Waters adds staff to child support staff as more women complain about cases

A temporary worker has been added to the Carson City District Attorney's Office in the wake of complaints it takes as long as six months to get a case opened.

Carson District Attorney Noel Waters said the primary focus of the staff is still on meeting a June 30 deadline to finish converting all 1,700 cases to the new state NOMADS computer program.

With just four caseworkers and three temporary workers on his staff, Waters said the opening of new cases had been delayed.

As a result, he said, there are as many as 120 cases in his office which - under federal rules - should have been opened by now.

"Converting cases to NOMADS is still the big push, but we want to work on the case openings also," he said. "We're not making any guarantees on it but, at the very least, we hope to be able to complete the conversion process earlier."

He said the state and counties face huge fines if they don't finish entering cases to NOMADS by the end of June and certify the entire system by October. Waters said last week five months and more is far too long to simply get a case opened. In Washoe and Clark counties, that process takes a week or less and federal rules require cases be opened within 15 days after application is made.

The cases must be opened to find parents who owe child support and make them pay but enforcement officials say up to a quarter of those parents pay without further battles once the case is opened and they are notified they must.

He said it's especially frustrating because his office was in overall compliance with deadlines for opening cases before NOMADS.

Jennifer Duve of Carson City, for example, has been waiting since Oct. 29 for her case to be opened by the office. Angel Dey of Carson said it took her nearly nine months to get her first check.

After reading about those cases, two women called to say they have had problems that predate this year's push to convert to NOMADS.

Jo Smith of Carson City sent a letter to Waters in July 1998 complaining she was "treated with such utter disrespect" and given almost no help in making her former husband pay up. She said she was repeatedly told the office was still trying to find her former spouse even though she had told them several times he was in the Carson City Jail. She said she has had to fight ever step of the way to get help.

"They were just so rude," she said. "They treat you like a moron."

Now, she says, her husband is working and his checks are being garnished for her child support but that she still doesn't get them regularly.

"I finally called March 25 and said I hadn't received anything since Feb. 22," she said. "Then, mysteriously, three checks came all at once, all dated March 30."

"I dread calling them," she said.

Shawna Holt of Carson City told a similar story, saying she had nothing but trouble collecting child support after her divorce five years ago.

She said her former husband quit jobs several times, "and for months on end they wouldn't do anything at all."

Holt said her biggest problem since long before the NOMADS conversion is that "you can't talk to anybody.

"The receptionist says if you want to talk to anybody other than her, you have to write down a written request," she said, adding that she tried that and still got no help.

She said she hasn't received a check since February and when she called was told, "We'll let your caseworker know."

"Why can't I talk to my caseworker? The lady acted like I'm just horrible for even asking why I haven't received a check."

"I'm a human being and I want to talk to somebody who can give me answers," she said.

Waters said he and his staff will make every effort to fix the problems in service but that they have no choice now but to concentrate on NOMADS, which takes most of the staff's time.