63.08563.085 Certification and appointment of handicapped; special lists of eligibles. The director of personnel, with the approval of the commission, may prepare without examination special lists of eligible persons certified as having a severe physical or mental impairment and as being physically and mentally capable and adequately trained to qualify for a position in the classified service. The names of persons placed on the special list shall be certified to the appointing authority in addition to those certified under s. 63.05 (1) (b). The director shall determine that a person on the special list meets the minimum qualifications for a vacant position prior to certifying the person to the appointing authority for the position. The appointing authority may appoint a person from the special list to a temporary appointment for a period of 6 months. Successful demonstration of the ability to perform the duties of a position under a temporary appointment shall qualify a person for permanent appointment to the position. The director may fix the maximum number of persons who may be appointed from the special list of eligibles under this section.

63.0963.09 Efficiency records; promotions. The director of personnel, under the direction of the commission and with the advice of the heads of the departments involved, shall devise and introduce as rapidly and extensively as practicable a system of efficiency records to be based, among other things, upon the quantity and quality of the work performed and the regularity and punctuality of attendance. After such system is introduced, the various departments thereby affected shall maintain it. The director of personnel shall also, under the direction of the commission, prepare a classification of subordinate positions in accordance with their natural tendency to fit their incumbents to fill higher offices or positions in the service of the county. The commission shall provide in its rules that the efficiency records of an employee in one of the aforesaid lower positions shall be given due weight in the examination of such employee for higher offices or positions to which they naturally lead, to the end that such higher offices or positions in the service shall be filled as far as possible by promotion.

63.10(1)(1) Whenever a person possessing appointing power in the county, the chief executive officer of a department, board or institution, the county park commission, county election commission, civil service commission, and county board of welfare as to officers and employees under their respective jurisdictions, believes that an officer or employee in the classified service in that person’s, commission’s or board’s department has acted in such a manner as to show the officer or employee to be incompetent to perform the officer’s or employee’s duties or to have merited demotion or dismissal, the person, commission or board shall report in writing to the civil service commission setting forth specifically the complaint against the officer or employee, and may suspend the officer or employee at the time such complaint is filed. It is the duty of the director of personnel to file charges against any officer or employee in the classified service upon receipt of evidence showing cause for demotion or discharge of the officer or employee in cases where a department head or appointing authority neglects or refuses to file charges. Charges may be filed by any citizen against an officer or employee in the classified service where in the judgment of the commission the facts alleged under oath by the citizen and supported by affidavit of one or more witnesses would if charged and established amount to cause for the discharge of the officer or employee. The commission shall forthwith notify the accused officer or employee of the filing of the charges and on request provide the officer or employee with a copy of the same. Nothing in this subsection shall limit the power of the department head to suspend a subordinate for a reasonable period not exceeding 10 days. In case an employee is again suspended within 6 months for any period whatever, the employee so suspended shall have the right of hearing by the commission on the second suspension or any subsequent suspension within said period the same as herein provided for in demotion or dismissal proceedings.

63.10(2)(2) The commission shall appoint a time and place for the hearing of said charges, the time to be within 3 weeks after the filing of the same, and notify the person possessing the appointing power and the accused of the time and place of such hearing. At the termination of the hearing the commission shall determine whether or not the charge is well founded and shall take such action by way of suspension, demotion, discharge or reinstatement, as it may deem requisite and proper under the circumstances and as its rules may provide. The decision of the commission shall be final. Neither the person possessing the appointing power nor the accused shall have the right to be represented by counsel at said hearing, but the commission may in its discretion permit the accused to be represented by counsel and may request the presence of an assistant district attorney to act with the commission in an advisory capacity.

63.10(3)(3) If the county and a labor organization representing employees of the county enter into a collective bargaining agreement under subch. IV of ch. 111, the agreement may provide that the provisions of the agreement relating to dismissal, demotion and suspension shall supersede this section with respect to employees covered by the agreement while the agreement is in effect. This subsection does not apply to any action under sub. (1) to suspend an employee with pay.

63.10 AnnotationA county rule that allowed the imposition of a reevaluation period after suspension of an employee did not conflict with sub. (2) or s. 59.52 (8). The legislative decision in sub. (2) to permit a local government to impose discipline as its rules provide was dispositive in this case. When there had been a just cause determination and hearing for the conduct at issue, the county could impose a reevaluation period with consequences for another instance of that conduct without running afoul of the requirements of the statutes. However, the reevaluation period was required to conform to the county rule’s requirements for specificity and relationship to the employee’s violations. State ex rel. Miller v. Milwaukee County Personnel Review Board, 2016 WI App 83, 372 Wis. 2d 440, 887 N.W.2d 919, 15-2118.

63.1163.11 Standard scale of compensation. The director of personnel, under the direction of the commission and in cooperation with the county clerk, or county auditor, if any, and with the heads of the various departments, shall devise and recommend to the board of supervisors a standardized scale of wages and salaries for all county offices and positions in the classified service. The wage scale shall be graduated according to the duties performed, the length of service and efficiency records of the officers or employees, and the time of day or night those services are performed by the establishment of shifts. The supervisors shall consider and act in some way upon this scale at the last meeting of the board of supervisors in the month of October next following its recommendation, and if adopted it shall go into effect on the first day of January following its adoption, or at such other date as may be provided by law.

63.12(1)(1) Each member of the commission may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, examine witnesses and compel the production of documents, records, and papers of all sorts in conducting such investigations as the commission may deem necessary or proper in order to ascertain whether or not the provisions of ss. 63.01 to 63.16 are being carried into effect. The commission may examine such public records as it requires in relation to any such investigation. All officers and other persons in the civil service of the county shall attend and testify when required to do so by the commission.

63.12(2)(2) In case of the refusal of any person to comply with any subpoena issued hereunder or to testify to any matter regarding which the person may be lawfully interrogated, the circuit court of the county or the judge thereof, on application of any one of the commissioners, shall issue an order requiring such person to comply with such subpoena and to testify, or either, and any failure to obey such order of the court may be punished by the court as a contempt thereof.

63.12(3)(3) Each person, not in the civil service of the county, who appears before the commission by its order shall receive for attendance the fees and mileage provided for witnesses in civil actions in courts of record which shall be paid out of the appropriation to the commission. But no witness subpoenaed at the instance of parties other than the commission shall be entitled to witness fees or mileage unless the commission certifies that the testimony of the witness was relevant and material to the matter investigated.

63.1363.13 Certification of payrolls. No payment for personal services of any officer or employee in the classified service of any county wherein ss. 63.01 to 63.16 are applicable shall be made by any county officer unless the commission has certified that the officer or employee claiming such payment is holding a position legally under the provisions of said ss. 63.01 to 63.16 and the rules of the commission. Such certification shall be required on each and every payroll for each and every office and position in the county service, which is subject to the provisions of said ss. 63.01 to 63.16. County officers making payments in violation of this section shall be liable for the full amount thus paid and shall be deemed guilty of a violation of the provisions of said ss. 63.01 to 63.16, and subject to the penalties provided in s. 63.17.