Legislators Seek Audit of Child Support System

Legislators on Thursday called for the state auditor to examine California’s troubled child support program, joining an increasing number of influential Sacramento lawmakers in both parties looking to significantly change the system next year.

Citing a Times series on Los Angeles County’s problem-plagued child support operation, Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley) asked the auditor to investigate the state’s sprawling, half-billion-dollar child support bureaucracy.

“Our child support system is in dire straits,” said Aroner, citing billions of dollars in uncollected payments due California children. “We’ve got to make it work now.”

Aroner joins a wide range of powerful Capitol figures from both sides of the aisle who have recently pledged to reform the system. The Assembly’s Democratic leadership has vowed to make child support a priority next year, and key Republicans also say change is imperative.

“There is no doubt that this will be one of the significant issues this [coming] year, and I intend to be one of the people to take the lead in solving it,” said Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), speaker pro tem of the Assembly.

Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) said through a spokeswoman that Kuehl will be the point person on child support reform in the next legislative session.

California has consistently trailed the rest of the nation in rate of child support collections, and last year $171 million was wasted on an unworkable statewide computer system that had to be scrapped.

Child support is collected by district attorneys at the county level. State law would have to be changed to either shift the responsibility to another local or state agency or to alter regulations and increase oversight.

The California District Attorneys Assn. for years has stymied key reforms on the issue in the Legislature, where bills to move the program--and the millions of federal dollars accompanying it--to other agencies have routinely died.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who operates the largest and worst-performing child support system in the state, could not be reached for comment on the prospect for reforms.

Kathleen Hrepich, the family support director for the district attorneys group, said prosecutors will continue to oppose efforts to move the program.

But she said district attorneys have no objection to trying to improve the system, as long as it involves careful study.

“The D.A.s have always been involved in looking for new ways to solve the dilemma of children who aren’t receiving child support,” said Hrepich, citing several proposals to improve on collections. “I think that sometimes it kind of gets lost that we really have been there.”

Yet advocates and some government officials say the system needs structural reform rather than stronger weapons.

“We have to probably figure a way to take it out of the D.A.s’ hands,” said state Sen. Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove).

The first step, many legislators agree, is getting a detailed analysis of the problem--such as a report from the state auditor.

“This is exactly the thing that is necessary,” said Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles), whose audit committee needs to approve the action before the audit begins. “It’s clearly a concern of every Californian.”

Aroner said the issues to be studied include how money is spent on child support operations, which counties are best in collections, and how cases are closed without collections in an effort to boost the appearance of collection rates.

Los Angeles officials have already begun to push for change.

After The Times series, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors called for hearings on Garcetti’s child support operation, and some said the program should be given to a different agency.

On Tuesday, Supervisor Mike Antonovich proposed creating a child support ombudsman for the county. The board ordered a study on creating that post.

“There has to be a recourse for an individual whose rights have been violated,” Antonovich said, citing the case of a constituent who had to go to court to regain money the district attorney’s office wrongly collected.

In recent interviews, Democratic and GOP leaders in Sacramento said they too want to change how child support is collected statewide.

Though Kuehl said she has long known of Los Angeles County’s child support problems, she was surprised to learn from The Times series that Garcetti’s office only collects money on a small fraction of its current 500,000-plus cases.

“I was absolutely stunned at how the numbers dropped from what we were told last year, which was bad enough in itself,” she said. “For only one out of every 10 orders to be enforced, that is just inexcusable.”

Kuehl said a uniform statewide system is needed and questioned whether district attorneys should handle all aspects of collecting child support.

State Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), the Democratic candidate for California attorney general, also said he wants to make child support a priority next year by increasing funding to district attorneys while toughening monitoring of their performance.

“We just have to figure out how to do a better job,” Lockyer said, calling Los Angeles County’s collection rate “dismal.”

Lockyer’s GOP foe, Deputy Atty. Gen. Dave Stirling, did not return a call seeking comment.

Changes will take time, advocates and others cautioned, not only because of possible opposition from the influential district attorneys but because child support is such a complex issue.

“You can’t just pluck out a system like this, which is completely unworkable, and just switch it to a new agency without working through the consequences,” said Elizabeth Schroeder, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. The ACLU may also push legislation to ensure that fathers billed for child support have a chance to appear in court.

“You need to do this right, if you’re going to fix it,” she said.