Board Notes

This question of what role the Association should play, if any, in resolving land-use disputes between our members was raised at the June 13, 2009 meeting of the DCVA Board of Directors.

Charlee Schanzer, Co-Chair of the Planning & Zoning Committee, presented the case of a DCVA member who requested the Association’s help in resolving a long-running dispute with one of her neighbors (also a DCVA member) over the alleged misuse of a shared roadway.

The P&Z Committee made two recommendations for the Board to consider. First, that as a matter of policy, the DCVA should provide its members with information about accessing public records and filing complaints with County authorities; and second, that Schanzer, a friend to both parties in this particular dispute, be authorized to mediate on behalf of the Board.

After some discussion, the Board decided that the Association should not become involved in resolving private disputes.  Instead, DCVA’s role should be to provide our members with the information P&Z recommended and, in cases where disputes were brought to our attention, to stongly recommend that the disputing parties seek out the services of a professional mediator. Lastly, the Board stated that while Schanzer was free to contact the disputing neighbors in her capacity as their friend and neighbor, she was not authorized to represent the Association. Schanzer told me recently that her efforts to resolve her neighbors’ dispute were successful.)

Cecile Isaacs was the member who urged the Board to look into mediation. She related an experience she had had with a Bay Area mediation service, in which a long-simmering dispute with a neighbor was resolved in a very positive way, and she offered to look into the availability of mediation services for Sonoma County residents.  At the next Board meeting, Isaacs reported on RECOURSE (Redwood Empire Conflict Resolution Service: 707 525.8545, www.recoursemediation.com), a community-based agency in Santa Rosa that provides conflict resolution services for all Sonoma County residents “regardless of their ability to pay” (according to its website).  While RECOURSE uses trained volunteer mediators from many backgrounds, professional attorneys staff The Arbitration and Mediation Center (AMC: 707 525.9409, www.amcadr.com) in Santa Rosa, which Ed Wilson recommended.

Report by Richard Conrad