§ 37.2-304. Duties of Commissioner
The Commissioner shall be the chief executive officer of the Department and shall have the following duties and powers:
1. To supervise and manage the Department and its state facilities.
2. To employ the personnel required to carry out the purposes of this title.
3. To make and enter into all contracts and agreements necessary or incidental to the performance of the Department's duties and the execution of its powers under this title, including contracts with the United States, other states, and agencies and governmental subdivisions of the Commonwealth, consistent with policies and regulations of the Board and applicable federal and state statutes and regulations.
4. To accept, hold, and enjoy gifts, donations, and bequests on behalf of the Department from the United States government, agencies and instrumentalities thereof, and any other source, subject to the approval of the Governor. To these ends, the Commissioner shall have the power to comply with conditions and execute agreements that may be necessary, convenient, or desirable, consistent with policies and regulations of the Board.
5. To accept, execute, and administer any trust in which the Department may have an interest, under the terms of the instruments creating the trust, subject to the approval of the Governor.
6. To transfer between state hospitals and training centers school-age consumers who have been identified as appropriate to be placed in public school programs and to negotiate with other school divisions for placements in order to ameliorate the impact on those school divisions located in a jurisdiction in which a state hospital or training center is located.
7. To provide to the Director of the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy, pursuant to § 51.5-39.12, a written report setting forth the known facts of critical incidents or deaths of consumers in facilities within 15 working days of the critical incident or death.
8. To work with the appropriate state and federal entities to ensure that any person who has been a consumer in a state facility for more than one year has possession of or receives prior to discharge any of the following documents, when they are needed to obtain the services contained in his discharge plan: a Department of Motor Vehicles approved identification card that will expire 90 days from issuance, a copy of his birth certificate if the consumer was born in the Commonwealth, or a social security card from the Social Security Administration. State facility directors, as part of their responsibilities pursuant to § 37.2-837, shall implement this provision when discharging consumers.
9. To work with the Department of Veterans Services and the Department of Rehabilitative Services to establish a program for mental health and rehabilitative services for Virginia veterans and members of the Virginia National Guard and Virginia residents in the Armed Forces Reserves not in active federal service and their family members pursuant to § 2.2-2001.1.
Unless specifically authorized by the Governor to accept or undertake activities for compensation, the Commissioner shall devote his entire time to his duties.
(1976, c. 671, § 37.1-42.1; 1980, c. 582; 1985, c. 158; 2000, cc. 565, 610; 2002, c. 572; 2003, c. 516; 2005, c. 716; 2008, cc. 584, 754.)
Sections: Previous 37.2-300 37.2-301 37.2-302 37.2-303 37.2-304 37.2-305 37.2-306 37.2-307 37.2-308 37.2-309 37.2-310 37.2-311 37.2-312 37.2-312.1 37.2-313 NextLast modified: April 16, 2009