B. The chief advocate shall select other advocates needed to carry out the intent of this section who shall report only to the chief advocate.

C. Both the chief advocate and all other advocates shall be classified state employees.

2-A.__Office administration.__The Office of Advocacy and Adult Protective Services and its staff are directly managed and supervised by a director.__The director selects advocates and adult protective investigators to carry out the purposes of this section.

A.__The director is appointed by the commissioner and is a confidential, unclassified state employee.__The director is responsible for and has full authority for providing general supervision to all employees of the office; establishing performance standards for all employees of the office; creating and maintaining policies, procedures, protocols and case tracking and closure systems; and providing regular reports about the activities of the office to the commissioner, the Consumer Advisory Board, the Legislature and the public.__The director may assign such supervisory duties to an advocate or an adult protective investigator as the director determines necessary for the effective functioning of the office.

B.__Five advocacy positions are primarily responsible for adult protective investigations.__The remaining positions are devoted to advocacy services.__All advocates and adult protective investigators are classified state employees.__ The commissioner has the ability to move positions from one responsibility to the other in order to create the appropriate balance between adult protective and advocacy services.

3. Duties. The Office of Advocacy and Adult Protective Services, through the chief advocate and the other director, advocates and adult protective investigators, shall:

A. Receive or refer complaints made by clients of the department and represent the interests of clients in any matter pertaining to the rights and dignity of clients;

B. Intercede on behalf of these clients with officials of the institutions, facilities and agencies administered,