As an employee of the Office of Recovery Services, I was dismayed at a Nov. 29 article in the Deseret News. I feel that some of the accusations made were not truly representative of the agency.
I am disappointed at Sen. Lane Beattie's remark that we aren't overburdened at ORS, and at his implication that we need to learn to do more with a lot less. I started working for ORS in 1981 and have seen ever-increasing pressure put on employees' workloads. Since fiscal year 1984 alone, ORS has experienced an 87 percent increase in staff to try to compensate for a staggering 165 percent increase in workload.Compare the caseload growth with a 272 percent increase in collections over the same 10-year period, and one will find that ORS has been doing more with less for some time. The office of the legislative fiscal analyst criticized the reduced cost-benefit ratio in ORS's collections figures; in spite of that decrease, Utah's child-support collections still rank fourth in the nation for every dollar it is funded in terms of its returns to the state.
ORSIS, the office's enhanced and imminent computer system, has faced criticism as being potentially outdated before it will be implemented. This new system has taken longer to become reality in part because of the changes that became necessary for ORSIS to keep up with revisions in federal and state laws. I had the opportunity to have a hands-on experience assisting in ORSIS testing; out of that experience came my personal confidence in, and eagerness over, how the system will automate many of the functions ORS workers now have to perform manually. ORSIS will help free up employees' time to devote to greater enforcement measures and will facilitate immensely in the most urgent aspects of our work.
I hope that you will give the public opportunity to see that ORS employees take seriously their charge to perform essential collection efforts for single parents and for all the other various state-administered programs that they serve.
Since many ORS clients have strong feelings against ORS employees because of the collections work in which we are involved, I would prefer that my name not be used.
Name withheld