SLOAN SAKAI YEUNG & WONG LLP EMERYVILLE | SACRAMENTO
2200 Powell Street, Suite 450 Emeryville, CA 94608 O: 510.995.5800 F: 415.678.3838 www.sloansakai.com Memorandum
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY-CLIENT COMMUNICATION
To: Kristina Kaunzinger, Director of Parks & Recreation City of Fairfield
From: Genevieve Ng, Attorney
Date: April 29, 2026
Re: Volunteer Marshals at City Golf Courses
Introduction & Background
The City of Fairfield owns two municipal golf courses – Paradise Valley and Rancho Solano.
Members of the public are able to play these courses for a fee. Additionally, these courses have dining and banquet facilities for golf related events, general public, and large events including weddings. While the City of Fairfield owns these properties and facilities, the City contracts with a third-party vendor Kemper/Touchstone, who manages all operations including employing staff. There are no City employees who work at either of the courses.
Up until recently, Kemper/Touchstone, through a non-profit, allowed people to volunteer to marshal at the clubs in exchange for free rounds of golf. Their volunteer marshals worked alongside Kemper/Touchstone employees providing similar and other services at these courses. There was no articulated structure or schedule, but, generally speaking, volunteers would marshal for a set number of hours in return for a round of golf. There are a handful of volunteers who annually received numerous rounds of golf, discounts on food and beverage estimated at a cost of a few thousand dollars for each. Volunteers also receive discounts free and discounted merchandise from the proshop. In total, these volunteer benefits cost the City more than $240,000 in a fiscal year.
Memo to: Kristina Kaunzinger, City of Fairfield
April 29, 2026
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY-CLIENT COMMUNICATION Recently, Kemper/Touchstone notified the City that due to the non-profit affiliate dissolution, it no longer wished to engage with volunteers. However, Kemper/Touchstone has indicated a willingness to manage volunteers so long as these volunteers were engaged by the City.
Discussion
In general, volunteer status is defined by a lack of compensation for services provided to the organization. However, state and federal law recognize that payment of expenses and nominal fees to volunteers may be appropriate and should not alter their employment status; the appropriateness of such payments must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
The term “stipend” is not defined under the Fair Labor Standards Act (the “FLSA”), nor does the FLSA include any provisions that specifically discuss the payment of stipends by an employer. Stipends are generally understood to be periodic payments that are not tied to work performed by the recipient, in contrast to salary payments for services rendered.
The context in which stipends are most often addressed under the FLSA is when payment of a stipend converts an unpaid volunteer into a paid employee. The FLSA and its implementing regulations define a volunteer as “an individual who performs hours of service . . . for civic, charitable, or humanitarian reasons, without promise, expectation or receipt of compensation for services rendered . . .” 29 C.F.R. §553.101.
The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (the “DLSE”), which enforces the California Labor Code, applies a very narrow definition of “volunteer.” The DLSE’s position is that the parties’ intent is key to determining whether an individual is a volunteer.
Specifically, if the individual “intends to volunteer his or her services for public service, religious, or humanitarian objectives, not as an employee and without contemplation of pay,” that individual will be treated as a volunteer and not subject to the various wage and hour and other employment laws that are applicable to employees. DLSE Op. Letter 1988.10.27 (emphasis in original).
The FLSA allows non-profit agencies and public agencies to pay to volunteers “expenses, reasonable benefits, a nominal fee, or any combination thereof” without causing volunteers to become employees. 29 C.F.R. §553.106(a). Nominal fees are not defined
Memo to: Kristina Kaunzinger, City of Fairfield
April 29, 2026
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY-CLIENT COMMUNICATION under the FLSA but are presumed if the fee does not exceed twenty percent (20%) of what an employer would pay to hire a full-time employee to do the same work. See, e.g. U.S.
DEP’T OF LAB., Wage and Hour Opinion Letters FLSA 2006-28 and FLSA 2005-51. A fee is not nominal if it is tied to productivity or is a substitute for compensation. 29 C.F.R. §553.106(e).
Analysis & Recommendation
Certain risks exist if the City were to engage volunteers to marshal at the golf courses.
Some risk exists if the City were to move the volunteers from Touchstone/Kemper to the City especially if the City were to continue to have Touchstone/Kemper manage them and have City volunteers work alongside Touchstone/Kemper employees performing those same duties. If the City were to engage volunteer marshals, the City must ensure that it does not directly employ individuals who perform similar duties to the volunteer marshals.
If the City were to engage volunteers to provide marshaling services, the City should create a formal volunteer program which includes:
Defining the volunteer role including an analysis of whether the duties performed by volunteers are also being performed by paid employees;
Developing a volunteer waiver form;
Applying volunteer only and specific City policies such as anti-harassment, discrimination and retaliation; and
Creating a schedule for de minimis benefits.
As discussed above, any benefit provided to the volunteers should be de minimis. It is also important to note that City volunteers that marshal at these courses may be working alongside paid Kemper/Touchstone employees, which may create risk, which is why it is important to ensure that individuals understand that they are City volunteers set up through a City volunteer program.