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The department may sue and be sued in and by the proper name of "Department of Health and Mental Hygiene of the City of New York", and service of all process in suits and proceedings against or affecting the department, or other papers, may be made upon the commissioner or official designated by him, and not otherwise; except that, according to usual practice in other suits, papers in suits to which the department is a party may be served on the corporation counsel or such assistant as may be assigned by him to the department.
The commissioner and such officers or employees of the department as are designated by him may, at reasonable times, and pursuant to a search warrant when required by law, without fee or hindrance enter, examine and inspect all vessels, premises, grounds, structures, buildings and every part thereof and all underground passages of every sort in the city for compliance with the provisions of law enforced by the department and its rules and regulations and may make plans, drawings and descriptions thereof, according to the regulations of the department. The owner or his agent or representative and the lessee or occupant of any such premises, grounds, structures, buildings and every part thereof and all underground passages of every sort in the city and every part thereof and every person having the care and management thereof, shall at all reasonable times, when required by any such officers or employees, give them free access thereto, and refusal so to do shall be triable by a judge of the New York city criminal court and shall be treated and punished as a misdemeanor.
No grant, gift, devise, legacy or bequest made to the city or to the department for work to be done within the jurisdiction of the department shall be accepted, and no work or research paid for from private sources shall be carried on under the jurisdiction of the department except with the approval of the commissioner.
a. (1) There shall be a mental hygiene advisory board which shall be advisory to the commissioner and the deputy commissioner for mental hygiene services in the development of community mental health, intellectual and developmental disability, alcoholism and substance abuse facilities and services and programs related thereto. The board shall have separate subcommittees for mental health, for developmental disabilities, and for alcoholism and substance abuse. The board and its subcommittees shall be constituted and their appointive members appointed and removed in the manner prescribed for a community services board by the provisions of the mental hygiene law. Pursuant to the provisions of such law, such members may be reappointed without limitation on the number of consecutive terms which they may serve.
(2) Members of the mental hygiene advisory board and its subcommittees shall serve thereon without compensation except that each member shall be allowed actual and necessary expenses to be audited in the same manner as other city charges.
(3) No person shall be ineligible for membership on the board or its subcommittees because such person holds any other public office, employment or trust, nor shall any person be made ineligible to or forfeit such person's right to any public office, employment or trust by reason of such appointment.
b. (1) Contracts for services and facilities under this chapter may be made with a public or private voluntary hospital, clinic, laboratory, health, welfare or mental hygiene agency or other similar institution, notwithstanding that any member of the board or its subcommittees is an officer or employee of such institution or agency or is a member of the medical or consultant staff thereof.
(2) If any matter arises before the board or any of its subcommittees directly involving a public or private voluntary hospital, clinic, laboratory, health, welfare or mental hygiene agency or other similar institution of which any member of the board or such subcommittee is an officer, employee or on the medical or consultant staff thereof, that member shall participate in the deliberations of the board or of such subcommittee on the matter only insofar as to provide any information requested of such person by the other members of the board or subcommittee, and that member shall not participate further in the deliberations of the board or subcommittee on the matter after having provided the required information.
(Am. L.L. 2022/014, 1/9/2022, eff. 1/9/2022)