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As a gray-haired 60-year-old whose activism, such as it is, started with Free Speech Movement sit-ins, I find it ironic to be back to civil disobedience.  

But as volunteers with one of the Bay Area’s many local creek-restoration groups, here we are lawbreaking—from schoolchildren who pick up litter and plant flowers, to working folks who get their exercise by building trails on weekends, to retired ladies who chat while pulling invasive weeds.  

Why? The California Department of Industrial Relations is enforcing a poorly written state law that says that anyone who works on a state-funded public works project must receive prevailing wages. This now been interpreted to include volunteers. There are some exceptions, but they are narrow and require case-by-case approval—not workable for the thousands of small volunteer groups who just want to give something back to their communities. 

Violators—like a Redding-area nonprofit that let students earn course credit for watershed restoration, or volunteers caring for grass on kids’ ballfields—face heavy fines. A major grant program that requires community partnership in restoration projects has been put on hold. Projects are being redesigned to do less at higher cost, using only paid work. If state funds are involved (think parks, schools, clinics) hands-on education is out, as is enjoying your free time by doing something positive with others. 

Almost everyone recognizes this as absurd. Legislators who wrote and supported the laws say that’s not what they meant. Organized labor is not clamoring to outlaw volunteerism. Nevertheless, enforcement has gathered momentum for almost four years, and the only bill introduced so far (AB 2960, by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley) deals only with environmental projects. Too bad about those who want to work on low-income housing or kids’ playgrounds.  

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may or may not be able to change the rules administratively—various legislators say yes, various agency spokespeople say no. If this is impossible, what is needed is a bill passed on an urgency basis, going into effect as soon as signed. It should protect pay of those who work for wages. But it also must welcome volunteer contributions, without bureaucratic hoops, delays, and paperwork that will choke any citizen’s outpouring of generosity and make sure that no good deed goes unpunished. Please write your representatives to ask for action! 

Susan Schwartz is head of Friends of Five Creeks, an all-volunteer group working on creeks and watersheds in North Berkeley, Albany, Kensington, and south El Cerrito and Richmond.