COUNTY TO TRACK WORKERS NOT PAYING CHILD SUPPORT.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

Deadbeat parents who are drawing a salary from Los Angeles County or its contractors were put on notice Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors that they better start paying child support.

The supervisors asked staff to create a new ordinance requiring county departments to work with the District Attorney's Office to identify county employees who are not paying child support. In addition the departments were directed to require contractors and vendors to enforce child support payment on their employees as well.

``If you want to work for this county or do business with this county, you better pay court-ordered child support,'' said Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. ``We are the largest employer in the county and we are going to use our leverage and do what's right. If the county will take the lead we can go knocking on the doors of the cities. But it's critical that county take the lead first.''

Both the federal government and the city of Chicago have similar programs. A group called the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support Inc. lobbied the supervisors to create a new policy. The group is currently trying to get similar measures passed in Monterey, Contra Costa, Sacramento and Sonoma counties.

The supervisors asked the District Attorney's Office to work with county lawyers and auditors to come up with a new ordinance outlining how the new system will work.

Wayne Doss, director of the Bureau of Family Support within the District Attorney's Office, said employees who owe child support would have their wages garnished, but would not be fired for nonpayment.

``The idea here is to get their money,'' Doss said.

But the bureau has been hampered in finding deadbeat parents who work in government jobs. Unlike private employers, public agencies like the county are not required to report the wages they pay out. Private employers are required to make such reports to the state quarterly.

Under the new system the county would make its personnel records available to the bureau. Doss said the new ordinance would include language requiring county contractors to compel their employees to pay child support or risk losing county business.