After 37 Years, 'I Cannot Recall a Dull Moment'

Jeff Albaugh accepting the Daniel J. Wright Award.

Jeff Albaugh is a well-known figure in the Michigan IV-D child support program. You might know him from serving on a committee or work improvement team, or because he was honored in 2014 with the Daniel J. Wright Lifetime Achievement Award. Albaugh served as court administrator and friend of the court (FOC) director for Calhoun County Circuit Court from January 1, 1980, through his retirement date of September 26, 2017. He is the last-serving FOC director to have been appointed to his position by the governor.

Over these past years of Albaugh’s career, he has acquired a lot of experience and wisdom in the child support field. We asked him to share some advice and stories with Pundit readers.

What was your career path?

Albaugh says that ending up as an FOC director was “nothing intentional,” but more of an organic path. He had the good fortune to serve as a page in the state Senate in 1965 while he was in high school. His page duties included an assignment to the roster of the lieutenant governor at the time, William Milliken. He developed a relationship with Milliken and grew to admire him as an example of a true public servant.

In the mid-1970s Albaugh was working as Calhoun County’s undersheriff, and he served three terms with the county’s board of commissioners. He was offered the position of county controller in 1976. Shortly thereafter, the 37th Circuit Court judges approached Albaugh to discuss his plans for career advancement. He had not yet thought beyond his county controller position, but the judges were proposing that he transition to a joint position of circuit court administrator and FOC director.

Albaugh had cultivated a good working relationship with the previous FOC director, Bill Camden, through working with him to leverage funding to expand the FOC office and further professionalize staff, so he had some level of familiarity with the Calhoun County FOC. Albaugh chose to accept the proposition; the circuit court judges issued their recommendation to the governor; and the governor – who was by this time the same William Milliken, appointed Jeff Albaugh to the Calhoun County position.

Why he spent his career with the FOC

“I have to say that in those 37 years, I cannot recall a dull moment.” Albaugh says it felt like he worked 37 different iterations of one job, explaining that the office was always adapting to new changes. Staffing levels fluctuated over the years depending mainly on federal funding programs. 

The level of federal involvement in child support also changed quite a bit. Albaugh shed light from a director’s perspective on the difficulty of always trying to achieve good results from a program structured to fit every county in every state, despite all of the unique challenges of individual counties. He has, however, been able to contribute to shaping the program significantly at the state level through involvement with the Friend of the Court Association (FOCA) and working on legislative change work groups.

Notably, Jeff Albaugh was a member of the team that accomplished the 1982 rewrite of the Friend of the Court Act from the original 1919 Act, which greatly changed the structure and functions of FOC offices. That Act, along with the Support and Parenting Time Enforcement Act, ushered in sweeping changes to ensure that children receive the child support necessary for their sustenance. The legislation also for the first time recognized that children not only have the right to financial support from their parents, but also to have access to both parents.

Albaugh reflects fondly on working on both the Friend of the Court Act and the Support and Parenting Time Enforcement Act with legislators like then-state Senator Debbie Stabenow, who he says established a welcoming environment and encouraged a collaborative effort. He is proud to have worked on legislation that provides FOCs flexibility in how they work toward compliance with court orders through alternative options to contempt, like FOC supervision, suspension of occupational and/or recreational licenses, and work release programs. On the flipside, he also found it rewarding to contribute his knowledge and experience to avoiding legislation that would have led to costly and ineffective statutory changes.

Advice on collaborating and networking

Albaugh says that it is essential to be able to network with people in other offices and partner agencies, such as through the Friend of the Court Association (FOCA) and through workgroups and work improvement teams (WITs). These relationships lead to discussions about common concerns and often achieve new answers to old problems through the sharing of ideas and perspectives.

Albaugh went on to say that the most important thing he has learned about networking is to never assign motives. He explained, “When you try to speculate on why a person does or says something, you can spend a lot of valuable time speculating, and often you are not correct and thus end up reacting in a way that is not productive. I think life is too short for spending a lot of time speculating on other people’s motives. If I need to know the why in a situation, then I will ask.”

Most satisfying accomplishments?

One accomplishment at the Calhoun FOC office that stands out for Jeff Albaugh is their transition in 2005 to an OnBase document management system. He says that the difference it made in chasing down files has been “a godsend” because of the reduction in misplaced documents and allowing multiple people to work on documents within a single case simultaneously. He says that despite the trepidation when approaching the transition – because change is always scary in many respects – after only a few months, his whole office was saying, “Where has this been all of our lives?” Albaugh appreciates the efficiency and cost savings, and strongly encourages offices to consider the transition to OnBase.

Favorite quote from his career?

Confusion of 'misdemeanor' with
'Mister Meaner' leads to
a classic Calhoun FOC joke.

Before computer-based case management systems and forms that generate with the click of a button, there were secretaries who typed support enforcement letters on a typewriter.

One day, a Calhoun FOC enforcement officer needed a letter sent out to a parent who had fallen into arrears on his child support obligation, but none of the secretaries were available. The enforcement officer decided to ask one of the file clerks to type and send the letter. The particular file clerk who was asked did not have much typing experience, which was why he was better qualified to work in the file room. The enforcement officer explained that a notice was to be sent to the delinquent parent with an explanation of the amount of payment to be made by a certain date; otherwise the friend of the court office would request a warrant be issued for his arrest.

The letter was sent out efficiently, but the file clerk, unfamiliar with enforcement terminology, unknowingly made a memorable mistake. The delinquent parent showed up at the office two days later, ready to make his payment, saying, “I don’t know what a ‘Mister Meaner Warrant’ is, but I don’t want anything to do with it!”

Interesting changes he observed in the child support program

Albaugh says that technological advances have really impacted client expectations about service delivery. He recalls when he first entered the FOC world, he and his staff were amazed by advancements like the Xerox copy machine and the IBM Selectric typewriter and how these inventions affected their work process. Today, with the immediacy of e-mail, blog postings, and social media, Albaugh says there is an increasing expectation of rapid response and complete satisfaction. He describes this expectation as “The Burger King Mentality,” referencing the advertising slogan, “Have it your way.”  

The child support program has made great progress in tools for client communication since the days of the Selectric typewriter, but according to Albaugh we will have to continually rethink and reimagine client communication strategy as technology progresses.

Albaugh says that a general but profound change during his time with Friend of the Court is the transition of FOC from essentially functioning as a law enforcement agency to more of a human services agency within the court system.

Now, Albaugh says, we see that not all people are motivated by jail to comply with a court order. Also, what is compliance, he asks – how do we define it? There are many factors to consider. He believes that a lot of parents who are not currently compliant with their child support orders would like to be but first need better, more reliable employment. He says parents who have the ability to comply but choose not to do so are the minority of FOC clients.

Albaugh says that providing FOC offices the ability to enforce court-ordered parenting time has made a huge impact on support compliance, and that this has been a major change of the FOC mission, with Michigan leading the way for other states to adopt similar practices. As he steps down from his role at the Calhoun FOC, Jeff Albaugh hopes that the Michigan child support program will continue to progress in this direction.