 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you. My name is Adam Payne, Sheboygan County Administrative Coordinator and co-host of this program with Chairman Bill Gehring. And today we're very pleased to have Jim Groff as our guest. Jim is the Child Support Director, oversees a very important department that in short protects and makes sure that kids are getting the financial support that they need. So Jim, welcome. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm happy to be able to let you know, I know about child support. Well, we've only got 30 minutes. We'll do the best we can. Okay, good. Please start by sharing with our viewers a little bit about your background and how long you've been with the Child Support Department. I've been with the Child Support Department approximately 17 years, 19 with the county and I started off in the Health and Human Services Department as the accounting manager and then moved to Child Support 17 years ago and have been there ever since. And what is the mission of the Child Support Enforcement Agency? Although you're supposed to have it memorized, I don't. So I'm going to have to look it out there. Our mission of the Child Support Agency that myself and all our staff agree on is that we are there to ensure adequate financial and medical support for families through an aggressive approach in locating obligors or payers establishing and enforcing court order child support and medical coverage and in the establishment of paternity and child support collections for non-marital children so that all families can reduce their alliance on any type of public assistance and achieve financial independence, hopefully. I think our viewers can understand why you don't have that memorized. That's quite a mouthful. Why don't you boil it down for us? What are the roles and responsibilities of your department? We are there to establish child support orders for anytime there's a divorce in a family that have children living with one parent or the other and have visitation rights or where families come to us and say my daughter is pregnant and we need your help and we establish paternity for that child and make sure that there's financial responsibility, a portion to someone to help pay for the child's welfare. Many people watching this may not be familiar with your department, but I know that your agency, your department, they use that word interchangeably. You've got some very hard-working staff with a tremendous caseload. Please share a little bit about what is it they're doing day in and day out and what I mean when we say caseload. What's that all about? Sheboygan County has approximately 5,000 4D cases they're called. 4D cases are those where we do most of the work as far as locating the absent parent, coming up with an appropriate order for the non-custodial parent to pay to the custodial parent for the care of the child and then we also have an additional 1,600 non-4D cases which are those cases where we just keep track of the financial income coming in and then we pay that out or make sure that it gets paid out through a trust fund that has been created in Milwaukee. So how many employees do you have and what's their average caseload? We have 16 employees that are in the child support agency. Of those 16, nine are what we call case specialists and two of those nine are paternity specialists and they each have a caseload of approximately 250 to 275 paternity cases because there's a lot of additional work required with a paternity case than just a regular non-support case and then our non-support specialists which total seven have a caseload of about 580 cases each. And these folks have to have some pretty good skills and high level of tolerance because they're not often or always anyway dealing with people that might be happy to hear from them. There's a lot of irate phone calls going on and almost way too many phone calls coming in for the department our size on. We have one receptionist clerk that takes care of all our phone calls as they come in and some of our specialists give out the direct line. Most of them try to but in some cases they just get overwhelmed with phone calls and a receptionist for instance has over 120 phone calls a day that she distributes to someone or another or to somebody's voicemail and then they're expected to return all those calls within 48 hours. So if people are trying to contact your office sometimes they're going to have to be patient just because of the number of phone calls that you're fielding. Correct and the other big thing is that most people that call our agency feel that they need to talk to their specialist but our training has been such that the people that answer the phone have enough basic background and they're able to get into what we call the kids system which controls all the records and and enforcement and dollars that are connected with any case that information so they can see exactly what's going on. So sometimes there's no need to talk to the specialist unless it's something that's unique and out of the ordinary. Now as we touched on again some of the clients that your staff or you are working with may not always be in the best of spirits about what's happening in their lives or what's being asked of them and one of the employees that you work closely with you have an attorney on staff do you not? Yes we do. What's her role? Her role is to take any court any hold excuse me her role is to take all our cases that we have to court when we can't reach some type of stipulated agreement between the two parties or we can't come up with not necessarily a stipulated agreement but maybe an agreement where there is where administratively we work something out so that he pays her directly or she pays because some cases there are she pays someone or there's a compromise where nobody pays each other but something is put into a trust or something like that there's many unique situations but anytime that we have to go to court that's when our attorney comes in and they handle the cases that go into court where we need the judge to decide basically how much the child support should be and then at other times if and when the individual that's supposed to be paying does not pay then we bring that same person in for contempt and that goes into the courtroom also where the judge decides what needs to be done in order to have the the case put back into what we call regular normal 4d status again final question before turning it over to bill um Sherboy and county has 23 departments as you all know and every department has different revenue sources some departments rely more on the property tax levy than others and your department is a little more unique from a standpoint of the the revenue that that comes to your department to support you and your staff please briefly touch on that how is your department funded what's that relationship all our expenditures that the child support agency makes and anytime we contract with anybody for indirect expenditures also um all that is reimbursed to us through federal and county or excuse me through federal and state reimbursement policy at 66 percent then we were we're able to earn incentives on how we perform our our our function in the agency there's a performance standard that we have to meet for establishing orders if we get those established in a certain time frame for establishing paternity again on a certain time frame and then those orders that we collect on that's another percentage incentive program that we can earn money on and then the final one that we have right now is on collection on arrears because when somebody falls behind on their child support payment there is a pot building up that they have to pay back to the the family even though they're the child may be over 18 and that's another incentive program that the state has given us that we can earn incentives on it and shaboggan county i'm happy to say has been averaging about 28 29 percent that we earn in incentives which leaves the the amount that we depend on the county tax levy at about five or six percent of our total budget and our total budget is is just over a million dollars right now very good thank you jim to give our viewers a better idea of what your department how your department gets involved in various cases maybe we can talk about case scenarios in a divorce situation does your office get involved in all divorces they're just certain divorces we get involved when and if there are children involved and then it depends if they want our help they being the people being um that are getting the divorce and whoever ends up with the with the children they come to our agency and apply for services and it's a twenty dollar fee to apply for these services and they fill out the form and from then on we're involved in that case as far as the divorce itself we're not but um then there are those divorces where um the the custodial parent decides that they just can't make it alone because maybe they're not working or something like that and then they um go to the county for um assistance of some type once they go on assistance it's an automatic referral from the economic support agency to the child support agency that there um there's a need for child support services and with that then we open up a case and we start looking for funding um or excuse me we start looking for the absent parent if he's not there once we locate him then we find out where he's working and then we'll issue an income withholding order to um guarantee some of his wages and right now we no longer have a percentage standard that we had several years ago but we use that to establish a dollar amount order because now all our orders must be a dollar amount order in order for us to enforce them. Okay how about custody and issues of visitation how do you get involved in that? custody and visitation is another thing we do not get involved in that is all handled through the family court commissioner's office and she has um our president family court commissioner has several programs that that she can um let uh both the custodial and non-custodial parent know so that they know where they have to go for um for those services. Okay how about the situation where an unmarried woman comes to your office she's not quite sure who the father or the child might be how could you assist her? What we do then is um if she's um um we'll we'll assume that she is over 18 okay in that case she comes to our office and we ask her if she's presently on any type of aid in case she's come over and before we've gotten a referral and if she is then we um get the information that we need to from the economic support department and if she's not on aid or anything like that and she's just a single unwed mother um then we we have her open up a file and and fill out an application form at that time and with that she gives us all the information that that she knows uh and we have several sources uh if for instance the alleged father is um is absent and uh she doesn't know where he is or um he's maybe uh was from where she was going to college or something like that uh we do have a state and federal locate system that we can um connect to through our our kids information system which is the Wisconsin system and that tells us um where this person could possibly be if we don't have anything like a social security number or um any other information about him but we have several of those um uh information sources available what we do is is then find where he is and once we find him and locate him then we do um genetic testing and we do buckle swab right in my office so that anybody who um goes to court needs one to establish preferment paternity will have it done and within 21 days we have a um a reading on it so we know that uh this this person will is or is not the father and all our paternity uh testing comes back at usually 99.9 percent so it's very very accurate okay uh child support payments used to come through the county through your office they now go to a trust fund how has that been working that's been working very well the trust fund takes care of quite a number of calls that normally we would have received and they're again just adding to the number of calls that we get but now they there's a 800 number to um to call for the trust fund they collect the money um it's all the employees are supposed to be sending it to the trust fund in Milwaukee and then they distribute it within two two days within 48 hours they're supposed to just if a client doesn't get a check that they're expecting they should probably call the trust fund directly or call you first they can either call the trust fund directly or go on on um the internet and uh with their every every customer uh gets a um an ID number basically it's called and it's called a pin number and with that pin number they can access the the same kid's system that that my workers access to get information on when the last payment was received um if there's any money being held by the trust fund um where um what the last event was that was was performed by the case specialist so there's a lot of information on the internet that that they can get on their own cases and it's all secured so that only that person with that pin number can get into that information okay you've talked a little bit about already about enforcing an order but could you go through that a little more if a person has a child support order to pay for their support of their kids and they just aren't paying what you do how you might force them to pay okay there's there's several things that we do and uh the first thing that you do is you you try and contact them either by by phone or by mail and then inform them that they have the order and they need to start paying if it was something that maybe they just forgot to tell us that they quit their last place of employment and went to a new job then immediately once they tell us where they're working we send another income withholding to the new job where where they're working and go from there if by um um some chance they are um working for cash it's very difficult to get a in order for cash but sometimes we we succeed but most of the time if somebody's working for cash they will not tell us anyhow but um in a case like that more than likely we will taking that person to court to have the court decide what needs to be done there are several remedies that we can do uh including um we can make them do job searches until they um until they find some some work um and at the same time we'll we'll create an order at probably minimum wage so that there isn't a rearage building up um so that there's some incentive for them to get a get a job and be able to pay that off the other thing we can do is we can put liens against any property that they have or any businesses that they might have and um then we can also suspend their driver's license as well as their hunting and fishing licenses and and uh several other remedies that we have that we can do administratively the most successful one so far has been on putting liens on people's cars as well as on some of their bank accounts where um we um were able to work with uh basically all the major banks throughout the united states in order to put uh liens against any account that they might have so then that becomes frozen until uh the courts decide what needs to be done with it and we've heard in the past that people have moved out of states so they didn't have to pay child support it's my understanding you have a very long arm you can reach we have um we have um wisconsin has a long arm statute that allows us to reach into other states and um and the other thing that we have going for us too is the fact that we can do um direct income withholding into all the all the other states too so that if we have an order here we can send an income withholding to an employer in another state and they must honor it so do people still go to jail for not paying child support yes they do and um most of them will request um huber so that they can get out and look for job if um if they don't have one or continue working so that the the um the child support um our re-reaches do not keep building up because all our re-reaches now unlike years ago have a 1% fine attached to it which is charged on a on a monthly basis so uh it doesn't take long for a child support account to to build up a lot of interest also and that's all due and payable to the custodial parent of the of the child and then finally is there an end date to most child support orders most child support orders and when the child graduates from high school unless um unless they're they're not 18 and then um once if they have to be at least 18 and a graduate of high school for the the order to end so uh and then in some circumstances the the courts will say this child should have receive um child support until they're 19 and those circumstances are at the judge's discretion okay but if there was money owed on an order at the time the child turned 18 or 19 that money is still owed and would continue to correct and um we can continue to collect or try to collect I should say for 20 years after the the child turns 18 hopefully by that time we we have succeeded in doing that okay thank you Jim well speaking of of money at the state and federal level we obviously continue to hear about budget deficits and the challenges of balancing the budget and you mentioned earlier how you receive funding for your operations from the state and federal level are you anticipating any service reductions as a result of those budget deficits at those two levels or changes in priorities as of right now we are not but we did um we the child support agencies agencies throughout wisconsin put up quite a fight when the original budget that was proposed was was suggesting a a cut to the child support funding mechanism and that was reducing it by I want to say two million dollars during the next two years and that would result in Sheboygan county would have resulted in losing about 46,000 dollars the first year and another 40,000 dollars the second year of that which could have resulted in us um losing probably a staff member because right now all our services are are something that are mandated by the state and unless I I can get funding for for for what I have now it's very difficult to get um additional funds when there is they're all spoken for right um but we're lucky enough to have put it through a letter writing campaign that both of you um I enlisted your help as well as um my my committee to um to bring forth a document to send to the governor and he heard our cries for help and um has decided not to pursue any of those funds at least for the next two years now um I know that could still change because of the fact that there are now basically two different budget ideas out there and and no one knows for sure what those are going to um finally come out with but uh we're hoping that we will be able to um continue to do what we're doing without any um hurt coming because of a funding being lost and this is really an example of what chairman gearing and the county board grapple with gearing and year out where the state or federal level mandate a service require a service to be delivered and then based on their own changes and priorities or funding challenges may reduce the funding and then the county taxpayer or local taxpayer often there's more pressure on them to to pick up the difference so um kind of a microcosm of some of the challenges we have in other departments as well where something's mandated and if the funds aren't there to implement it there's more pressure on the county taxpayer and that's one of the things I think we're all going through this prioritization and evaluation project right now and um one of the things I think that's going to be so beneficial and and looking at the various programs that are done in each department and and where the funding is coming from for that and what happens if it if it doesn't get put back in and um what you could possibly stand to lose anything else Jim in a few minutes we have remaining that you'd like to share about the department well as you said and before we do have a a group of hardworking people um there's a a lot of stress going on at times and when people call um I hope they excuse sometimes if if my staff may sound rude or if I may sound rude because um we do like I said have quite a few cases to work at and and we try to do our best and sometimes we have a bad day too uh it doesn't happen that often but we do and the other thing is if you can at all please put your questions in writing because it's easier to keep track of them although our system records and even the secretaries that may answer the phone record um what questions you have and they they send it um via the kids system to the workers um sometimes we we miss place part of it or we didn't hear it all and and when you do leave a message on our phones please please be very slowly and very clearly because sometimes it's very difficult to understand and do you have a general number there that you ask people to call we do we have nine two zero four five nine three zero four one is our um main line that comes in and uh we change that quite frequently so there is um it's not always the same uh information on there so if you're looking for some departments we also give you that information just like if they're calling there have a question about custody or visitation we give them the number of the family court commissioner if they're looking for how to do their own um order which some people do we give them the number of the clerk of court so that they can call that and then as well as uh there's a listing for the attorney if it's an another attorney calling our attorney to find out what's going on with the case or something like that so uh and then after that you can leave a message and we will get back to you like I said within 48 hours so in case they didn't get that number and they have more questions after watching this program or or want to learn more about the services your department provides again it's four five nine three zero four one three zero four one and if they'd like to fax us um a question or anything like that our fax number is four five nine zero three nine nine and that again is where we prefer that because there it's in writing and then we have something concrete to look at and hang up on our boards or whatever and say this is the next one to answer very good well jim thank you for joining us today and for our viewers who may be wondering if you're looking for a base in your church choir or a base in your barbershop uh quartet uh jim is with us today though fighting a bit of a cold and uh he's probably more of a baritone than he is a base so don't don't call him for that reason the other thing you might might be wondering some of you is why does he look so familiar and not only is jim our child support director but he's also alderman jim groff of the shabuigan county city council recently reelected that position so congratulations jim thank you and whether you have questions on child support or on city of shabuigan matters certainly jim is someone who can help you so again thanks for joining us thank you and it was a pleasure being here next month our guest will be veteran service officer jim reasonberg jim's going to be here to talk about his roles and responsibilities obviously provides a very important function to the veterans and their family members in this community and it's also memorial day next month so i'm sure he'll be able to share with us some of the upcoming activities that he's always involved with and helps coordinate so until then on behalf of chairman bill gearing and myself adam pain thank you very much for joining us