The “City of Volunteers” can now get back to allowing more folks to donate their time and energy toward city-hosted projects in the community.
The Philomath City Council officially created a volunteer program during its meeting Monday night with the unanimous approval of a resolution that also included adoption of a volunteer handbook and policies.
The action serves as a solution to the city’s current predicament of turning people away from volunteer opportunities unless they’re part of a business or organization that carries their own liability insurance.
“It makes me go crazy sometimes when people are like, ‘hey, I really want to help clean up the park, can I do that?’ And I’m like, ‘No, you can’t.’ I just feel like it goes against the whole spirit of Philomath,” Mayor Christopher McMorran said. “So I’m glad we will have a way to direct folks who are passionate about giving their time.”
As Chelsea Starner, assistant city manager, explained in an agenda item summary, risk and liability issues have come to the forefront since the days of when random volunteers could pitch in to build a community library or a neighborhood park.
Starner said the primary push toward creating the program gained momentum out of Park Advisory Board discussions.
“The park board has talked a lot about formalizing something, making more opportunities for people in parks, specifically, and around the community available so they can volunteer,” she said, adding that it’s also been a topic that has gone before the council on a few occasions.
City councilors fill remaining seat on Planning Commission
The Philomath City Council filled all remaining vacancies on the Planning Commission and Budget Committee during its regular monthly meeting Monday night at City Hall. Sarah J. Coulter Mitchell was chosen by councilors to fill a Planning Commission seat with a four-year term that runs through the end of 2028. Councilors had a decision to…
Starner said that to establish the program that meets the approval of insurance company risk managers, the city needed to adopt a set of policies. She has been communicating back and forth with Citycounty Insurance Services over the past year and a half.
“They were glad to hear that we were moving forward because I talked to them quite a bit about this,” she said.
The council approved the implementation of a medical accident policy and a signed waiver for community volunteers that, for example, help out at events or perform work in city parks. Starner said it’s a low-cost option for the city at around $300 per year to cover up to 100 volunteers.
Meanwhile, workers’ compensation coverage will apply to volunteers who are on boards or committees, including city councilors, as well as those in public safety roles, such as reserve police officers.
During a discussion, Councilor Diane Crocker expressed concerns that a handbook with all of the policies spelled out would be “too complicated and too cumbersome for the average volunteer” and could actually scare people away.
However, it became clear that for legal reasons, establishing the handbook with terms and conditions is something that could not be avoided.
“I agree that it is a bit cumbersome,” City Councilor Rich Saalsaa said, “but I think people that really want to volunteer, honestly, nothing’s going to stop them.”
McMorran offered his perspective on the matter, saying that working through a process that could be annoying “is a whole lot better than just being like a flat out ‘no, we don’t want your help and we can’t take your help,’ which is what we do right now.”
Starner indicated that people who volunteer for more than one project wouldn’t need to go through the paperwork process each time and would only need to do so if there were updates to the terms and conditions.
Before the final vote, the mayor had one more comment to add.
“It’s always impressive to me how much of our time is spent keeping the lawyers and the insurance agents happy but here we are,” McMorran said with a smile.
The resolution to establish the program and adopt a handbook and policies passed on a 6-0 vote (Teresa Nielson absent).
