Stow man can't believe agency's 15-cent bill

Job & Family Services demands payment for minuscule amount

BY WILLIAM CANTERBURY
Beacon Journal staff writer

At a time when Ohio owes millions of dollars in overdue child-support payments to custodial parents, a Stow parent has received notice that he owes the state . . . 15 cents.

Charles Costanzo, 42, said yesterday he was incredulous when he received a recent letter telling him to pay the state that princely sum by May 1.

``How much money does it cost them to generate a letter?'' Costanzo said.

The answer from the state: It cost 32.8 cents to print and mail Costanzo's bill.

``I'm not sure where the 15 cents originated,'' Costanzo said.

His last child-support payment was due in mid-November, he said -- the month in which he won custody of a child, and when his ex-wife, whom he chose not to name, began paying him child support.

Costanzo is not the only one shaking his head over the bill.

``It's ridiculous the state would send out a bill for that (amount),'' said John Galonski, legal division director of Summit County's Child Support Enforcement Agency.

But he was quick to point out the bill came from an office run by Bank One, which contracts with Ohio Job & Family Services to handle the billing. Child Support Payment Central is the name of the account Bank One established for receiving child-support payments and sending checks to parents.

Job & Family Services has come under fire from critics for illegally withholding amounts paid in arrears on child-support payments.

The state recently reimbursed $1.5 million in such payments involving more than 8,300 cases from October through March, and owes an estimated $5 million more in arrears to an estimated 10,000 families from October 1997 through September 2000, said Ohio Job & Family Services spokesman Jon Allen.

State officials announced in February they had erred in holding back the funds to custodial parents who were on welfare since October. Former state agency Director Jacqueline Romer-Sensky said the state planned to reimburse parents for that additional $5 million, though it was not required to do so. Romer-Sensky recently quit her job in the wake of such announcements.

The state practice of withholding payments that parents had made for overdue child support was banned by federal law in 1996 and the money is now supposed to flow directly to the custodial parents. The provision took effect in October 1997 but was ignored at the time in Ohio.

Referring to Costanzo's closed child-support case, Allen said yesterday that the charge was an ``administrative fee that resulted because the order was not terminated as quickly as it should have been.''

The 15 cents resulted from one day of such fees, and Allen said he believes the federal government requires the state to collect on any support overdue payments.

He said Payment Central ``did what it was programmed to do'' by spitting out the bill.

The state pays Bank One 8.5 cents for each bill printed and 24.3 cents for the bulk rate postage per bill, or a total of 32.8 cents, Allen said.

Summit County's child-support agency, which operates under the prosecutor's office, used to handle the billing. Since the state took over billing, there have been numerous problems, many related to late payments, according to former Prosecutor Michael Callahan and new Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh.

``There was more common sense when it was done locally,'' Galonski said, ``and for 15 cents, there would have been some discretion, but the county now has no control over it.''

Costanzo said he was given no phone number on his billing to call back to question the practicality of being billed that amount. He said he mailed the payment Monday.

``You don't know how weird it is to write a check for zero dollars and 15 cents,'' he said.

The Beacon Journal

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001