Municipal Program

Through the Municipal Program, MODR conducts outreach and provides services to cities and towns in the Commonwealth. Projects include interpersonal and workplace conflicts, labor/management issues and disputes involving neighbors to municipal facilities and ballparks. Besides mediating individual disputes, MODR has provides consultation services to municipalities on public disputes and public involvement processes. Town officials can also receive mediation training through MODR.

When a municipal government is one of the disputing parties, ADR processes such as mediation, facilitation and consensus building can often avoid lawsuits and maintain positive relationships with a wide variety of groups and individuals. As an intervener, a municipal official can refer parties to a mediator or facilitator, thereby taking action and being responsive without taking sides. On difficult community issues such as zoning and planning concerns, locating roads or unwanted facilities, ADR can help create consensual solutions and develop policy. Internal disputes within a municipal government involving individuals, offices or departments can be resolved privately, away from the glare of the public eye. Alternative dispute resolution can meet the needs of municipal governments while saving time, money and building goodwill in the community.

Examples of MODR's Work:

Plainville Sanitary Landfill: Plainville citizens, an operator of a landfill in Plainville, and the Department of Environmental Protection asked MODR to facilitate discussions around issues concerning the closing and capping of the landfill and the study of whether any water or air pollution issues would impact local communities surrounding the landfill. Agreement was reached on closure and final capping of the landfill.

Beverly Airport: MODR facilitated a public meeting to discuss the impacts of a proposed development near the Beverly Airport. The meeting included the municipal officials, the developer, and a broad spectrum of other stakeholders.

Groveland: This fourteen year-old dispute over contamination of the Town of Groveland's aquifer involved several local companies charged with polluting the Town's drinking water supply. The Town wanted to determine responsibility for the pollution and how the cost of clean up would be paid, while the local companies wanted to constructively contribute to the solution of a complex environmental and health problem without conceding liability. During an eight-month period, using a unique, custom-designed mediation process, MODR successfully mediated a settlement, saving the parties years of further litigation, hundreds of thousands of dollars in avoided fees and court costs. Under the mediated settlement, the Town of Groveland received over one million dollars over six years to upgrade its water supply.

Neponset Reservoir: At the request of the City of Boston and its contractor, and in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Protection, MODR facilitated a public meeting dealing with studies conducted on the composition of reservoir soils and water of the Neponset Reservoir.

Barrett Street Brook—Northampton: A mediated dispute involving the City of Northampton, a major supermarket chain, the Department of Environmental Protection, and a group of neighbors resulted in an agreement enabling the city's new fire station project to go forward.

Municipal Program contact:

Mary Jean Shultz, Program Coordinator
MODR at UMass Boston
100 Morrissey Boulevard, M-1-627
Boston, MA 02125
Telephone: (617) 287-4040; Fax: (617) 287-4049
maryjean.shultz@umb.edu