County to develop policy for volunteers, organizations
Supervisors urge county to find ways to say ‘yes’ to volunteers
The Inyo County Board of Supervisors at its last meeting of the year Tuesday held a workshop regarding volunteers and how the county can best use these individuals and community-based organizations who want to contribute to the county but are met with hurdles, which is frustrating to the county and the volunteers.
Inyo County Chief Administrative Officer Nate Greenberg said the issue came up at the request of the board with respect to how the county uses “volunteers.”
Supervisors emphasized they would like to see a policy that looks at the benefits that volunteers and organizations provide and not just the “risk” the county is exposed to through project insurance or workers compensation insurance for individuals.
During the workshop Greenberg, as well as Inyo County Elections and Health and Human Services staff, provided a high-level overview of the current programs in terms of how the county uses volunteers.
Greenberg said he wanted to start off by thanking the individuals who have volunteered their services over the years in different capacities, including some maintenance work, on Election
Day or assisting the Health and Human Services Department.
“We certainly recognize the tremendous value and the commitment to community and cause and really do deeply appreciate the willingness for folks to come forward and freely offer their time to better the services that we offer our community as a whole,” Greenberg said.
Individuals and organizations
Greenberg said the county differentiates between individuals who sign a volunteer agreement to provide a specific task, such as for the Elections Office or HHS, versus a community-based organization that is providing a service through the organization’s mission that is supporting or augmenting county operations in one way or another.
Greenberg said when it comes to individual volunteers, the county’s current system is “working relatively well while the focus of Tuesday’s workshop was more on communitybased organizations, such as the Friends of the Lone Pine Airport.
He said with community-based organizations the county doesn’t currently have a formal, consistent process to follow.
Greenberg said the county’s use of volunteers in general is based on the scope of the work and the risk involved. He said there is a review and approval process before an individual can volunteer for the county.
“In general, we keep volunteers focused on
lower-risk activities that we don’t generally otherwise have our staff doing,” Greenberg said.
He said this would include projects, such as those calling for roof work, that the county would hire an outside licensed contractor for.
He said individual volunteers for the county do receive training regarding the duties they would be performing. Some volunteers, depending on the work, also could be subject to background checks.
However, with organizations, the county doesn’t have a consistent structure or common requirements, such as mandating a memorandum of understanding or agreement with those entities.
During the workshop Inyo County Risk Manager Aaron Holmberg, Risk Manager related how due to California law, there are more hurdles that organizations must jump through than individual volunteers. Because the county must work with a licensed contractor, insurance challenges, among other issues, can put up road blocks.
Anna Montgomery, of the Friends of the Lone Pine Airport, and Randy Short, representing a local public lands access group, said they understand and are willing to hop through necessary hoops to work on projects to enhance the county, as frustrating as it can sometimes be.
Fifth District Supervisor Matt Kingsley said the county shouldn’t have to cater to every “Friend of …” group that forms but when an organization like the Friends of the Lone Pine Airport shows its more than capable of managing crucial repairs at the facility “I do think we should be getting an MOU (memorandum of understanding), we should be getting engaged and see what their goals are and our goals are and where they can cross.”
Kingsley said the county obviously has to consider the risk involved but he would like to see greater focus on the benefits these organizations can bring to the county as well.
“We have to recognize that there are different groups and different skill sets and different goals that we should be looking at,” Kingsley said.
He said the county shouldn’t be “providing a list of why they (an organization) can’t do it, we need to provide a path that they can do and get it done.”
Fourth District Supervisor Jen Roeser said organizations, especially those that the county isn’t familiar with, should have to provide some type of “proof of concept” so the county can judge the reliability and the scope of the project.
Greenberg said while the county should be as accommodating as possible, there are “bright line” legal areas that the county will have to work through.
“Just because there is an organization that wants to come forward and do something, is that a priority for the county – we need to be thoughtful,” he said.
During the workshop, Inyo County Deputy Counsel Grace Chuchla provided some state laws that the county would have to abide by as well as “some clever ways that we can structure the volunteer program to get around” those laws.
These strategies could include leasing property to an organization or tweaking the scope of work to keep it low risk as possible.
Greenberg county staff will begin work on a more formalized process for volunteer organizations that the board would review at an upcoming meeting.