§ 7.21 Directors of facilities.

(a) The director of a facility under the jurisdiction of the office of
mental health shall be its chief executive officer. Each such director
shall be in the noncompetitive class and designated as confidential as
defined by subdivision two-a of section forty-two of the civil service
law and shall be appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the
commissioner. He or she shall manage the facility subject to applicable
law and the regulations of the commissioner of mental health. Before the
commissioner shall issue any such regulation or any amendment or
revision thereof, he or she shall consult with the facility directors
regarding its suitability. The director shall maintain effective
supervision of all parts of the facility and over all persons employed
therein or coming thereon and shall generally direct the care and
treatment of patients. Directors presently serving at office of mental
health facilities shall continue to serve under the terms of their
original appointment.

(b) Such director shall have the responsibility of seeing that there
is humane treatment of the patients at his or her facility and shall
investigate, or cause to be investigated, every reportable incident in
accordance with article eleven of the social services law. Also in
accordance with article eleven of the social services law, the director
shall require allegations of reportable incidents to be reported to the
vulnerable persons' central register, which shall screen and immediately
forward reports that appear to allege crimes to the appropriate law
enforcement agency. The vulnerable persons' central register shall
notify immediately, and in any event within three working days, the
board of visitors of the facility and the mental hygiene legal service
located in the same judicial department as the hospital, school, or
institution of every complaint of patient abuse or neglect and shall
inform the board and the mental hygiene legal service of the results of
his investigation.

(c) In any investigation into the treatment and care of patients or
the conduct, performance, or neglect of duty of officers or employees,
the director of a department hospital shall be authorized to subpoena
witnesses, compel their attendance, administer oaths to witnesses,
examine witnesses under oath, and require the production of any books or
papers deemed relevant to the inquiry or investigation. A subpoena
issued under this section shall be regulated by the civil practice law
and rules.

(d) Each facility director of the office shall, upon notice from the
commissioner or upon knowledge that programs of such facility may be
contracted or terminated, implement procedures to ensure timely
notification to affected employees. Such procedures shall include, but
not be limited to:

(1) dissemination and posting of all decisions, policies and
procedures with respect to all aspects of such actions and their impact
on facility staff; and

(2) compliance with all requirements and protection of employee rights
pursuant to collective bargaining agreements with the designated legal
representative of the employees and the civil service law.

(e) Every facility director or designee thereof is authorized and
empowered to grant leaves of absence to employees of such facility not
involved in direct patient care who are volunteer firefighters as
defined in subdivision one of section three of the volunteer
firefighters' benefit law, responding to an emergency within the
community for such periods as the volunteer firefighters are engaged in
the actual performance of their duties as volunteer firefighters.