CLASSES IN THE SERIES

Class Code	Class Title

00710/90710	Executive Officer 1
00711/90711	Executive Officer 2
00712/90712	Executive Officer 3
00713/90713	Executive Officer 4
00714/90714	Executive Officer 5

SERIES CONCEPT

In 1992, the legislature passed a bill to reduce the number of “management layers” and increase the “span of control” of supervisory positions in state government. To comply with this legislation, executive branch departments chose to remove supervisory duties from numerous management level positions, but still retain their program management duties. As a result, there was a need for a generalist non-supervisory program management series. To fill this need, the department created the Executive Officer series. Patterned after the Public Service Executive, the Executive Officer series was adopted in November of 1993. Also included were “executive assistant” and “legislative liaisons” positions that previously had been classified in the Executive Assistant series.

Because of its pay grade association with the Public Service Executive series, the Executive Officer has since its adoption experienced problems with the attempted movement of professional staff positions (e.g., Information Specialist, Management Analyst, Program Planner, etc.) into this series for which a specific job class or series had already been created. Therefore, before proceeding with an analysis of a position for classification in the Executive Officer series, one must first rule out if there is an existing class or series that has been created for the position. A primary indicator of this is the need for the position incumbent or applicants for the position to possess certain competencies and education/experience qualifications that are primarily found only in an existing class or series.

If no other more appropriate class or series exists for the position, then its program management potential must be evaluated for inclusion in the Executive Officer series. (NOTE: See functional descriptions of executive assistant and legislative liaison type positions at the end of this section.) This is done first by determining if the entity being managed is an actual program and not merely a process or function related to or part of a program. The following description of a “program” is provided for this purpose.

Program - In the public sector, a program is ordinarily associated with the provision of a service or an administrative oversight/enforcement responsibility. Agency programs established to deliver these services or fulfill these responsibilities usually have certain characteristics in common, including a funding source, resources (staff, equipment and supplies), a described mission statement, a detailed budget, identifiable production goals and objectives and written regulations (rules, policies and procedures). Absent these, the entity managed is more likely a “process” (a series of actions, changes or functions bringing about a result) than a program.

If the entity managed is a program, then the position’s duties must be thoroughly evaluated to determine if the traditional management level duties (see below) are being performed and if the position/incumbent is an actual decision maker not simply an advisor or consultant.

1.	Individually or in collaboration with higher management levels sets goals and develops plans.
2.	Determines financial, staffing and related resources needed to carry out programs.
3.	Determines the need and develops specific plans for organizational/operational changes.
4.	Evaluates factors (e.g., employment, public, legislative and executive branch relations and their impact on organizational/economic conditions) other than purely technical when making decisions or recommendations.
5.	Coordinates efforts with agency activities/programs and those of other agencies.
6.	Understands/communicates agency business policies and priorities throughout organization.
7.	Deals with general human resource policy matters (e.g., employee recruitment/retention) affecting the organization, with a personal responsibility for the actions of key employees.

Positions classified in the Executive Officer series based on a functional concept of “executive assistant” or “legislative liaison” are described as follows.

Executive Assistants – These are professional administrative positions whose incumbents possess an in depth knowledge of the agency’s organization and programs. Incumbents report to/work for a division administrator, deputy director or department director and duties include: collecting/analyzing program and related data for accuracy, soundness, feasibility, impact and developing written action proposals; investigating customer (general public, legislature, interest groups, etc.) complaints/inquiries and drafting technical repots/correspondence explaining the department’s position on policy issues that may be precedent setting; planning, organizing and managing organizational special projects; making formal presentations; representing/ speaking for the administrator at important meetings, conferences, etc.; and evaluating organizational work processes and operations for efficiency/effectiveness and recommending changes. Positions that perform significant amounts of administrative support work (screening telephone calls/visitors; handling, typing and tracking correspondence; maintaining/researching files and records, etc.) should be classified in their appropriate secretarial job class.

Legislative Liaison –- These positions are the public sectors counterpart to private sector lobbyists. Position incumbents typically report to a division administrator, deputy director or department director and must be designated by their agency of employment as a legislative liaison, registered with the State Legislature as a lobbyist and be responsible for developing/presenting an agency’s entire legislative package. Duties include drafting code language and acting as the agency spokesperson in legislative meetings and individual contacts with legislators; screening legislative bills/amendments for potential impact on agency programs and alerting management; distributing bills for internal review/comment and summarizing legislative action taken; monitoring committee meetings/floor debates and negotiating with opponents of agency’s legislative initiatives for acceptance or rejection of specific amendments.

EXCLUSIONS

1.	Positions that are “supervisory exempt” from collective bargaining (e.g., Public Service Supervisor and Executive, Transportation Manager, Social Work Supervisor, etc.).

2.	Staff positions (e.g., accountants, auditors, examiners; budget, fiscal & policy and management analysts; human resource, information, information technology and training specialists; education, rehabilitation and safety/health consultants; planners, investigator, etc.) for which a specific job class or class series exists in the classification plan.

CLASS DISTINCTIONS

Except for “supervision exercised”, the level classification factors for “program management” Executive Officer positions are the same as that for the Public Service Executive (PSE) series. It is also important to understand that, while Executive Officer positions do not perform supervisory duties sufficient for a collective bargaining exemption, they should manage programs/organizational segments with staff, budgets and clients served comparable to their PSE level counterparts. Level factors include supervision received (i.e., responsibility for determining program resources, organizational structure, goals, priorities and the freedom to make changes), scope and impact (i.e., operations managed in comparison to a departments total operations as measured by the number of employees directed, dollars expended, clients served and variety of programs) and policy-making (i.e., decision making authority for all agency programs and policies), which is further defined as follows:

Primary –highest decision making authority in a department; subject only to laws, regulations and policies issued by the Governor, Legislature or statewide regulatory agency.

Secondary – second highest decision making authority in a department, with an assigned responsibility for developing/adapting policies, goals, priorities and work standards for the entire department within framework established at the primary level.

Operating – decision making authority of all other management positions in a department with an assigned responsibility for directing program operations in conformance with policies, goals and priorities established at either the primary or secondary policy level.

Executive Officer 1

Employees in this class work within parameters/guidelines established by higher levels of management and operations managed are subject to periodic after the fact review for accomplishment of goals/priorities. The organizational segment (unit1) managed represents a limited part of the department’s total operations and employee’s function at the operating policy level, with final decision-making authority confined to the unit. Position’s are typically close to the mainstream of production/service delivery and the unit managed is either auxiliary to or a part of a program or group of programs. Incumbents usually have a substantial knowledge of the unit’s technical work processes, often to the point of being an authoritative source of information on the subject.

Positions that meet the functional concept of “Executive Assistant” described above and work for/report to positions organizationally at the “division administrator or deputy director” level should be classified at this level.

Executive Officer 2

Employees in this class work within parameters/guidelines established by higher levels of management and operations managed are subject to periodic after the fact review for accomplishment of goals/priorities. The organizational segment (section2) managed represents a moderate part of the department’s total operations and the employee functions at the operating policy level, with final decision-making authority confined to the section. Positions are somewhat removed from the mainstream of production/service delivery and the section managed is normally an organizational segment of a program or group of programs. Incumbents usually have considerable knowledge of the section’s technical work processes, sometimes to the point of being an authoritative source of information on the subject.

Positions that meet the functional concept of “Executive Assistant” described above and work for/report to a department director should be classified at this level. Positions that meet the functional concept described above for “Legislative Liaison” and primarily perform these duties with respect to state legislation, should also be classified here.

Executive Officer 3

Employees in this class establish program goals and develop organizational plans with limited input from higher levels of management. They determine program resource needs and allocate them within financial parameters set at the secondary policy level. The organizational segment (bureau3) managed represents a moderate or larger part of the department’s total operations and employee’s function at the operating policy level, with final decision-making authority confined to bureau operations. Positions are removed from the mainstream of production/service delivery and incumbents, unless promoted from within, possess only a limited knowledge of the bureau’s technical work processes.

Positions that meet the functional concept described above for “Legislative Liaison” and perform these duties for both state and federal legislation, should also be classified here.

Executive Officer 4

Employees in this class determine program resource needs and allocate them within financial parameters set at the primary or secondary policy level. The organizational segment (bureau or division4) managed represents a major part of the department’s total operations and employee’s function at a major operating or secondary policy level, with decision making authority often extending beyond the boundaries of the operations managed. Positions are removed from the mainstream of production/service delivery and incumbents typically have a limited knowledge of technical work processes.

Executive Officer 5

Employees in this class determine program resource needs and allocate them within financial parameters set at the primary policy level. Individually and as a member of a management team, employees work closely with the department director to establish overall departmental policy and program goals/priorities. The organizational segment (division4) managed represents a major part of the department’s total operations and employee’s function at the secondary policy level.

Effective Date: 12/01 JG

1 A subunit of a “section” headed by a “unit manager”, Iowa Code section 7E.2(3)(c)3.

2 A subunit of a “bureau” headed by “supervisors”, Iowa Code section 7E.2(3)(c)3.

3 The principal subunit of a “division” headed by a “chief”, Iowa Code section 7E.2(3)(c)2.

4 The principal subunit of a “department” headed by an “administrator”, Iowa Code section 7E.2(3) (c)1.