From apwallace at microfab.net Fri May 7 06:32:05 2004 From: apwallace at microfab.net (Andrew P. Wallace) Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 06:32:05 -0700 Subject: [OldNorth] Information on Mediation Services Available to All Davis Residents Message-ID: May 7, 2004 To: Old North Davis Neighborhood Association Re: Mediation Services Anne Brunette, the Neighborhood Partnership Coordinator, thought you and your neighbors may want to know of a City service that is available to you if you need it. Our agency, Community Mediation and Fair Housing Service (CMS), has been providing mediation services since 1990. If you are a resident, employee or own a business or property in the City of Davis you are entitled to the use of our services free of charge. Many people believe that there are only a couple of ways to settle disputes, either through the courts or with police involvement. Mediation is an alternative to those methods. Mediation is voluntary, confidential, convenient and non-threatening. Any agreement reached in mediation is by consent of all involved. There is no judge. The people involved in the dispute, with the help of trained community mediators, decide for themselves how they will resolve the situation. In the last three years we have provided mediation services in over 250 disputes. Eighty percent of those cases involved housing and/or interpersonal issues and over three-quarters were settled in mediation and did not proceed to court. Many of the cases involved neighbor-to-neighbor relations ranging from the need to replace a fence to property maintenance and noise issues. These kinds of disagreements can be resolved without costly legal intervention or police involvement. In addition to mediation we also provide meeting facilitation services. While mediation is appropriate for individuals or households, larger groups like boards of directors, associations and neighborhoods in conflict are often better served through facilitation. Some of the groups that have used our facilitation service have been Luz Place Neighborhood, Dos Pinos Housing Cooperative, Point Reyes Homeowners Association, Hillel House, Acacia Lane Homeowners Association and the Board of Habitat for Humanity. If you would like to find out more about CMS, visit our website at http://www.cityofdavis.org/pcs/mediation/ or contact us at (530) 757-5623 or by e-mail at mediations at ci.davis.ca.us. Sincerely, Sandra Schneider Program Manager Community Mediation Service