Commission staff and the director presented the commission’s fiscal-year activity report, highlighting license counts, exam administration, and rising complaint volumes. The director said the commission now oversees 7,622 licensees and certificate holders, a 16.5% increase since FY2020 largely driven by nearly a 30% rise in process servers.

The director told commissioners that court-reporter and court-interpreter numbers remain below demand despite recent gains; staff reported roughly 2,300 court reporters and about 495 court interpreters under commission jurisdiction. New court-reporter entrants rose to 122 in the most recent fiscal year after prior years of smaller cohorts.

Staff also reported a sharp increase in complaints: more than 100% overall since FY2020, an approximately 150% jump in complaints against process servers, and an 82% increase in complaints concerning court reporters. Of 144 complaints resolved in the last fiscal year, staff said 24% resulted in enforcement action. The director emphasized that complaint filings do not by themselves indicate sustained violations and commended investigators for screening matters to identify actionable cases.

The director described ongoing operational work, including vendor work to enhance the licensing system, an annual DPS criminal-history audit, and a push to improve exam administration by exploring university partnerships. The commission is negotiating with a state university to conduct a legislatively required court-reporting study; staff said the contract will seek to avoid conflicts of interest (for example, selecting a university that does not run a court-reporter training program). A stakeholder group for the study will include judges, court-reporting companies, attorneys and county representatives.

The director also announced an agreement with Alzheimer’s Texas to produce a one-hour dementia-awareness training for guardians, to be recorded soon and posted on the commission website next year in compliance with recent legislative training requirements.

On proposed rule changes, staff presented two linked items (listed in the agenda as items C and D). The rule change for licensed court interpreters would allow candidates to take the three exam modes (consecutive, simultaneous and sight) in parts: a candidate who passes a part would not need to retake that part for two years, and candidates would have two years to pass all three parts to gain certification. Staff said this change is intended to reduce test-anxiety barriers and widen the pool of qualified interpreters. Item D reduced fee structure from a single-$300 per sitting fee to a per-part fee ($100 per part) and clarified fee waivers for eligible applicants. Commissioners moved, seconded and adopted both modifications by voice vote; the transcript does not show a roll-call tally.

Staff announced the next commission meeting date as Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, and the meeting adjourned after a brief public-comment reading and a motion to adjourn that carried by voice vote.