Advocates have tried on two occasions to pass legislation that would wrest control of child support collection from California district attorneys and implement the best elements of the systems used by Massachusetts and Washington. A 1994 bill authored by state Sen. Theresa Hughes and sponsored by the National Center for Youth Law called for centralized control and an administrative hearing system. It made it out of the California Senate but was defeated in the Assembly. A similar effort by Hughes in 1995 died in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Each time, the legislation was opposed by the California District Attorneys Association.
"The district attorneys have an abysmal collection [record], yet they argue against reform; it's just beyond belief," says the Child Support Reform Initiative's Barbara Grob. "It's incredibly disingenuous for the DAs to look anyone in the face and say they are doing a good job. They know they have a problem."
But without the "problem" of child support collection, the local DA's office budget and its staff would be slashed. In Mayor Willie Brown's recently proposed budget for the 1996-97 fiscal year, $12.4 million -- 38 percent of the DA's $32.5 million budget -- is earmarked for the Family Support Bureau. With 141 employees, the bureau accounts for 40 percent of the DA's work force.
While shying away from an all-out administrative system, the state Office of Child Support and the DAs are backing a bill in the Legislature that would set up a system of county-based court commissioners to process child support cases. Authored by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier, the bill would help streamline the process and make counties eligible for federal funding. But it falls short of a true administrative process.
First, commissioners would not be required to specialize in child support issues. They could be diverted to criminal, traffic, and small-claims cases as needed. And second, there would still be no agency with direct authority over the dozens of commissioners scattered throughout the state. The disparity that exists between counties now in child support collection would most likely continue.
Michael Brock isn't counting on changes in the California system anytime soon. He isn't even counting on getting the money Dorothy Rasche owes him, although he still regularly calls the bureau to check on his case. Like the bureaucrats who oversee child support collection in the state, he's learned to think positively.
"At least my kids are out of a bad situation," Brock says with a shrug. "I have no savings, no college fund, and nothing to fall back on. But at this point, what can you say? If you dwell on it too much you get depressed and start thinking about jumping off a bridge.
