(a)(1) The Office shall be administered by the Director, who shall be appointed by the Mayor. The Director shall devote his or her full time to the duties of the Office. His or her annual compensation shall not be lower than a DS-15, step one, or equivalent compensation pursuant to §§ 1-610.51 through 1-610.63.

(2) The Office shall have sufficient full-time employees to perform the Office’s duties, with a minimum of 2 full-time employees, plus any temporary staff approved by the Office of Budget and Planning.

(b) The Director shall:

(1) Serve as an advocate for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community in the District of Columbia;

(2) Assist community organizations in developing and submitting grant applications;

(3) Provide information and technical assistance with respect to programs and services for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community to the Mayor, the Council, other District of Columbia agencies and departments, and the community;

(4) File an annual report on the operation of the Office with the Mayor and the Council;

(5) Identify areas of need for service or improvement of services and bring them to the attention of the Mayor, with suggestions for satisfying such needs, including conducting or funding research and demonstration projects to test the suggestions;

(6) Assure necessary control, evaluation, audit, and reporting on programs funded through the Office;

(7) Accept volunteer services and funds from the public and private sectors to supplement the budget in carrying out the planning duties and responsibilities of the Office;

(8) Meet with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning services coordinators within each department and agency of the District government as a group, at least once a month to coordinate activities within the government involving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community;

(9) Meet with each department and agency director to establish a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning services coordinator;

(10) Work with the Department of Health’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning services coordinator to ensure that the Department’s annual report on the status of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning health in the District of Columbia is comprehensive and receives an appropriate response;

(11) Issue grants to organizations that provide services to LGBTQ residents of the District of Columbia or in furtherance of the mission of the Office or the purposes of this chapter; and

(12) Implement the grant program created by § 2-1384.

(Apr. 4, 2006, D.C. Law 16-89, § 4, 53 DCR 1084; Mar. 2, 2007, D.C. Law 16-191, § 122(b), 53 DCR 6794; May 3, 2014, D.C. Law 20-100, § 3(b), 61 DCR 1873; Oct. 22, 2015, D.C. Law 21-36, § 1022(c), 62 DCR 10905.)

D.C. Law 16-191, in subsec. (b)(9), validated a previously made technical correction.

The 2014 amendment by D.C. Law 20-100 substituted “sufficient full-time employees to perform the Office’s duties, with a minimum of 2 full-time employees” for “2 full-time employees” in (a)(2); and added (b)(11) and (b)(12) and made related changes.

The 2015 amendment by D.C. Law 21-36 substituted “full time” for “full-time” in (a)(1); substituted “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community” for “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community” in (b)(1); substituted “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community” for “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community” in (b)(3); rewrote (b)(8); substituted “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning services coordinator” for “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Program Coordinator” in (b)(9); and rewrote (b)(10).

For temporary (90 days) amendment of this section, see § 1022(c) of the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Support Emergency Act of 2015 (D.C. Act 21-127, July 27, 2015, 62 DCR 10201).