Mediator Resume

Labor Arbitrator and Mediator, Workplace Investigator

Labor Arbitrator/Mediator, Workplace Investigator, Neutral Consultant, 2009-Present; Associate Professor/classroom teacher, School Law (part-time), Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus, 1986 - 2016; HR Administrator/ Superintendent of Schools, Syosset, Great Neck, and Long Beach, NY public schools, 1979 - 2014.

More than 30 years of public sector experience. Expertise in resolving many CBA negotiations with varied units, including circumstances where the parties were polarized and the CBA expired some time ago. In education, bargaining units included teachers, administrators, teaching assistants, and multiple civil service groups. Dollar amounts varied, up to $6 million+ in new money for some CBAs. Issues besides money included time on task, working hours, leave time availability and details of usage (e.g., personal day use process), work rules, and evaluation procedures. Significant experience in resolving grievances before formal grievance machinery was invoked, or after, prior to or during arbitration. For grievances involving money issues, dollar amounts ranged from small sums to tens of thousands of dollars. Extensive background in employee discipline matters, including resolving them before formal charges was filed, subsequent to filing of charges before hearings commenced, or at the start of or during the hearing process. Discipline forums included mediating agreements pursuant to Education Law 3020a, Civil Service Law Section 75, and CBA- or policy-defined language. Special projects included working with parties to rewrite major parts of, or full CBAs, when the existing CBA language needed major overhauls to better codify the intent of the parties in plain language understandable to all, de-jargonizing the existing wording to make the CBA more user-friendly. Particular expertise in employee evaluation issues, including working with parties to develop formal evaluation plans, either following in-house wishes of the parties, or developing such plans pursuant to law (e.g., New York's Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) plan procedures). Experience in mediating disputes about evaluations, aiming to modify language used, finding common ground language acceptable to the parties involved. Corollary mediation activities involved disputes between other constituent groups, e.g., parent-school district disputes. Much of the above experience was garnered while a human resources administrator or a school superintendent on Long Island in New York State. Additional experience was gained more recently after leaving public education employment and transitioning to an ADR career, and earlier, as a wing panelist for 16 years on tripartite panels hearing charges brought against tenured school district staff.

Primary issues involved labor matters, generally focusing on time, money, or both, but often involving working condition issues not directly tied to money, e.g., workload, preparation time, obligation to the employer before/after normal working hours. As noted in the section above, entitled Mediation Experience, labor experience had involved a broad range of issues, touching on most of, if not all matters that arise over time in virtually all labor-management interactions.

I believe strongly that in all disputes, the best solutions are those arrived at directly between the parties, rather than imposed upon the parties, and which are acceptable to the parties. Mediation is a less formal, speedier, and less expensive solution to problems than is litigation, and ends, if successful, with a win-win resolution, not a "we win, you lose" mentality, prevalent in litigation (including arbitration), which causes one party to gloat, the other to be chagrined, and both set up to have a "wait 'til next time!" hardening of sides. The benefits of a mediated settlement go far beyond the issue at hand. In a successful mediation, parties get to understand the issues each side faces without having to posture and show bravado. The humanity of the parties can ultimately be displayed, and it is along that personal-human dimension that not only can disputes be resolved, but respect between the parties and among the members of negotiating units, across the unit lines, can be developed and nurtured. A successful mediation not only resolves the issue on the table, but may help the parties, in the future, to work out their differences more readily even without the intervention of a third party. The mediator brings expertise to the table to help the parties achieve a settlement, but the mediator must at all times respect that it is the parties, not the mediator, who own the mediation and for whom the results must be acceptable. The mediator's tools are carefully developed over years of experience in working with people in dispute, and it helps immensely if the mediator has specific knowledge of the field of work involved.

The Cooper Union, (BS, Physics, 1967); Hofstra University (Professional Diploma, Doctorate in Education, 1993), Cornell University (ILR Certificate in Arbitration and Mediation, 2012).

NYS Teaching Certification - Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, General Science. NYS Administrator Certification.

Long Island Labor and Employment Relations Association; Phi Delta Kappa.

Within 100 miles of Huntington, NY

Hourly Rate: $250.00 Daily Rate: Not provided Study Rate: $250.00/hr Cancellation: $750.00/Day Cancellation Period: 7 Days Comment: Travel, accrued expenses for distances greater than 100 miles from NYC and/or for overnight stay. Cancellation-7 days' notice or fee charged unless time is reassigned.

English

United States of America

Centerport, New York