Nebraska § 50-2006 - Public Counsel; personnel; appointment; compensation; authority.

§ 50-2006. Public Counsel; personnel; appointment; compensation; authority.

(1) The Public Counsel may select, appoint, and compensate as the Public Counsel sees fit, within the amount available by appropriation, such assistants and employees as the Public Counsel deems necessary to discharge the responsibilities under the Office of Public Counsel Act. The Public Counsel shall appoint and designate one assistant to be a deputy public counsel, one assistant to be a deputy public counsel for corrections, one assistant to be a deputy public counsel for institutions, and one assistant to be a deputy public counsel for public welfare.

(2) Such deputy public counsels shall be subject to the control and supervision of the Public Counsel.

(3) The authority of the deputy public counsel for corrections shall extend to all facilities and parts of facilities, offices, houses of confinement, and institutions which are operated by the Department of Correctional Services and all county or municipal correctional or jail facilities.

(4) The authority of the deputy public counsel for institutions shall extend to all mental health institutions and facilities operated by the Department of Health and Human Services, to all veterans institutions operated by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and to all regional behavioral health authorities that provide services and all community-based behavioral health services providers that contract with a regional behavioral health authority to provide services, for any individual who was a patient within the prior twenty-four months of a state-owned and state-operated regional center, and to all complaints pertaining to administrative acts of the department, authority, or provider when those acts are concerned with the rights and interests of individuals placed within those institutions and facilities or receiving community-based behavioral health services.

(5) The authority of the deputy public counsel for public welfare shall extend to all complaints pertaining to administrative acts of administrative agencies when those acts are concerned with the rights and interests of individuals involved in the public welfare system of the State of Nebraska.

(6) The Public Counsel may delegate to members of the staff any authority or duty under the Office of Public Counsel Act except the power of delegation and the duty of formally making recommendations to administrative agencies or reports to the Governor or the Legislature.