Clerk Wins Florida Excellence Award
Hillsborough County Clerk of Court & Comptroller Pat Frank has been honored with a prestigious Florida Excellence Best Practices Award for a major restructuring that improved customer service, increased efficiency and enhanced communication.
The reorganization created the new Customer Service Center at the Edgecomb Courthouse, where the public can pay traffic citations, make child support payments, file civil suits and conduct numerous other transactions.
The Florida Excellence Award is based on the nationally renowned Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award and honors public and private organizations that demonstrate performance excellence in customer service, workforce and organization.
“We are honored to have been recognized with a Florida Excellence Award,” Frank said. “I have the privilege of working with a strong team of determined employees dedicated to public service.”
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn praised the smooth operations of the clerk’s office. “Pat Frank has a long track record of integrity, accountability and fiscal responsibility,” the mayor said. “She is a tireless public servant whose office touches the lives of everyone in Hillsborough County and I am delighted that her work has been honored with a Florida Excellence Best Practices Award.”
While the new Customer Service Center is the most visible product of the reorganization, the ongoing project aligns with several of Frank’s longstanding goals: to create a paperless office, improve communication and increase efficiency, create tools for employee accountability and meet the Florida Supreme Court’s mandate for electronic submission of nearly all court filings.
Frank and her team will be honored along with other award recipients during the Florida Excellence Best Practices Conference, May 12-13 in Orlando.
The Florida Excellence Awards is a not-for-profit Florida corporation supported by an all-volunteer staff of judges, board of directors and examiners. Its mission is to assist Florida leaders in their pursuit of organizational excellence through leadership development, sharing of best practices and recognition using the National Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.
Other winners this year include the Charlotte County Utilities Department, the Largo Parks and Recreations Department, Pinellas County government, the city of Ocala, the Sarasota Clerk of Court and Comptroller and Sunstar Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Pinellas County.