2009 Annual Report

The Courthouse

- Back to Top -

Welcome to the Seminole County Courthouse.

In the next few minutes, I hope to give you a closer look at the courthouse and a better understanding of the work that is done here every day.

People come to the courthouse for a variety of reasons: some as witnesses or jurors, others to pay a traffic ticket, some come to file for divorce – or apply for a marriage license.

The courthouse is open from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday; a new case is filed every 59 seconds the doors are open to the public.

My office maintains records and files on cases as far back as 1913 when Seminole County was formed. Most are kept on microfilm, but we do maintain the physical files on some cases dating back to 1967. In fact, if you were to take all of the boxes of all of the files we do maintain and stack them on top of each other, the stack would reach nearly six miles into the air. In 2008, more than 41,000 files were added to that stack; to keep up, we scanned more than 3.6 million pages of documents.

This building first opened in 1972 and was originally designed to house all of Seminole County government. The county jail and Sheriff’s Office were located next door and connected to the courthouse by a catwalk. In 1972, Seminole County’s population totaled 107,300, or a little less than a third what it does today. As the county moved up in population, most of county government moved out; to the County Services Building on First Street, to the new Juvenile Justice Center and county jail, to the new Criminal Justice Center at Five Points, and most recently to the Record Center on Lake Mary Boulevard.

Today, the courthouse houses the civil offices of the Clerk, the court administrator, five county judges, and 12 courtrooms. About 1,000 employees work inside the courthouse, including 139 on my staff; still, space is at a premium.

The Criminal Justice Center houses eight of the county’s nine circuit judges (one judge maintains his office at the Juvenile Justice Center), the Public Defender’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office, and 70 of my staff members.

The new Record Center houses the Micrographics, Land Records, Recording, and Purchasing Departments where people visit to record a deed or conduct a title search.

I hope you enjoy this look at the Seminole County Courthouse.

Recording

- Back to Top -

Any time someone buys or sells a piece of property in Seminole County, the transaction is recorded in the Official Records Books of the county.

These records are kept, by law, so that any individual or business can find out who owns, or who has owned a piece of property; the legal description; who holds the mortgage; whether or not any liens have been filed against it, any judgments; or any other pertinent information about the property.

The Official Records Books contain much more than land records, of course. But land records do make up a majority and are requested most often by the public. As Clerk of the Courts, I am responsible for keeping the official records of the county and making them available to you.

As of December 31, 2008, there are more than 1,756,571 records dating back to 1913. The Official Records Books are made up of over 7,169 different volumes; since 1954, each volume has contained 2,000 pages. Last year, we recorded 142,724 documents – more documents than there were people in Seminole County 25 years ago.

The Recording Department is one of the busiest areas of the Clerk’s Office. Hundreds of new documents are submitted to us each day (in 2008, the average was 72 an hour). Title companies, law firms, credit bureaus and many private citizens use our offices to conduct tens of thousands of title searches each year. Eight deputy clerks are assigned to Recording; they are responsible for accepting the documents, recording, cataloging and maintaining them on microfilm (a process that usually takes less than 48 hours) in our land records library located at the Record Center. The library is open to the public from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. Complete sets of the official records are also maintained at our two branch offices, one in the Oak Grove Shoppes in Altamonte Springs; the other in the Wilshire Plaza in Casselberry.

Traffic

- Back to Top -

Speeding is a multi-million dollar business in Seminole County. Last year, state troopers, deputy sheriffs and police officers handed out more than 93,000 traffic tickets; the total face value: nearly $13,113,000 million.

When you pay a ticket in Seminole County, you pay the Clerk. When you take a ticket to court, we set the date. When you receive an orange post card in the mail telling you your license has been suspended, we’re the ones letting you know. Deputy clerks track each ticket, set any court appearances, collect the payments, and notify the Department of Motor Vehicles in Tallahassee if and when you’ve paid. The Criminal Department is located on the first floor of the Criminal Justice Center and is open from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.

If you get a ticket and don’t pay, or don’t come to court, your license will be suspended. If you’re stopped again, you can be arrested and taken to jail. Most people don’t know. In 1991, we began a program – the first of its kind in Florida – of notifying drivers by mail when their license has been suspended. That’s where the orange post card comes in. Last year, we mailed out more than 65,000 of these post cards; resulting in more than $10,335,000 million in payments.

The Criminal Department is responsible for processing traffic tickets issued by the local police departments, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department, the Florida Highway Patrol and other state law enforcement agencies (when the ticket is issued in Seminole County). There are four types of cases filed in Traffic: criminal traffic violations, non-criminal violations, parking tickets, and violations of city and county ordinances.

The Criminal Department is responsible for scheduling all traffic cases that go to court; attending each court session; and recording dispositions of the court. The majority of traffic court hearings are held before hearing officers; hearings are held at the Lake Mary City Hall on Mondays; Winter Springs City Hall on Tuesdays; Seminole County Courthouse on Wednesdays; and Altamonte Springs City Hall on Thursdays. Those hearings that require a county judge are held on Fridays at 9:00 am at the Criminal Justice Center.

To pay a ticket, request a hearing, elect a school option, or seek other information, you should report to the Criminal Justice Center, or to one of our branch offices. The mailing address is: Clerk of the Circuit Court, Traffic Violations Bureau, P.O. Box 850, Sanford, Florida 32772. The Criminal Department is also responsible for collecting fines and costs in misdemeanor and felony cases.

Criminal

- Back to Top -

Today and tonight, and each day and each night in Seminole County, approximately fifty different people – on average – will be arrested.

Most will be taken to the John Polk Correctional Facility at Five Points. Three out of every four will be charged with a misdemeanor. Most will never stand trial.

Each arrest is the first step in a careful and complex process designed to resolve most criminal matters long before the first juror is sworn; a process that includes:

My office is responsible for recording each step in the process – from the arrest to the trial, to any appeal, and for maintaining each criminal case file. Last year, 24,124 criminal traffic, misdemeanor, and felony cases came through the courthouse; 144 went to trial.

Deputy clerks are responsible for administering oaths to witnesses and juries; receiving and marking exhibits; reading verdicts in jury trials; and preparing jail orders and judgments for fines and costs. The Clerk’s Office also is responsible for the inventory, storage and disposal of evidence presented in criminal and civil trials and hearings. (Criminal evidence must be held three years; civil evidence, 90 days). The evidence clerk is also responsible for securing, storing and disposing of electronic tapes of court proceedings.

All appeals are filed with the Clerk’s Office as well. (Circuit Court judges hear appeals from the County Court; the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Daytona Beach hears appeals from Circuit Court).

In Florida, there are two types of crimes, two types of trials. Misdemeanors, petit theft, for example, or driving under the influence, are crimes that can be punished by up to one year in the county jail. Third arrests become felonies. Felonies, the more violent or serious crimes, can be punished by death, or imprisonment in a state penitentiary. Jury trials, by definition, are those trials decided by a panel of six or twelve impartial citizens, selected at random from the community. Non-jury trials are decided by a judge sitting alone.

In Seminole County, misdemeanor cases are heard in county court, felonies in circuit court. Juvenile cases are heard by a circuit court judge sitting alone. Seventy deputy clerks are assigned to the criminal department; eight are assigned to the collections department, both located on the first floor of the Criminal Justice Center. Seven are assigned to the Juvenile Department, located at the Juvenile Justice Center at Five Points. The criminal departments are open from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.

Felony

Felony charges include, but are not limited to, murder, manslaughter, robbery, aggravated battery, aggravated child abuse, sexual battery, kidnapping, burglary, grand theft, willful or aggravated fleeing and eluding a police officer, forgery and passing worthless checks.

Felonies are classified into five categories, based on the severity of the crime:

Currently, four circuit judges hear felony cases. At least one deputy clerk is assigned to take minutes of each hearing or trial (a court reporter also is present).

By law, all persons arrested must come before a judge within 24 hours of arrest except when they have posted bond for a preset amount. (The judge will review the charges against the accused and determine if probable cause exists to hold him in jail). The judge also may set bail at that time. One deputy clerk is assigned to these daily “first appearances.” First appearances also are held on weekends and holidays, and are rotated between all the county and circuit judges.

Grand Jury

On the third Monday in April and the first Monday in November, a grand jury is impaneled to inquire into capital offenses within the county. The grand jury consists of no fewer than 15 jurors and no more than 21 jurors. There must be a quorum, of at least 15 grand jurors, present at any one time in order to proceed. A deputy clerk must be present at the end of each session to receive and file any presentments, indictments or “no true bills” filed by the grand jury. A “no true bill” is filed when the grand jury finds no probable cause to indict.

Upon the filing of an indictment, and if the individual named is not in custody, the clerk is directed to issue a capias for arrest. The indictment and presentment are sealed and not subject to public view until the individual is arrested or one year has elapsed between the return of the indictment.

Misdemeanor

Misdemeanor charges include assault, battery, child abuse, disorderly conduct, petit theft, trespass, and passing worthless checks; Criminal Traffic charges include driving under the influence, driving while license suspended or revoked, driving without a valid driver’s license, and reckless driving. Non-criminal violations include careless driving, unlawful speed, running a red light, failure to show proof of insurance and possession of open containers of alcoholic beverages in a vehicle.

Misdemeanors are classified into two categories:

Currently, five county judges hear all misdemeanors.

A Step into the Future

As Seminole County has grown, so too, has the number of criminal cases. In 1972, the total was just under 9,000 – for the entire year. Ten years later – that number had swollen to 13,947. In 2008, the number of criminal cases in Seminole County has exceeded 24,000 a year. This has placed an enormous strain on the system. One judge, for example, might hear as many as 200 arraignments in a single three to four hour stretch.

To keep up, we are working to automate the paperwork within the system. In the spring and summer of 1990, our office was the first in Florida to introduce bar-coding to the courtroom.

With this program, court clerks – working with a light pencil and a master chart of accounts not unlike the bar codes you’ll find on any grocery store shelf – record proceedings directly into the official computerized record; eliminating the need to take notes by hand in the courtroom, and only later enter the same information by keystroke into the computer.

Bar coding in the courtroom was honored by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government as one of the top 73 innovations in governments in the United States in 1992.

Collections

- Back to Top -

With the advent of full state funding of the state courts in the fall of 2004, the bench, the Bar, the Department of Revenue, and the State Legislature have placed an increased emphasis on courthouse collections. Seminole County is one of the leaders in implementing a formal criminal fines and fees collections program and currently is enjoying more than a 34 percent start-up collection rate.

The Clerk’s Office currently is tracking 50,581 criminal court cases in the system, with fines and fees totaling $27,686,739.69 million. Of that amount, we collected $15,096,388.26, or 55 percent, since October 1, 2004.

When a defendant receives a notice to appear in Court from the Clerk’s Office, he or she is advised that fines and costs are payable the day they are assessed by the court. Financial hardship cases are referred to collections for a payment agreement. A service fee of $25 is assessed for a payment plan for six months or less. Cases are monitored regularly and immediate contact is made with the defendant if a payment is missed.

Juvenile

- Back to Top -

Juvenile cases are divided into three categories: delinquency cases, dependencies and those involving children or a family in need of services. All are confidential and held outside public view or inspection.

Delinquency cases are those involving a child alleged to have committed a delinquent act or a violation of law. If found guilty, a child can be committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice until the child’s 19th birthday (or 21st birthday if child is an habitual offender). Also, a child can be placed on probation until their 19th birthday or issued a judicial warning. If the child is a 1st time offender, he or she can be referred to the PAY Program (Arbitration). The Juvenile Division also has a program called Drug Court.

Dependency cases are those involving a dependent (or alleged to be dependent children). These cases are initiated by an attorney for the Department of Children and Family Services or any other person who has knowledge of the facts. The purpose of seeking a dependency ruling is to protect the child; not to punish the parents. The court retains jurisdiction until the child’s 18th birthday.

“Children in need of services” mean those children who do not fit into either the dependent or delinquent categories. Some examples:

Two circuit judges are assigned to hear juvenile delinquency and dependency cases. The General Magistrate is assigned to hear juvenile dependency cases. The Clerk’s Office is responsible for accepting court fees.

Domestic Relations

- Back to Top -

Nobody wins a divorce; there are only losers and victims. Too often, those victims are children.

In granting a divorce – and Seminole County judges handled 1,779 of them in 2008 – a judge will often order one parent to pay a certain sum of money to the other. In many cases, the money is earmarked for the children. My office acts as the middleman.

Mandated by the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, the state – starting October 1, 1999 – will require child support payments to be made directly to a central site in Tallahassee. The new law applies to all income-deduction orders entered after January 1, 1994; or to any Department of Revenue Title IV-D cases. The central site, in turn, will be responsible for printing and mailing child support payments to the court- ordered recipients.

The Domestic Relations Department also plays a key role in preventing continued abuse in cases of domestic violence. If you’re the victim, a victim’s advocate in the State Attorney’s Office will help you prepare the forms necessary to seek a court order, or injunction. A judge will receive these forms and, in turn, may issue a restraining order protecting you from any further harm.

In 2008, we helped more than 1,702 victims of domestic violence.

Domestic Relations also maintains the court files on adoptions, name changes and court-ordered child support and alimony payments. The division is located on the first floor of the courthouse and is open from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. Twenty deputy clerks are assigned to the department.

Domestic Violence

If a member of your household has committed a crime against you resulting in physical injury, or has made verbal threats against you, you may have grounds to seek an “Injunction for Protection against Domestic Violence.” This protection is available to you if that person presently resides with you (as a member of the family), or has lived together with you in the past, and can be identified as:

Civil

- Back to Top -

Americans want their day in court.

In Seminole County alone, more than 1,664 civil suits are filed each month; the total number of pleadings – or pages – of all the suits filed this year would cover the floor of the Florida Citrus Bowl four times over.

Still most civil suits – like most criminal cases – are settled short of the courtroom; some even on the courthouse steps. Of the 19,972 civil suits (not counting divorce cases) filed in Seminole County in 2008, only 82 were decided in a formal trial. Eleven thousand, one hundred nine additional trials were held in cases filed from 1997-2008.

The Civil Courts Division consists of the following departments:

Civil suits range in size and scope from disputes over an unpaid bill to disputes over land and title or wrongful death; from a few dollars to many million. Unlike criminal cases, in which the state serves as prosecutor, civil suits involve private citizens on both sides; one – the plaintiff – prosecuting a claim against another – the defendant. It is the responsibility of the plaintiff to move a case through the system.

Civil cases are classified by dollar amount:

The majority of the evictions filed are heard in county court; likewise, the foreclosures are generally heard in circuit court, however, because of the jurisdictional limit (amount of the mortgage being foreclosed) some cases could be filed in county court.

Sixteen deputy clerks are assigned to the County Civil Department; twenty-two to the Circuit Civil Department. Both departments are located in the courthouse and are open from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. The County Civil Department is on the first floor; Circuit Civil Department is on the fourth floor.

Landlord and Tenant Disputes

A lease is an agreement to rent property. It may be written or oral. Most are written, however, because oral agreements can be subject to misunderstandings. A written lease can be in the form of a formal contract or simply a copy of a letter that states the rights and obligations of both tenant and landlord. Florida law requires that most notices to and from a landlord must be in writing, even if the rental agreement is oral. In cases where there is no written lease, the term of your rental payment schedule (monthly, weekly, biweekly) will determine the length of the agreement in the eyes of the law.

Small Claims

Small claims are decided in a “People’s Court” setting, simpler, speedier and more informal than regular county or circuit civil court. Often, in a small claims case, both the plaintiff and defendant will represent themselves.

Filing fees for small claims actions are determined by Florida Statutes and are subject to change by legislative action. Fees also vary in accordance with the dollar amount of your claim and the type of action.

Other fees are required for service on the parties you are suing and are dependent on the type of service you select. A current schedule of filing fees is available to you in any clerk’s office for your information.

County and Circuit Civil

The steps through county and circuit civil court are far more complicated – and time-consuming. In these cases, the plaintiff is almost always represented by an attorney.

Again, the lawsuit begins with a complaint. We accept the complaint in my office, and issue the summons provided by the plaintiff, giving the defendant 20 days or more in which to file an answer.

Marriage Licenses

- Back to Top -

At least once a day, the courthouse and its two branch offices double as a wedding chapel or a passport office.

Here in the civil courthouse, the Marriage License and Passport Office is located on the first floor, and is open from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. The West Branch Office, located in the Oak Grove Shoppes in Altamonte Springs, and the East Branch Office, located in the Wilshire Plaza in Casselberry, are open from 8:15am to 5:15pm.

The cost of a marriage license is $93.50; for $30.00 more, a deputy clerk will perform the marriage here at the courthouse. The cost of a marriage license is reduced to $61.00 when counseling is taken through a premarital course. In 2008, we issued 3,047 marriage licenses and performed 843 marriage ceremonies.

The rules are simple:

To apply for a marriage license, you must be 18 years old or older; you and your fiancée must apply together in person, and you must both present either a valid driver’s license or a certified copy of your birth certificate. You must pay in cash or money order.

Passports

Effective July 1, 2008, the cost of a passport is $75.00 plus postage ($60.00 if you are under the age of 16).

To apply for a passport, you must be an American citizen (you do not have to be a Florida resident). You must present either a current or expired passport or a certified copy of your birth certificate. You must provide two identical, two-inch by two-inch, professional passport photos; image size measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head (including hair) should not be less than 1” nor more then 1 3/8”; in color; plain white or light colored background. You must also present valid photo identification.

Separate passports are required for all adults and children traveling abroad. Effective February 1, 2004, adults and children must apply in person. Effective July 2001, both parents must sign for children under the age of 14.

You will make two payments in applying for a passport: One, a $75.00 passport fee ($60.00 if under the age of 16) paid to U.S. Department of State; two, a $25.00 handling fee, plus postage, to the Clerk of the Circuit Court. Payment to U.S. Department of State must be made by check or money order; payment to the Clerk must be made in cash, check, or money order.

Probate

- Back to Top -

In times of crisis – a mental or physical breakdown, or substance abuse – the courts will order an assessment and treatment if needed. If someone dies, the courts will ensure that his property and possessions are divided honestly and fairly. If a child is left alone, or if someone has grown too old or too feeble to care for themselves, the courts will appoint a guardian. In most cases, these decisions are made at the Circuit Court level by the county’s Probate judge.

In 2008, the court appointed 152 guardians; ordered treatment 840 mental health cases; and 843 estates for probate. My office is responsible for maintaining the files and auditing the accounts of these cases. The Probate Department is located on the first floor of the courthouse. Four deputy clerks are assigned to the department.

Finance

- Back to Top -

Government in America today is big business; big business with a catch. Like a business, most government operations are measured by the size of their budget or dollars spent – often counted in the millions and billions. But unlike a business, most government operations don’t turn a profit. Ultimately, most government operations rely on the taxpayer to foot the bill.

The Clerk’s Office in Seminole County is different. We pay our own way and we turn a profit. Every year. The Clerk’s Office is funded through the fines and fees you pay when you come to the courthouse. No tax dollars are involved. Our office is one of only a handful in the state funded through excess fines and fees. And it’s important to remember that we keep only a small portion of the payment you make.

For example, for each dollar we collect on a traffic ticket, we keep ½ cent (plus court costs); for every child support payment we process, we keep between $.81 and $4.27. In 2008, we collected $107,870,057.23 in fines, fees, court costs, child support and alimony payments, and other assessments. We kept $16,787,525.23. With that, we were able to meet all the costs of running the Clerk’s Office – including a staff of 227.

With what was left over, we were able to transfer $26,983.19 to the County Commission and $2,225,839.09 to the state. In the last ten years, we have generated and transferred more than $13,234,581 million in cash to the county; and since 2008, we’ve transferred more than $2,058,399 million to the state. The amount of money flowing in and out of the courthouse would rival that of a small bank:

On any given day, we receive $74,386.36 in child support and alimony payments, and $420,329.49 in traffic tickets and other fines and fees. A typical daily bank deposit for our office includes 690 separate checks or money orders, and $55,992.23 cash.

Most of that we turn around and pay back out; either to the state or to local government or, in the case of a child support payment, to a specific individual. Child support payments are processed within 24 hours of receipt. Each week, we cut more than 872 checks.

The five deputy clerks assigned to Clerk’s Finance are responsible for keeping the books and keeping track of all the dollars in and dollars out. The Finance Department also includes the Purchasing, Personnel and Statistical Reporting divisions, and is responsible for tabulating and reporting case flows to the State Supreme Court. Two additional deputy clerks are assigned to Personnel, three to Purchasing, and two to Statistical Reporting. Finance, Personnel and Statistical Reporting are located on the fourth floor of the courthouse; Purchasing is located at the new Record Center; and Criminal Statistical Reporting is located at the Criminal Justice Center.

Purchasing

- Back to Top -

Each morning, the three deputy clerks assigned to Purchasing collect 1,300 or more pieces of mail from the post office; every night, they send out 1,200 pieces of mail. In between, they provide all the forms and file folders, pens and paper – and the storage space – necessary to keep the courthouse, Criminal Justice Center, Juvenile Justice Center, Record Center, and its two branches running.

And business is brisk.

Each year, we order more than 4,000,000 sheets of copy paper, 870 cartons of computer forms, 350,000 envelopes, 95,000 folders, and several hundred boxes of assorted pens, pencils and paper clips. The size of our purchases range from five dollars (for a signature stamp) to $100,000.00 (for a computer software program).

To guarantee the lowest possible price, the highest discount, the quickest delivery, we shop each order among more than 50 different vendors; most of them located here in Seminole County. In 2008, we placed approximately 670 separate orders, totaling more than $802,570.

The Board of County Commissioners

- Back to Top -

Imagine reaching for a checkbook a foot and a half thick, a bank statement arriving at your door in two or three shopping bags – each one filled with cancelled checks. Imagine making up a bank deposit each night with more than 1,000 different items.

Of all the duties and responsibilities assigned to the Clerk – and there are more than 960 of them – none is more important than keeper of the county’s checkbook.

The Constitution of the State of Florida designates the Clerk as the county’s recorder, the county’s auditor and the county’s chief financial officer. What that means is that my staff and I make sure the county’s bills are paid on time, and that the county maintains the highest credit rating possible.

It might seem unusual: the Clerk, a judicial officer, serving as the custodian of all county funds. The independence of the position however, provides an important check and balance to county government, and a bridge between the two – the legislative and judicial branches of government.

As treasurer, I deposit and disburse the county’s funds. I cut the checks. I make payroll – and in 2008, the county’s payroll was more than $3.18 million; or $1.2 million biweekly.

As auditor, I review and approve each of the county’s bills, prior to payment, and in 2007, that number topped $461.9 million. I also examine outside sources of income – franchise fees, for example, or utility tax receipts – to determine whether or not the county is receiving all the money owed to it; and those organizations receiving money from the county, to guarantee that the money they do receive is spent and recorded properly. I will also conduct internal audits of county government operations, and make recommendations to the County Commission for improvements.

As chief financial officer, I manage and invest the county’s reserve or surplus funds. We make sure the county’s dollars are put to work earning interest. In 2008, we generated $25.1 million in investment income in the low interest rate environment. In 2008, we generated more than $36.4 million in investment income; income that helps offset the need to increase taxes on the citizens of Seminole County.

It’s a complicated job, one that requires more than 200,000 different accounting transactions each year, or about 800 transactions a day. But it’s a job we do well. For twenty-six consecutive years, Seminole County has received the highest national award for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada. Seminole County was one of only a few counties in the United States so honored.

The County Finance Department is separate and distinct from the Clerk’s Finance Department. Eighteen deputy clerks are assigned to County Finance. The department is located in the County Services Building, 1101 East First Street in Sanford, in the old Fish Memorial Hospital building. County Finance is open from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.

Board of County Commissioners

The constitution gives the Clerk one more hat to wear (and more than a few meetings to attend), that of a sixth county commissioner.

The constitution designates the Clerk an ex officio (non-voting) member of the Board. My staff and I attend each meeting of the Board: We record each meeting, prepare, distribute, index the minutes, and keep files on all documents (i.e. leases, agreements, contracts, resolutions, bids and ordinances) approved by the Board. In 2008, that meant 23 different meetings, 276 different resolutions, and 51 ordinances.

Also, I am Clerk to the Value Adjustment Board (VAB), which consists of two County Commissioners, one School Board member, and two Citizen Appointees. The VAB hears petitions relating to objections to property assessments, complaints relating to homestead exemptions, appeals for exemptions denied, and appeals regarding ad valorem tax deferrals and classifications.

As Clerk to the VAB, my staff and I attend each meeting of the VAB. We record each meeting, prepare minutes, and accept and process each petition (including scheduling and notifying petitioners of their hearings and results of same). In 2008, there were 982 VAB petitions filed.

Three deputy clerks are assigned to Board of County Commission records. The department is located on the second floor of the County Services Building on East First Street.

Information Services

- Back to Top -

Once it would have seemed impossible; the stuff of dreams and science fiction writers: all the information contained in all the files – all the names and places, all the charges and dispositions, all the pleadings and payments – fitting into computers the size of three refrigerators.

Today, those computers are the heart and soul of the courthouse’s departmental systems. Highly specialized, designed to be the best for what they do.

Today, the technology exists to allow attorneys to file motions without ever having to leave their office; judges to conduct trials by live video without ever having to set foot in the courtroom; private citizens to thumb through courthouse records without ever having to come to Sanford.

The trick is to keep up with the rapid pace of technology.

The courthouse currently operates on a state of the art HP platform. It serves approximately

110 courthouse users including all branch offices, over 90 Criminal Justice Center users, 10 Record Center users, and through the county network another 350+ users. The systems are also connected through the county’s network to the Sheriff’s Office, State Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, Probate’s Office and Supervisor of Elections Office. Through internet connections, the systems also are connected to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Department of Motor Vehicles and the Florida Association of Court Clerks in Tallahassee.

The courthouse’s HP computer systems are fully networked throughout the courthouse and its branches, allowing all users access to multiple application systems with just a few keystrokes.

The job of maintaining the HP platforms and the departmental applications falls to the Information Services Department. Ten deputy clerks have the responsibility for maintaining the HP platforms, network, fourteen department applications and literally hundreds of users.

Micrographics

- Back to Top -

Any walk through the courthouse would not be complete without answering one final question: Where does all the paper go?

The answer, simply enough, is Boyers, Pennsylvania.

There, deep within an abandoned coal mine, in a vault built to withstand a nuclear blast, microfilm copies of the Official Records of Seminole County find a final resting place in the National Underground Storage Facility. It is the last stop in a complex process designed to preserve and protect the permanent records of government in this county; a process driven by the technicians and the cameramen working in Micrographics.

There are fifteen deputy clerks assigned to the department; seven are located at the Record Center and eight are located in the Criminal Justice Center. They will scan more than three million pieces of paper this year. Working with one of three scanners, each technician will scan up to 2,000 pages an hour, or one new scanned image every two seconds, eight and a half hours a day, 249 days a year. It’s a stream of paper that rarely falls off. The scanned images are then placed on microfilm.

Documents recorded in the Official Records are produced by computer output method. Copies of the Official Records are sent to each branch office, the Property Appraiser, the Right of Way Agent and to Boyers.

Micrographics will scan pleadings for each court file, each progress docket, the minutes of each county commission meeting and hundreds of other types of public records. Most are reduced to a six-inch by four-inch microfische. Most stay right here in the courthouse in a vault.

The original files, however, move on.

State law requires all original non-microfilmed documents to be placed in storage, some for five years, some ten, some as long as seventy-five years. These originals are kept in the county’s storage facility. Once that storage period has expired, the original files are destroyed, the paper recycled.

Micrographics will sell paper copies of the microfilmed documents to the public. The department is located at the new Record Center and at the Criminal Justice Center, and is open from 8:00am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.

The Branches

- Back to Top -

All that’s missing are the courtrooms.

Perhaps the best way, and the easiest, to describe the Clerk’s two branch offices is to describe them as two storefront courthouses. Connected by fiber and modem to the central computer system in Sanford, the two branch offices offer virtually the same services as the main courthouse; without a delay, without the 12-mile drive.

You can pay a traffic ticket at the branches; you can pay for and drop off a document to be recorded. You can apply for a passport or a marriage license; you can file suit. You can even conduct your own title search: each branch contains a complete set of the Official Records Books dating back to 1974.

The first office, the The Casselberry branch opened five years later. That branch is located in the Wilshire Plaza, 376 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 376, just off State Road 436 between Red Bug Road and U.S. Highway 17-92.

Five deputy clerks are assigned to the Casselberry branch; five to Altamonte Springs. Both offices are open from 8:15am to 5:15pm, Monday through Friday. This year, the two branches will serve more than 80,000 people.