Topeka ? A leading labor official said Thursday she was stunned after Gov. Kathleen Sebelius told her it was time to scrap the civil service system for state employees.

“She (Sebelius) said it was outdated and it should be done away with in two years,” said Betty Vines, president of the Kansas Association of Public Employees. “She couldn’t have been any plainer.”

Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran later acknowledged that the governor, in a private meeting with labor leaders, said the current system was “outmoded” and would require changes “to protect the 21st-century work force.”

But Corcoran denied Sebelius said she wanted to eliminate the civil service system in two years.

Civil service governs salaries, job classifications and legal rights of state employees. Most governments have such a system.

There are about 35,000 civil service employees across Kansas, including 1,500 classified workers at Kansas University.

In recent weeks, Sebelius has signed executive orders to get around the civil service system and provide extra pay and benefits for certain employees.

In a letter to state employees, Sebelius reminded them a 3 percent pay raise took effect Thursday, and that the executive order on pay was needed “to retain the services of employees we cannot afford to lose to the private sector.”

“This really is a management tool to allow us in particular positions to meet market competition,” Sebelius has said.

Under one executive order signed by Sebelius, agency chiefs could give extra pay increases to some employees. Under the other order, unclassified executive employees could be given advance benefits of 30 days sick leave and 12 days vacation leave, rather than being required to accumulate leave as other state employees must do.

The public employees association has opposed the moves, saying the executive orders will open the door to abuse and favoritism by top management.

“If you go back in history, civil service was set up in the first place to protect taxpayers of the state and government employees from abuse and corruptive powers of the elected officials,” Vines said.

A majority of the classified workers at KU voted this year to leave the state civil service system, with proponents saying the move would allow university administrators to grant larger pay raises than what has been approved in recent years by the Legislature. The proposal is being studied by the Kansas Board of Regents.

State Sen. Dave Jackson, a Topeka Republican whose district may have the largest number of state employees in Kansas, called on Sebelius, a Democrat, to rescind the pair of executive orders.

He said the pay increases “could be given arbitrarily and may lead to favoritism.” He added that the executive order allowing advance benefits was unfair to other state employees.

Other Republican legislators also are voicing concerns.

Some said they didn’t know whether they supported the moves by Sebelius but were miffed because the executive orders mean state agencies have found internal savings to make pay raises after a bruising legislative session when most agencies cried that their budgets were cut to the bone.

Social services consolidated across state (4-12-04)

“Then they wonder why it is we believe we are being lied to when the agencies tell us there is no more money,” said state Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita.

She said Sebelius should have submitted the plans to the Legislature for consideration.

“This is a major policy shift and shouldn’t be done without public hearings,” Landwehr said.

“I don’t think a Republican governor could have gotten away with this,” said state Rep. Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, who is chairman of the House budget committee.

Vines agreed. “I really think that if this had been a Republican governor, the Democrats would have been up in arms,” she said.