1. Regional Child Support/interagency cooperative agreement

MEMORANDUM TO: County Social Service Board Directors FROM: Carol K. Olson, Executive Director DATE: RE: June 5, 2006 Child Support Enforcement Centralized Projects After careful review of the May 16, 2006, .letter on behalf of the Association of County Social Service Directors and related discussion at the recent meeting of the Child Support Enforcement Task Force, the Department agrees to move forward with only one centralized project during Calendar Year 2006. The project with the most potential for improved efficiency and effectiveness, and reduction in costs, is the outgoing interstate project. The Grand Forks regional office has indicated that staff for the project are not expected to be hired and in place before September 1, 2006. For four regions, the county share of the costs of the project for CY 2006 with the delayed implementation date is less than the 5% of estimated incentives that the directors agreed to set aside. For the other four regions, the difference between the amount set aside and the total county costs for CY 2006 is estimated at $9,204. To respond to the Association's concem that CY 2006 expenditures be limited to the amounts already included in county budgets, the Department agrees that for CY 2006, the counties in each region will only be required to pay the 5% set aside for the projects or the actual county cost of the project, whichever is less. The difference for CY 2006 will be paid through the child support improvement account. This will give counties and regional offices additional time to budget for the full 34% of the cost of the project, and the projected savings from the project, for CY 2007. Moving forward with centralized projects does not necessarily "require commitment of significantly more funds than are in 2006 county budgets," as suggested in the Association's letter. We have consistently indicated that the costs of the projects can be borne in a number of ways, including a reallocation of existing resources. For example, the outgoing interstate process is estimated to save 20% of the time of each caseworker/investigator. In addition, only 34% of the cost of the project will be funded by the counties, as opposed to the current cost of 100%.