Clerk of Court & Comptroller Rachel Sadoff & Team Manage Your Life in Documents
Rachel Sadoff knows pretty much every important aspect in the lives of Brevard County residents, from their first breath to their final day, yet many on the Space Coast don’t realize what her job entails. Sadoff admits that she herself didn’t know that much about it before she worked up the career ladder to become clerk of circuit court and comptroller in 2020. The elected position oversees “the people’s office.”
“Everything comes through this office,” Sadoff said, referring to the mounds of information and records her staff of 300 organizes and manages.
Sadoff and her team keep tabs on marriages, adoptions, first homes and other joyful moments. They also remind us of our civic duties by issuing jury summons. They are there, too, during less-than-felicitous times, including divorces and probate and are even with us during the worst of times — the death of loved ones.
The hard-working office maintains official records dating back to the 1800s, carefully guarding and preserving this handwritten but comprehensive profile of the county for posterity.
As if all that work wasn’t enough, in her job as comptroller Sadoff serves as chief financial officer for the county, ensuring that all expenditures of county funds are authorized by law and that county commission meeting minutes are carefully recorded and maintained.
As a teen growing up on Merritt Island, Sadoff certainly never thought being clerk of court would be her career.
“I had no idea what a clerk’s office did,” she said.
Her father, a vice president for Eastern Airlines, moved the family to California when he accepted a similar job with Continental Airlines before returning to Florida, this time for a position at the Kennedy Space Center. Sadoff moved to Merritt Island with her family, but she did not forget the Hollywood vibes.
“I wanted to be an actress,” she said.
Her parents tried hard to instill a love for education in their three children, and it worked, in a roundabout way for Rachel. Sadoff’s siblings went on to pursue graduate degrees, but Rachel, the youngest, had more important things to do.
“Friday night, if there was a party, I was there,” she said. “I was friends with everyone. I went to school to appease my parents, but my goal was to get out of here and get back to California and become an actress.”
Life had other plans.
She enrolled at Brevard Community College, now Eastern Florida State College, studying criminology, then transferred to Florida State.
“If I had to get a real job, my dream was to be a U.S. Marshall or an FBI agent,” she said.
Along the way, she met Steve, her future husband and a police officer who was content living on the Space Coast. Returning to California suddenly didn’t seem that enticing. Family friend Sandy Crawford, then clerk of court, invited her to work in the office.
“I asked him what he did, because I had no idea,” she said.
She discovered she loved the job of deputy clerk, but when she became pregnant, she decided it was time to part. At that point, Scott Ellis, who had succeeded Crawford, stepped in. Sadoff had such a sterling reputation that Ellis made her an offer she couldn’t refuse: she could work from home.
“Rachel is an inquisitive, hard worker,” Ellis said. “She always studied why we did certain things and how we could do them better. She is comfortable doing multiple tasks.”
With two little girls and a full-time job, Rachel earned her master’s degree.
“It was important to me to do this,” she said. “I did not want to be the only person in my immediate family to not have completed my education, and I always want to be an example to my children.”
When Ellis retired and Mitch Needelman was elected in a special election, Sadoff witnessed a massive purge of the clerk’s office, and surrounded by dismal employee morale, she opted to leave when her third child was born. Needelman would later be found guilty of official misconduct, and Ellis became clerk again. That’s when Sadoff returned to work. After Ellis announced his retirement, Sadoff successfully campaigned to become his successor in 2020.
“I would often tell her if she was clerk, there are things she would do differently than I,” Ellis said. “Different personalities. Just because some things are different does not mean they are wrong, and I had full confidence Rachel would be a very fine clerk of courts. And she is.”
The perennial people person is happiest when connecting with others.
“Rachel is very easy to work with,” said Charlie Crawford, chief judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit, noting that Sadoff has become an integral part in an initiative to provide better utilization of all three courthouses so citizens can best have their “day in court.”
Re-election is coming up, and if work ethic assures a job, Sadoff could be clerk for many years ahead.
“I may have given my parents a run for their money, but they raised me right,” she said. “I have been hired to do a job and I’m going to do that job to the best of my abilities.”
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Clerk of Court Website: brevardclerk.us
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