Prosecutor gets child-support help
Incentive funds pay for new part-time job
By KEVIN KOELLING
Managing Editor, Perry County News
TELL CITY — A part-time employee beginning work tomorrow will help give the county prosecutor’s office full-time coverage for chasing down deadbeat parents.
Perry County Council members approved March 22 the addition of a part-time worker to the county prosecutor’s office to help collect child-support payments.
Prosecutor Bob Collins told the council incentive funds received from the state will fund the staff increase, meaning no additional costs for the county in adding to the one full-time and one part-time worker already employed.
He explained Wednesday federal funds are distributed to states, which forward money to each of their counties, to assist in the collection of money noncustodial parents fail to pay to support their children. That distribution provides two-thirds of the funds the county spends on the effort, with the county furnishing the other third. In addition, if the people working the child-support issue meet certain performance objectives, incentive payments bolster the program further. The objectives are centered around achievements such as the number of child-support orders entered or the percentage of child support collected in a year.
Pam Lock, who served in his office previously as victims’ advocate, will fill the new part-time position beginning Tues-day. In her previous role, she was involved in child-support cases, Collins said.
“I consider a child not receiving support as a victim,” he said. “When we prosecuted noncustodial parents for nonpayment, she was fulfilling her victim-advocate role just as she was in other criminal cases.”
Perry County pursued 1,343 child-support cases last year, compared to the 1,294 worked by three full-time employees in Spencer County, Collins told the council. Pike County’s two full-timers handled 968 cases, and Brown County’s one employee, 833 cases.
“We’re unique in having Branchville (Correctional Facility),” the prosecutor said, explaining a higher-than-normal number of interstate cases results from women elsewhere making child-support claims against prisoners.
Clients, administrative duties and court appearances compete for the current employees’ time, he noted, adding that many counties have child-support attorneys not included in the employee counts he provided.
Two part-time employees, each working half a workweek, would give Collins the full-time coverage he needs, he said. A motion to approve his request carried 7-0.
The incentive funds, based in a federal Social Security program administered through the state, rose from $5,600 annually in 2000 and ’01 to $22,451 in 2005, Collins said. In addition to his own office, those funds are shared equally with the county court and clerk’s office to use for child-support-collection purposes.
“We get the whole process started when a custodial parent comes in and wants to get support started,” Collins said Wed-nesday. The court makes rulings and enters orders and the clerk’s office collects money from the noncustodial parent and gives it to the custodial parent, he added.
Adding a part-time position to one created approximately a year ago will give Collins full-time coverage without the expense of employment benefits, he said.
“We’re at a point where we need a full-time person,” he said, “but the benefits would be more than I could offset with the incentive money. Hopefully this will pay dividends and we’ll continue to receive high levels of incentive funds.”
“This will help the children,” he added, “in receiving the support they’re entitled to.”