Section 31-7-361 - Transfer of responsibilities, rights, and personnel between departments(a) Effective July 1, 2009, all matters relating to facility licensing and employee criminal background checks for personal care homes pursuant to Article 11 of this chapter as it existed on June 30, 2009, shall be transferred from the Department of Human Services to the department.(b) The rights, privileges, entitlements, and duties of parties to contracts, leases, agreements, and other transactions entered into before July 1, 2009, by the Department of Human Resources which relate to the functions transferred to the department pursuant to this Code section shall continue to exist; and none of these rights, privileges, entitlements, and duties are impaired or diminished by reason of the transfer of the functions to the department. In all such instances, the department shall be substituted for the Department of Human Resources, and the department shall succeed to the rights and duties under such contracts, leases, agreements, and other transactions.(c) All persons employed by the Department of Human Resources in capacities which relate to the functions transferred to the department pursuant to this Code section on June 30, 2009, shall, on July 1, 2009, become employees of the department in similar capacities, as determined by the commissioner of community health. Such employees shall be subject to the employment practices and policies of the department on and after July 1, 2009, but the compensation and benefits of such transferred employees shall not be reduced as a result of such transfer. Employees who are subject to the rules of the State Personnel Board and who are transferred to the department shall retain all existing rights under such rules. Retirement rights of such transferred employees existing under the Employees' Retirement System of Georgia or other public retirement systems on June 30, 2009, shall not be impaired or interrupted by the transfer of such employees and membership in any such retirement system shall continue in the same status possessed by the transferred employees on June 30, 2009. Accrued annual and sick leave possessed by said employees on June 30, 2009, shall be retained by said employees as employees of the department.Amended by 2018 Ga. Laws 420,§ 1-4, eff. 10/1/2019.