Public Disputes Program
"We Produce Agreement"
Policy makers at many levels of government employ collaborative or consensus-based processes such as mediation and facilitation to prevent, address and resolve a wide range of contentious public policy issues.
The Public Disputes Program was established to provide impartial third party dispute resolution assistance to elected and appointed government officials, community leaders and the public to prevent, address and resolve public policy issues. Issues commonly addressed at the state level include the development of recommendations to the Ohio Legislature, administrative rules, agency regulations, policies and guidelines. Issues often addressed at the local level include land use disputes, inter-governmental and multi-jurisdictional conflicts.
The Public Disputes Program assists parties in the following ways:
to assess the dispute,
to determine which type of dispute resolution process is appropriate,
how to best initiate a successful dispute resolution process,
how to identify a third party practitioner
as well as how to implement lasting agreements.
Types of Collaborative Processes
Consensus-based processes rely upon the use of negotiation rather than debate; and consensus, rather than voting to reach decisions. Such processes typically employ a third-party neutral to assist the parties in reaching a resolution.
Definitions
Mediation-The use of an impartial third party to assist two or more parties in order to reach a mutually acceptable resolution to a conflict or controversy.
Facilitation-A collaborative process used to help parties with divergent views to complete a task to the mutual satisfaction of all participants.
Negotiated Rule-making-A process in which one or more governmental and/or other interested parties work together to reach agreement on policies, usually with the assistance of an impartial third party mediator or facilitator.
Consensus Building-Any agreement seeking process undertaken with consensus as it's goal. A consensus agreement is often defined as an agreement which all parties "can live with".
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