Linda Delmonico-Prussen
Tripp insists that her story is typical of the many custodial parents having difficulty receiving the child support that they are awarded in court, but the results of her struggle are remarkable.
Tripp married for the first time at the tender age of 22, became a mother at 23 and at 27 found herself divorced and struggling to pay her bills and raise her 4-year-old child. Tripp was awarded child support in court as part of her divorce, but her ex-husband simply wouldn't pay up. Tripp said, "He would send me $50 now and then.
Tripp contacted then-County Executive Thomas Gulotta (R-North Merrick), and in his office, she told him about her troubles. Gulotta's office arranged for her ex-husband to make support payments through the county, in an effort to force him to pay on time. Despite the county's intervention, Tripp still received payments sporadically.
In 1989, Tripp remarried and had two more children. According to Tripp, her ex-husband, though still financially responsible for his daughter, continued to miss support payments.
Then, in 1997, Tripp saw a Lifetime channel movie that changed her life. The movie, Abandoned and Deceived, dealt with the exact problem that Tripp was experiencing -- an ex-husband who wouldn't pay child support. At the movie's end, Tripp saw a phone number for ACES, the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support. ACES is a national organization with chapters in every state, including one in Nassau County.
Through ACES, Tripp learned about the options available to custodial parents who aren't receiving support. Tripp said, I followed them [ACES members] around, learned as much as I could and went to Washington, D.C. In the nation's capital, ACES holds a week of workshops attended by organization members from around the country.
Tripp volunteered to help ACES in any way she could in 1997 and was offered a staff position with the organization in 2000. Tripp, who had previously worked as a production manager for a medical supply company, was reluctant to start working again because her top priority was and still is being there for her children. Eventually, she agreed to take the job on a trial basis. Now, three years later, she said, I just love it. I just can't stop doing it at this point.
Through ACES, Tripp has pushed for an increase in enforcement personnel to ensure that non-custodial parents pay what they owe in child support. Right now, Nassau County has a special investigative unit whose primary responsibility is to locate funds that non-custodial parents might have hidden.
About 95 percent of our [ACES] members have spouses that are self-employed, or are Ôoff the books,' said Tripp. The lack of a steady paycheck makes tracking down those who are delinquent in their payments difficult at best. However, thanks to the special investigative unit, Tripp said one ACES member collected more than $30,000 from an ex-husband who had claimed he had no money.
The county's investigative unit can now get administrative subpoenas, which allow agents to look at the credit reports of parents who have skipped support payments and even allows them to examine any loan or credit applications for which the parents have applied.
According to Tripp, lobbying efforts by ACES led to Nassau County's recent roundup of deadbeat parents by deputy sheriffs. Family Court issues warrants for the parents to appear in court for non-payment of support.
Despite the warrants, getting the deadbeats to show up for court is rarely easy. That's where the deputy sheriffs come in -- to essentially arrest the non-custodial parents and bring them in. Once rounded up, the deadbeats are held until they go before a hearing examiner. At that point, Tripp said, most of the non-custodial parents pay something as a good-will gesture of support. During the county's last roundup, which took place recently, 26 deadbeats were taken in and $11,000 in support payments was collected.
Gonsalves said of Tripp, She's an amazing women. I'm happy to know her; in fact, I'm proud to know her. When it comes to advocating for children, she's extremely tenacious. She doesn't let go.
Despite her success, Tripp is eager to do more to support custodial parents. Tripp also hopes to have Nassau County warrants for deadbeat parents entered into a New York State computer system that would allow enforcement agents to track them from county to county.
Tripp said that, most important, custodial parents must recognize, You're not alone. You can't be embarrassed. It can happen to anybody. She encourages parents who are having trouble collecting
support to come to an ACES meeting. For more information, call (516) 795-1595, or log onto the ACES Web site at www.childsupport-aces.org.
