It’s Not for Everyone

Orange County’s Early Welfare Fraud Detection Program is one of Supervisor Roger Stanton’s pet projects. He began pushing it four years ago, and managed to plant it firmly in Orange County government, despite some real doubts about its essential fairness. We can understand his fervor, and perhaps no great harm will be done by experimenting with his approach in one jurisdiction. What we can’t understand is why he keeps insisting that every county in the country must now adopt his plan.

The fact is that not everyone likes or wants his approach, but here is Stanton again ready to launch a major drive to have Orange County’s program adopted as a model for jurisdictions throughout the United States.

It was about two years ago that Stanton, with the backing of Gov. George Deukmejian, was pushing to require all California counties to adopt Orange County’s program. It wasn’t a good idea then. It still isn’t.

We don’t oppose the program’s goal, which is to reduce welfare fraud by keeping cheaters from getting onto welfare rolls in the first place. We accept the findings of a recent study that the program is “cost-effective”--meaning that savings are greater than costs of operation, although how much is actually being saved is open to argument.

We do, however, still have the same concerns that we had then. One stems from criticism raised by welfare-rights attorneys who are disturbed about the propriety of mixing social services with the criminal-justice system by stationing district attorney’s investigators in welfare offices to screen applicants for aid. They worry that the practice could intimidate some legitimate applicants who would then not apply for benefits that they are eligible to receive.

This is a justifiable concern that San Diego County resolved when it adopted a fraud-detection plan similar to Orange County’s, except that San Diego uses social-service workers rather than district attorney’s investigators. San Diego thinks that its program is even more effective and less expensive. And it doesn’t want Orange County’s program foisted on it. Nor did many other California counties, most of which have some kind of fraud-prevention program; they resisted the governor’s plan to impose Orange County’s approach on them in 1983.

We think that other jurisdictions, in California and elsewhere as well, have the right of self-determination. If the federal government wants to require each program to include a fraud-prevention effort, that’s fine. But it should let each agency use the approach that it believes is most effective, economical and best suited to its needs. Orange County wants it that way. So do the others.