DOUGLAS COUNTY CHILD SUPPORT AGENCY

Dennis Arras, Director

LOCATION & CONTACT INFORMATION

Room 202
Courthouse Building
1313 Belknap Street
Superior, Wisconsin 54880
Phone : (715) 395-1327
Fax : (715) 395-1360
E-mail : dennis.arras@douglascountywi.org; lisa.johnson@douglascountywi.org

HOURS

The Douglas County Child Support Agency is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, to meet the needs of our customers.  Those needing contact prior to 8:00 a.m. or after 4:30 p.m. should call for an appointment and/or ask if their caseworker is available during those times. 

MISSION STATEMENT

To ensure adequate financial and medical support for families through an aggressive approach in locating obligors, establishing and enforcing court-ordered child support and medical coverage and in the establishment of paternity and child support collection for non-marital children, so that all families can reduce their reliance on public assistance, and achieve financial independence.

Gross collections for 2007 were down $400,000 primarily due to a change from a fixed dollar amount order from a "percentage of gross" order that automatically adjusted upon a positive or negative change in a payer's income.  This kind of drop was expected when the Wisconsin Statutes changed a couple of years ago.  On the positive side, the County agency has improved statistically in all four most important criteria, such as arrears collections and court orders.  Douglas County was the second most successful county in the state at the end of the Federal Fiscal Year 2007.  This should bode well financially for the county.  Douglas County Child Support Agency collected  nearly $8.5 million in child support in 2006; $7 million of which was paid to residents of Douglas County.  The balance was paid to the State of Wisconsin or other states for enforcement of child support orders.

Each investigator carries a caseload of 450-550 cases on a monthly average.  The staff also assists in initiating income withholding documents for cases which do not require a formal case in the agency.  Douglas County has approximately 700 of those kinds of cases.  The gross cost of the program is $1,000,000; cost benefit ratio is about 10:1 gross collections compared to costs.  This is one of the best Child Support agencies in the State of Wisconsin.

VISION STATEMENT

The Douglas County Child Support Program is recognized as a leader among all the counties in Wisconsin for it’s innovative approach to reach the goals of the state and federal government.  Through a team effort by the courts, civil and criminal prosecutors, Sheriff’s Department, and administrative offices such as Finance and Information Services, the Child Support Agency has consistently increased collections, increased cost efficiency, maintained a high level of professionalism and provided a valuable service to the community.

The agency has the responsibility to establish paternity in non-marital cases with a current success rate of almost 100%.  The CSA will enforce child support orders pursuant to divorce or legal separations through the court system.  We also will pursue child support upon request where no action for divorce has been initiated by either party. 

Collections are made by immediate income withholding by statute.  Payments are withheld and paid to the Wisconsin Trust Fund in Milwaukee by direction of the state and federal government. 

Douglas County Child Support has eight child support investigators and two support staff in addition to the Director, Dennis G. Arras, who has 31 years of experience in child support enforcement.  In addition, there is a public assistance fraud investigator in the agency with 21 years of experience.  Over 70 non-payers were arrested on various non-support issues or charges by our "outside" investigator with the assistance of the Sheriff Department Deputy assigned to work with child support and fraud.  Many thousands of dollars were recovered for families as a direct result of this activity.  We also heard some very good stories from non-payers about why their obligations were not paid.

Welfare fraud is a continuing problem, but the public should know that every possible effort is being used to stop or prevent ineligible persons from getting benefits illegally.