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�� Council Report Date: 3/15/04 Item Number: 10. Department Approval Manager Approval Agenda Section ��5 Item Description: 1f�lun#�ar��nordin�t�r' "Senior Fellowships" ��rt1��r�ud d At the Council's Special Study Session with your Commission Chairs and Department Heads on February �'�r Councilmember Maschka asked staff to research the use of "senior fellowships." This would be a program whereby retired persons may agree to work on particular projects for a stipend. The program recognizes upcoming demographic shifts in the worl�orce: Persons may retire from a full-time job but still seek the stimulation and limited remuneration available through a senior fellowship program. (See Attachment l.) Two days later, on February 9kh, 2004, Councilmember Schroeder wrote a memo to the council seeking discussion of adding a Volunteer Coordinator to staf£ As proposed, this would be a full-time employee who seeks to encourage residents to volunteer to help the city with a large variety of proj ects. (See Attachment 2.) In evaluating these positions Finance Director Chris Miller has put together a memo dated February ��a 2004. In Chris's memo he talks about the volunteer needs in the various City departments as well as the estimated cost to add a Volunteer Coordinator position. (See Attachment 3.) This memo provides more information and seeks to bring together the various strands of this topic. Financial Impact As Chris has shown, we estimate the position of Volunteer Coordinator would cost $35,000-$45,000 each year in salary and roughly $7,000 more in benefits. We have a less precise estimate for the Senior Fellowships since we have little experience with such a position, and there are also more unknowns in terms of how many persons may seek and qualify for such fellowships. An initial estimate would be $10,000 in direct costs each year; and this assumes the City has no responsibility for providing benefits. Existing Situation The City currently uses existing staff and councilmembers to solicit volunteers, and we also use student interns whenever we can. With regard to volunteers, we have no precise unduplicated count of the number of persons who volunteer each year to serve the City. Moreover, counting volunteers depends on the scope of your definition. However, if a volunteer includes anyone who helps the city with a civic proj ect or activity for no monetary compensation, my