6.__Council personnel and members.__As of the effective date of this section:

A.__All employees assigned to the council who state that they wish to continue as employees of the council must be transferred from state employment to employment of the council in its capacity as an independent advisory agency;

B.__Accrued fringe benefits from state employment of transferred personnel, including, but not limited to, vacation and sick leave, health and life insurance and retirement credits, remain available to the transferred personnel;

C.__Members and employees of the council are not considered state employees for the purpose of the state civil service provisions of Title 5, Part 2 and chapter 372 or for any other purpose except as follows.

(1)__Employees of the council, including employees hired after the effective date of this section, are deemed state employees for the purposes of the state retirement provisions of Title 5, Part 20 and the state employee health insurance program under Title 5, chapter 13, subchapter 2.

(2)__For purposes of the Maine Tort Claims Act, the council is deemed a governmental entity and its employees and members are deemed employees as those terms are defined in Title 14, section 8102; and

D.__An employee of the council may return to state employment at any time up to 2 years from the effective date of this section.__Employees expressing such a preference must be placed on the appropriate registers maintained by the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Bureau of Human Resources and must be treated as though on recall in accordance with current collective bargaining provisions.