(a) The commissioner shall adopt and enforce such rules as may be necessary to ensure order, enforce discipline and preserve the health and ensure the comfort of the residents in the Veterans Residential Services facility and patients in the Healthcare Center, and shall discipline or dismiss any officer or resident of said facility or patient in the Healthcare Center who violates such rules. The commissioner shall (1) appoint, subject to the provisions of chapter 67, such officers and employees as are necessary for the administration of the affairs of said facility and the Healthcare Center, (2) prescribe the relative rank, if any, of such officers and employees, and (3) commission each such officer, who shall wear such uniform, if any, as is prescribed by the commissioner.

(b) The chief fiscal officer shall submit a semiannual plain language report to each resident of the Veterans Residential Services facility and patient of the Healthcare Center detailing the manner in which the institutional general welfare fund was used over the previous six months to directly benefit veterans, said facility or the Healthcare Center. Such report shall include a prominently displayed statement encouraging residents to submit suggestions for projects to be funded by the institutional general welfare fund and a form for such submissions.

(c) The chief fiscal officer shall submit an itemized list of expenditures made from the institutional general welfare fund to the commissioner at intervals not greater than two months. Such list shall include all such expenditures made during the two-month period preceding its submission. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 4-56, the commissioner shall prescribe procedures to limit and specify the uses for which expenditures may be made from the institutional general welfare fund so that only expenditures that, in the opinion of the commissioner and the board of trustees for the department appointed pursuant to section 27-102n, directly benefit veterans, the Veterans Residential Services facility or the Healthcare Center are permitted.

(d) In addition to the estimate of expenditure requirements required under section 4-77, the commissioner shall submit an accounting of all planned expenditures for the next fiscal year from the institutional general welfare fund to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to appropriations and the budgets of state agencies at the time such estimate is submitted.

(e) The Commissioner of Veterans Affairs shall annually hold suitable exercises in the Veterans Residential Services facility on November eleventh recognizing resident veterans for their military service.

(1949 Rev., S. 2928; 1971, P.A. 48; 105, S. 4; P.A. 81-473, S. 35, 43; P.A. 82-314, S. 40, 63; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 83-32, S. 6, 8; P.A. 88-285, S. 4, 35; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 91-12, S. 39, 55; P.A. 04-169, S. 6; P.A. 05-288, S. 123; P.A. 15-149, S. 1; 15-197, S. 3; P.A. 16-167, S. 4.)

History: 1971 act added “and hospital” following “home” where appearing, substituted “patient(s)” for “inmate(s)”, substituted reference to chapter 67 for chapter 63; P.A. 81-473 added requirement that an itemized list of expenditures from institutional general welfare fund be submitted to the commission at least every two months and added Subsecs. (b) and (c) requiring that commission adopt regulations limiting expenditures from said fund to those which directly benefit veterans and that commission submit an accounting of planned expenditures from said fund to the general assembly's appropriations committee; P.A. 82-314 changed official name of appropriations committee; June Sp. Sess. 83-32 amended Subsec. (b) to authorize the commission to prescribe procedures rather than adopt regulations to prescribe use of the general welfare fund and added “in the opinion of the commission” and “or the veterans' home and hospital”; P.A. 88-285 replaced commission with commissioner throughout the section, amended Subsec. (a) to require commissioner to appoint a commandant of the home and hospital, subject to governor's approval and to make technical changes and amended Subsec. (b) to include reference to the board of trustees for the home and hospital appointed pursuant to Sec. 27-102m; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 91-12 in Subsec. (a) eliminated the commandant's position and in Subsec. (b) required the chief fiscal officer to submit a list of expenses from the institutional general welfare fund at least every two months; P.A. 04-169 amended Subsecs. (a) and (b) to change the name of the Veterans' Home and Hospital to the Veterans' Home, effective June 1, 2004; P.A. 05-288 made a technical change in Subsec. (a), effective July 13, 2005; P.A. 15-149 added provision, codified by the Revisors as Subsec. (e), re Veterans' Day exercises, effective June 23, 2015; P.A. 15-197 amended Subsec. (a) by replacing references to patients with references to residents, added new Subsec. (b) re semiannual report on use of institutional general welfare fund and redesignated existing Subsecs. (b) and (c) as Subsecs. (c) and (d), effective July 1, 2015; P.A. 16-167 replaced references to Veterans' Home with references to Veterans Residential Services facility and Healthcare Center, added references to patients, amended Subsec. (a) to replace “disobeys or infringes upon” with “violates” and to add Subdivs. (1) to (3) designators re officers and employees for administration of facility and center, amended Subsec. (e) to replace “Commissioner of Veterans' Affairs” with “Commissioner of Veterans Affairs”, and made technical changes, effective July 1, 2016.