1. The director shall ascertain the duties, authority and responsibilities of all positions subject to this chapter pursuant to subsection 1 of section 36.030, and all positions subject to this section pursuant to section 36.031. After consultation with the appointing authorities, the director shall prepare and recommend to the board, and maintain on a continuing basis, a position classification plan, which shall group all positions subject to this chapter pursuant to subsection 1 of section 36.030, and all positions subject to this section pursuant to section 36.031 in classes, based on their duties, authority and responsibilities. Except as provided in subsection 2 of this section, the position classification plan shall set forth, for each class of positions, a class title and a statement of the duties, authority and responsibilities thereof, and the qualifications that are necessary or desirable for the satisfactory performance of the duties of the class; provided, that no plan shall be adopted which prohibits the substitution of experience for education for each class of positions, except that, the board may determine that there is no equivalent substitution in particular cases. Classifications should be sufficiently broad in scope to include as many comparable positions as possible both on an intra- and inter-departmental basis.

2. The classification plan may group positions with similar levels of responsibility or expertise into broad classification bands.

3. The director shall, in consultation with the agencies, eliminate and combine classes when possible, taking into consideration the recruitment, selection, and compensation of personnel in the various classes.