San Clemente : Council Creates New City Staff Position

The City Council voted this week to create a new staff position to coordinate more than 200 volunteers working in the city.

The volunteer services coordinator is expected to make $35,000 a year, plus $12,300 in benefits. The council approved the position by a 3-1 vote.

Councilman Thomas Lorch cast the dissenting vote and suggested the job could be shared by other staff members.

His objections were shared by resident Steve Kingston, who told the council he would do the work himself for free and guaranteed he would have the program “up and running by July.”

But City Manager Michael W. Parness said the city’s long-term financial plan and 11 new programs can only work through volunteer support. A coordinator will have to serve as a liaison between the city employees and the volunteers, log the volunteers’ hours and do performance evaluations and counseling, among other duties, Parness said.

It would be foolish “to expect a volunteer to do all that work,” Parness said. “Sometimes you have to spend a dime to make a dollar.”

Councilwoman Candace Haggard agreed, calling the volunteer coordinator “cutting-edge government.”

“I’ve seen this work in library systems,” said Haggard, who works for the county library system. “To be done right, this is an 80-hour-a-week job. . . . I think it’s definitely something we need to do.”