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Events
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2014 NCSEA Policy Forum
February 6-8, 2014
Washington, D.C.
2014 CSDA Policy Symposium
March 18, 2014
Sheraton Grand Hotel
Sacramento, CA
2014 CSDA Annual Conference
May 5-8, 2014
Hyatt Regency Orange County
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Announcements
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The 2014 CSDA Directory is now available!
Check it out!
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2150 River Plaza Dr, Suite 420
Sacramento, CA 95833
916-446-6700 phone
916-446-1199 fax
www.csdaca.org
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A Coalition of Experts Collecting Billions
for California's Children
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A Note from CSDA
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David Oppenheim
CSDA Executive Director
These are exciting and changing times here at CSDA. We have recently hired two new positions into the CSDA family, Communications Specialist Cindi Alvidrez and our new Office Assistant Sheri Sundahl. As you have the opportunity to work with CSDA and our new staff members I'm sure you will agree that they are both tremendous assets to our association.
Ms. Alvidrez is already hard at work on the publication side, project managing both the CSDA Attorney Sourcebook and soon to be working with the CSDA Education Committee chair on the new Face of Child Support publication. Currently, a survey is being sent to directors to ensure to the publication meets the needs of the membership. In addition, Cindi will also be reaching out to CSDA committee chairs to develop individualized communication plans with the goal to improve communication between the myriad committees and the CSDA membership. More to come on that project.
CSDA is also in the process of updating our association website and creating a new Event Manager program to register and track attendees at our multiple annual events and meetings. A big thanks goes out to CSDA IT committee chair Frank Shipley for his leadership and guidance on these critical projects.
In other news, it is hard to believe that in less than 45 days we will all closely be examining the new 2014-15 State Budget. However, unlike years past, the State Budget will not be attempting to resolve multi-billion dollar state deficits. In fact, according to a recently released Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) publication entitled " The 2014-15 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook" (available here), the LAO estimates that California is on track to end the 2014-15 State Fiscal Year with a projected reserve of $5.6 Billion. In fact, the LAO believes that operating surpluses will remain stable at just under $10 billion per year extending into state fiscal year 2019-20.
I will provide a full report on the Child Support Program and an overview of the 2014-15 Budget released by the Governor in the January, 2014 issue of this newsletter.
On behalf of the staff at CSDA, we wish all a pleasant and enjoyable holiday season!
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Annual Directors Meeting Review
The Child Support Directors Association held its annual Directors Meeting November 6-8, 2013 in Santa Cruz, CA at the beautifully located Dream Inn.
On Wednesday, November 6, the team was hard at work where CSDA President Terrie Hardy-Porter led the work on the CSDA's Business and Strategic Plans for 2014.
Thursday, CSDA was honored to host Mr. Charles Smith, Deputy of the Texas Child Support Division. The Texas child support program ranks first in the nation for the amount of child support collected. CSDA was eager to hear about methods and practices in place in Texas that might be beneficial to our member counties.
Mr. Smith spent the day discussing Texas's best practices in collection, enforcement and innovative strategies that support program performance. In addition to Mr. Smith, Mr. Vance Rodriguez was also in attendance from San Antonio, TX. Our directors wasted no time questioning Mr. Smith on issues ranging from the benefits of implementing an Employer Portal to innovative special enforcement programs.
Friday morning was spent wrapping things up. CSDA Vice President Janet Nottley raffled off a "wine barrel" - raising $1500 for the Napa Foster Kids Fund. Before everyone departed, CSDA Executive Director David Oppenheim said a fond farewell to Mark Jones, Director, Yolo County who will be retiring at the end of the year.
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San Diego Department of Child Support Services Hosts Personnel Best Practices Forum
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On November 13, 2013 San Diego Department of Child Support Services hosted representatives from Merit System Services, and Los Angeles, Kern, San Bernardino, Imperial, and Santa Barbara counties, at a Southern Region Personnel Best Practices meeting. The goal of the meeting was to provide DCSS personnel staff an opportunity to share their best personnel practices with their regional peers.
The LCSAs presented on topics such as: Performance Evaluations, Performance Management, Risk Management, Onboarding, Pre/Post Interview Meeting, Recruitment/Selection/Retention Techniques, Telecommuting, and Child Support Job Analysis.
The meeting participants enjoyed getting to know each other, sharing their latest (and best) personnel practices, and learning from one another. If you are interested in obtaining copies of the materials from this meeting please contact San Diego HR Manager, Mark Mandel, Senior Departmental Human Resources Officer at (619) 578-6571 or [email protected].
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Serving Those Who Served Our Country
By Catherine Sachs, Child Support Professional, San Francisco Department of Child Support Services Outreach Unit
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 Military members who are transitioning to veteran status frequently face decreased income and a high risk of unemployment. According to OCSE's Child Support Participation in Stand Down Events Fact Sheet, veteran noncustodial parents are likely to have higher child support arrears than their non-veteran counterparts-27 percent higher on average. Facts like these prompted San Francisco Department of Child Support Services Director Karen M. Roye to put forth a challenge to the staff of the department's Outreach Unit to find ways to connect with and help local veterans with child support issues. As a member of the Outreach Unit, I began to look for ways to make the connection. An internet search led me to Elizabeth Brett, Veterans Justice Outreach Specialist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. I asked for a meeting, and within a month our collaboration began with a monthly child support workshop at the San Francisco VA Downtown Clinic. The child support workshop at the VA Downtown Clinic takes place on the third Thursday of each month. The VA helps advertise the workshop by sending out announcements to VA staff, who then tell their clients and patients about it.
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Committee Updates FINANCE:
By Terri Love, CSDA Finance Committee Chair
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On October 22, 2013,CSDA and a few LCSA directors participated on a call at the request of the DCSS fiscal/budget staff. The purpose, as stated by DCSS, was to discuss the current EDP allocation methodology and to develop a proactive approach to our technical needs. We suggested a re-evaluation of the true cost of our IT staff, reconsider the current methodology of the staffing to workstation ratio, give consideration to LCSAs who are underfunded on the administrative side resulting in underfunding on the EDP side, and explore why training PCs are not part of tech-refresh. We also want to level set all LCSAs by ensuring everyone has the most up-to-date or modern technological tools and equipment to improve efficiencies and reduce costs. In response, DCSS will be issuing a letter in an effort to more clearly define EDP costs and to rollout an updated version of the Prior Approval Form. After release of the state letter a survey will go out to the LCSAs to hopefully capture our true EDP costs so we can submit these costs for budget consideration to DCSS.
In case you have not heard, the OMB Single Audit no longer requires a review of your program case processing, just the administrative fiscal side. More discussions have occurred regarding incentives. Hopefully, we will have something to report on this after the first of the year. Merry Christmas! If you have any questions please contact me at [email protected]. See you next year!
IT:
By Frank Shipley, CSDA IT Committee Chair
Our new CSDA IT Committee has hit the ground running and has already started work on several initiatives to improve information delivery. The committee is represented by eleven counties and brings a range of technical knowledge, vision for the future, and program perspective. The committee is working on an upgrade to the CSDA the website and event management system, which will serve as the foundation for information sharing capabilities. Both will be available in time for the 2014 Annual Training Conference registration in February 2014.
The CSDA IT Committee will focus on the following objectives:
- Facilitating the communication of technology and program information to local child support agencies.
- Identifying and commenting on automation issues that will impact performance and local child support agency business practices in the child support program.
- Identifying information technology needs for local child support agencies.
- Identifying and encouraging methods for the development of information technology that is sharable across local child support agencies.
- Providing a forum for discussion and resolution of technology issues in the IV-D community.
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