(1) The duties of the executive director are:

(a) To manage, supervise, and control the charitable, behavioral or mental health, custodial, and special educational public institutions operated and supported by the state; to manage and supervise the special agencies, departments, boards, and commissions transferred to or established within the department by law; to improve, develop, and carry forward programs of therapy, counseling, and aftercare to the end that a person dependent upon tax-supported programs may be afforded opportunity and encouragement to overcome the disability causing his or her partial or total dependence upon the state;

(b) To supervise the business, fiscal, budget, personnel, and financial operations of the department and the institutions and activities under his or her control;

(c) In consultation with the several superintendents, the chief officer of the Colorado mental health institute at Pueblo, the head of the administrative division for the Colorado mental health institute at Fort Logan, and the director of the division of planning, to develop a systematic building program providing for the projected, long-range needs of the institutions under his or her control;

(d) To classify the lands connected with the state institutions under his or her control and determine which are of such character as to be most profitably used for agricultural purposes, taking into consideration the needs of all state institutions for the food products that can be grown or produced thereon and the relative value of such agricultural use in the treatment or rehabilitation of the persons confined in those institutions;

(e) To the extent practical, to utilize the staff and services of other state agencies and departments, within their respective statutory functions, including administrative law judges appointed pursuant to part 10 of article 30 of title 24, C.R.S., to carry out the purposes of this article;

(f) To examine and evaluate each child committed to the department and to place each child so committed as provided in section 19-2-922, C.R.S.;

(g) To transfer between appropriate state institutions children committed to the department as provided in section 19-2-923, C.R.S.;

(h) To require of the head of each institution and agency assigned to the department an annual report containing information, and submitted at a time, as the executive director decides;

(i) To exercise control over publications of the department and subdivisions thereof and cause publications that are approved for circulation in quantity outside the executive branch to be issued in accordance with the provisions of section 24-1-136, C.R.S.;

(j) To implement the procedures regarding children who are in detention or who have or may have a behavioral or mental health disorder or an intellectual and developmental disability specified in the provisions of the "Colorado Children's Code" contained in articles 1, 2, and 3 of title 19;

(k) To carry out the duties prescribed in article 11.7 of title 16, C.R.S.; and

(l) To provide information to the director of research of the legislative council concerning population projections, research data, and the projected long-range needs of the institutions under the control of the executive director and any other related data requested by the director.

(2) The executive director shall have such other powers, duties, and functions as are prescribed for heads of principal departments in the "Administrative Organization Act of 1968", article 1 of title 24, C.R.S.

(3) On behalf of the state of Colorado, the governor is authorized to acquire water and water rights for the operation of the Colorado mental health institute at Fort Logan. Title to that property may be acquired in fee simple absolute by purchase, donation, or the exercise of the power of eminent domain through condemnation proceedings in accordance with law from funds made available by the general assembly.

(4) (a) (I) The executive director shall appoint a board of medical consultants.

(II) The executive director shall determine the membership of the board based on the medical and surgical needs of the department.

(III) The executive director shall determine the qualifications for appointment to the board of medical consultants; except that all members of the board shall be licensed by the Colorado medical board pursuant to article 36 of title 12, C.R.S.

(b) A person serving on the board of medical consultants shall provide not more than one thousand hours of consultation per year in his or her capacity as a board member.

(c) Members of the board of medical consultants shall be compensated at a rate that shall be approved by the executive director. Compensation shall be paid from available funds of the department.

(d) The board members shall act as medical consultants to the department with respect to persons receiving services from the institutions listed in section 27-90-104 and from any institution operated pursuant to part 11 of article 2 of title 19, C.R.S.

(e) A member of the board of medical consultants, for all activities performed within the course and scope of his or her responsibilities to the department, is a "public employee" as defined in section 24-10-103 (4), C.R.S.

(5) (a) The executive director shall have authority to adopt "executive director rules", as described in section 26-1-108, C.R.S., for programs administered and services provided by the department as set forth in this title. The rules shall be promulgated in accordance with the provisions of section 24-4-103, C.R.S.

(b) Whenever a statutory grant of rule-making authority in this title refers to the department, state department, or the department of human services, it shall mean the department of human services acting through either the state board of human services or the executive director or both. When exercising rule-making authority under this title, the department, either acting through the state board or the executive director, shall establish rules consistent with the powers and the distinction between "board rules" as set forth in section 27-90-103 and "executive director rules" as set forth in this section.

(c) Any rules adopted by the state board of human services to implement the provisions of this title prior to March 25, 2009, whose content meets the definition of "executive director rules" shall continue to be effective until revised, amended, or repealed by the executive director.