TCOLE previews L1/pay‑status overhaul, administrative‑duty tracking and Otter/TCLEDS role controls

At the Feb. 12 meeting, executive staff outlined a three‑phase project to standardize pay‑status reporting, clean up historical appointment records, and change how personal status reports display on the public license lookup.

Executive Director Greg Stevens and staff member Jessica told commissioners the L1 appointment form will be updated to include three pay statuses — "full time, part time, and reserve" — with the change‑in‑pay‑status form adding a fourth option for "administrative duty" to reflect when an appointee’s authority to act is restricted. Jessica said the L1 and pay‑status change form updates are scheduled to appear in the system the week of Feb. 19.

"Reserve is restricted to particular agencies that are by statute able to hire reserves," Jessica said, adding that in cases where an administrative‑duty designation is used it will be retained in the PSR (personal status report) history. Staff emphasized agencies should not begin broad historical cleanups until the commission returns with April guidance and a standardized cleanup process to avoid inconsistent changes.

Staff also previewed the Otter/OpenText records repository work and a TCLEDS assignment dashboard that will let chief administrators request new TCLEDS web users and assign roles (for example, background investigator or file uploader) without emailing support. Jessica said SecureShare will be migrated into Otter in late March, enabling authorized investigators with assigned roles to retrieve background packets through Otter.

Commissioners asked whether changes to pay status create required notifications; staff said limited reporting obligations for administrative duty will be proposed (primarily where rules or law prohibit acting under authority). Large agencies will be offered tailored cleanup processes because of the scale of their historical records.