From the Bench to the clerk’s counter
Jerald Bryant: 'While I was on the bench, I saw several things about the clerk’s office operations that I thought needed to be improved. Sometimes, when you're in office a long time, it becomes "your" office. And it is not your office. This is the public's office, and they trust me with it. And my job here is to serve the public.'
When Jerry Bryant left the bench after 12 years as an Okeechobee County judge, he could have stayed retired. Instead, frustrated by what he saw as rigid, service-averse clerk’s office practices, he decided to run for the very office that had once slowed him down as a lawyer and, occasionally, as a judge.
Now in his sixth year as the elected clerk of the 19th Judicial Circuit, Bryant brings an uncommon perspective to the role, shaped by nearly four decades as a banker, attorney, and judge. His tenure has focused on reframing the clerk’s office as a public service operation rather than a gatekeeping institution, a philosophy reflected in both policy changes and expanded services aimed at making court business more accessible, efficient, and transparent.
“I want to make a lawyer's life as easy as possible,” Bryant said.
He had been motivated to run against the incumbent, who had been in place for more than two and a half decades, by difficulties he encountered due to clerk’s office policies that seemed to be at odds with good customer service.
“As a lawyer, I'd come in and try to do things, and I'd be told, ‘You can't do this that way.’ And sometimes I'd have to go back and find the rule and the statute to come in and say, ‘Okay, [but] this says I can.’”
Bryant had enjoyed a 37-year career in the law and was two years into retirement when he ran for clerk in 2020 and won by a comfortable margin.
Perhaps the most important change he brought to the office, he says, was a directive he gave staff on his first day — make “one trip sufficient” for clients to accomplish what they need to do.
“While I was on the bench, I saw several things about the clerk’s office operations that I thought needed to be improved,” he said. “Sometimes, when you're in office a long time, it becomes ‘your’ office. And it is not your office. This is the public's office, and they trust me with it. And my job here is to serve the public.”
Bryant is proud of the changes his office has made. A jury duty kiosk was added to make it more convenient for people reporting for jury duty to check in. Passport photo and notary services have been added to help clients complete their business in one visit. Operation Green Light, a program that helps people with a suspended license and outstanding fines get their driving privileges restored by offering an opportunity to pay overdue court-ordered obligations with reduced additional fees, has grown to 10 times what it was prior to his leadership, from $2,500 in 2019 to $25,000 in 2025. The Property Fraud Alert allows property owners to sign up for an email notification when a land records document is recorded with the Okeechobee Land Records Office, alerting to possible fraud. Also, his office started producing the Okeechobee County Popular Annual Financial Report, adding greater transparency to his role as comptroller.
Before Bryant embarked on his legal career, he was a banker at Sunbank (a Florida bank that was absorbed by mergers in the mid-1980s). This experience, as well as his undergraduate degree in accounting, has been helpful because, as the county comptroller, Bryant is responsible for yearly financial audits of the county government and county constitutional officers (sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser and supervisor of elections), as well as the clerk’s office.
“All the money that is brought into the county, from all sources — outward taxes, road use, taxes, gas taxes, grants, fees, and assessments — all those monies come in, they are deposited into accounts that I am responsible for,” says Bryant. “My accounting degree and accounting experience has given me an ability to communicate with [accounting staff], and to listen to what they have to say with an understanding of the process.”
He credits his “excellent accounting staff” in helping him fulfill the county’s comptroller responsibilities.
After graduating from Stetson University College of Law in 1982, Bryant had returned home to Okeechobee to build a general law practice with the ultimate goal of becoming a county judge. For 25 years, he handled everything from divorces to real estate closings to civil litigation to criminal cases, before he ran for a county judge seat. He served as an Okeechobee County judge for 12 years until he was forced into mandatory retirement.
Bryant has enjoyed a professional life of solid, steady, success and service in his hometown, supported by his wife of 51 years, Carolyn, and their children.
He has also seen grief and loss.
In 2005, the Bryant family endured the tragic loss of Adam, their son, who passed away at home after surviving a diving accident 19 months prior that fractured his spine, leaving him quadriplegic. Bryant recalls being out of the office for a couple of months after the accident and another month after the funeral, taking care of his family. Judges rescheduled court dates and the community raised money to help with the expenses of Adam’s hospitalization. Between community support and a strong faith, the couple kept the family together. Still, he misses Adam.
For Jerry Bryant — banker, attorney, judge and now clerk and comptroller, husband and father — a willingness to serve his community, the incalculable support of family and friends, and a strength drawn from his faith seems to be the equation for living well.
