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People on the Move – September 2017
Who’s going where? This is a great opportunity to let us know who is promoting and or joining your organization. These are their new positions. Would you like to let us know who is moving and where? Send email to Stacy Gray to share in our next issue of OneVoice. Butte Cari Erwin – Child Support Specialist III Charlene Vargas – Supervisor, CS Specialist Holliday Davis – Child Support Specialist III Linda Thao – Child Support Specialist II Natiely Lopez Saligan – Child Support Specialist II Nina Gott – Child Support Specialist III Rosa Orozco – Child Support Specialist II Tammy DeFord – Supervisor, Child Support Specialist Teresa Brockman – Supervisor,…
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PI #6 – Percent of Current Support Paid by Percentage Band – Great Concept, Let’s Expand Our Thinking!
By Adam Perry, Child Support Program Manager, El Dorado County DCSS I recently had the pleasure of presenting a tool at the CSDA Membership meeting in early July and then again during a webinar hosted by CSDA in late August. The tool was developed during my time as a Program Planner in Sacramento County and a Program Manager in El Dorado County to expand on the concept of PI #6 and provide a valuable tool to caseworkers to target cases that may need intervention. The Practice Indicators (PI) was created to provide data on Local Child Support Agencies (LCSA) practices that affect the overall service provided to our customers. The…
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Are You Prepared? Lessons Learned from the Detwiler Fire
By Sharon Wardale-Trejo, Director, Merced / Mariposa Regional DCSS On Tuesday, July 18, 2017, I received the notice we all hope to never get, our Mariposa office was ordered to evacuate due to a fast-moving wildfire that was threatening the town of Mariposa. Now, this fire was no surprise. Fire is a constant threat to this community, as it is to many mountainous regions. But with all the rain earlier in the year, this fire season was likely to be worse than recent history. Knowing all of that, were we ready when that call came? Yes and no. Though the fire is now nearly contained and my staff was fortunate…
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BEC or CEO Fraud
Article 2 in a series of 3. By Michael Menz, Director, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Do you know what “BEC” stands for? Not David Beckham, everyone knows David and the Manchester United soccer team. This BEC stands for Business Email Compromise. Another name is “CEO Fraud.” Criminal hackers are like every other businessman: they want to maximum the profit for minimum investment/their time. This type of scam is very profitable since it only needs to be successful a few times to be highly cost-effective for the criminal hacker. Criminal hackers will first do their research before launching an attack. They select the business on which to launch a BEC attack, then…
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San Diego Aims to Break the Cycle of Poverty
By Amy Miragliotta, Deputy Director of Operations, San Diego County DCSS The County of San Diego DCSS (COSD DCSS) established a College Education Savings Account (CESA) team that has been working over the last twenty months to create a program to aid in the fight to end intergenerational poverty. In San Diego County’s child support program, 10,438 custodial and noncustodial parents were previously dependents on their parents’ cases. This trend of adults in child support cases who were formerly dependents is especially alarming among cases initiated by aided participants. In San Diego County, the percentage of both adults and children living in poverty increased from 9.6% of adults and 15.9%…
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Ergonomics and Injury Prevention
Jeff Symons, MSE, CEAS, CEAC – Rehabilitation Engineer You would not want to walk around with shoes that do not fit you well or are the wrong size. In that vein, it is important to have proper fitting equipment at work. However, most people have no idea of the proper ergonomic position or even how to adjust their chair. They just sit down and start working. Often times the chair may be adequate for their needs, but they are unaware of how to adjust it properly. Or the desk height is not right, monitor size and distance are improper, or lighting inadequate. Most people have heard about ergonomics and how…
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Homeless Children Matter
By Ginger Harms Charity Coordinator, El Dorado County Each year, the Child Support Directors Association (CSDA) raises funds to help support a non-profit charity selected by the incoming CSDA president. Historically, these fundraising activities have raised more than $25,000 annually for the selected charity. Don Semon, Director of El Dorado County Child Support Services, has decided to focus fundraising efforts for 2018 on homeless children. As is probably the case with most of you, staff in El Dorado County was unaware of the homeless student population in our community. We had never heard of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, part of which is designed to ensure that children identified as…
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Meet Your Peers – Terri Morelock
Terri Morelock, Director, Shasta County DCSS Growing up in a small town with a population of 900 had its advantages and disadvantages. Everyone knew everyone. My father worked at an automotive repair shop in a nearby town, and my mother was a stay-at-home mom raising three children. Dad did not believe in credit, so he built our family home wall by wall as he could afford it. One day, the repair shop owner decided to close the shop, which left my dad unemployed. Money was always tight in those days, and unemployment was not enough to feed the family. Government assistance was not an option. My parents believe in working…
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Meet Your Peers – Marcus Mitchell
Marcus Mitchell, Director, Kern County DCSS I was born in Los Angeles and raised in the small suburban community of Valinda, California. I had a great childhood playing in a safe neighborhood with a multitude of friends on my street. We played baseball in the street and the hoop was at my house where we played basketball as well. While I wasn’t the best athlete, we were a great group of friends. I attended William Workman High School and graduated in 1980. I was also a member of my school band and eventually ended up marching in the Sacramento Freelancers Drum and Bugle Corp for three summers. I was fortunate…
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LPC CORNER – September 2017
By: Colin Anderson, Lead Attorney, Yolo County DCSS Honoring Chief Counsel Kathy Hrepich On August 3 and 4, the Legal Practices Committee met at the offices of the Judicial Council in Sacramento. Previously we had been informed that DCSS Chief Counsel Kathy Hrepich was retiring. Kathy began a distinguished career in 1981, which saw her serve as a Deputy District Attorney in three different counties. Kathy served as the Chief Deputy DA for Nevada County and then transitioned to the Director of Nevada County Child Support Office to eventually being appointed Chief Counsel for State DCSS. This lead to being named Interim Director of DCSS. She retires as Chief Counsel…
