Cheryl Genzling

Cheryl Genzling has been waiting 11 years for her ex-husband to begin making his court-ordered child support payments.

While she be been waiting, she and her two sons have often lived in efficiency apartments, with the boys sharing a pullout couch and her sleeping on the floor.she be had to borrow money from family and friends and rely on members of her church to make sure her sons do not go to bed hungry.

While she tries to be independent, the wait has been long and her options few.Genzling has often swallowed her pride and hauled herself down to the Broward County welfare office to get food stamps and other public assistance so her family can survive for yet another month.

During these 11 years, through all the waiting, the humiliation and disappointment, the Coral Springs woman also has learned an important if painful lesson : Child support is a low priority for the justice system..

Despite all the tough political talk about making deadbeat parents pay up and a plethora of supposedly innovative programs to make them do it, the reality is that government officials who have the power to find delinquent parents and shake the money loose, could not care less, say Genzling and others who have watched the system flounder.

According to federal estimates, 30 million children are owed $ 50 billion in unpaid child support.In Florida, an estimated 1.6 million children are owed $ 2 billion.

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Genzling's 1985 Nissan has 280, 000 miles on it.If it dies, she do not know how she will ferry her oldest son from doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment, how she will get to classes at Broward Community College or to part-time jobs that help keep her family afloat.

And she do not know what else she could do to make her ex-husband honor his obligations.

Unlike hundreds of other women who lack either the time, the energy or the intelligence to track down their children's fathers, Genzling has dogged her ex-husband with the determination of a bloodhound.

she be filled out paperwork till her fingers cramped.she be hired a private investigator.she be sent hundreds of letters and made scores of phone calls to Texas and New Mexico to figure out exactly where he is so she can alert the authorities to go and get him.

But all she has to show for her efforts are stacks of paper that detail her frustrating search.

She knows her case be not an easy one.Her ex-husband lives out of state, runs his own business on a cash-only basis and skips over state lines when he suspects she be getting close.Countless searches have turned up no evidence that he has a bank account or property in his name.he be very resourceful, she says.

Because he do not have an employer, he be difficult to find.Even if he is found, since he do not receive a regular paycheck, officials can not have his child support payments automatically deducted from his weekly checks.That he skips back and forth across state lines is also problematic.

Genzling has filed necessary paperwork in Texas only to discover her ex has moved over the state border into New Mexico.Once he shuffles across a state line, she has to start the process all over again.

There have been various times when she thought all her efforts were going to pay off.Several years ago, a private investigator she hired actually located her ex-husband.For a few months, he made partial payments : $ 20 one month, $ 50 the next.But eventually, the payments stopped.

Then, a year ago this month, Genzling was told he was being taken into court in Texas.

They had him, she says.They told me all they had to do was verify his employment.They said I should have a check within 30 days..

It never came.Nothing happened, she shrugs.

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Genzling is still galled by a phone call in which she learned her ex-husband had received a sizable worker's compensation claim.She found out about the claim while calling around the small West Texas town where she suspects he lives, trying to find an attorney who would help her find him.One attorney explained he could not help her because he represented her ex-husband in a worker's compensation case.

Now, if he was going to get that money, why could not [ government officials ] find out about it and seize it? she wonders.

David Bruns, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Revenue, insists the agency is doing all it can to help women like Genzling get the money they and their children deserve.

But, he says, it be not easy.

People do amazing things to avoid paying child support, Bruns says.The hostility is so enormous that people use their children to punish each other, and one way to do it is to not pay child support..

Working only for cash is a common ruse, because men realize if they do not work a regular job they will not leave a paper trail for their ex-wives or government investigators to follow.Many will work under false names, using false Social Security numbers or list any assets they have in their girlfriends' and new wives' names.

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Because Genzling has been on public assistance on and off for 11 years, some of the money she would get from her ex-husband would go to the government.But she be more than willing to share.The amount she received in public assistance pales compared to the roughly $ 40, 000 she be owed.

First, of course, someone has to find her ex-husband and make him support his children while they be still children.As each year passes, the prospect looks increasingly slim.What we need is a national collection system, Genzling says.

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In the meantime, neither Kline nor Genzling see any immediate hope for legislation that will give women the muscle they need to get their children the money they deserve.
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Women, Genzling says, must learn to navigate the unfriendly system themselves and force it to help them.In hopes of helping other women, she has started a Broward County chapter of ACES.About three dozen women have responded to flyers she be posted at various county libraries and branch campuses of BCC and Florida Atlantic University.The next meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 15 at the West Regional Library at 8601 W. Broward Blvd. in Plantation.

If I can not get money for my children at least I can help other women and prevent them from going through what i have gone through, Genzling says.

Despite the passage of time, she have not entirely given up hope.

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Recently, state revenue department officials told Genzling that the U.S. Attorney's Office is being asked to prosecute her ex-husband for failure to pay child support.The charge is now a felony.

Genzling has been trying to get the state to prosecute her husband for nearly two years.Now, she says, maybe something finally will happen.

But she be gotten her hopes up before.

And she be still waiting.

Anyone who wants more information about the Broward ACES chapter can contact Cheryl Genzling at 954/255-1697.The national organization can be reached at 800/738-2237 or on their Web site at http : //www.childsupport-aces.org/.