NEED FOR MEDIATION SERVICES

City government and municipal unions spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to resolve a vast array of disputes by administrative adjudication or court litigation. Nevertheless, many of those disputes do not require litigation and could be resolved cooperatively, constructively and cost effectively for the city and its unions by the early use of mediation or other facilitated dispute resolution procedures.

While mediation is currently available in a variety of contexts through programs that are generally privately funded or aimed at relatively narrow audiences, the city offers almost no mediation services to its employees to resolve disputes that arise within agencies. Indeed, there is no mediation program in the country that is entirely municipal-based and targeted specifically toward municipal government and its employees.

OATH proposes to fill that void. With over 78 agencies and a workforce of some 280,000 employees, city government presents a virtually unlimited source of potentially mediable disputes. In many instances, city agencies and their employees have no organized, viable means of directly resolving their disputes in a cooperative, non-adversarial manner and, thus, are forced to appeal to higher management, file grievances, go to the media or outside groups, or retain attorneys and litigate. In the creation of a citywide Center for Mediation Services as a "Forum of First Resort," OATH seeks to identify and divert as many of these cases from litigation or administrative adjudication as possible.

MEDIATION AT OATH

OATH is the natural location for such a Mediation Center. OATH is well-established as a central, independent administrative tribunal that conducts a wide range of administrative hearings for the city, including adjudications involving municipal employees and their interactions with the public. Indeed, OATH has long served as a model central administrative tribunal at the municipal level. It is only logical therefore that OATH offer, as a complementary component, a model citywide Mediation Center. OATH has a demonstrated reputation for quality, independence, professionalism and neutrality, and the expertise and physical location for the establishment of such a Center. Providing such services also advances Mayor Bloomberg's stated goal of using alternative means to resolve disputes to reduce conflict and litigation and the attendant costs, which extend beyond financial costs, to the city and its citizens.

In 2003, the Center will focus on mediating pre-investigation Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) disputes that often consume a disproportionate amount of EEO staff's time and attention. Mediation can foster better communication between these individuals and ultimately resolve the EEO complaint at an earlier stage before positions become fixed. EEO officers can better allocate their resources by focusing on the most complex cases. However, the Center is available to mediate complex cases should all parties find mediation to be an effective mechanism for resolving the dispute.

PROJECT ELEMENTS

The key components of the mediation program will include
• case assessment,
• mediation services,
• research and evaluation,
• training and professional development.

1. Case Assessment. Case assessment will play an important role in the mediation program to identify cases or disputes that are appropriate for mediation. The Center staff is developing an assessment instrument that will assist city agencies in identifying cases that are appropriate for mediation. Case assessment may include, among other factors, consideration of the parties' stated goals and intentions, the subject matter of the dispute, the timing of offering mediation, and the associated cost and risks of litigation. In order to determine whether a dispute is ready for mediation, the Center's mediation staff, along with various user representatives, may initiate informal contact with the parties and provide them with information about the mediation process and the Mediation Guidelines, which are intended to focus the issues in dispute.

2. Mediation Services. The Center for Mediation Services will be a "Forum of First Resort" for disputes involving city agencies and employees. At the mediation, a neutral mediator will guide the interaction of the participants to reach a mutually acceptable resolution to the dispute. Mediation will be fast, free, confdential and provided by trained mediators under professional supervision.

3. Research and Evaluation. The Center will utilize up-front and ongoing research and evaluation to ensure a quality mediation program and to sustain and increase support for the program. The information to be collected will include usage data, time savings, cost avoidance and measures of customer satisfaction. The Center plans to incorporate improvements in the mediation program based on this evaluative research and will incorporate best practices into the program.

4. Training and Professional Development. The Center for Mediation Services will employ only trained mediators, both compensated and volunteer, and will require that they be current in mediation styles and trends by attending professional development programs. The Center will work towards creating a mediator training academy, but Center resources and planning will be focused on the first three components of the plan.

PROJECT STATUS

In April 2003, the Police Department's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity (OEEO) implemented its Early Redress Mediation Program, which is designed to mediate pre-investigation EEO disputes at the Center. By September 2003, when the Center will have successfully mediated a number of EEO cases, the Center staff and the OEEO will conduct an evaluation of the mediations to determine whether they have been performed in a professional, efficient and cost-effective manner. Once the Center staff is comfortable that the most effective mediation process is in place, the Center will expand the program to other city agencies. While working in the EEO area, the Center staff will also seek to identify other areas that are appropriate for mediation.

FUTURE PLANS

After the Center has been fully established to mediate disputes within city government, the Center intends to provide mediation services to civic organizations and citizens who have disputes with city government. During this phase, the Center will mediate additional disputes, including land use disputes, siting disputes and contract disputes.

CONCLUSION

In a time of fiscal austerity and ever increasing expectations that agencies must do more with less, the Center for Mediation Services offers a creative solution for dispute resolution that will resolve workplace disputes quickly, efficiently and fairly, and at substantial costs savings for the city.