang of Lake Elizabeth came to the session hoping to find a resolution to his case, which he said has dragged on eight years and cost him nearly $50,000, even though he has had custody of his two sons.

He gathered a couple of phone numbers for legal help but got dispiriting advice: Go back to court.

“I guess I was looking for a miracle cure,” Newfang said, “and there was none.”