NEW HAVEN & EAST HAVEN MAYORS ISSUE STATEMENT IN APPRECIATION OF COMMUNITY MEDIATION’S ROLE IN ACHIEVING TWEED AGREEMENT

(3/18/2009) The following is a joint statement issued by New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. and East Haven Mayor April Capone Almon:

“Earlier this week, at the State Capitol, we jointly announced a historic agreement between the Town of East Haven and the City of New Haven regarding the future of the Tweed New Haven Regional Airport. We jointly invited Charles Pillsbury, Executive Director, Community Mediation, Inc., to open the news conference to highlight the key role that this nonprofit community mediation center, based in New Haven, played in helping us reach this agreement. In his opening remarks, Mr. Pillsbury modestly downplayed his agency’s critical intervention and gave us all the credit, as mayors of our respective city and town, for this remarkable achievement.

Together we would like to thank publicly Community Mediation, Inc. for initially bringing us together to discuss confidentially our mutual concerns and engage in constructive problem-solving. We held our first mediation session in Mayor Almon’s office on October 17, 2008, and our fifth and last mediation session in Mayor DeStefano’s office on January 8, 2009. Although we ultimately reached our final agreement through direct negotiations, none of what we accomplished would have been possible without Community Mediation first convening us and then patiently working with us during this 3-month period. We also would like to recognize and thank Community Mediation’s Associate Director Brenda Cavanaugh and volunteer mediator Elizabeth Murphy for serving as co-mediators with Mr. Pillsbury.”

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Contact Name: Jessica Mayorga

Contact Email: jmayorga@newhavenct.net

Contact Phone: 203-946-7660