The Sedgwick County Board of County Commissioners on Sept. 3 debated whether to rescind a countywide grievance policy and agreed to move the item from the consent agenda to new business for fuller discussion.

Commissioners and staff said the county’s organizational structure — which includes independent elected offices, appointed officials and civil-service employees — complicates efforts to apply a single grievance policy across all employees. ‘‘When you try to sweep all employees, all 3,000 employees under one umbrella, it gets very difficult,’’ a county official said during the agenda review.

The policy under consideration would rescind the county’s current grievance procedure; commissioners and staff said they had spoken about revisions and that some commissioners prefer amendment rather than full rescission. ‘‘I think we can fix it rather than rescind it,’’ an unnamed commissioner said, arguing that rescission could leave employees without a viable process for some time.

Several commissioners noted an exception for the sheriff because that office is governed in part by a civil-service board. Commissioners also referenced legal limits on elected-official authority in employment matters, citing ‘‘Nylander’’ case law as a touchstone during the discussion.

At the conclusion of the review, the board agreed to place the grievance-policy item on new business for the Wednesday meeting so commissioners, the fire chief, elected officials and appointed offices can discuss revisions more fully. Commissioners said they could move to defer again at that meeting if more work was needed.

Next steps: the item will appear on the regular agenda for the commission and on the fire district agenda; staff and elected officials were asked to continue working on proposed language before the public meeting.