Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Digest
State levies fine on Child Support Services
By Times Staff Writer
Published September 13, 2007
TAMPA A child support collection company doing business in Pinellas County has been fined a quarter-million dollars for violating a court order that banned it from doing business in Florida, authorities said Wednesday. "Under no conditions will my office permit unscrupulous individuals to steal money from children," said Attorney General Bill McCollum. He said Child Support Services of Atlanta violated a 2006 injunction prohibiting businessman Stuart C. Cole and his companies from collecting child support payments in Florida. McCollum alleged that the companies charged contingency fees on child support payments by misrepresenting income deduction orders and other legal documents to noncustodial parents and their employers. State prosecutors sued the companies, and the case was settled last year. A circuit judge levied the new $250,000 fine against the company, McCollum said. No one with Child Support Services of Atlanta could be reached for comment Wednesday. LARGO City backs off plans for MLK memorial The beleaguered plan to honor Martin Luther King Jr. is once again on the back burner. Largo city commissioners Tuesday night unanimously chose to yank funding for the memorial. Instead, they will earmark a quarter of the amount they once planned to spend as seed money to possibly honor King in the future. BROOKSVILLE Sprawling project would straddle I-75 The Hernando County Commission paved the way for drastic changes to the east side of the county Wednesday, approving a master plan for a development district near Interstate 75 and the biggest project in the district, Sunrise. The commission unanimously approved the agreement that creates Sunrise as a development of regional impact with 4,200 houses, 600 apartments, enough commercial space for two Wal-Mart Supercenters, offices, a hotel and a golf course. If built, it will be the county's largest residential project since Royal Highlands in the 1970s. The plan for the 4,800-acre development district south of State Road 50 and straddling the interstate uses a new concept in Hernando: higher-than-normal impact fees to pay for building a network of roads. The state Department of Transportation also signed off on the plan, which department official Bob Clifford said was new for this part of Florida. "Not only are we excited about it, we're already working with other counties to use this exact same concept," Clifford said. ZEPHYRHILLS Performing arts center lost to budget cuts City Council members have passed a nearly $17-million operating budget for fiscal year 2007-08 and set the city property tax rate. The rate is a substantial drop from past years, but it came at a price. The city slashed spending on capital expenditures like a long-sought performing arts center and new vehicles for some departments.
[Last modified September 12, 2007, 23:32:55]
Share your thoughts on this story
Comments on this article
|
by deprived and deceived
|
09/30/07 04:10 PM
|
|
The State should be sued and accused of depriving children of their legal right to support. We should have the right to choose if we want to contact with the State (who uses contracted collection agencies i.e. attorneys bid for contract) or private!
|
|
by Deceived
|
09/30/07 01:15 PM
|
|
As single mother of two, Fla deceived and deprived children 18yrs of due child support; I would have gladly used Stuart Cole's company & gladly paid the fee; better than nothing and I dont care how phones were answered; at least they answered phones!
|
|
by Lary
|
09/13/07 09:42 PM
|
|
The Florida Attorney General's Office wants to maintain its monopoly over child support collections. Of course a state-owned monopoly would try to cast the picture that it is the only one good enough to collect. That persona keeps it in business.
|
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Letter to the editor
