§ 30-15-5. Emergency management preparedness agency created - Personnel - Facilities. (a) There is hereby created within the executive department, the Rhode Island emergency management agency (hereinafter in this chapter called the "agency"), to be headed by a director, who shall be appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, the governor and who shall be in the unclassified service.

(b) The director may employ such technical, clerical, stenographic, and other personnel, all of whom shall be in the classified service, and may make such expenditures within the appropriation therefor, or from other funds made available for the purposes of this chapter, as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter, consistent with other applicable provisions of law.

(c) The agency may provide itself with appropriate office space, furniture, equipment, supplies, stationery, and printing.

(d) The director, subject to the direction and control of the governor, shall be the head of the agency, and shall be responsible to the governor for carrying out the program for disaster preparedness of this state. The director shall coordinate the activities of all organizations for disasters within the state and shall maintain liaison with and cooperate with disaster agencies and organizations of other states and of the federal government. The director shall have such additional authority, duties, and responsibilities authorized by this chapter as may be prescribed by the governor.

(e) Wherever in the general or public laws, or any rule or regulation, any reference to the "executive director" shall appear, it shall be deemed to mean and shall mean "the director."

History of Section. (P.L. 1973, ch. 67, § 2; P.L. 1996, ch. 100, ch. 41, § 1; P.L. 2000, ch. 170, § 2; P.L. 2014, ch. 145, art. 14, § 1; P.L. 2015, ch. 52, § 1; P.L. 2015, ch. 53, § 1.)