A neutral, skilled mediator designs and facilitates the process for achieving consensus among multiple, diverse stakeholders.

Jerry Lawson, the President of the Center, is a specialist in designing and facilitating multi-party consensus building processes. These processes are used to develop agreement among groups of diverse stakeholders about significant public policy matters. Our approach is to work with the convening parties to design the process, determine which stakeholders should participate and in what roles, facilitate the process, and mediate when the stakeholder group moves toward consensus.

Sometimes, if the convening party is not certain a consensus-building process will work for the particular issue or issues, we will conduct a preliminary assessment to determine feasibility. That assessment includes conversations with the potential stakeholders about their views of the substantive issues and about the viability of a multi-party process.

These are examples of multi-party consensus building processes we have designed and facilitated:

Zoning Update Advisory Group. We organized over 100 participants into seven (7) working groups that reached an agreement on a comprehensive revision of the Hamilton County, Ohio Zoning Code. The Hamilton County Commissioners convened this group.

Ohio Construction and Demolition Debris Regulatory Negotiation. Twenty (20) parties reached an agreement on regulations to govern the disposal of construction and demolition debris in Ohio. The Ohio EPA convened this group.

Charter Reform Forum. This group of seventeen (17) civic organizations and political parties was convened by the Mayor of Cincinnati to reach consensus on changes in the Cincinnati City Charter related to the method of electing the mayor and city council and distribution of power among the council, the mayor and the city manager.

City of Montgomery / Bethesda North Hospital / Neighbors. The City Manager of Montgomery, Ohio convened this three-party negotiation. The parties reached agreement on revisions to the hospital zoning restrictions that would enable the hospital to develop its facilities with the support of the neighbors and the City.

Ohio EPA Voluntary Action Program Multi-disciplinary Board. This group, created by statute, was convened by the Ohio EPA to reach agreement on recommendations to the EPA Director for comprehensive changes in the regulations governing the Voluntary Action Program, the OEPA program for voluntary cleanup of hazardous sites (usually for development purposes).