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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 08011989 - IO.4 Board of Supervisors LO. 4 FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE c DATE: July 24, 1989 .;; OST'4 COUIz'� SUBJECT: STATUS REPORT ON FAMILY SUPPORT DIVISION OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE Specific Request(s) or Recommendations(s) & Background & Justification RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Request the County Administrator's Office to advise Senator Wilson and Senator Cranston of the problems the County is having in getting approval from the U.S.Department of Health&Human Services(HHS)for its automation plans and ask one or both of them to meet with our Committee and the District Attorney and then attempt to intervene with HHS on behalf of the County. 2. Request the County Administrator's Office and Lease Management to move ahead as quickly as possible with plans to lease space for the Welfare Fraud Unit so the District Attorney can add badly needed staff to the Family Support Division and ask the County Administrator to report back to our Committee on September 11, 1989 at 11:30 A.M.on the status of the space and staffing issues. 3. Request the District Attorney to report to our Committee September 11, 1989 at 11:30 A.M. on how Contra Costa County's Child Support collections for the 1988-89 fiscal year compare with the collections in other urban counties in California. 4. Request the County Administrator's Office and District Attorney to proceed with the scheduling of the community meetings which were approved by the Board of Supervisors on September 20, 1988. 5. Leave this item on referral to our Committee. Continued on attachment: YES Signature: Recommendation ZCunty Administrator Recommendation of Board Committee Approv �. Other: i Signa ure(s): TOM POWERS SUNNE WRi Action of Boar on: August 1, 1989 Approved as Recommended Other Vote of Supervisors I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN x Unanimous (Absent — ) AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE Ayes: Noes: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON DATE SHOWN. Absent: Abstain: cc: County Administrator Attested Z6.a /999 District Attorney Phil dartchelor, Clerk of the Board Douglas Pipes,Director of Supervisors and County Administrator Family Support Division De Bell,Deputy County Administrator Alan Pfeiffer,Lease Management By �� ' Deputy Clerk Director,Justice Systems Programs r BACKGROUND: On November 29, 1988 the Board of Supervisors referred to our Committee the responsibility to follow-up on a number of recommendations which were approved by the Board relating to the Family Support Division of the District Attorney's Office. One of these recommendations was that the County Administrator and District Attorney report to our Committee following budget hearings in the summer of 1989 on the status of the Family S upport Division,in light of the recommendations made in the report of the 1988 Internal Operations Committee dated November 14, 1988. On July 24, 1989 our Committee met with Douglas Pipes, Senior Deputy District Attorney and Director of the Family Support Division. Mr. Pipes provided us an oral report on the status of his Division. Among the highlights of his report are the following: * The Family Support Division receives a $90 incentive for each child for whom the District Attorney is able to establish paternity. In the first six months of 1989 the Division was able to establish paternity for 754 children, earning the Division some $67,000 in additional revenue. * June of 1989 represented the highest single month even in terms of the amount of child support that was collected, totaling $2.4 million. * In the 1987-88 fiscal year the Division collected$15,217,000 in child support payments. For the 1988-89 fiscal year this amount jumped to$17,788,000. The Division's goal for the 1989- 90 fiscal year is $19,110,000. * For the first three quarters of the 1988-89 fiscal year the Family Support Division earned a net surplus of$114,000 more than its costs. * The Family Support Division currently has about$550,000 in its trust fund, which can only be used for family support related programs. Mr. Pipes did note that he is having a problem hiring additional staff which has been approved by the Board of Supervisors because the Welfare Fraud Unit has to be moved out of his building in order to hire additional staff for the Family Support Division. Currently the Division has 116 authorized positions but only 90 positions filled. While there have been discussions with the owners of several buildings in the area, no firm decision has been made on the timing for moving the Welfare Fraud Unit out of the Family Support Division's offices. We believe that this move must be given immediate attention by the County Administrator's Office and Lease Management so that the staffing for the Family Support Unit can be brought up to the level which has been approved. Mr. Pipes also indicated that he is having trouble getting approval for his Advanced Planning Document from the federal government. This APD is essential in order to get federal funds to automate the family support system. Mr. Pipes speculated that the federal government can see the prospect of California's family support operations being automated in 1995,with a two-year phase- in period starting in 1993, and simply don't want to spend the money to allow additional counties to automate their systems in the interim. Our Committee believes that Senator Wilson,in particular, could be of assistance in getting such an approval from the Administration. We would like to ask both Senators Wilson and Cranston to meet with our Committee and the District Attorney and then attempt to intervene with the federal government on behalf of this County. - 2 - Mr. Pipes also noted that the federal government has recently adopted some very stringent and perhaps unrealistic timeframes for opening and processing various aspects of child support cases. Failure to adhere to these timeframes can subject the state and the counties to audit exceptions which can be very expensive. These new requirements will put additional pressure on the Division and will probably trigger requests for more staff. These timeframes also lend more urgency to the need to automate the Family Support Division. Mr.Pipes noted that the entire office is being reorganized in order to improve its efficiency and ability to respond promptly to requests for information. The office will be organized into two units, depending on whether or not a court order for the payment of support is in force. Mr. Pipes also indicated that credit reporting of delinquent child support obligations will be implemented in September now that the data processing work has been completed to allow the necessary identifying information to be inserted into the system. Mr. Pipes also indicated that he and the District Attorney are ready to go ahead with the community meetings that were originally approved by the Board of Supervisors in September 1988,but delayed at the request of the Board Members and District Attorney. We are therefore asking that these meetings be scheduled in cooperation with each Board Member.