(1) (a) The county clerk and recorders, county treasurers, county assessors, county coroners, and surveyors of the respective counties may appoint such deputies, assistants, and employees as shall be necessary at the compensation, payable at least once each month, as fixed by the officers with the approval of the boards of county commissioners of their respective counties. Except for those employees provided for pursuant to article 1 of title 26, C.R.S., boards of county commissioners may adopt a classification and compensation plan for all county employees paid in whole or in part by the county. The classification and compensation plan shall include workweek formulas of not less than forty hours designed to satisfy the varying requirements of each county service and county department as provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection (1). Upon acceptance by an elected official, the plan shall become binding upon the employees of that office. Changes in benefits, pay grades, and job classifications of employees shall thereafter be made in accordance with the plan.(b) (I) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, workweek formulas shall take into account the various services provided by the county, the operation of the various county departments, and the demands which such services and operations have in requiring employees to be on the job in a manner which is not in conformity with the basic forty-hour workweek which generally characterizes office work.(II) Such workweek formulas may provide for work time in excess of forty hours during consecutive seven-day calendar periods. In such cases, computation of forty-hour pay periods may be based on an averaging formula covering more than such seven-day calendar period.(III) Authorized overtime work shall relate to such averaged workweeks where determined in the classification and compensation plan applicable to a described department or service.(IV) All employees who work overtime pursuant to any classification and compensation plan shall receive overtime compensation, either in cash or in compensatory time.(2) In the event litigation is instituted relating to compensation or classification, the burden of proof shall be upon the plaintiff or the elected official instituting such action. Costs of any litigation instituted by an elected official shall be paid out of the county general fund.