[Editor’s Note: A retired professor and accomplished poet, Dr. Hoult is an expert on landlord-tenant mediation, and she offered the following views at last night’s City Council meeting.]
Mayor Weissman, City Council members:
In May 2009, while a member of the Landlord-Tenant Mediation Board, I brought you proposals to consider a revision of the 1981 ordinance establishing the LTMB and to develop a process for ensuring that Culver City residents have access to mediation services for other types of dispute resolution. A discussion about community mediation ensued, and the proposals were tabled.
This evening, I want to make it clear that, with the many mediation services throughout L.A. County, it isn’t necessary to establish a Community Mediation Program in Culver City. Our residents just need to have a way to find out what is available and not feel that they are being passed from one office to another.
Information provided about where to obtain mediation services should be readily available and not left up to the resident to seek out. As an example, on the Culver City website (culvercity.org) in the City Attorney’s FAQ section, the question about a neighbor‘s fruit tree whose limbs extend over someone’s property boundary line, causing damage, is answered by the following: Neighborhood disputes are best handled by approaching the neighbor and attempting to arrive at a solution acceptable to both. This is an example of a private nuisance in which the City Attorney's Office does not become involved.
Providing information about where an individual can go to obtain mediation services would seem to be a natural extension of the response.
Tonight, I am requesting that the City Council ask staff to do the following:
1. Study and prepare a report on developing and implementing a process by which Culver City residents can obtain information about mediation services to settle disputes such as
• Neighbor/neighbor
• Business/business
• Consumer/merchant
• Family/domestic or
• Workplace related
A low-cost way to meet this need would be to provide a printed list of mediation services available to Culver City residents in locations such as the Housing Office, the City Attorney’s Office and the City Clerk’s desk in City Hall. For example:
+ Landlord-Tenant Mediation Board
Culver City Housing Office
310.253.5780
+ Dispute Resolution Program
L.A. City Attorney’s Office
310.485.8324
+ Dispute Resolution Services
L.A. County Bar Assn.
323.930.1841
Study and prepare a report on revision of the 1981 Ordinance which established the LTMB, to expand its responsibilities beyond rent control to other landlord-tenant issues such as:
• Eviction
• Garbage disposal
• Noise abatement
• Pets
• Improvements
For several years, beginning prior to the terms I served as a member of the LTMB, there has been a decrease in the number of requests for mediation dealing with rent increases. Our LTMB mediators are not being used to their capacity after having received training, paid for by the Housing Office through federal funding. Those who serve on the LTMB are trained as mediators by the L.A. County Bar Assn. in other areas of mediation. All current and past LTMB mediators could be asked to handle other types of landlord-tenant disputes.
Study and prepare a report on federal funding for the LTMB to determine if it can be used for expansion of LTMB responsibilities such as those listed above.
Culver City needs alternatives for dispute resolution beyond litigation and what is currently available through the LTMB.
I’ll leave you with these lines from my poem “Mediate, Don’t Litigate:”
When a dispute begins, my friends
There is a way to make it end
Bring participants together
Help them see it would be better
To improve communication…
Dr. Hoult may be contacted at HOULTight@aol.com
