230.08 Classification of civil service.

(1) Classes. The civil service is divided into the unclassified service and the classified service.

(2) Unclassified service. The unclassified service comprises positions held by:

(a) All state officers elected by the people.

(b) All officers and employees of the state appointed by the governor whether subject to confirmation or not, unless otherwise provided.

(c) The director, associate director, and state historian of the historical society; and, with the approval of the board of curators and the administrator, such number of specialists as are required by the society for specific research, writing, collecting, or editing projects which for a limited period of time not to exceed 2 years, renewable at the discretion of the board of curators and the administrator for an additional 2-year period, require persons with particular training or experience in a specialized phase or field of history, historical research, writing, collecting, or editing, and any persons whose entire salary is paid from funds reappropriated to the society by s. 20.245 (1) (r) where a competitive process is impractical.

(cd) All sales and development professionals of the historical society employed under s. 44.20 (4) (a).

(e) The number of division administrator positions as specified in this paragraph for any board, department or commission as defined in sub. (4) (a) and s. 15.01 (5), and for the historical society with specific functional assignments to be determined by the appointing authority, except as otherwise provided in sub. (4) or as otherwise provided by law:

1. Administration — 13.

2. Agriculture, trade and consumer protection — 9.

2m. Children and families — 9.

3e. Corrections — 7.

3m. Educational communications board — 4.

4f. Financial institutions — 5.

5. Health services — 10.

5m. Historical society — 5.

6. Workforce development — 9.

7. Justice — 5.

7m. Military affairs — 1.

8. Natural resources — 10.

8h. Office of the commissioner of insurance — 2.

8m. Public defender board — 2.

9. Public instruction — 5.

9m. Public service commission — 7.

11. Revenue — 7.

11m. Safety and professional services — 8.

12. Transportation — 9.

13. Veterans affairs — 3.

14. Technical college system board — 2.

15. Tourism — 1.

(eL) The administrator and assistant administrator of the elections commission.

(em) The director of credit unions.

(et) The administrator and assistant administrator of the ethics commission.

(f) All legislative officers and, in addition, policy research personnel, assistants to legislators, research staff assigned to legislative committees, and other persons employed under s. 13.20.

(fc) The chief and personnel of the legislative reference bureau.

(fe) The state auditor and personnel of the legislative audit bureau.

(fm) The director and personnel of the legislative fiscal bureau.

(fo) The director and personnel of the legislative council staff.

(fp) The director and personnel of the legislative technology services bureau.

(fs) All deputies of department secretaries appointed under s. 15.04 (2), assistant deputy secretaries to department secretaries appointed under s. 15.05 (3), and executive assistants appointed by the attorney general, the adjutant general, the director of the technical college system, and the state superintendent of public instruction.

(g) One stenographer appointed by each elective executive officer, except the secretary of state and the state treasurer; and one deputy or assistant appointed by each elective executive officer, except the state treasurer, secretary of state, attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction.

(h) The clerks and other assistants and employees and justices of the supreme court.

(i) The judges, clerks and other assistants and employees of the court of appeals.

(jm) The employees of the lower Wisconsin state riverway board.

(L) One deputy of the head of any of the following agencies:

2. Educational communications board, created under s. 15.57.

3m. Department of employee trust funds.

4. Higher educational aids board, created under s. 15.67.

5. Office of commissioner of insurance, created under s. 15.73.

5m. Public defender board.

(mL) One executive assistant of the chairperson and each commissioner of the public service commission, created under s. 15.79 (1).

(n) Court reporters employed by the circuit court.

(o) The executive director and other employees of the judicial commission.

(p) All employees of the investment board.

(pd) The chairperson of the parole commission.

(pm) All employees of the state fair park board.

(q) The state public defender and staff attorney positions in the office of the state public defender.

(r) All employees appointed by the lieutenant governor.

(s) The director, sales manager and 3 sales representatives of prison industries in the department of corrections.

(sg) Deputy district attorney and assistant district attorney positions in the office of district attorney.

(tv) The director of the office of urban development in the department of children and families, appointed under s. 48.48 (16m).

(v) Not more than 5 bureau directors in the department of safety and professional services.

(w) The executive director of the office of crime victim services in the department of justice.

(wc) The director of the office of school safety in the department of justice.

(we) Professional staff members of the educational communications board authorized under s. 39.13 (2).

(wh) The judicial council attorney appointed under s. 758.13 (3) (g) 2.

(x) The executive director of the waste facility siting board, unless the board chooses to appoint the executive director under the classified service.

(xc) The general counsel for the labor and industry review commission.

(xe) The director of Indian gaming in the department of administration, and the attorney in the department of administration, appointed under s. 569.015 (2).

(xg) The executive secretary of the board of commissioners of public lands.

(xr) The administrator of the division of personnel management and the director of the bureau of merit recruitment and selection in the department of administration.

(y) The director and staff assistant of the federal-state relations office of the department of administration.

(yb) The director and the deputy director of the office of business development in the department of administration.

(yc) The directors of regional offices of intergovernmental affairs in the department of administration.

(ye) The director of the interagency council on homelessness in the department of administration.

(yn) The executive director and staff of the Kickapoo reserve management board.

(z) All other officers and employees of the state whose positions are expressly excluded from the classified service by statute or whose positions cannot be placed under the classified service because of the restrictions placed on them by statute.

(3) Classified service.

(a) The classified service comprises all positions not included in the unclassified service.

(b) Employees holding permanent or sessional classified service positions in the legislative branch shall have the same legal status as employees holding permanent classified service positions in the administrative branch.

(e) School-year positions in the classified service shall be designated as permanent positions.

(f) A position title in the classified service may not include the term “engineer” unless the position requires that an individual holding the position satisfies one of the following:

1. The individual is a professional engineer, as defined in s. 443.01 (7).

2. The individual has a bachelor of science or higher degree in engineering.

(4) Division administrators.

(a) The number of administrator positions specified in sub. (2) (e) includes all administrator positions specifically authorized by law to be employed outside the classified service in each department, board or commission and the historical society, and any other managerial position determined by an appointing authority. In this paragraph, “department" has the meaning given under s. 15.01 (5), “board" means the educational communications board, investment board, public defender board and technical college system board and “commission" means the employment relations commission and the public service commission. Notwithstanding sub. (2) (z), no division administrator position exceeding the number authorized in sub. (2) (e) may be created in the unclassified service.

(b) Notwithstanding sub. (2) (e), no appointing authority may assign the functions enumerated in this paragraph to be supervised in whole or in part by a division administrator in the unclassified service:

1. Functions of the department of revenue relating to income, franchise, sales or excise tax administration.

2. Functions of the department of justice relating to criminal investigations, except for controlled substance criminal investigations.

3. Any function of the department of employee trust funds.

(c) Any proposal of a board, department or commission, as defined in par. (a) and s. 15.01 (5), or of the historical society, for a change in the number of positions enumerated in sub. (2) (e), before being submitted to the legislature, shall first be submitted by the board, department or commission or by the historical society for a separate review by the secretary of administration and by the administrator. The secretary of administration's review shall include information on the appropriateness of the proposed change with regard to a board's, department's, commission's or society's current or proposed internal organizational structure under s. 15.02 (4). The administrator's review shall include information on whether the existing classified or existing or proposed unclassified division administrator position involved is or would be assigned to pay range 1-18 or above in schedule 1, or a comparable level, of the compensation plan under s. 230.12. The results of these reviews shall be provided by the secretary of administration and by the administrator to the joint committee on finance and the joint committee on employment relations at the same time that the board's, department's, commission's or society's proposal is presented to either committee.

(7) Exceptional employment situations. The director shall provide, by rule, for exceptional methods and kinds of employment to meet the needs of the service during periods of disaster or national emergency, and for other exceptional employment situations such as to employ the mentally disabled, the physically disabled and the disadvantaged.

(8) Auditing of payrolls. The administrator shall audit the payrolls of the classified and unclassified service, as necessary, to carry out this subchapter.

History: 1971 c. 40, 270; 1973 c. 333, 335; 1977 c. 29, 187; 1977 c. 196 ss. 34, 108, 130 (5); 1977 c. 272, 418, 449; Stats. 1977 s. 230.08; 1979 c. 34, 189, 221, 356, 361; 1981 c. 20, 347, 374; 1983 a. 27 ss. 1605o to 1609am, 2200 (15); 1983 a. 189 s. 329 (27); 1983 a. 371, 378; 1985 a. 29; 1987 a. 27, 119, 204, 354, 399, 403; 1989 a. 31, 107, 119, 122, 169, 208, 219, 336; 1991 a. 39, 250, 269; 1993 a. 16, 349, 399; 1995 a. 27 ss. 6245 to 6277m, 9126 (19), 9130 (4); 1995 a. 216; 1997 a. 3, 27, 179, 194, 237; 1999 a. 9, 42, 87, 186; 2001 a. 16, 19, 109; 2003 a. 33 ss. 2392 to 2407b, 9160; 2003 a. 91, 326; 2005 a. 22, 25; 2007 a. 1; 2007 a. 20 ss. 3006 to 3014, 9121 (6) (a); 2009 a. 28; 2011 a. 10, 32, 38, 155; 2013 a. 20 ss. 2000 to 2010, 2365m, 9448; 2013 a. 166; 2015 a. 55, 118, 150; 2017 a. 59, 74, 111, 143, 366, 369.

An administrative agency may not issue a rule that is not expressly or impliedly authorized by statute. Limiting eligibility lists of applicants for civil service positions on the basis of race or sex is not authorized by sub. (7). State v. DILHR, 77 Wis. 2d 126, 252 N.W.2d 353 (1977).

An investment board employee hired in the classified service whose position was changed to unclassified by subsequent legislative action had a property interest in the position entitling him to continued civil service protections after the reclassification. Bahr v. State Investment Board, 186 Wis. 2d 379, 521 N.W.2d 152 (Ct. App. 1994).