Conn. Gen. Stat. » Title 04 — MANAGEMENT OF STATE AGENCIES · Chapter 46 — State Appointive Officers
Connecticut General Statutes

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-5 (2026)

“Department head” defined

✓ current as of May 2026
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As used in sections 4-6, 4-7 and 4-8, the term “department head” means the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, Commissioner of Administrative Services, Commissioner of Revenue Services, Banking Commissioner, Commissioner of Children and Families, Commissioner of Consumer Protection, Commissioner of Correction, Commissioner of Economic and Community Development, State Board of Education, Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection, Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection, Commissioner of Agriculture, Commissioner of Public Health, Insurance Commissioner, Labor Commissioner, Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Commissioner of Social Services, Commissioner of Developmental Services, Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, Commissioner of Transportation, Commissioner of Veterans Affairs, Commissioner of Housing, Commissioner of Aging and Disability Services, Commissioner of Early Childhood, Commissioner of Health Strategy, executive director of the Office of Military Affairs, executive director of the Technical Education and Career System, Chief Workforce Officer and Commissioner of Higher Education. As used in sections 4-6 and 4-7, “department head” also means the Commissioner of Education.

(March, 1950, 1953, S. 27d; 1959, P.A. 412, S. 3; 637, S. 1; 1967, P.A. 152, S. 4; 522, S. 4; 657, S. 80; 1969, P.A. 664, S. 17; 768, S. 57; 814, S. 7; 1971, P.A. 872, S. 3; P.A. 73-599, S. 7; 73-677, S. 2; P.A. 75-519, S. 2, 12; 75-537, S. 17, 55; 75-638, S. 8, 23; P.A. 77-614, S. 4, 610; P.A. 79-598, S. 2, 27; P.A. 80-482, S. 3, 345, 348; P.A. 84-342, S. 2, 13; P.A. 86-175, S. 2, 4; P.A. 87-9, S. 2, 3; 87-496, S. 1, 110; P.A. 93-91, S. 1, 2; 93-262, S. 26, 87; 93-381, S. 9, 39; P.A. 95-250, S. 13, 42; 95-257, S. 11, 12, 21, 40, 58; 95-309, S. 11, 12; P.A. 96-211, S. 1, 5, 6; June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-9, S. 14, 50; P.A. 03-84, S. 4; 03-217, S. 2; June 30 Sp. Sess. P.A. 03-6, S. 146(c), (e), 147, 241; P.A. 04-189, S. 1; 04-205, S. 5; 04-219, S. 1; May Sp. Sess. P.A. 04-2, S. 30; P.A. 06-187, S. 11; P.A. 07-73, S. 2(b); 07-114, S. 2; 07-205, S. 2; Sept. Sp. Sess. P.A. 09-3, S. 23; Sept. Sp. Sess. P.A. 09-7, S. 156; P.A. 11-44, S. 31; 11-48, S. 131; 11-51, S. 46, 141; 11-80, S. 1, 3; June 12 Sp. Sess. P.A. 12-1, S. 29, 121; P.A. 13-4, S. 2; 13-125, S. 27; 13-247, S. 198; P.A. 14-39, S. 5; 14-182, S. 4; P.A. 16-167, S. 12; P.A. 17-237, S. 6; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 17-2, S. 278, 279; P.A. 18-91, S. 2, 3; 18-182, S. 20; P.A. 19-31, S. 4, 5; 19-117, S. 155, 156, 283; 19-157, S. 2, 3; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 21-2, S. 253, 254; P.A. 22-118, S. 227, 250; 22-123, S. 1; P.A. 23-22, S. 12; P.A. 24-81, S. 177.)

History: 1959 acts deleted milk administrator and athletic commissioner and changed titles of commissioner of agriculture to commissioner of agriculture and natural resources and commissioner of food and drugs to commissioner of consumer protection; 1967 acts included commissioner of correction, commissioner of community affairs and personnel commissioner in definition; 1969 acts included commissioner of children and youth services and commissioner on aging in definition and substituted commissioner of transportation for highway commissioner; 1971 act removed responsibility for natural resources from commissioner of agriculture and included commissioner of environmental protection; P.A. 73-599 included commissioner of the department of commerce; P.A. 73-677 replaced personnel commissioner with commissioner of personnel and administration; P.A. 75-519 replaced commissioner of personnel and administration with personnel commissioner; P.A. 75-537 included commissioner of planning and energy policy; P.A. 75-638 included commissioner of mental retardation; P.A. 77-614 rewrote section to reflect changes mandated by reorganization of executive branch, deleting finance and control, banking, social services, insurance, health, public works, tax, community affairs, personnel, commerce and planning and energy commissioners and including secretaries of the office of policy and management and of business regulation, the state board of education and administrative services, revenue services, economic development, health services, public safety, income maintenance and human resources commissioners; P.A. 79-598 included commissioner of housing; P.A. 80-482 replaced secretary of business regulation with commissioner of banking and included the commissioner of insurance, the liquor control commission and the public utilities control authority; P.A. 84-342 replaced public utilities control authority with chairperson of the authority; P.A. 86-175 added commissioner of veterans' affairs; (Revisor's note: Pursuant to P.A. 87-9, “banking commissioner” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “commissioner of banking”); P.A. 87-496 added commissioner of public works to definition of “department head”; P.A. 93-91 substituted commissioner and department of children and families for commissioner and department of children and youth services, effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 93-262 removed reference to the commissioner on aging, department of income maintenance and department of human resources, substituting reference to department of social services, effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 93-381 replaced commissioner of health services with commissioner of public health and addiction services, effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 95-250 and P.A. 96-211 replaced Commissioners of Economic Development and Housing with Commissioner of Economic and Community Development; P.A. 95-257 added the Commissioner of Health Care Access, replaced Commissioner of Public Health and Addiction Services with Commissioner of Public Health and replaced Commissioner of Mental Health with Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services, effective July 1, 1995; P.A. 95-309 changed effective date of P.A. 95-250 but did not affect this section; June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-9 included “Chief Information Officer” in definition of “department head”, effective July 1, 1997; P.A. 03-84 changed “Commissioner of Banking” to “Banking Commissioner”, effective June 3, 2003; P.A. 03-217 added “executive director of the Board of Education and Services for the Blind” to definition of “department head”, effective July 9, 2003; June 30 Sp. Sess. P.A. 03-6 added “executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Arts, Tourism, Culture, History and Film” to definition of “department head”, effective August 20, 2003, and changed “Commissioner of Consumer Protection” to “Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Protection” and removed reference to “Commissioner of Agriculture”, effective July 1, 2004; P.A. 04-189 repealed Secs. 146 and 147 of June 30 Sp. Sess. P.A. 03-6, thereby reversing the merger of the Departments of Agriculture and Consumer Protection, effective June 1, 2004; P.A. 04-205, effective June 3, 2004, and May Sp. Sess. P.A. 04-2, effective May 12, 2004, both replaced Connecticut Commission on Arts, Tourism, Culture, History and Film with Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism; P.A. 04-219 added Commissioner of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, effective January 1, 2005; P.A. 06-187 added the Ombudsman for Property Rights, effective July 1, 2006; pursuant to P.A. 07-73 “Commissioner of Mental Retardation” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “Commissioner of Developmental Services”, effective October 1, 2007; P.A. 07-114 added language re Commissioner of Education; P.A. 07-205 added the executive director of the Office of Military Affairs; Sept. Sp. Sess. P.A. 09-3 deleted reference to Commissioner of Health Care Access, effective October 6, 2009; Sept. Sp. Sess. P.A. 09-7 deleted reference to the Ombudsman for Property Rights, effective October 5, 2009; P.A. 11-44 replaced “the executive director of the Board of Education and Services for the Blind” with “the director of the Bureau of Rehabilitative Services”, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 11-48 deleted “the executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism” and added “the president of the Board of Regents for Higher Education”, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 11-51 replaced “Commissioner of Public Safety” and “Commissioner of Emergency Management and Homeland Security” with “Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection”, added “Commissioner of Construction Services” and deleted “Commissioner of Public Works” and “Chief Information Officer”, effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 11-80 changed “Commissioner of Environmental Protection” to “Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection” and deleted “the chairperson of the Public Utilities Control Authority”, effective July 1, 2011; June 12 Sp. Sess. P.A. 12-1 added “Commissioner of Housing”, effective June 15, 2012, and replaced “the director of the Bureau of Rehabilitative Services” with “Commissioner of Rehabilitation Services”, effective July 1, 2012; P.A. 13-4 deleted “the president of the Board of Regents for Higher Education”, effective April 22, 2013; P.A. 13-125 added Commissioner on Aging to list of officials defined as department heads, effective June 18, 2013; P.A. 13-247 deleted “Commissioner of Construction Services”, effective July 1, 2013; P.A. 14-39 added “the Commissioner of Early Childhood”, effective May 28, 2014; P.A. 14-182 deleted “Liquor Control Commission”, effective June 12, 2014; P.A. 16-167 replaced “Commissioner of Veterans' Affairs” with “Commissioner of Veterans Affairs”, effective July 1, 2016; P.A. 17-237 added reference to the executive director of the Technical Education and Career System and made technical changes, effective July 1, 2019; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 17-2 deleted reference to Commissioner on Aging, effective October 31, 2017, and July 1, 2019; P.A. 18-91 added reference to executive director of Office of Health Strategy, effective May 14, 2018; P.A. 18-182 changed effective date of P.A. 17-237, S. 6, from July 1, 2019, to July 1, 2020, effective June 14, 2018; P.A. 19-31 deleted reference to Commissioner on Aging, effective July 1, 2019, and added reference to executive director of Office of Health Strategy, effective July 1, 2020; P.A. 19-117 changed effective date of P.A. 17-237, S. 6, from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2022, effective June 26, 2019, and deleted reference to Commissioner on Aging, effective July 1, 2019, and added reference to executive director of the Office of Health Strategy, effective July 1, 2020; P.A. 19-157 replaced Commissioner of Rehabilitation Services with Commissioner of Aging and Disability Services; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 21-2 added reference to Chief Workforce Officer, effective July 1, 2021; P.A. 22-118 changed Commissioner of Rehabilitation Services to Commissioner of Aging and Disability Services and added executive director of Office of Health Strategy to list of department heads, effective July 1, 2022; P.A. 22-123 added reference to executive director of the Office of Higher Education, effective July 1, 2022; P.A. 23-22 made technical changes; P.A. 24-81 replaced references to executive director of the Office of Health Strategy and executive director of the Office of Higher Education with references to Commissioner of Health Strategy and Commissioner of Higher Education, respectively, effective May 30, 2024.

See Sec. 4-20 re bond requirement.

Cited. 184 C. 1.

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Notes of Decisions
Cited in 226 cases (46 in the last 5 years), 1981–2026 · leading case: State v. Collins, 10 A.3d 1005 (Conn. 2011).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
State v. Collins, 10 A.3d 1005 (Conn. 2011). · cites it 34× “The principal issue in this certified appeal is whether the trial court properly admitted, under § 4-5 of the Connecticut Code of Evidence, [1] uncharged misconduct evidence concerning the defendant's involvement in a prior shooting using the same gun that was the murder weapon…”
State v. DeJesus, 953 A.2d 45 (Conn. 2008). · cites it 16× “" Subsection (b) of § 4-5 of the code provides, however, that "[e]vidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts of a person is admissible for purposes other than those specified in subsection (a), such as to prove intent, identity, malice, motive, common plan or scheme, absence of…”
State v. Juan J., 344 Conn. 1 (Conn. 2022). · cites it 21× “The state indicated that it did not intend to offer the uncharged misconduct evidence as propensity evidence but intended to offer it under the Connecticut Code of Evidence (§ 4-5 (c)) for the purposes of proving intent, a common plan or scheme, and to complete the story of the…”
State v. Whitford, 799 A.2d 1034 (Conn. 2002). · cites it 16× “On appeal, the defendant argues that the proffered testimony was admissible pursuant to either § 4-5 (c) *636 of the Connecticut Code of Evidence 10 to prove the victim’s violent character, or § 4-6 11 of the Connecticut Code of Evidence as habit evidence.”
State v. Beavers, 963 A.2d 956 (Conn. 2009). · cites it 14× “The principal issue in this appeal is whether, in an arson murder trial, testimony by the defendant’s former wife about his prior uncharged misconduct, including his burning of their house trailer for insurance money, his statement to her that he previously had committed arson…”
State v. Campbell, 180 A.3d 882 (Conn. 2018). · cites it 7× “to prove intent, identity, malice, motive, common plan or scheme, absence of mistake or accident, knowledge, a system of criminal activity, or an element of the crime, or to corroborate crucial prosecution testimony.”
State v. Hedge, 1 A.3d 1051 (Conn. 2010). · cites it 9× “” The state asserts that, although § 4-5 (b) provides for certain exceptions to the inadmissibility of other crimes, wrongs or acts evidence, the evidence that the defendant proffered does not fall within any of those exceptions.”
State v. Chyung, 157 A.3d 628 (Conn. 2017). · cites it 9× “The defendant contended that the evidence constituted inadmissible propensity evidence under § 4-5 (a) of the 2012 edition of the Connecticut Code of Evidence.”
State v. Gerald A., 191 A.3d 1003 (Conn. App. Ct. 2018). · cites it 13× “'' Alternatively, the state argued that if the court found this evidence to be other misconduct evidence, it was admissible pursuant to § 4-5 (c) of the Connecticut Code of Evidence 8 to ''corroborate crucial prosecution testimony of the witnesses'' and was ''necessary to lay a…”
State v. Sawyer, 904 A.2d 101 (Conn. 2006). · cites it 7× “Subsection (a) of § 4-5 of the Connecticut Code of Evidence provides: “Evidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts of a person is inadmissible to prove the bad character or criminal tendencies of that person.”
State v. Arias, 140 A.3d 200 (Conn. 2016). · cites it 10× “be used by you as circumstantial evidence of the crimes charged in the information.”
State v. Rivera, 335 Conn. 720 (Conn. 2020). · cites it 10× “He also argues that these underlying facts would have established Chase’s motive, intent, and interest—namely, that Chase had similarly attempted to steal the defendant’s car to finance his drug habit and had testified against the defendant to cover up his own illegal…”
Show all 226 citing cases →
— Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-5(a) — 9 cases
State v. DeJesus, 953 A.2d 45 (Conn. 2008). “" Subsection (b) of § 4-5 of the code provides, however, that "[e]vidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts of a person is admissible for purposes other than those specified in subsection (a), such as to prove intent, identity, malice, motive, common plan or scheme, absence of…”
State v. Chyung, 157 A.3d 628 (Conn. 2017). “The defendant contended that the evidence constituted inadmissible propensity evidence under § 4-5 (a) of the 2012 edition of the Connecticut Code of Evidence.”
State v. Jordan, 44 A.3d 794 (Conn. 2012).
State v. Eddie N. C., 174 A.3d 803 (Conn. App. Ct. 2017).
State v. Gupta, 998 A.2d 1085 (Conn. 2010).
— Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-5(b) — 14 cases
State v. Collins, 10 A.3d 1005 (Conn. 2011). “The principal issue in this certified appeal is whether the trial court properly admitted, under § 4-5 of the Connecticut Code of Evidence, [1] uncharged misconduct evidence concerning the defendant's involvement in a prior shooting using the same gun that was the murder weapon…”
State v. Arias, 140 A.3d 200 (Conn. 2016). “be used by you as circumstantial evidence of the crimes charged in the information.”
State v. Myers, 921 A.2d 640 (Conn. App. Ct. 2007).
State v. Eddie N. C., 174 A.3d 803 (Conn. App. Ct. 2017).
State v. LW, 999 A.2d 5 (Conn. App. Ct. 2010).
— Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-5(b)(1) — 1 case
State v. Leniart, 140 A.3d 1026 (Conn. App. Ct. 2016).
— Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-5(b)(2) — 1 case
State v. Leniart, 140 A.3d 1026 (Conn. App. Ct. 2016).
— Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4-5(c) — 7 cases
State v. DeJesus, 953 A.2d 45 (Conn. 2008). “" Subsection (b) of § 4-5 of the code provides, however, that "[e]vidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts of a person is admissible for purposes other than those specified in subsection (a), such as to prove intent, identity, malice, motive, common plan or scheme, absence of…”
State v. Chyung, 157 A.3d 628 (Conn. 2017). “The defendant contended that the evidence constituted inadmissible propensity evidence under § 4-5 (a) of the 2012 edition of the Connecticut Code of Evidence.”
State v. Anthony L., 179 A.3d 1278 (Conn. App. Ct. 2018).
State v. Santiago, 202 A.3d 405 (Conn. App. Ct. 2019).
State v. Arias, 140 A.3d 200 (Conn. 2016). “be used by you as circumstantial evidence of the crimes charged in the information.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.