(A)(1) As used in this section, “managing officer” means a deputy director, an assistant deputy director, a superintendent, a regional administrator, a deputy superintendent, or the superintendent of schools of the department of youth services, a member of the release authority, the chief of staff to the release authority, and the victims administrator of the office of victim services.

(2) Each division established by the director of youth services shall consist of managing officers and other employees, including those employed in institutions and regions as necessary to perform the functions assigned to them. The director or appropriate deputy director or managing officer of the department shall supervise the work of each division and determine general policies governing the exercise of powers vested in the department and assigned to each division. The appropriate managing officer or deputy director is responsible to the director for the organization, direction, and supervision of the work of the division or unit and for the exercise of the powers and the performance of the duties of the department assigned to it and, with the director’s approval, may establish bureaus or other administrative units within the department.

(B) The director shall appoint all managing officers, who shall be in the unclassified civil service. The director may appoint a person who holds a certified position in the classified service within the department to a position as a managing officer within the department. A person appointed pursuant to this division to a position as a managing officer shall retain the right to resume the position and status held by the person in the classified service immediately prior to the person’s appointment as managing officer, regardless of the number of positions the person held in the unclassified service. A managing officer’s right to resume a position in the classified service may only be exercised when the director demotes the managing officer to a pay range lower than the managing officer’s current pay range or revokes the managing officer’s appointment to the position of managing officer. A person who holds a position in the classified service and who is appointed to the position of managing officer on or after January 1, 2016, shall have the right to resume a position in the classified service under this division only within five years after the effective date of the person’s appointment as managing officer. A managing officer forfeits the right to resume a position in the classified service when the managing officer is removed from the position of managing officer due to incompetence, inefficiency, dishonesty, drunkenness, immoral conduct, insubordination, discourteous treatment of the public, neglect of duty, violation of this chapter or Chapter 124 of the Revised Code, the rules of the director of youth services or the director of administrative services, any other failure of good behavior, any other acts of misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance in office, or conviction of a felony while employed in the civil service. A managing officer also forfeits the right to resume a position in the classified service upon transfer to a different agency.

Reinstatement to a position in the classified service shall be to the position held in the classified service immediately prior to appointment as managing officer, or to another position certified by the director of administrative services as being substantially equal to that position. If the position the person previously held in the classified service immediately prior to appointment as a managing officer has been placed in the unclassified service or is otherwise unavailable, the person shall be appointed to a position in the classified service within the department that the director of administrative services certifies is comparable in compensation to the position the person previously held in the classified service. Service as a managing officer shall be counted as service in the position in the classified service held by the person immediately prior to the person’s appointment as a managing officer. If a person is reinstated to a position in the classified service under this division, the person shall be returned to the pay range and step to which the person had been assigned at the time of the appointment as managing officer. Longevity, where applicable, shall be calculated pursuant to the provisions of section 124.181 of the Revised Code.

(C) Each person appointed as a managing officer shall have received special training and shall have experience in the type of work that the person’s division is required to perform. Each managing officer, under the supervision of the director, has entire charge of the division, institution, unit, or region for which the managing officer is appointed and, with the director’s approval, shall appoint necessary employees and may remove them for cause.

(D) The director may designate one or more deputy directors to sign any personnel actions on the director’s behalf. The director shall make a designation in a writing signed by the director, and the designation shall remain in effect until the director revokes or supersedes it with a new designation.