WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK 1989-1990


policy-making unit for a department or independent agency or a part-time
body with policy-
making or quasi-judicial powers". An examining board is a "part-time
body which sets stan-
dards of professional competence and conduct for the profession under its
supervision, prepares,
conducts and grades the examinations of prospective new practitioners, grants
licenses, investi-
gates complaints of alleged unprofessional conduct and performs other functions
assigned to it
by law". A council, on the other hand, is defined as a "part-time
body appointed to function on a
continuing basis for the study, and recommendation of solutions and policy
alternatives, of the
problems arising in a specified functional area of state government",
while a committee is consid-
ered to be a "part-time body appointed to study a specific problem and
to recommend a solution
or policy alternative with respect to that problem, and intended to terminate
on the completion
of its assignment".
  Boards are always specifically created by law. Councils and committees
may be created by
law, but each agency head may also create and appoint such councils or committees
as the opera-
tion of the department or independent agency requires.
  Certain boards, commissions and councils which had formerly been independent
or subsidiary
to another agency were, under the 1967 reorganization, attached for administrative
purposes
only to new agencies as distinct units of the agencies. They continue to
exercise their statutory
powers independently of the head of the department or independent agency
to which they were
attached, but the latter usually supervises budgeting, program coordination
and related manage-
ment functions for these units. The number of such units has been increasing
so that currently
there are 31 boards, 5 commissions, 2 divisions, 4 councils, and 2 offices.
  The Executive Power. The constitution vests the state's executive power
in the governor. By
making the head of the major executive departments subject to direct appointment
by the gover-
nor, the 1967 reorganization increased the governor's executive authority.
1975 legislation
added the secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services to the
direct appointment
group by abolishing its governing board. The 1977 Legislature changed the
administrative struc-
ture of the Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations from a 3-member
commission
to a secretary appointed by the governor. (The commission was renamed the
Labor and Industry
Review Commission and made an independent unit attached to the department.)
That same
year the Department of Employment Relations was created under the administration
of a secre-
tary appointed by the governor.
  Currently, 9 department secretaries and the individual heads of 8 independent
agencies are
appointed by the governor. The members of the 3 commissions are also directly
appointed but
on a staggered term basis. Two departments are directed by elected constitutional
officers. This
leaves the secretaries of 4 departments and the heads of 9 independent agencies
separated from
direct gubernatorial supervision through the interposition of governing boards.
The governor
does, of course, appoint most board members, but since they have staggered
terms,.a governor
must serve for at least one 4-year term to appoint a majority of the typical
board.
  It is still a matter of considerable debate whether or not all or almost
all of the department
heads should be directly appointed by a governor. Public administration theory
has long held
that a governor cannot, in fact, be the chief executive if the office lacks
the authority to hold
department heads directly accountable. On the other hand, the original purpose
of a board was
to insulate a department from politics, enabling its head and staff to develop
expertise and a
sense of professionalism in their operations. Although the trend has been
toward single-headed
departments, efforts in the 1985 Legislature to abolish 3 more governing
boards failed.
  Civil Service. One of the outstanding characteristics of Wisconsin state
government is its civil
service merit system. Wisconsin was one of the early states to adopt such
a system, doing so in
1905. The Wisconsin system is generally considered one of the strongest because
it encompasses
the major portion of state personnel, and employes who are not covered are
generally omitted
for logical reasons.
  Civil service, which has been defined to mean all offices and positions
of trust or employment
in the state government, is divided into the classified and the unclassified
service. Unclassified
service includes all elected officials, all officers and employes appointed
by the governor, the
faculty and academic staff of the University of Wisconsin System, most division
administrators,
deputies and executive assistants, and certain others specifically exempted
by statute. Outside
the executive branch, legislators and certain legislative employes, as well
as justices and judges


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