The Toledo City Council approved a pair of resolutions to establish guidelines for how city staff can use and manage volunteers, along with providing a framework for legally providing food and drinks to volunteers working for the city, during its meeting Monday, April 6.
Prior to getting into city business, Pamela Deschene, who was appointed to a Toledo City Council vacancy last month, was sworn in and joined the rest of the councilors to discuss and vote on motions during the meeting.
While the resolution pertaining to volunteer food and drinks passed unanimously, Resolution 346 — which established the main guidelines — passed by a vote of 4-1, with Toledo City Councilor Jamie Scalise being the lone opposition.
Scalise stated she understood the city faced liability issues without established guidelines for managing volunteers, but wanted a public workshop session for the resolution first to allow members of local volunteer groups to share their opinions on proposed guidelines.
“We’re jumping the gun right now. We’re completely jumping over any citizen input,” Scalise said. “Because of that, you’re setting up all these rules and all these restrictions that you can’t be a volunteer unless you go by these guidelines.”
Toledo City Councilor Rebecca Duerst stated the resolution was based on recommendations from the city’s insurance provider. She also said future amendments to the guidelines could be made. Councilor Jillian Niles added a public workshop to discuss the guidelines could still be held.
“But I think it’s important for us to at least have an established set of policies that we follow,” Niles said.
Also approved unanimously was an interlocal agreement (ILA) with the City of Winlock, which recently found itself without a city treasurer, as previously reported by The Chronicle. While Winlock city staff search for a new treasurer, Toledo City Clerk-Treasurer Rachel Campbell will step in to assist them with treasurer duties.
“I’m not cutting any checks for us or doing any billing (to avoid conflict of interest). I’m strictly there to train. I’m going to help them out with some audit stuff, but other than that, it’s just treasury services. Their clerk’s going to learn those (while) they’re currently looking for a treasurer,” Campbell said.
Toledo Mayor Cherie Devore stated she was more than happy to help out Winlock, as the City of Winlock has helped Toledo after it lost its local police department. Aside from an ILA between the two cities for policing services with the Winlock Police Department, an ILA also exists with Winlock helping the Toledo Planning Commission with inspections.
“Winlock has been huge and helped us so much,” Devore said. “It’s nice to see that we’re finally in a position where we can help them when they’re really needing it.”
The Toledo City Council also unanimously approved a new ILA with Lewis County Fire District 2 to collect fire impact inspection fees for the fire district inspecting properties applying for city permits. The council settled on a minimum charge of $15 for the fire impact inspections.
As for the proposed gambling tax the Toledo City Council discussed during their last meeting in March, councilors settled on holding a work session from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. prior to their next regular council meeting on Monday, April 20, to gather public input on the gambling tax.
