Electronic Child Support System Unveiled : Government: Critics say new computer system is plagued with problems and may be inadequate. A few bugs just need to be worked out, district attorney responds.

Los Angeles County officials Thursday unveiled a new $55-million computer system designed to speed up child support payments, but there is growing concern among child support advocates that the system may be problem-plagued and inadequate to improve services.

Officials with the district attorney’s family support unit admitted Thursday that a programming error had delayed distribution of about 18,000 checks for more than a week before the problem was discovered and fixed.

Calling the foul-up a minor start-up problem, county officials said the system will provide quicker distribution of court-ordered child support payments.

Still, additional problems have continued to plague the system. Numerous families have reported that their checks were mailed in the wrong envelopes and misdirected. Advocates say they are canvassing their clients to discover the extent of the problems.

“These are no minor problems that we can shoo away; this is something we should be very concerned about,” said Donna Hershkowitz, an attorney with the Harriet Buhai Center for Family Law, a nonprofit organization that monitors child support services.

The district attorney’s office has sought to downplay the problems, arguing that glitches are inherent in starting any new system.

“There is no question that, with any new system, you are going to have some bugs, but we are taking care of that,” Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said at the news conference held at the family support unit’s City of Commerce headquarters. “This system is an investment in the future. While it is humanly impossible to keep up with the skyrocketing caseloads, automation will make it easier.”

The new system, which began operating on Feb. 6, comes with an impressive pedigree, designed by Lockheed Information Services to be a model for the nation and to handle a child support caseload of 650,000.

Officials contend that it will greatly improve the collection and distribution of child support payments, automating many functions that in the past had to be performed by hand.

Wayne Doss, director of the family support unit, said the computer will relieve staff of many of the clerical duties that had drained attention away from casework. And for the first time the district attorney’s office will be able to compute interest on back child support on an ongoing basis.

Doss said this added feature could increase by 30% current annual collections of about $175 million.

But the experiences of many families under the new system have not been good so far.

Jackie Kaigler, a Long Beach mother of one, said the computer glitch delayed her check for nearly a month.

“It definitely caused a hardship for me,” Kaigler said. “I had to fight for nearly three years to get into court to get the money in the first place, so I don’t want to have to wait for the check.”

Charleen Bonney, a single mother of two, is the San Fernando Valley chapter director of the nonprofit Assn. for Children for Enforcement of Support.

Bonney said she and a colleague who receive support were given a special demonstration of the new system and that it failed to include relevant information about her own case.

“I told them I wanted to see my case, and all it had was the name and address of the children’s father and the original court order,” she said. “It didn’t show the liens I had on him or any of the court dates that should have popped up. I would have to say, yes, the new system is causing us a lot of concern.”