 Hello everyone thank you so much for joining today we're just going to wait a couple of minutes to welcome hopefully a few more people. In the meantime, you can enjoy our animated mend NYC ad that was up in bus kiosks around the city that we think it is pretty cool. Otherwise, we will begin in just a moment. Okay everyone thank you again for joining this important webinar today, I am Ariel palates the executive director of the Office of Nightlife. For those of you who don't know we are a dedicated non enforcement liaison between the city and the nightlife industry. Our office works to support businesses navigating city bureaucracies, promote and protect nightlife culture, support harm reduction and safer spaces, and improve quality of life relations between venues and residents, which is what we're doing here today. If you have any issues or questions about your nightlife venue or a neighboring venue or when you work at, please always feel free to reach out to us directly at nightlife at media dot nyc dot gov, or follow us at NYC nightlife gov. Today's webinar is part of a new series we've just recently launched a series of courses that we call night school, or it stands for nightlife industry training and education, which are held both virtually and in person. This is a series to share resources and trainings for owners, workers and patrons, addressing how best to open, operate and navigate city agencies, as well as proactive harm reduction and quality of life issues. There's more information about night school at nyc dot gov slash night school that's nite. And my colleagues will put that in the chat. The quality of life and business between venues and residents is a top priority for New York City, as well as for the office of nightlife. So we are really excited to bring you information today about a program. We have created in partnership with the Center of Creative Conflict Resolution at oath to implement a new alternative non enforcement approach to resolving quality of life disputes between residents and venues, as well as businesses and businesses and businesses and their landlords, but the Genesis was really to help resolve the relationships between residents and venues. MEND NYC, which stands for mediating establishment and neighborhood disputes brings together both parties with a neutral third party mediator to resolve these disputes. MEND helps venues and residents establish long term relationships to coexist through compromise before issues escalate to enforcement. We know that most enforcement is complaint driven, but we also believe that most people want to simply turn it down, not shut it down. We're really proud of this program as another way again for residents and businesses to improve conditions through mutual respect, and also to serve as another tool in the tool belt for elected officials city agencies and community boards to help them address the quality of life can complaints that might be coming in. So before we get to the presentation, a couple of quick housekeeping notes, please use the Q&A feature in the zoom to let us know your questions throughout the meeting, and we will be addressing them right after the presentation. This webinar will also be recorded and we will be sharing it online soon so that you can share within your networks, or your stuff. Now, first, I'd like to introduce my colleague in this program are partners at Oath at the Office of Administration Trials and hearings. I am proud to be joined by the Commissioner of Oath. Asim Rahman to share a few words about their agencies work and their role in administering this program. It's all yours, Commissioner. Thank you. Thanks so much, Ariel. My name is awesome Rahman. I'm the Commissioner and Chief Administrative Law Judge here at Oath. Oath is the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and hearings, and we're really happy to be working with Office of Nightlife with Ariel with the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and the Commissioner and El Castillo and a whole host of others, including my colleagues here at Oath. And many people know Oath, the Office of Administrative Trials and hearings as a place where you can come to fight the city where you can have a hearing and an adversarial setting and have a impartial independent individual issue of ruling and decision, but and often that involves an enforcement agency and a business or a member of the public, but that's not the only way to resolve the dispute that's not the only way to solve a problem. And there are other tools that the city makes available and that we have here at Oath. And that includes members of our team here at Oath who are at the Center for Creative Conflict Resolution. And the center is an organ of Oath that is focused on alternative methods for resolving disputes, including mediation. And it is known most for helping to mediate workplace disputes within city government, but I was very excited with the MEND program rolled out because it expanded the work of the center to bring its important mediation services to members of the public and businesses. And through this MEND program, as Ariel was saying, problems can be solved before bringing in an enforcement agency before making that call to 311. And so if you're a business or you live near a business and a dispute arises, that is a neighborhood dispute. Maybe there's a way to resolve it through mediation. Maybe both parties are willing to come together, but they just need someone to facilitate that conversation. And that's where MEND comes in. And it's been very successful so far. All due to the folks at the Office of Nightlife, my colleagues here at the center, but also the participants, because it doesn't work unless we have participants who are willing to come and sit at the table and have a guided conversation and hopefully emerge with a result that works for everyone. And a special thanks to my colleagues at the center, Ray Kramer and Hallie and Alec as well as many others. And again, thank you very much for your interest in this program, and we're glad that we can be part of the presentation today. Thank you so much, Commissioner. We really do appreciate you being here today and every all the support over at Oath and with the team. So, before we get to the presentation, I'd also like to now share a brief video with you all of some real world testimonies of venues and residents who have gone through this program, and to share how successful it's been for them in resolving their issues. I think this video will help to really make real the presentation coming up for you right now. So I hope you enjoy it. It's short, but it's very descriptive of how this program works. Thank you. New York City nightlife is not just a luxury, but a necessity. It is a huge part of not only our culture, but our economy and our identity. It is important to protect it. It's important to address the issues around quality of life. Through men's mediation program, our goal is not only to help you resolve your dispute, but to do it in a way that builds stronger, lasting relationships in your neighborhood. Men can step in and provide mediation that might result in an agreement between two parties rather than have a resident call 311 and then a New York City Enforcement Agency get involved. This program provides free mediation with professional licensed mediators and a space where venue operators and residents can meet to resolve these issues. There are so many people who live in New York who were because of the pandemic working at home. At the time, I was working completely from home. So the noise was coming from a local establishment all day long. Honestly, I was really grateful for the experience. I only knew the issue from my side. So hearing about what the establishment was going through and their willingness to work with me on the issue, it was so great. Having somebody who can work with you and who understands nightlife is an awesome opportunity. I would absolutely consider using it again. It was a real victory for mediation, I think. We managed to come up with a memorandum of understanding between us and the owner. Having them kind of come in and be that neutral party to have that dialogue and both look at it from my point of view as an operator and then help me look at it from their point of view as somebody that's a neighbor was really helpful. We've had a great relationship since the mediation. I have nothing but positive things to say about the program. New York is a big city made up of small communities. It's absolutely essential that communication streams and programs and opportunities to be able to get to know your neighbors better and to resolve the community issues together can only build a more pleasant place to live. I hope you all enjoyed that. So, now to get on to the presentation, I'd like to introduce today's presenters from oath center of creative conflict resolution. Our colleague judge Ray Kramer, who is the executive director of the center of creative conflict resolution, and Kelly Anolik is the director of education and training so thank you both so much for being with here with us today and take it away. Thank you so much, Ariel appreciate it and thank you awesome. Thank you all the attendees for being here this afternoon and for your interest in the men program. It's such an innovative program and I just wanted to say up front. It's been a terrific collaboration with Ariel the mayor's office of nightlife and the mayor's office of media and entertainment I just want to thank Ariel for helping this program get established and her team Jose and Francesca and colleagues. We really enjoy working with you and being of service to the community in this role and look forward to continuing to be of service in this role. As mentioned my name is Ray Kramer. I'm a long serving administrative law judge with both the office of administrative trials and hearings and currently serve as the executive director or center for creative conflict resolution. And I'll just share that I spent many years in a courtroom, either helping to resolve by decision or you know helping parties to settle litigation and while there's a place for litigation. I think we all know some of the downsides it can be resource intensive time consuming. You know it's backwards looking it's usually looking at something that occurred in the past and deciding what the consequences are going to be not, not how to move forward. And, and often there's a winner and a loser and sometimes out of litigation people know what he really feels like a winner so my interest shifted towards other ways to resolve conflict more constructive ways that really engage the parties in conflict themselves to have a voice and to work on their as their own resolutions process like mediation. We'll talk more about it and I just wanted to say I'm here with my colleague Halle Anilic who's an attorney and a mediator. As Ariel mentioned she directs our education and training program and oversees the men mediation program alley did you want to say hello. Hi everyone. Nice to be here today. Thanks for. Yeah, thanks. And how he's going to be sharing about the program in a few minutes and I just wanted to mention our team. We're small there's nine of us seven of us or service providers, but we are really deeply experienced and mediation conflict resolution services, restorative practices and really take our commitment to this field seriously so I just want to say it's it's my blessing and privilege to serve with a really terrific team of mediators and conflict resolvers about men. I mean it is a citywide program that offers free mediation and conflict resolution services to address quality of quality of life issues that impact my life businesses and the community. And I want to share that I really, really like the acronym men I think Francesca may have come up with that acronym, because it really reflects what we try to do in mediation. We focus on the transactional things that businesses and community members might be in conflict around but we also pay attention to the relationship because there is a relationship within a community between the businesses. That provides support to the community and to the community members that live there so we're mindful of that relationship and when it breaks down over conflict and that can happen and it's normal. There's an opportunity to men to repair the relationship and in some instances, there may not be an existing relationship and we're looking to try and create one and that might be, you know, maybe the biggest benefit of mediation through the men program is to connect people in a way they might not have been connected before and to empower them to resolve their own conflicts directly rather than rely on an enforcement process. So who should use men. I mean really it's for community residents who particularly are experiencing conflicts around quality of life that they think are emanating from you know a neighborhood bar nightclub or nightlife business. If you're feeling like there are issues and you need to make complaints. I mean think about using men as a first option and the same with businesses, if you're, you know, hearing directly or indirectly from community members community boards that there are complaints where you're receiving complaints, you know, think about as a first option. Using men the default prior to men right or maybe the only option available was this more informal process informal process of enforcement calling 311 calling enforcement agencies maybe inspectors go out maybe the issue summons is there may be a fine or a penalty. But that process as you can imagine doesn't often address the root cause of the conflict and it certainly doesn't put the parties in direct contact. So we'd like to shift the default from when there's conflict. Don't think about 311 and enforcement first think about men as the first option. And if it doesn't work the enforcement processes are still in place you lose nothing by trying men first, and it's a voluntary people have to agree to participate if there's existing litigation around the conflict, we won't mediate, but shorter we'll try to reach out to us and we'll try to help parties resolve their conflicts. What is mediation, because mediation has become increasingly popular in the community and in the courts, they look a little different depending on the context. Mediation in this context really is a process where we bring typically two parties but parties were having conflict together and you know private confidential setting to have a conversation to work out a resolution themselves with the help of trained neutral mediators. As mentioned is voluntary no one's forced to participate parties have to agree to come to the table and then once at the table. And while they're having a conversation over the issues that need to be resolved it's voluntary as to whether those issues are resolved and on what terms. Mediators create a space for the conversation they facilitate the conversation, but as mediators, we're not acting as judges we're not giving suggestions we're not evaluating or giving opinions we're really creating a space where the parties themselves can decide you know how do we want to resolve this. And how do we want to move forward together as neighbors, there's an opportunity and mediation which doesn't exist in the formal enforcement or litigation process there's an opportunity for creative problem solving to come up with ideas. Where instead of having a winner and a loser which you typically get in litigation, you have a winner and a winner both sides, get what they need in resolving the conflict and the, I just want to say that the principle that really defines mediation is the principle of self determination. It's the idea that parties who are in conflict often know best how to resolve that conflict on what terms, and in ways that are going to be really satisfactory and lasting and durable it's just that we can get stuck in conflict. So mediation is working that out but with the help of trained facilitated mediators. And then types of conflicts that come to us. I mean, I think it's the next slide. Yeah, this is typically quality of life issues between residents and businesses and I think what we see the most are conflicts over sound levels, but it can be about sanitation. It can be about crowds and noise emanating from crowds or people latering outside of buildings late at night. And one issue that typically comes up in all of these, and it's typical and conflict is issues around communication. How do we speak to one another or often the lack of communication between the parties and sometimes if community member reaches out to a nightlife business owner or vice versa. And there's not a response or a good response that people feel disrespected. So communication is something we also try to help improve between the parties who are in conflict and we also will and can be involved in lease negotiations between commercial tenants and landlords and then conflicts that may come up between neighboring businesses and benefits of mediation. I think we've touched on them already but one is we can resolve issues in a very inexpensive quicker way. There's an inquiry, a request for mediation and we've done our intake process. We try to schedule the mediation within two weeks. We try to do it quickly. We're typically mediating on Zoom or virtually, but we have done in person mediations and certainly willing to do in person mediations either in our space in Lower Manhattan, or we've also traveled to meet parties and locations that are more convenient. So we're really flexible, but we try to do this really quickly. It's a way of saving money and resources for the city for the parties and for businesses. If you can resolve your conflict directly with those who are filing the complaint, you're avoiding potential violations, the whole court process, you know, and responding to summons. As we said, it's a way, mediation is a way of establishing direct communication between neighbors, community residents and nightlife business owners and managers and creating a relationship that may not have existed. And once that's in place, that can prevent future complaints. And part of what we talk about in mediation is if something comes up in the future, how do the two of you want to address that? Typically, we can do that directly now that we have each other's numbers, now that we've met, now that we know each other a little bit better. Mediation is a process that develops respectful, ongoing relationships and understanding in a way that's not going to arise in the enforcement process. And I'll just add, and I mentioned this earlier, mediation, although at the beginning of the conversation, we kind of unpack the past, how did we get to a place of conflict? Both parties understand why they're there, but the focus of mediation, unlike litigation, is forward-looking. Whatever happened in the past, how do we move forward together in a way that will be satisfactory to us both, and that will address complaints as they come in the future? How do we want to be together as neighbors? How do we want to communicate? How do we want to resolve issues that might come up in the future? I think Allie is going to talk a little bit about how to access and the mechanics of the program. Thanks, Allie. Sure. Thanks, Ray. Yeah, I'm going to talk about that and just as to give maybe some examples, and I know that there were businesses and residents that spoke in the video, which was great. But just thinking, if you want to think of what resolutions look like in MEND, there was a case that was recently mediated. That was between a neighbor and a business, and the business had these large open windows that were facing the street, and the neighbor was on the other side of those windows. And so there was attempted communication before coming to MEND. It didn't really go anywhere satisfactory, so both parties came voluntarily, like Ray and Arielle and the commissioner have mentioned and talked about really, you know, when is it that it's the most disruptive to the neighbor. And then there was a big conversation about when to close the windows, at what time, on what dates. There was even a creative solution of putting up signs around the establishment to remind people that, you know, it's a neighborhood if people are outside and the neighbors might be sleeping. If they're sleeping and the neighbor in the mediation, their roommate was a graphic designer, so the roommate was going to design these fires that the bar was going to put up around its business. And there was direct communication that was established. You know, what's the best number to call and when, and that, like Ray was saying, oftentimes is a missing link to resolve in conflict well in an ongoing way is really having the best communication for both, the best modes of communication for both parties. And generally mediations are, you know, between two people, but we have also done mediations when there's been more than just one neighbor we've done mediations where there's been multiple neighbors. And also, sometimes businesses need multiple people present to not just the owner but maybe owners and managers or if there's multiple owners. So we're able to accommodate when there's multiple people on both side, both sides. There are success rates, some stats that was mentioned in the video, but generally if both parties are willing to mediate the success rate is pretty high. I think we're at around 83% success right now and we've had over 80 cases move through mediation and growing. What's on the slide is, you know, who should refer cases if you're that individual if you're an individual neighbor if you're the business owner you can always refer, you know, kind of self refer yourself to mediation but if there's people on the call that work for elected officials that are part of a community board that are part of a different city agency and people are coming to you with complaints you can also refer that complain either you can refer them specifically to reach out to mend or you can reach out to us on their behalf and we can coordinate the mediation with both of them as long as they're willing. And just how to do it how to access us, we have two general ways one is you could just send an email directly to our email inbox mend NYC at oath.nyc.gov. And I think Jose is going to drop that in the chat for the people that are joining us live. And we also have an online form. That's on our website that you can fill out both of these things, you know, don't need to take that long for you to fill out but that will get your information to us. And then what happens, once you send us either an email or you reach out to us via the online form is someone on our intake team will contact you. And that you do want to mediate make sure you know what it is kind of go over what what we've all talked about today, and then we'll reach out to that other party and say that there's an interest in mediating and are you interested in working in the mend program as well. And once both parties say yes, this is something I'd like to do then the case gets sent to the center to be coordinated with a mediator. And like Ray said we try, we know that time is important, and oftentimes people are trying to resolve conflicts on their own before moving to mend so it could be a long process even before we've heard from you so we try to get those scheduled within two weeks once both parties come on board. And I think that is all that we have in terms of information for you, it's probably a lot of information. So we know we wanted to open it up for questions I'll stop the slideshow to see if there's any questions or things coming up for people. Thank you so much Hallie and Judge Cramer, Commissioner for walking everyone through what mediation is and how to access the program. I'll say you can also call 311 or go on to the 311 app, which is, I think a huge win when you go to 311. It says would you like to file a complaint or would you like to mediate. And that's progress, I think, you know, in developing a new way to complain. I think I just you know wanted to sort of reiterate you know 311 the the innate individual anonymity, I think has convinced some people that there's a reason for you to, to have something to fear that you should not reveal who you are when you have an issue with your neighbor, and that the best way to resolve this is through the miscall line. But I think anyone who's been on either side of that process knows that really what you want is immediate relief immediate response. And what the venue wants is more detail. Right. It's not just somebody showing up at three in the morning to say hey turn it down venues need to know. Is it in the front? Is it in the back? Is it outside? Is it the volume? Is it the voices? And so this sort of transparent approach provides both parties the information and the communication. So we need to resolve the quality of life concerns or conflicts in a productive way, and not to just complain and hope for the best. And so that's what this process is is to facilitate that communication and to take out off the veil of anonymity, and to have a relationship and a friendship and if something resolves or arises you call them directly, each other. And I think that's the best way to ensure long lasting as well as immediate relief of whatever concerns you might be having. So, I just wanted to share that little perspective and that even if you don't remember where that email is, you can always reach out to the Office of Nightlife you can just Google mend NYC or you can go to 311. And you can get connected with this incredible program and these incredible people that really care, and are really professional and trained and neutral. Right. This isn't someone who can give you a ticket or revoke your license, or shut you down. They have no stake in the game except to resolve the issue. So, I really encourage residents as well as venues. If you have a chronic caller to reach out and elected officials, police department, community boards, we don't have to go strictly through an enforcement route to resolve issues because they don't really always do that. So, I'm going to just check and see if we have any questions. We have one. What does it take to become a licensed mediator. So, I can. Yeah, right you can jump in. So mediation training starts with a four day basic mediation training. And they're off if you're looking for yourself they're offered a bunch of different places throughout the city. We don't offer mediation training at the center but if you want to email that address that was just dropped in the chat we can certainly like point you to the right places to take a mediation training and that's really the like that's the baseline. Sometimes what you have to do after that is mediate a lot of cases and get a lot of experience and maybe take some advanced trainings work with a mentor there's apprenticeship programs throughout throughout the city to get you that more experience with a trained mediator to then be able to start mediating cases on your own. So, do you want to add anything. No, I think you got that I'm just saying there's no statewide license or certification for mediators it's certification by program so for example you wanted to mediate the courts. So if you take a base training, like how they describe usually there's some apprenticeship, some, some learning requirement by by co mediating and experiencing it directly. And then you're certified to mediate in the courts and other programs. Similarly, but but how the, you know, shared correctly that it starts with that. Thank you for the question I also took the training myself and it is fascinating and can help you in all ways in your life with all relationships and learning different ways to approach. Really any kind of conflict so I recommend it even as a personal exercise or professional. I do not see any questions any, any more questions I, you know, encourage any electeds or city agencies or venues who want to learn more just to reach out to us and we can go into more detail. And I just want to thank everyone as an introduction to, you know, new program not so new anymore and hoping to really change the way New York complains about resident venue relations and learn to coexist in this incredible city where nightlife and quality of life are equally valued and supported. And I just want to thank everyone for joining this course in our new night school that we've just launched our next webinar coming up is our Narcan behind every bar program which is with the Department of Health that trains nightlife partners, as well as patrons on how to respond to a potential fentanyl overdose, and also receive free kits delivered to your venue. This is all part of the city's harm reduction approach to responding to this crisis and saving lives because nightlife spaces or places where people look out for each other and where positive and great things can happen and do happen every night. I want to thank you all again for joining. We really appreciate it. This is recorded. And it's going to be out there. Share it with anyone you know who might be experiencing this. And you can again go to reach out to mend NYC at nyc dot gov slash mend NYC, or you can reach out to the office of nightlife at nightlife at media dot nyc dot gov and follow us on social at NYC nightlife gov. And that's it for today. Thank you Ray. Thank you Halle. Thank you commissioner. Thank you to the nightlife team Francesca and Jose, and everyone have a great day and weekend ahead. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.