COMMISSION DISPLEASED BUT RENEWS PROGRAM PACT

JACKSON - The Cape Girardeau County Commission voted Monday to renew a one-year contract with the state to operate a federally supported Title IV-D program in the prosecutor's office to collect delinquent child support payments.

The new contract begins Wednesday, the start of a new fiscal year in Missouri.

Commissioners had delayed taking action on the contract because of concerns that $6,500 of the profit it made from the program would have to go into a special prosecutor's retirement fund created two years ago.

They have hired Albert Lowes as a special attorney to review potential legal options the commission has in dealing with the payment into the retirement fund.

"We will sign the contract for one year, but signing the contract does not end our dispute over the payment to that retirement fund," said Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep.

"The bottom line in signing the contract is that we did not want the IV-D program to end. We are still consulting with our attorney on other options."

Associate Commissioners Leonard Sander and E.C. Younghouse voted to renew the contract, while Huckstep abstained from voting. All three commissioners stressed Monday they never had any desire to take an action that would jeopardize the service being provided to citizens of Cape County through the IV-D program.

"We all agree the program is worthwhile," said Huckstep.

Lowes met briefly with the commission late Monday morning and provided some information it might want to use in response to requests from the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services that it pay into the retirement fund.

Huckstep said the commission would study the data and make some kind of decision.

The prosecution services office has turned Cape Girardeau County over to a Jefferson City law firm to collect the money it believes the county is required to pay under state law.

Huckstep said he is still not sure it is legal to require Cape County to pay into the fund. With the start of the new fiscal year, Cape County will owe the fund $19,500, which covers three years. The county has never paid into the fund.

"Al Lowes has given us a lot of reasons to constitute a response to the state on this and we'll spend some time to look over his information," said Huckstep.

He noted that there were two distinct issues in this case: whether the money should be paid into the fund and whether the IV-D program should be abolished.

Huckstep said the remaining issue for the commission to decide is whether to pay into the fund.

The presiding commissioner declined to speculate Monday on what action the commission might take. However, in the past he has indicated it would take a court order to entice him to pay into the fund.

Huckstep has complained that it is unfair for prosecutors to have two retirement funds. Cape County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle already is covered by the LAGERS plan for elected officials and employees of the county. All contributions to that retirement plan are paid by the county.

Huckstep said using $6,500 of the profits from the IV-D program to fund another retirement plan amounts to having taxpayers fund two retirements for the prosecutor.

Under the LAGERS program, all elected officials and employees must be covered. The law also requires counties who have IV-D programs to pay into the prosecutors' retirement fund even if the prosecutor is covered by LAGERS.

In the fall of 1989, Swingle wrote the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services to indicate he did not want to participate in the retirement plan. He has also consistently urged the commission to continue supporting the IV-D program because of the service it provides to county citizens.

Huckstep and Lowes both agreed Monday that it is wrong to tap funds from a program designed to help collect child support to benefit a special retirement fund.

Even though Cape County has received more in incentive payments than it has cost to operate the program the last few years, Huckstep and Lowes argued that the program is not profitable for the county once such things as overhead, office expense and potential liability exposure are considered.

Last year, even had the county paid $6,500 to the retirement fund, it would have cleared about $21,000 from the program.