Subject to the availability of funds, the Commissioner of Public Safety or the Chief of the Highway Patrol Division is authorized to employ a Chaplain within the Department of Public Safety for the purpose of providing counseling services to employees or immediate family members thereof when such counseling services are needed as a direct result of such employee’s performance of official duties and to carry out any other duties and responsibilities assigned by the Commissioner or the Chief of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. The position of Chaplain shall be an unclassified position with salary and benefits set by the Commissioner not to exceed the salary of a Highway Patrolmen at the rank of Trooper with fifteen (15) years of service to the Department of Public Safety. “Chaplain” means an ordained or authorized pastor, minister, priest or other ecclesiastical dignitary of any denomination who has been duly ordained or authorized by the church to which such person belongs.
Added by Laws 2003, c. 461, § 5, eff. July 1, 2003.