Banker to Become Chief of Garcetti’s Child Support Unit

Five months after pledging to improve his troubled child support operation, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti Wednesday appointed a former banking executive to oversee the unit.

After three decades in banking, Steven K. Buster will become the chief operating officer for Garcetti’s Bureau of Family Support Operations--which, with more than 1,600 employees, is the largest unit in the nation’s largest district attorney’s office.

It is also ranked as the worst unit of its kind in the state. Two years ago, an audit criticized the bureau for passing its 500,000-plus cases from employee to employee and failing to answer calls from frustrated parents. Although the phone system has been fixed, other problems remain.

A spokeswoman for Garcetti said Butler would serve on an interim basis. The state Legislature this week voted to strip California’s district attorneys of their child support responsibilities after a Times series on problems in the Los Angeles office. The bills have not yet been submitted to the governor and are opposed by prosecutors.

“Steve brings a wealth of corporate experience and knowledge of computer systems to the job,” Garcetti said in a statement. “Steve’s leadership abilities will greatly benefit our efforts to improve child support enforcement in the county.”

In the same statement Buster, 49, said: “I want to make a difference and have a positive impact on the lives of children and families in the county.”

Buster’s selection was well-received by county supervisors, who have repeatedly criticized the management of Garcetti’s child support unit and called for more business-oriented leadership.

“He seems to have a good business background. He’s prepared to tackle this major issue,” said Miguel Santana, a spokesman for Supervisor Gloria Molina. “The private sector brings a focus on customer service and efficiencies. Someone from the outside may bring in the right things.”

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said that while Buster has no child support experience, his banking talents would serve him well. “A lot of the problems we have right now are problems with record keeping and transactions.”

Child support advocates were also cautiously optimistic after meeting Tuesday with Buster, who reportedly told them he expected to hold the position no more than two years.

“He has skills in management. He has done some reorganizations in the banking industry, and he has a lot of experience working with large organizations in the area of money and collections,” said Linda Brackins-Willet, a member of the county Family Support Advisory Board.

“With somebody coming in from the outside, it is anyone’s guess if they can succeed,” she said. “But I think we all came away thinking, ‘If anyone can, it is this man.’ ”

“I’m glad they got somebody,” said Sue Speir, president of the child support group SPUNK and a member of the Family Support Advisory Board. “I’m glad he’s not an attorney. If he turns it around, that’d be great. But knowing the chaos in that office, I don’t know if you can turn it around in two years.”

Supervisors authorized Garcetti to hire a chief operating officer in December as part of a package he proposed to better his child support unit. The move came after a Times series reported that the office failed to collect money in nine of 10 cases, held millions of dollars due to parents in interest-bearing accounts and relied on an error-riddled computer system that led the office to pursue thousands of men erroneously each year.

Garcetti committed himself to finding someone from outside the office, but at a budget hearing two weeks ago he said it had been a difficult search, with few corporate executives willing to take a pay cut to oversee a child support operation larger than those of most states.

Buster most recently served as the regional executive for Standard Chartered Bank in New York. He has also headed that bank’s trade and commercial operations, managing 3,000 employees worldwide, and worked as an executive at First Interstate Bank before it was acquired by Standard Chartered in 1992.