Topeka ? A proposal that would alter the classified employee system at Kansas University appears to have the blessing of the Kansas Board of Regents.

Regents on Wednesday discussed a proposal that would allow classified employees at state universities to be exempt from the state’s civil service system. Regents staff members are recommending the plan be pursued in the Legislature this session, and the board will take final action on the plan at a meeting this morning.

KU’s classified employees voted last year to pursue the new system, which employee leaders say would allow for larger pay increases and university officials say would give them more flexibility in establishing job descriptions and pay ranges.

“I’m really pleased,” said Dennis Constance, a member of the Classified Senate. “It’s only been a year (since the vote), but it is an issue of some urgency to us. We’re glad to see it moving forward.”

Regents decided in January they wanted more information about the proposal, and delayed action until the coming legislative session. This time, there was little discussion about the proposal.

The legislation regents will pursue will simply allow universities to create their own employee systems. Universities may opt to stay with the civil service system.

KU officials have said that the system they would implement would be similar to civil service, and employees would remain in the state’s retirement and benefits programs.

There are about 1,400 classified employees at KU, including secretaries, janitors and maintenance workers. There are about 300 different job descriptions for classified workers.

KU administrators have said the job market in Lawrence, which is more competitive than other areas housing state universities, made better pay and more flexible job descriptions necessary.

Mike Watkins, a plumber at Kansas University, repairs a mechanism that controls steam pressure in the Facilities and Operations Shop. The Kansas Board of Regents will vote this morning on a bill that would allow KU to exempt its classified employees from the state civil service system. Watkins, a classified employee, said Wednesday that there were pros and cons to both systems.

They made a similar case in the 1980s, when the Legislature voted to allow some KU Medical Center employees to opt out of the civil service system.

“It turned out you were right” in the Medical Center change, Regent Frank Gaines said. “Whether you can sell this one in Douglas County and Lawrence, I don’t know. I think it’ll be an uphill battle.”

Already Wednesday, the battle lines were being drawn.

Andy Sanchez, executive director of the Kansas Association of Public Employees, said his group would oppose the legislation. He said he worried the job security offered by civil service wouldn’t exist under a different system.

“I don’t know that everything has been exhausted to get the employees more money,” he said. “Why do we have to scrap the system and start over? Why does it have to be that to get more money, you have to lose your civil service rights?”

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A group of KU employees calling themselves the Pro-Civil Service Coalition also has said it would oppose the change in the Legislature.

David Shulenburger, KU’s provost and executive vice chancellor, admitted the change might be a tough sell in the Legislature. But, he said, “we’d like the opportunity to give it a try.”

“We don’t find this (civil service) a workable system, and our employees don’t find it a workable system,” he said.