The State of the States in Environmental Dispute Resolution:
NORTH CAROLINA










 

Current Projects: United States Postal Service Employment Arbitration Indiana Dept of Env. Management Indiana ADR Providers Shared Neutrals Pilot  U.S. Dept. of Justice
Completed Projects: U.S. Env. Protection Agency EDR State of States 

Occupational Safety & Health Review Commission

 National Institutes of Health Focus Groups Sessions  

Status:
Within North Carolina, there are multiple environmental ADR efforts underway. The North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings and the public disputes mediation projects conducted by the twenty-six community-based dispute resolution centers all include environmental disputes in their case load.

Legal Authority:
N.C. GEN. STAT. §§ 1-567.1 to .21 (1996) (codifying the North Carolina Uniform Arbitration Act, which authorizes the use of arbitration agreements and establishes law governing the validity of and procedure used in arbitrations); N.C. GEN. STAT. § 7A-38.3 (1995) (providing for both voluntary and mandatory mediation in farm nuisance disputes); N.C. ADMIN. CODE tit. 26, r. 3.0201–.0208 (Sept. 1998) (authorizing use of and establishing procedures for mediated settlement conferences ordered by Administrative Law Judges).

Contact Information:
     Meg Phipps, Administrative Law Judge
     Office of Administrative Hearings
     P.O. Drawer 27447
     Raleigh, NC 27611-7447
     Phone: (919) 733-3994
     Fax: (919) 733-3407
     E-mail: mphipps@oah.state.nc.us

Program Summary

The Natural Resources Leadership Institute (a program of the North Carolina State Cooperative Extension Service) provides training in mediation, interest-based negotiation, and managing public meetings for government regulators, industry professionals, environmental group leaders, and citizens concerned with natural resource management. The Public Disputes Program of the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center (Program) is the state’s only full time public dispute program operating from a community-based mediation center. Although its case load is primarily within Orange County, the Program’s unique expertise and longevity (operating since 1987) has led to technical assistance projects for other community mediation programs nationwide. Locally, it offers services in consensus-based process design, meeting facilitation, multiparty mediation, and training in all related skills.

Office of Administrative Hearings
The Office of Administrative Hearings provides hearing officers for nearly all administrative law cases within North Carolina government. Before cases go to an administrative hearing, the Chief Administrative Law Judge determines if a case is appropriate for mediation. If it is, the judge orders the case to mediation before a private mediator or a judge trained as a mediator. Environmental cases are a small proportion of the mediation caseload, and a small proportion of environmental cases go to mediation. The small proportion is primarily due to the complexity of these cases and to the cases not being appropriate for mediation.

Community Dispute Resolution Programs
These programs focus on multiple party and other environmental disputes, often on a neighborhood, municipal, or county level of decisionmaking, or before these cases reach the state administrative hearing level. These cases can involve meeting facilitation or formal mediation of local environmental issues such as facility siting, land use, and conflicts between businesses and local residents. State and local governments, the private sector, citizens groups, and civic organizations have all participated in these cases.

Lessons Learned

Office of Administrative Hearings

  • Using judges as mediators is positive because it does not cost the parties additional money and the perceived authority of a judge makes people want to settle more.
  • Mediators and state lawyers both need to take their roles seriously. This means not assuming that a case will settle, having positive attitudes about participants, and being willing to commit the time needed.
  • It is important in mediations to have somebody with the authority to sign a settlement at the table, but this is often difficult because at the state level that person is often so high up that they do not actively participate in mediation.
  • The administrative law judges and the private sector have been the strongest supporters of mediation. The attorneys are now beginning to see value in EDR.
  • Trained third-party mediators can "shake open" a case on which the agency has given up—the process gives agencies a chance to think through cases again.
  • Mediation can give higher-up administrators a window into the challenges involved in the implementation of policies.
  • Cases need to be properly screened to avoid mediation becoming a delaying tactic or merely "another step in the process."
  • There need to be incentives for the agencies to use mediation, and agencies need to see the value of the process to them.

Community Dispute Resolution Programs

  • Community programs provide an opportunity to use EDR in a wide variety of local, multiparty disputes, including environmental disputes.
  • Community based mediation programs have a range of skills, knowledge, and expertise appropriate for addressing local multiparty disputes, including environmental disputes. The Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution is a good source of information for community members.
  • Mediation Network of North Carolina, the nonprofit umbrella organization for community-based mediation in the state, provides resources, forums, and linkages to enhance the local capacity to resolve multiparty and other environmental disputes.
  • Be careful not to oversimplify by inappropriately limiting the number of issues or parties; always conduct an assessment of the dispute before designing the details of the intervention.
  • It is more important in the first year of a multiparty mediation program to focus on outreach than to complete many cases. A successful case or two in the first year to demonstrate the possibilities is sufficient.

Further information

People

Steve Smutko or Mary Lou Addor, Natural Resources Leadership Institute, North Carolina State University, Box 8109, Raleigh, NC 27695, Phone: (919) 515-9602, Fax: (919) 515-1824, E-mail: steve_smutko@ncsu.edu or mary_addor@ncsu.edu.

Andrew M. Sachs, Coordinator, Public Disputes Program, Orange County Public Dispute Resolution Settlement Center, 302 Weaver St., Carrboro, NC 27510, Phone: (919) 929-8800, Fax: (919) 942-6931, E-mail: asachs@igc.org.

Richard Wisnant, Associate Professor of Law and Government, Institute of Government, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3330, Chapel Hill, NC 17599, Phone: (919) 966-5381, Fax: (919) 962-0654, E-mail: richard_wisnant@unc.edu.

Don Reuter, ENRD Public Affairs, Phone: (919) 715-4113, Fax: (919) 715-3060.

Offices

Further information about the Public Disputes Program of the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center is available by contacting Andrew M. Sachs at the address listed above.

Publications

Further Information about the Natural Resources Leadership Institute is available at the following Websites: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/PIE/nrli or www.uky.edu/Agriculture/AgriculturalEconomics/nrlibroc.html

Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute
Last updated: June 1999
Comments: ICRI Administrator
Copyright 1999 - Indiana University, Bloomington