Plan for New Child Support Agency Unveiled

Determined to elevate the stature and performance of California’s child support programs, legislative leaders unveiled sweeping proposals Wednesday for a new Department of Child Support and authority for counties to decide if programs should stay with district attorneys or go to other agencies.

The package of reforms came one day after an unprecedented summit on child support where experts outlined a range of possibilities for rescuing California’s $442-million program--the country’s largest and widely considered among its worst.

“This gets us to an entirely new child support network in California,” Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) said after an hourlong meeting with half a dozen leaders of both houses. “It gives [child support] more visibility . . . leadership . . . resources and clout.”

State Sen. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) added: “The issue is simply ripe and with a new administration, there is a great opportunity to overhaul child support in the state and we intend to do it.”

But even as both lawmakers said they expect support from the new administration of Gov. Gray Davis, one legislator with a long history on child support issues voiced caution that lawmakers are moving too fast.

“The ideas are beginning to germinate but I don’t think we have a vaccine yet,” said state Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Daly City), who intends to hold a meeting next week with advocates, prosecutors and others.

And the powerful California District Attorneys Assn., while supporting some proposals, left no doubt it will oppose efforts to take primary responsibility for child support away from the state’s 58 prosecutors. “That would be troublesome from our standpoint,” said the association’s executive director, Lawrence Brown.

Still, legislators, stressing that the proposals will inevitably be refined, said they were optimistic that the early agreement on major reforms will eventually lead to landmark restructuring of the child support program.

“This takes the pieces that we’ve got and puts them in some order,” said Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley), “and finally says to the public and everyone else that this is so important, we’re going to give it its own department.”

Among the other key proposals outlined by those legislators and others:

* The immediate appointment of a statewide child support chief to boost the program before the new department is formed. That proposal echoes Speier’s bill, introduced Tuesday, for a cabinet level “czar” of child support. Speier and Schiff called for Davis to quickly make an appointment rather than await the legislative process. There was no immediate response from Davis’ office, although the governor in the past has said he would not object to such an appointment.

* New statewide performance measures, with mandatory penalties, for child support programs in every county. To fairly assess each county’s program, state officials would also develop uniform policies and procedures for programs now run, with broad autonomy, by each county’s district attorney.

* A change in state law to give each county the flexibility to assign its child support program to whomever it chooses. Current law vests authority for child support with each county’s district attorney.

* Increased funding, in part for a “strike force” of experts to assist ailing county programs.

* A pilot project in which the state’s Franchise Tax Board--which currently collects a fraction of California’s child support debt with twice the efficiency of prosecutors--would take over all collection functions for one or more counties.

While the plan does not flatly remove authority for collecting child support from district attorneys, as some advocates have called for, it slices deeply into their control of the program.

Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Commerce) said: “I intend to require district attorneys to run effective programs or face penalties including moving the program elsewhere when other actions fail.”

In the Assembly, the reforms will be wound into an omnibus bill by Kuehl, who has been designated by Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa as point person on child support in the lower house. In the Senate, the legislation would be carried by Schiff and President Pro Tem John Burton.

While that effort was underway, other legislators were preparing an array of initiatives. They ranged from Assemblywoman Aroner’s amnesty program to forgive some child support debts to proposals by Assemblyman Rod Wright (D-Los Angeles) to bring more equity into the way debts are collected.

One provocative proposal by Wright would have fathers pay directly to mothers on welfare. Under the current system, those payments go instead to the welfare system, an approach that critics say discourages fathers from paying support.

“If you are not able to balance the equation so people feel there is more equity on the front end, then you are not going to get more money on the back end,” said Wright.