Clerk of Circuit Court

The presentation at the Clerk of Circuit Court Office was very informative. Pat Frank, JoAnn Constantini, Dana Caranante, and Douglas Bakke taught us about e-recording, electronic court, surplus- and deficit counties, and the clerk switchboard.

The switchboard provides a surprisingly significant amount of service to the community. The two switchboard operators take a total of over a thousand calls a day. Twenty percent of the calls are actually intended for different departments or even completely different counties. JoAnn gave us several examples of misdirected calls, some as unrelated as removal of dead animals. When people don't know who to call, they often turn to the Hillsborough county commissioner's office. The switchboard office helps the community by connecting people to their desired party, even though twenty percent of the calls don't apply to their job description. Thirty to thirty-five percent of calls require services in Spanish.

Another topic that interests me is sealing and expunging of records. For the most part, public records are open for anyone. However, in cases with minors, adoption, and prominent figures, the laws are confining. This all makes perfect sense considering safety and privacy of certain individuals. Although, the seemingly obvious but nonetheless disturbing part of the policy is the fact that wealthy public figures misuse and manipulate the system to hide things from the public that people deserve to know. Lately this has come to light in several cases, for example Vice Presidential Candidate Gov. Sarah Palin. Palin has attempted to seal records from the American public to better her chances of winning the election.

The clerk of circuit court proved to be much more relevant than I had imagined. It deals with a wide range of issues and concerns that affect the community in ways most people will never know.