February 29, 2016
Gaeta Maite, OPRA Custodian
County of Essex
465 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: OPRA Request: Essex County Division of Welfare’s Child Support Documents
Dear Ms. Maite:
CWA Local 1081, CWA Local 1081, representing the non-supervisory employees of the Essex County Division of Welfare, respectfully submits this OPRA request that the County of Essex provide our Union the following:
1. Any documents delineating Title IV-D Collection Reports, reflecting the amount and source of Child Support collections realized by the Essex County Division of Welfare from April 6, 2015 to present.
2. Any documents delineating Title IV-D Paternity Establishment Reports, reflecting the totals of combined welfare and Probation cases established by the Essex County Division of Welfare from April 6, 2015 to present broken out by the Division of Welfare and the Probation Department. These reports reflect number of cases with children born out of wedlock and the number of paternities established and does a comparison with the prior year for the current months of the report. The one report our Union obtained from the State of New Jersey reflects only the month of October, 2015. This report indicates statewide that 93.7% of the children have had paternity established as of October 2015. This is an increase from 92.6% or a 1.2% gain. However, the gain really appears to be due to a drop in the number children being reported from 199,244 to 174,111 and the number of paternities established decreasing correspondingly from 184,449 to 174,111. As cases lose welfare benefits, for whatever reason, this could decrease the number of children listed but should be picked up to some extent by Probation. However, this doesn’t appear to be the case. On an individual county basis, Essex is last among all of New Jersey’s county welfare agencies (CWA’s) with 88.9% in 2014 and 91% within 2015. In 2014, Essex was within 3.7% of the state average and in 2015 within 2.7%. Essex also had the biggest increase, 2.1%. If you were to look at the next largest welfare population counties, Camden, Hudson, Passaic and Union, all of them are under the state average. However, there is no breakdown to show whether the numbers by welfare or probation.
3. Any documents delineating Title IV-D Collections on Current Support, memorialized by the Essex County Welfare from April 6, 2015 to present broken out by the Division of Welfare and the Probation Department. Once again, Essex County was last with 55% of the amount of the total orders being paid in October 2014 and 56% in 2015. These numbers were significantly below the state averages of 65% in 2014 and 66% in 2015. This appears a weak area for Essex, however there is no breakdown to show whether the numbers are caused by the Division of Welfare or by Probation. Another issue is whether there are backlogs within the courts, either from a lack of judges and/or merely slow processing. If the County of Essex is in possession of documents delineating any mitigating factors such as backlogs within the courts, either from a lack of judges and/or merely slow processing, our Union requests these documents as well.
4. Any documents delineating Title IV-D Cases Arrears Collection Reports, memorializing that category within the Essex County Division of Welfare between April 6, 2015 to present. Said documents should reflect how much is in arrears and how many are welfare cases and how many are Probation cases.
5. The Essex County Division of Welfare, based upon the attached charts provided us by the State of New Jersey, was continually on the low side on all the above cited statistics usually ranking between eighteen and twenty-one of the total of twenty-one CWA’s. Were you to review the attached Allocated Staff report from the State, as well as the attached combined charts respectively entitled Essex County Welfare Agency Staffing and Essex County Welfare Caseload-TANF, SNAP, GA, EMER Asst. (emergency assistance), Essex experienced a significant decrease in CSP (Child Support) staff between 2007 and 2014, from 108 to 68 or a decline of over 35%. As all but TANF cases increased exponentially between 2007 and 2014. Between 1999 and the present, the Essex County Division of Welfare reached or exceeded the respective minimum levels of total staffing as required within the annual MOU’s (Memorandum of Understanding) Essex County has entered with the New Jersey Department Human Services/Division of Family Development for the past seventeen years, only approximately twice. CWA Local 1081 respectfully notes the purported fact that, for the approximate twelve years preceding your April 3, 2015 separation from the Division of Family Development as its Director, you at the very least partially oversaw the enforcement of the tenets of the aforementioned MOU’s.
CWA Local 1081 thanks you, in advance, for your anticipated expeditious cooperation responding to this most sincere supplication.
Yours truly,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081