CO Code § 24-34-101 (2021)
2021 Colorado Code|Title 24 - Government - State|Article 34 - Department of Regulatory Agencies|Part 1 - Organization|§ 24-34-101. Department Created - Executive Director

    There is hereby created the department of regulatory agencies, the head of which shall be the executive director of the department of regulatory agencies, which office is hereby created. The executive director shall be appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate, and shall serve at the pleasure of the governor. The reappointment of an executive director after initial election of a governor shall be subject to the provisions of section 24-20-109. The executive director shall have those powers, duties, and functions prescribed for heads of principal departments in the "Administrative Organization Act of 1968". The department of regulatory agencies shall be organized as provided in the "Administrative Organization Act of 1968"; but nothing in this part 1 shall be construed to prevent the establishment, combination, or abolition of divisions, sections, or units other than those created by law. (1) (a) There is hereby created the department of regulatory agencies, the head of which shall be the executive director of the department of regulatory agencies, which office is hereby created. The executive director shall be appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate, and shall serve at the pleasure of the governor. The reappointment of an executive director after initial election of a governor shall be subject to the provisions of section 24-20-109. The executive director shall have those powers, duties, and functions prescribed for heads of principal departments in the "Administrative Organization Act of 1968". The department of regulatory agencies shall be organized as provided in the "Administrative Organization Act of 1968"; but nothing in this part 1 shall be construed to prevent the establishment, combination, or abolition of divisions, sections, or units other than those created by law.    Repealed.       The executive director shall prepare and transmit annually, in the form and manner prescribed by the heads of the principal departments pursuant to the provisions of section 24-1-136, a report accounting to the governor for the efficient discharge of all responsibilities assigned by law or directive to the department of regulatory agencies and divisions thereof.    Publications by the executive director circulated in quantity outside the executive branch shall be issued in accordance with the provisions of section 24-1-136.    Repealed.    The executive director of the department of regulatory agencies may enter into contracts pursuant to part 5 of article 50 of this title for the purpose of decreasing appropriations in the annual general appropriation act.    The executive director of the department of regulatory agencies may contract, pursuant to part 5 of article 50 of this title, with a person having the technical or subject matter expertise or the skill and experience to develop, implement, and administer the licensing and examination functions of the divisions in the department when the executive director determines that a division lacks sufficient technical expertise to perform such licensing and examination functions.    A contract entered into pursuant to this section may authorize a contractor to collect fees directly from an applicant. The contract may allow the contractor to retain all or a portion of the fees as payment for performance of the services under the contract. Fees collected and retained by the contractor shall not be subject to the provisions of article 36 of this title.    This section shall not be construed to limit the powers of any type 1 board or commission in the department of regulatory agencies.    The executive director shall have the authority to accept and expend gifts, grants, and donations for the purposes of implementing and administering the provisions of section 24-4-103 (2.5).    The executive director may contract pursuant to part 5 of article 50 of this title with a person, corporation, or entity having technical or subject matter expertise or skill and experience to develop, implement, and administer the licensing and examination functions of the division of professions and occupations when the executive director determines that the division of professions and occupations is without sufficient technical expertise to perform such licensing and examination functions.    The executive director may contract pursuant to part 5 of article 50 of this title with a person, corporation, or entity for the purpose of decreasing the appropriations for the division of professions and occupations in the annual general appropriations act.    A contract entered into pursuant to subsection (10) or (11) of this section may authorize a contractor to collect fees directly from an applicant. The contractor may retain all or a portion of the fees designated as payment for performance of the functions under the contract. All fees collected and retained by the contractor shall not be subject to the provisions of article 36 of this title.    The executive director shall include in the presentation to the legislative committee of reference pursuant to section 2-7-203, C.R.S., the number of confidential letters of concern issued in the twelve months prior to the presentation by the director of the division of professions and occupations and any board pursuant to title 12, C.R.S.    In conjunction with the efforts of the office of information technology regarding cyber coding cryptology for state records pursuant to section 24-37.5-407, the executive director of the department of regulatory agencies or the director's designee shall consider secure encryption methods, especially distributed ledger technologies, to protect against falsification, create visibility to identify external hacking threats, and to improve internal data security, especially to secure business ownership and stock ledger ownership data that might be potential high-risk targets for corporate cyber theft and transaction falsification. The considerations for distributed ledger technologies shall include best practice attempts to maintain privacy of personally identifying information of the distributed user base while utilizing the visibility of distributed transactions.     Source: L. 68: p. 117, § 107. C.R.S. 1963: § 3-27-1. L. 71: p. 103, § 4. L. 83: (2) and (3) amended, p. 836, § 47, effective July 1. L. 86: (1) amended, p. 887, § 16, effective May 23. L. 88: (4) added, p. 454, § 2, effective April 27. L. 2000: (1) amended, p. 1947, § 3, effective July 1; (2) amended, p. 1549, § 16, effective August 2. L. 2002: (1)(b) repealed, p. 374, § 6, effective July 1. L. 2004: (5) to (8) added, p. 1252, § 1, effective May 27; (9) to (12) added, p. 1863, § 122, effective August 4. L. 2006: (13) added, p. 820, § 44, effective July 1. L. 2010: (13) amended, (HB 10-1119), ch. 340, p. 1572, § 6, effective August 11. L. 2018: (14) added, (SB 18-086), ch. 319, p. 1919, § 5, effective May 30.   Editor's note: (1) Subsection (4) provided for the repeal of subsection (4), effective July 1, 1995. (SeeL. 88, p. 454.)   (2) Subsections (9), (10), (11), and (12) were originally numbered as subsections (5), (6), (7), and (8), respectively, in Senate Bill 04-024 but have been renumbered on revision for ease of location.   Cross references: (1) For the "Administrative Organization Act of 1968", see article 1 of this title.   (2) In 2010, subsection (13) was amended by the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act". For the short title, see section 1 of chapter 340, Session Laws of Colorado 2010.