2020 Annual Report

Top 10 Social Media Posts This throwback photo was shared to celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth.

Did you know Clerk Russell was the first Black Female Clerk in the State of Florida?

We encouraged future world travelers to obtain their #passport with a fun #SpringBreak promotion campaign.

Clerk Russell created a video to thank Orange Appeal for the honor of being selected as a 2019 Woman of the Year!

Clerk Russell and staff celebrated Winter Park and Goldenrod Branch Manager Dawn Braddy’s graduation from Leadership Winter Park.

We hosted a Valentine’s Day group wedding ceremony at the Downtown Orlando Courthouse rotunda for nearly 20 couples.

FOL LOW US ON SOC IAL MEDIA: OrangeClerk

OrangeClerk

MyOrangeClerk

Orange County Clerk of Courts

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20 / 20 VISION:

A New Decade Dedicated to You and Our Community As we kicked off 2020, we also launched into a new decade with a vision for 2020 and beyond.

I’m sure many more new challenges, opportunities, and successes are on the horizon. In this day and age of living in a digitally driven world, I couldn’t be more excited to serve as your Orange County Clerk of Courts.

My office has been hard at work laying the foundation for the next three years by developing a new strategic plan. The goal is to continue to elevate the Clerk’s Office to make it easier for customers to do business with us. It’s no secret that in order to do that, we have to continue to make enhancing digital technology one of our top priorities. Even this annual report is now being created in a more interactive digital format. At the same time, the challenge is to stay ahead of cyber security issues as well.

Meet the Clerk

Learn more about Orange County Clerk Tiffany Moore Russell at myorangeclerk.com

The strategic objectives for my office for the next three years are Beyond Digital Transformation, Employee Focus, Access to Justice, and Fiscal Accountability.

I encourage you to read through this report to see real examples where my office has worked to serve and help our community and customers. Examples of this include our Operation Green Light events, payment plans and options, restoration of rights assistance, and free legal forums to name a few.

I am blessed to have a knowledgeable, professional, and committed staff of 430 employees who are focused on taking care of our customers. I am always amazed at all that we have been able to achieve and cannot wait to see what we can accomplish in this new decade!

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and our community.

Tiffany Moore Russell Orange County Clerk of Courts

Clerk Russell Honored for Her Service & Commitment Clerk Russell is deeply humbled and honored to have received several recent honors and recognitions. First, she was one of 56 leaders across the entire state of Florida selected to participate in Leadership Florida, an 8-month experience that has taken her, corporate CEOs, business owners, educators, elected officials, and non-profit executives to communities across the state to build commitment and passion for Florida.

Secondly, Clerk Russell was honored to speak about her journey and commitment to serving the community at the Orlando Women’s Conference as one of Orange Appeal Magazine’s Women of the Year. Clerk Russell was featured as a talented active female leader born and raised in Orange County and described as one of six “brave, bold, and dynamic women in Central Florida recognized as accomplished, articulate, and passionate.”

Finally, Clerk Russell was honored as one of four community leaders to receive the 2019 Whitney M. Young Service Award for her outstanding service to the community. Whitney M. Young Service Award is a national recognition by the Boy Scouts of America for those “unsung heroes” who provide exceptional service for disadvantaged youth.

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Our Guiding Principles (CCVIP)

Our New Strategy

C

Collaboration

C

Community Focus

V

Valued Workforce

OPEN & ENGAGING

SERVING & PROVIDING ACCESS

DIVERSE CONTRIBUTION

I

Innovation

P

Professionalism

ENHANCEMENT & ABILITY

CARING & RESPECT

Our Mission

FY 2020-2022 Strategic Plan Want to know more about the Clerk’s Office’s new Strategic Plan? Watch this video.

In order for our organization to achieve its best, the Clerk’s Office recognizes that thinking and planning strategically is a big priority. This year we are embarking on a new Strategic Plan that is focusing on what matters the most: our customers, our employees, and the community.

It’s no secret that digital technology has to be a key objective for any organization these days, but we are working to go beyond the typical digital advances and stretch the limits to make doing business with us quicker and easier.

To maintain court records and provide our global community and partners access to related services with transparency and integrity.

Our Vision We are a leading organization that elevates the customer experience, leverages technology, and fosters community partnerships all through an engaged workforce.

Our Objectives

Beyond Digital Transformation Transform the organization and its culture by evolving our digital framework, enhancing data security, and utilizing analytics for decision making.

Employee Focus

Access to Justice

Intentionally seek, develop, engage, and maintain an agile, highly skilled workforce that evolves with the needs of the organization.

Develop and expand access to clerk services for all in the community.

Fiscal Accountability Maximize our financial resources to ensure successful implementation of organizational goals.

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All About Our Customers Connecting With Us Is Now Easier NEW! One of the ways we have made it easier for you to contact us is through an upgraded online system accessed via our website. To see it, go to myorangeclerk.com and select “Contact Us”.

You Have Options When Making a Payment This new software that we launched in 2019 provides better routing to make sure inquiries go to the appropriate division faster. We also made the contact form easier to use by offering drop-down menus.

Customers receive an email confirmation when a ticket is opened or closed related to their inquiry. You can even create an account through our system to keep an eye on the status of your request in real time.

Whether you’re paying on a traffic ticket or a criminal case, we know coming up with all the money at once can be difficult. That’s why the Clerk’s Office offers several payment options to help. We created a fun video featuring Slice to help explain more.

The Criminal Division Makes a Move NEW! To consolidate resources and provide a one-stop location for all payments, our Criminal Division moved in with the Traffic Division in Suite 410 of the downtown courthouse. This means now our Criminal and Traffic Divisions’ front counters are located together for all payments or general inquiries.

Criminal Intake, Appeals, and Sealing/Expungements are now located in Suite 210 to better serve law enforcement, bondsmen, and other agencies. The goal of these moves is to improve customer service.

You may be able to file for a payment extension or even get on a payment plan. We also make it easy for you to make payments. They can conveniently be completed right from our website, any of our five locations, Amscot or Western Union or by mail. You can also pay by cash, personal check, money order, cashiers check or credit card. You don’t have to wait for a special event to get help with payment plans. For more information about available options, check our website.

Payments can be made:

Online with my eClerk

In person at any of our locations

By mail

At any Amscot or Western Union location

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Clerks Serve

2019 Valentine’s Day

Newlyweds

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage

On February 14th, seventeen couples said, “I do!” in a group wedding ceremony in the courthouse rotunda performed by our very own Clerk Tiffany Moore Russell with a special appearance by our Orange mascot, Slice. All the couples that participated received our Valentine’s Day package, which included professional photos, a commemorative certificate, and a special gift to take home with them on their big day.

The love did not stop there; we had a grand total of 74 couples who “tied the knot” on Valentine’s Day 2019 including those serviced by our Civil division and branches.

Couples who said their vows together in our Group Wedding:

17

Total couples including Civil and Branch weddings:

74

Our IS&T Team Makes Sure We Are Always On As we meet the increasing online needs of customers, our Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) team works hard to make sure our online systems are available around the clock. In 2019, the Clerk’s Office transitioned database systems for its most critical systems from traditional failover clusters to what is called “Always On” availability groups to be ready for any failure or potential disaster. In addition to the platform change, there was an expansion of these systems to include secondary servers in both Orlando and Tallahassee. This means we have a primary and a back-up data center site if something fails.

That is crucial to help maintain technology-based services such as our my eClerk website where public court documents are available to everyone year-round 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

U.S. Justice Department Recognizes Clerks Against Domestic Violence

Clerk’s Office Partners with OCBA for “Ask a Lawyer” Events

Our inaugural Clerks Against Domestic Violence Workshop received national attention by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. Clerk Russell presented at the Improving Criminal Justice Responses to Domestic Violence Program conference to over 300 attendees from across the U.S on strategic outreach efforts and involvement. It was an honor to serve the citizens and to share the hard work deputy clerks have done in assisting victims of domestic violence.

We partner with the Orange County Bar Association (OCBA) to host bi-monthly “Ask A Lawyer” events in the community.

The events are free and citizens have an opportunity to speak with a panel of experienced attorneys to receive guidance on specific legal matters in an open forum. Our office also helps inform participants about the Self Help Center. Each event focuses on topics such as family law, personal injury, bankruptcy, immigration, wills and advance directives, and landlord/tenant issues. Check out our website for upcoming events.

Central Florida Poverty Conference Eviction is one of the biggest fears for families just trying to make ends meet. That’s why the Clerk’s Office was excited to be part of the Central Florida Poverty Conference held by United Against Poverty. The Clerk’s Office shared important information at the conference on filing an eviction and how assistance is available at our Self Help Center in downtown Orlando or at our Apopka branch.

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Providing Access to Justice Helping to Restore Rights: Case Documents and Case Balance We have always had a part in helping people who have completed the terms of their sentence get the documents and information needed to restore their rights. As always, the Clerk’s Office will assist as needed by providing any necessary court documents as well as provide a status of payments submitted to us.

Did you know you can review case information right from our website? Go to myeclerk. myorangeclerk.com/Cases/search.

Need a case balance? Go to the “My Balance” page on our website.

Self Help Centers Promote a Journey to Justice See how we have helped customers in our Self-Help Center with their Journey to Justice by watching their stories.

To showcase the services we offer at our Self Help Center in downtown Orlando and Apopka, we launched a video series called My Journey to Justice. These videos feature the stories of customers who were helped by the Self Help Center.

Jim came to us for legal assistance in a child custody case. Another customer, Sandra, was able to get help with a divorce. And Yuwel got relief with her residential eviction case.

Clerk Russell Honored with Appointment on Statewide Access to Justice Panel Because of her work and passion in helping people get access to the courts, The Florida Supreme Court appointed Clerk Russell to the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice. Clerk Russell was among 6 members reappointed or appointed to the commission. The purpose of the commission is to study the remaining unmet civil legal needs of disadvantaged, low-income, and moderateincome Floridians.

As part of Clerk Russell’s commitment to this issue, she opened the Clerk’s Office first Self Help Center in 2015 at the Orange County Courthouse to help underserved customers in need of access to legal assistance. It was the first of its kind in our community to help people who either don’t have a lawyer or cannot afford one. In 2018, she expanded Self Help services to Apopka one day a week.

You may just see more Self Help locations in the future.

Learn more about the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice at atj.flcourts.org 7

Clerks Serve - FY 2019 By the Numbers The Scope of Our Service

429,860 Total Customers Served at all Clerk of Courts Locations

13 APPROXIMATELY

minutes

Average Lobby Wait Time

11,896

33,411

Marriage Licenses Issued

Passports Processed

11,169

Total Marriage License and Passport Appointments Scheduled

2,888

24,809

Self Help Center Attorney Consultations

Self Help Center Customers Served

67 MORE THAN

308,817

million

Total Call Center Calls Answered

Digital Court Documents Maintained

Operation Green Light Results

1,800

97

Total Customers Served During the Event

8,758 Payment Plans Created

PA I D

Driver’s Licenses Reinstated

$ $

$2,000 Restitution Collected for Victims

$

204 Cases Paid in Full

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Clerks Serve - FY 2019 By the Numbers Social Media Influence

Online Services

Facebook

4,170 Page Likes

8,180 Post Reactions Twitter

994 Followers

193 Retweets LinkedIn

2,350 Followers

Instagram

286 Followers

12,355,019

Total my eClerk Searches

81,867 1,912,075

New Cases Filed Through ePortal

Documents Filed Through ePortal

5,860,036 Total Website Page Views

NEW! Did you know the Clerk’s Office now offers several packets of legal forms for purchase online?

Previously, they were only available to buy in person.

16 packets

Of Legal Forms Available for Online Purchase

3

Civil Case Packets

13

Family Case Packets

1,748

Total Packets Purchased Online Using Our New Shopping Cart

1,706,108 Total Unique Website Visitors

Our Global Reach: Top 5 Countries That Visited Our Website the Most 1. United States – 1,348,103 visitors 2. United Kingdom – 3,938 visitors 3. Canada – 2,143 visitors

4. Puerto Rico – 1,750 visitors 5. India – 1,668 visitors

2,674 Engagements YouTube

14,676

Total YouTube Video Views

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Our Workforce A Culture of Celebrating Excellence

Winners of the Circle of Excellence Leadership Award The Circle of Excellence Leadership Award honors management team members who demonstrate outstanding leadership in accordance with our Guiding Principles. Each leader is nominated anonymously, and a winner is chosen each quarter.

We celebrate our employees who go the extra mile to deliver the best service to you our customer.

Our Star Performer and Circle of Excellence Leadership awards are aligned with our mission, vision, and guiding principles.

If you’ve had a recent experience with our office, please tell us about it at myorangeclerk.com/survey!

Our Star Performers The Star Performer is a deputy clerk who has been nominated by a colleague as going above and beyond. Each month a new winner is chosen by a dedicated panel who determines which candidate best demonstrates our Guiding Principles.

(Left to Right, Top to Bottom) October 2018 – Ebony Wiggins, Family/Self Help Center; November 2018 – Jason Glenn, Family; December 2018 – Dee Emanuel, Data Quality & Forecasting; January 2019 – Krystal Gillette, Communications; February 2019 – Angel Garay-Bravo, Family; March 2019 – Maytee Moxley, Civil; April 2019 – Gail Jenkins, Apopka/Ocoee; May 2019 – JR Stoner, Civil; June 2019 – Lisa Hyson, Family; July 2019 – Jessica Stagnolia, Criminal; August 2019 – Carrie Coley, Family; September 2019 – Mark Lupone, Information Systems & Technology

Top Left: 2018 Oct-Nov-Dec Winner, Dawn Braddy, Winter Park/ Goldenrod Branches; Top Right: 2019 Jan-Feb-March Winner, John Ames, Facilities & Vendor Relationships; Bottom Left: 2019 Apr-May-June Winner, Wendy Melgar, Criminal; Bottom Right: 2019 July-Aug-Sept Winner, Tangie Kaigler, Court Operations.

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Our Workforce Ever Wonder What It’s Like to Work for the Clerk of Courts?

We put the spotlight on our employees this year in a video series to highlight their important roles. Each video highlights a different employee, providing a behind-the-scenes look at their personal experience and what it is like to “Work for the Clerk”.

Careers with the Clerk: Job Fairs and More The Clerk’s Office regularly participate in local career events – such as the Orlando Mayor’s Job Fair and the Diversity Job Fair – to share more information about careers with us. Our Talent Management team answers questions and provides key facts about what the office does, what opportunities are available, the application process, positions, benefits, and more. Keep an eye on our social media pages and join us at future events!

Visit myorangeclerk.com/careers for more about our current opportunities.

Bright Ideas Program Implements Smart Suggestions from Staff Our commitment to innovation, fiscal responsibility, and customer service is evident in our internal “Bright Ideas” program. Employees are encouraged to share their suggestion or “bright idea” about process improvements. If implemented, they receive recognition.

Our Staff’s Yellow Belt Innovations Have Included: Reducing handwritten paper court minutes for Child Support Reducing delays and unnecessary court hearings related to Injunction cancellations

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Enabling the Help Desk support technicians to resolve even more issues on the spot

“Bright Ideas” submitted in 2019

$ $

Providing faster payment options for Jury members and avoiding undelivered checks

Yellow Belt Program Creates Efficiency Experts No, we don’t offer our staff classes in martial arts, but rather an opportunity to earn an internal certification in process improvement. The full name of the program is Six Sigma Yellow Belt.

Six Sigma is a nationally recognized method to make work simpler and more accurate, and Yellow Belt refers to the level of knowledge gained. Yellow Belt participants help to make daily work more efficient and customers satisfied.

These experts have streamlined processes, reduced duplicate work and hand-offs, and improved quality.

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Legislative Update Operation Green Light Helps Nearly 100 Drivers Restore Their Driver’s License Per the Legislature, starting in 2019 all Clerk’s Offices in Florida are required to host annual driver’s license reinstatement events to assist citizens. Our office helped nearly two thousand people during “Operation Green Light” to pay outstanding court obligations toward getting their driver’s license back. The event held in October served more than 1,800 customers, which helped 97 people reinstate their suspended driver’s license with the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles organization.

The Clerk’s Office also cleared many more driver licenses for reinstatement. The initiative also helped customers by placing 8,758 cases on a payment plan while a total of 204 cases were paid in full.

Nearly $2,000 collected was in the form of restitution that will now get paid to victims of crimes.

Recent Changes in Civil Court Filings Important changes took effect at the beginning of 2020 concerning civil filings. For the first time in 28 years, the Florida Legislature agreed to update the “amount-in-controversy” monetary threshold that divides the workload between county civil and circuit civil courts.

The change raised the existing $15,000 county court threshold to $30,000 on January 1, 2020. In addition, The Florida Supreme Court increased the small claims jurisdictional limit from $5,000 to $8,000 at the same time.

View the graphic below for a summary of the changes or visit KnowYourCourt.flcourts.org for more information.

Hear from customers themselves about Operation Green Light on our Facebook page.

Need More Time to Pay? As a reminder, citizens don’t have to wait for a special event to get assistance with overdue cases. Every day the Orange County Clerk of Courts can assist drivers through payment plans, payment contracts or payment extensions.

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Managing Our Money The Clerk’s Office provides critical services that affect public safety, commerce, and access to justice, and what we collect helps fund many other entities. Per state statute, we actually operate by the fines and fees we collect, not by traditional taxes.

This past year our statewide budget situation improved as the Legislature gave us some relief. The Orange County Clerk’s total court-related budget for fiscal year 2019 was $27.7 million, a $1 million increase from fiscal year 2018’s $26.7 million budget.

One of the main responsibilities of the Clerk’s Office is to collect fines and fees and distribute them to appropriate entities. As directed by statute, we disburse millions of dollars collected each year to the state, county and local municipalities. In the end, we only keep a portion of the money we collect each year.

Check out our Clerk in the Sunshine page where you can find our funding structure, performance metrics and audits.

Go to myorangeclerk.com/Misc-Pages/About-Us/Clerk-in-the-Sunshine

You May Have Money to Claim with Us You may have some money with our office! Look at our Unclaimed Checks list each July at myorangeclerk. com. Yes, we said money. Each year the Clerk’s Office publishes an unclaimed checks list on our website to make sure that people who are owed money from our organization get what they rightly deserve.

The checks were mailed, but never cashed. That is why every year we do all we can to spread the word about our unclaimed checks list. Whether you’re an individual, business, or organization, make sure to view the unclaimed checks list published every year in July on our website and you have until September 1st to claim it.

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Clerks CARE Outreach Free Legal Matters Educational Forums Clerk Russell started free legal forums as a service for the public to make legal information more easily accessible and at no cost. These educational forums are one of the best ways to give our citizens more access to justice and access to the information they have the right to know. The forums are held twice a year in different communities across Orange County on topics such as divorce, public records, and foreclosure. Our last legal forum featured useful information on family law and child support. Find out about our upcoming legal forums by visiting our website or checking our social media pages.

Our Legal Matters Forums Have Featured...

Topics such as:

Evictions, Landlord/Tenant Issues, Foreclosures

Family law, Child Support, Divorce

Public Records

Speakers from agencies including: • Management and subject matter experts from the Clerk’s Office • Judges from the Ninth Judicial Circuit • Representatives from the Department of Revenue

Mental Health Class Helps Save Lives Mental Health Awareness is another very important priority for the Clerk’s Office. During the month of May, we partnered with the Mental Health Association of Central Florida and the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention to hold a free mental health and suicide prevention class. The class called “QPR” stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer. These are 3 simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life. We also shared information on how the Clerk’s Office can help with filing a mental health related proceeding.

The Clerk’s Office can help with a mental health related proceeding Find out more at https://www.myorangeclerk.com/Divisions/Mental-Health/ Mental-Health-Cases

Are you familiar with our free legal forums?

Watch this video -- which is available on our YouTube channel and Facebook page -- for more info about a past forum we hosted.

Watch this video on Facebook or YouTube to learn more about our Domestic Violence Event.

Clerks Against Domestic Violence One of our outreach priorities is domestic violence awareness, because the Clerk’s Office assists victims with filing restraining orders. During Domestic Violence Awareness month, we held “Clerks Against Domestic Violence” by partnering with the Mental Health Association of Central Florida, the Orlando Police Department, and Harbor House of Central Florida and other community partners. The workshop featured how to file a restraining order, a self-defense class, and a presentation on dealing with trauma. The events are always free and open to the public.

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Clerks CARE Outreach United Way - Increased Giving We are proud that the Clerk’s 2019 United Way campaign not only reached but exceeded our goal! Because of all our staff who donated their time, hard work and pledges, the Clerk’s Office raised a grand total of $30,021. This is the highest amount the Clerk’s Office raised for the Heart of Florida United Way campaign in the last 5 years. The fundraising locally assists many important organizations including those aligned with our outreach priorities of Mental Health, Domestic Violence Awareness, and Access to Justice.

The Clerk’s Senior Holiday Brunch For more than a decade, Clerk Tiffany Moore Russell has hosted the Annual Senior Holiday Brunch in early December. It is a fun-filled event with entertainment, informative presentations, and a delicious holiday meal for senior citizens as a way of giving back to one of our most valued populations. This year over 60 volunteers served more than 435 seniors at the J.R. Smith Community Center. A big thanks to Centerplate Catering who donated the food.

Second Harvest Food Drive

See how we partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank to make a difference in our community.

Because our office loves to make a difference in the lives of others, a group of deputy clerks volunteered at Second Harvest Food Bank to help with efforts to feed the hungry in Central Florida. As part of our annual service project to the community, volunteers sorted through almost 5,000 pounds of food and created over 4,000 meals. The food helped support feeding partners across Central Florida such as food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, senior centers, and daycares.

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REPORT TO THE CITIZENS OF ORANGE COUNTY Office of Tiffany Moore Russell Orange County Clerk of Courts 407.836.2000 myorangeclerk.com #ConnectWithTheClerk #MyOrangeClerk

Orange County Courthouse 425 N. Orange Ave. Orlando, FL 32801 Apopka Branch 1111 N. Rock Springs Rd. Apopka, FL 34712 Goldenrod Service Center 684 S. Goldenrod Rd. Pinar Plaza Orlando, FL 32822

F O L LO W US ON S OCI A L M ED I A:

Ocoee Branch 475 Story Rd. Ocoee, FL 34761 Winter Park Branch 450 N. Lakemont Dr. Winter Park, FL 32792

This report is provided as a public service to the citizens of Orange County.

For more information, please contact Dain Weister Director of Communications and Public Affairs at 407-836-2053 or dain.weister@myorangeclerk.com

Tiffany Moore Russell

Orange County Clerk of Courts