AI-assisted research summary: The commissioner and department may set staffing and employment-screening policies, and the department must run background checks for selected applicants before a final offer.
I. The annual salary of the commissioner, and that of the deputy commissioner, shall be that prescribed by RSA 94:1-4. The commissioner may appoint examiners and such assistants as may be necessary, within the limits of the appropriations therefor and the rules of the state personnel system. II. The commissioner, deputy commissioner, examiners, and other assistants shall be allowed their actual traveling expenses when engaged in their official duties. III. The commissioner may adopt a policy to prohibit certain department employees from performing outside work for any director or officer of a bank, trust company, or credit union, or for an entity chartered or licensed by the commissioner. IV. The commissioner may adopt a written policy to require certain department employees to comply with the limitations of RSA 383:6 except that the employees may be indebted to a bank, trust company, or credit union or any other entity chartered or licensed by the department at the time of his or her appointment, or thereafter, provided the debt is incurred primarily for personal, household, or family purposes and on terms no more favorable than those afforded to other borrowers, the employee's employment is disclosed to such entity, and both the employee and the entity disclose to the commissioner that a debt has been incurred. V. The department shall complete a background investigation and a criminal history records check on every selected applicant for employment in any position in the department prior to a final offer of employment. The department may extend a conditional offer of employment to a selected applicant after completing a background investigation, with a final offer of employment subject to a successfully completed criminal history records check. No selected applicant may be extended a conditional offer of employment unless the department has initiated a criminal history records check. The department may also complete a background investigation and a criminal history records check on every contractor who provides services to the department, including but not limited to employees of other state agencies who are assigned to work at the department. The department shall not be held liable in any lawsuit alleging that the extension of a conditional or final offer of employment to an applicant with a criminal history was in any way negligent or deficient if the department fulfilled the requirements of this section. VI. The selected applicant for employment or contractor shall submit to the department a criminal history records release form, as provided by the division of state police, which authorizes the release of the person's criminal records, if any. The applicant or contractor shall submit with the release form a complete set of fingerprints taken by a qualified law enforcement agency or an authorized employee of the department. In the event that the first set of fingerprints is invalid due to insufficient pattern and a second set of fingerprints is necessary in order to complete the criminal history records check, the conditional offer of employment shall remain in effect. If, after 2 attempts, a set of fingerprints is invalid due to insufficient pattern, the department may, in lieu of the criminal history records check, accept police clearances from every city, town, or county where an applicant or contractor has lived during the past 5 years. VII. The department shall submit the criminal history records release form to the New Hampshire division of state police, which shall conduct a criminal history records check through its records and through the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Upon completion of the background investigation, the division of state police shall release copies of the criminal conviction records to the department. The department shall maintain the confidentiality of all criminal history records information received under this paragraph. Source: Source. 1925, 143:5. 1925, 179:1. PL 259:5. 1931, 130:1. RL 307:5. 1950, 9:2. 1953, 265:1. RSA 383:7. 1959, 199:6. 1973, 182:4. 1991, 84:1. 1997, 24:1. 2006, 303:7. 2015, 272:5, eff. Oct. 1, 2015. 2018, 184:2, eff. Aug. 7, 2018; 318:29, eff. Aug. 24, 2018.