Terrell Thomas
By Reggie Connell, Managing Editor
In Summary:
Terrell Thomas says his path to the Orange County Clerk of Courts race began decades ago as a 19-year-old employee who viewed the office as family. In an interview with The Apopka Voice, Thomas discussed his "Clerk Forward" vision, highlighting investments in employees, expanded community services, mobile technology and a more accessible customer experience. Running as a no-party-affiliation candidate, Thomas says he sees the constitutional office as one that should serve every resident equally, regardless of politics.
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When Terrell Thomas talks about why he is running for Orange County Clerk of Courts, he doesn't begin with campaign promises or politics. He begins with his grandmother.
Growing up in Auburn, New York, Thomas was surrounded by history. The home of abolitionist Harriet Tubman sits in his hometown, and for his family, that history was deeply personal.
For more information on the Terrell Thomas campaign, visit his website.
"My grandmother was a great-great-grandniece, and she spent her life preserving the legacy of Aunt Harriet," Thomas said. "She was 97 years old, but she spent her life on this legacy, and legacy ties in to one of the reasons, one of the catalysts why I am running for Clerk of Court, to preserve its legacy, and to build on that."
That idea of legacy became the central theme of Thomas' campaign.
Now 48, Thomas has lived in Florida for more than 30 years. He and his wife recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary, and they are raising their 13-year-old son in Central Florida. After spending two decades with the Orange County Clerk's Office and another eight years working in the private sector with court technology companies, Thomas says he is ready to return—not simply to manage the office, but to guide its next chapter.
Related: The Orange County Clerk of Courts may have money for you.
A family, not just a workplace
Thomas joined the Clerk's Office at 19 years old. While many candidates point to years of experience, he describes those years in far more personal terms.
"I have deep roots in the clerk's family. This is a family connection. I consider myself a son of the clerk's office," he said. "Here's why. As much as I found myself fixing problems, I found myself having dialogue, having conversations, and creating relationships. So to me, that's family. There were a lot of milestones that I was able to hit while I was at the clerk's office in my life, both professionally and personally."
Working under five different clerk administrations gave him what he considers a front-row seat to leadership.
"I paid attention to leadership styles. I paid attention to how things transitioned. I paid attention to the value the organization got out of these particular points in time with these administrations and learned things—what to do, what not to do. I just really paid attention."
Those experiences eventually shaped his own aspirations.
"Some of those moments in time just really inspired me to say, 'Hey, you know what? When I grow up, I aspire to lead this organization,' because this family is truly a family. It is truly a family that has given me the opportunity to live, to survive, and to be inspired to be something greater here in this new place that I call home."
Thomas says respecting the office's past is essential before trying to shape its future.
"That legacy is very, very important to me that it's preserved, that it's honored. Giving a nod to that history means that as I move the organization forward, I will look to that history and say, 'Hey, this is where we started, and this is where we're going.'"
Learning from both sides
Thomas left the Clerk's Office in 2018, but says it wasn't because he wanted to leave public service. Instead, he wanted to better understand the technology that powers modern court systems. He first joined Pioneer Technology Group, later rebranded as Catalyst, where he managed projects, built customer service teams, and worked with Florida counties implementing court management systems. Later, he joined Tyler Technologies, one of the nation's leading providers of software for courts and local governments.
"There, I was able to work through a plethora of projects, from having the discovery sessions with the clients, to building out business processes, to configuring the system, to suggesting ways to leverage the functionality in a better way so that our workflows are more efficient."
He says his technical background would translate into better service for the public.
"My unique experience hands-on implementing systems means that I get to come to the table, and I get to have a perspective on how to best leverage the system, which immediately affects our customer needs because we're serving the residents," he said. "If they're coming and doing business with the clerk and we have a robust system, we have a system that's configured correctly, that's a higher success rate of that interaction, and that process, and that transaction with the clerk's office."
Thomas believes his years working on both sides of government technology—inside the Clerk's Office and later with the companies building the software—provide an uncommon combination of operational knowledge and technical expertise.
Building a "Clerk Forward" vision
Thomas has built his campaign around what he calls "Clerk Forward," a vision supported by three pillars: People First, Community Focus and Future Ready. Rather than beginning with sweeping organizational changes, he says his first priority would be understanding the current workplace.
"I would do an organizational assessment, and I would do it in a way that is responsible, and that would not invoke fear, and that would not cause division or anything like that."
He says he has already begun gathering information by meeting with former employees.
"I've been having conversations since last April with former clerk employees at various levels—former deputy clerks, former executives—to understand. I ask three questions: What worked, what didn't, and what would you suggest for change? But I would take those challenges, turn them into opportunities, align them with the vision, step in and approach it, and make that change—the change needed."
Technology with a purpose
Technology plays a major role in Thomas' campaign, but he says the goal is not simply modernization. Instead, he sees technology as a way to improve customer service. Public surveys, he says, suggest wait times remain a concern.
"I would look at queuing systems. Look at the data, measure how long people are actually waiting—from the time they walked in, from the time they pulled the ticket to the time that it actually was complete," he said.
He also wants to make the Clerk's Office more accessible by taking services beyond the downtown courthouse.
"We would be bringing the clerk's office to the residents of Orange County via pop-up service stations or a mobile vehicle that we would place in certain areas strategically in the community," he said. "It would allow convenience, and it would allow further accessibility by clients who maybe cannot get to the clerk's office, or maybe they don't embrace technology, but they just need a way to do business with the clerk's office."
His technology agenda also includes redesigning the Clerk's Office website, introducing real-time online chat, improving access to public records and eventually developing a mobile app that would allow residents to complete certain tasks without visiting the courthouse.
"We would have the best practices for safeguarding data. We would have easy accessibility to records and looking for information on the website," he said. "I will overhaul the website, making the user interface more intuitive. I would have condensed information, probably eliminated some of the information, and just really made it an experience that is easy, and that doesn't complicate things."
Leadership begins with employees
While technology is a big part of Thomas' platform, he repeatedly returned to a different subject throughout the interview—people. If elected, he says his first days in office would be spent walking the halls rather than sitting behind a desk.
"The very first thing that I am going to do as the newly elected clerk is connect with my people. I want to get into that building, and I want to go down to every single division. I want to shake every hand. I want to know every name. I want to connect with my people. It'll be a mixed scenario where I will reconnect with those that I've connected with years ago... and those who I have not met or I do not know, I will connect with them for the very first time."
An independent approach
Unlike many candidates on the ballot this year, Thomas is running with no party affiliation. Rather than viewing that as a disadvantage, he says it reflects how he believes the Clerk's Office should operate.
"I'm the bridge candidate. I'm the candidate that stands in the middle and says, 'Hey, I'm not a Democrat, not necessarily Republican. I am the candidate that says there are values in both parties.'"
More importantly, he says, the office itself should never be viewed through a partisan lens.
"I see the clerk's office as a constitutional office. It's not a partisan office to me. I see that anybody that needs a marriage license or needs to file a case or access public record or whatever it may be, everyone deserves the same level of service. When somebody comes in, they don't ask for a Republican file or a Democrat file. It's a file."
Thomas says his campaign is centered on organizational leadership rather than political ambition.
"I'm focused on performance. I'm focused on being a steward and not necessarily a politician. I'm stepping in to be the steward of the organization... and I'm focused on the future of the clerk of courts by way of the Clerk Forward vision."
More than a campaign
Near the end of the interview, Thomas paused to explain that he hopes voters see him as more than just a candidate. He pointed to his technology consulting business, Dev9 Digital, as another example of the work he has done since leaving the Clerk's Office, but quickly returned to the reason he entered the race.
"I am a man of integrity, a man who has deep roots in the clerk's office, who is stepping up to steward this office into the future."
Then he offered what may be the clearest explanation of why he is running.
"This is not ambition. For me, this is a calling. I want to be careful to call that out. To me, this is a calling. The answer to that call is stepping up and getting in the race. This is a call to a deeper sense of public service... It's deeper than just somebody rolling out of bed saying, 'I want to be clerk.' It's deeper than that."
Key Points:
- Terrell Thomas spent 20 years with the Orange County Clerk's Office before moving into the private sector, where he worked with court technology companies.
- He says his "Clerk Forward" platform is built around three pillars: People First, Community Focus and Future Ready.
- Thomas proposes mobile clerk service centers, a redesigned website, real-time online chat and expanded digital services to improve customer access.
- He says his first priority would be strengthening organizational culture by connecting with employees and conducting a comprehensive assessment of the office.
- Running with no party affiliation, Thomas says he views the Clerk's Office as a constitutional office focused on service, stewardship and public trust rather than partisan politics.
