Getting to Know Lydia Gardner
She has been delivering
Excellence, Efficiency, and Effectiveness
Lydia Gardner currently serves as Clerk of the Circuit and County Courts of Orange County and performs nearly 1,000 different constitutional and statutory functions or duties, which represent the broadest and most diverse mantle of responsibility of any locally elected official.
Because of this, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Clerk of Courts' office has been her full-time public service mission since 2001. Gardner set high standards and accomplished much, but sees there is still much more to do, especially as citizens needs increase and the Clerk’s budget decreases.
Lydia Gardner was elected to Orange County Clerk of Courts in 2000, after serving as a member and chairman of the Orange County School Board from 1986 - 1998. She has held executive positions at a Fortune 100 telecommunications company and spent time working in real estate and education. In Orange County and throughout the state, Gardner is known for bringing excellence, efficiency, and effectiveness to the Clerk of Courts' Office. The Governor recognized her office in 2008 with the Governor's Sterling Award for performance excellence.
Excellence
Gardner has used her office to advocate for the mentally ill, receiving the Central Florida Mental Health Association's Golden Bell Award. She played a key role in establishing the Domestic Violence Commission in Orange County, served on the Jail Oversight Committee, the Juvenile Justice Commission, as well as the Board of Directors for the Central Receiving Center.
She has been appointed by the Florida Supreme Court to a number of special committees, including one to study privacy and court records. She also serves on the Board of the Orlando Science Center and is a past chairman of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce. Gardner was named chairman of a statewide committee that will create a Florida portal for Electronic Case Filing. ECF allows attorneys and pro-se litigants to electronically initiate cases and subsequent pleadings 24/7. In 2010, the Speaker of the House appointed her to the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation.
Gardner is a graduate of University of Michigan, holds certificates in the management program at the Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College, and the executive leadership program at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She has taken graduate level courses at a number of universities.
Efficiency
Gardner has developed a strategic plan for streamlining processes, overseen revolutionary technology changes including managing over 240 million website hits per year, and worked within the statutory requirements to operate the Clerks’ office with zero tax dollar support. In 2010, the legislature mandated a budget reduction of 17% whereby she pushed for greater savings and efficiencies throughout all departments. One cost saving initiative was to increase online payments for the 300,000 annual traffic citations by driving payments to myorangeclerk.com.
Effectiveness
The Clerk of Court’s office operates with zero tax dollars. Yet, under Gardner’s leadership, this office's effectiveness continues to achieve a 97% customer satisfaction rate from citizens who use the court’s services to pay traffic and criminal fines, initiate or contest a civil case, pursue probate issues, make child support payments, file domestic violence injunctions or seek a passport or marriage license. Gardner and her deputy clerks even perform wedding ceremonies.
In 2008, Gardner’s office was the proud recipient of the Governor’s Sterling Award, given to organizations who successfully met the National Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Among the achievements that elevated the Orange County Clerk of Courts to world-class status:
- Electronic Case Filing
- E-commerce
- Collections Program
- Customer Service
- Community Involvement
To contact Lydia, email her at lydiagardnercampaign@earthlink.net
