[] the Child Support Advisory Commission Met at 9:00 A.M. On
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Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Rough Draft CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION September 09, 2014 [] The Child Support Advisory Commission met at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 9, 2014, in Room 1113 of the State Capitol, Lincoln, Nebraska. Members present: Senator Brad Ashford; Senator Kathy Campbell; Angela Dunne; Amy Holmes; William MacKenzie; Hon. Paul Merritt; Hon. Karin Noakes; Troy Reiners; Monty Shultz; Corey Steel; Eric Thompson; and Byron Van Patten. Members absent: None. SENATOR CAMPBELL: Good morning, everyone. I'm Kathy Campbell, and I represent the 25th Legislative District in the Legislature. And Senator Ashford has asked me to chair the meeting today. I am most accustomed to chairing the Health and Human Services Committee. And so things may seem a little bit different to all of you. And I apologize for that but we are certainly looking forward to today's agenda. I'm just going to remind everyone in the audience and actually in the front, make sure that your cell phones are turned off. It's very disconcerting to hear a cell phone going off. There will be no penalty if it does, but we would appreciate that. I think we'll go ahead and...I'm going to use the practice that we use in the Health and Human Services Committee, and that is that people introduce themselves. So I'm going to start to my far right and ask Dr. Thompson to start. ERIC THOMPSON: Thank you. My name is Eric Thompson. I'm an associate professor of economics at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] TROY REINERS: Yes. My name is Troy Reiners. I represent the State Treasurer's Office. And I'm the director of the Nebraska Child Support Payment Center. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] ANGELA DUNNE: My name is Angela Dunne. I'm a divorce lawyer from Omaha, Nebraska. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] 1 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Rough Draft CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION September 09, 2014 AMY HOLMES: I'm Amy Holmes, and I'm here as a custodial parent. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] PAUL MERRITT: Paul Merritt, district judge, Lancaster County. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: And we'll go over here. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] WILLIAM MACKENZIE: Good morning. William MacKenzie, deputy Sarpy County Attorney. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] BYRON VAN PATTEN: Byron Van Patten, IV-D director with the Department of Health and Human Services. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] COREY STEEL: Corey Steel, Nebraska state court administrator. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] MONTY SHULTZ: I'm Monty Shultz. I represent the noncustodial parents. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: Thank you. And serving as the person who takes all the notes and knows everything that's going on here is Oliver VanDervoort to my left. And I want to thank Josh Eickmeier who is serving from the General Affairs Committee. Am I saying that right, Josh? He's helping us out today. So, much appreciate that. Josh will be our attorney, of counsel to the committee, and helping us for the remainder of our work. We will start out this morning with the call to order. I want to mention that we are subject to the Open Meetings Act and all business will be conducted according to the provisions of that law. There is a copy of Nebraska's Open Meetings Act at the podium 2 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Rough Draft CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION September 09, 2014 or I think at the table over there. And there is also a binder that can be reviewed. There are extra materials. Each of the committee members has a binder, but if you would like to review it you certainly can. Any binding action the commission takes will be initiated by a motion followed by a second and a roll call vote. With that, do we have a motion to approve the agenda? [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] _________: So moved. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: Is there a second? [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] _________: I second. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: Thank you. Ollie, would you call the roll, please? [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] OLIVER VANDERVOORT: Senator Campbell. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] OLIVER VANDERVOORT: William MacKenzie. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] WILLIAM MACKENZIE: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] OLIVER VANDERVOORT: Corey Steel. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] COREY STEEL: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] 3 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Rough Draft CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION September 09, 2014 OLIVER VANDERVOORT: Judge Merritt. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] PAUL MERRITT: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] OLIVER VANDERVOORT: Angela Dunne. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] ANGELA DUNNE: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] OLIVER VANDERVOORT: Dr. Thompson. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] ERIC THOMPSON: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] OLIVER VANDERVOORT: Byron Van Patten. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] BYRON VAN PATTEN: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] OLIVER VANDERVOORT: Troy Reiners. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] TROY REINERS: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] OLIVER VANDERVOORT: Monty Shultz. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] MONTY SHULTZ: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] 4 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Rough Draft CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION September 09, 2014 OLIVER VANDERVOORT: Amy Holmes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] AMY HOLMES: Yes. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: Good morning. We're going to make you work right away. Would you introduce yourself? [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] KARIN NOAKES: I'm Karin Noakes. I'm a district court judge. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: Judge, we're happy to have you with us. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] KARIN NOAKES: Thanks. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: I think we've taken care of all of that. The minutes are posted on the Web site, I believe Ollie said. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] OLIVER VANDERVOORT: They are posted to (inaudible)...council (inaudible)... [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: On the council's Web site, and so they will be available to you. And so we will not take a motion because I'm sure most of us have not had a chance to take a look at them. Senator Ashford, we're going to find a spot for you. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR ASHFORD: I'll sit right here. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: No, I don't think you want to spend all morning there in the 5 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Rough Draft CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION September 09, 2014 front row. We'll find...they'll get you a chair. All right, with that... [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR ASHFORD: When you're a lame duck, you're a lame duck. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: Is that it? Is that what happened? (Laughter) You have to sit in one of the chairs out there? We're going to find you a chair. It's good to see you, Senator Ashford. This morning we have a very important presentation to the committee. We've been looking forward to meeting Dr. Venohr and having an opportunity to hear her presentation, ask questions. Dr. Venohr, if you're ready. And I think I learned how to pronounce that name, so. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] JANE VENOHR: (Laugh) Yes, the H is (inaudible)...good eastern European name. Are you ready? [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] SENATOR CAMPBELL: You bet. [CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION] JANE VENOHR: For the record, I'm Dr. Jane Venohr; that's spelled V-e-n-o-h-r. I'm the economist with Center for Policy Research, which is based in Denver. CPR is a nonprofit organization established in 1981 to provide evaluation and technical services in the health, human, education area. We contract with the Federal Office of Child Support, several states, school districts, the Casey Foundation. We do research on access and visitation. We've done a lot of the research that finds that access and visitation programs work as far helping link fathers and children and enhancing relationships and child support. We are also involved right now in what's called the Father Research and Practitioner Network that the director of my agency is codirector with Dr. Jay Fagan at Temple University. And I encourage everyone to look at that site. Again, it's called the Fatherhood Research and Practitioner Network, and it's the abbreviations of that, dot "org." As far as my experience, I have a Ph.D. in economics. 6 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Rough Draft CHILD SUPPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION September 09, 2014 I've been working with child support guidelines for over 20 years now. I've been with the Center for Policy Research since 2007. Since I joined CPR in 2007, I've assisted about 25 states with their child support guidelines reviews. It kind of ebbs and flows. Last year I did maybe two state guidelines reviews. This year I've been working with Nebraska; Arizona, I was in Arizona last week; New Mexico; and I just finished Virginia. And I'm about to start a project with Ohio, so. And how an economist is involved with child support guidelines is most states base their child support guidelines on how much it costs to raise children or how much families spend on children. So that's why an economist gets involved, so. And I'm going to take questions from the commission members as needed or when I see questions on your face.