Brazos Dispute Resolution Center seeks $60,000 from county to cover rent and operations

The Brazos Dispute Resolution Center asked the Brazos County Commissioners Court for $60,000 in county support during a workshop presentation, telling the court the funds are needed primarily to cover rent and staffing costs and that this represents a $10,000 increase over last year.

Tori Ellis, executive director of the Brazos Dispute Resolution Center, explained the center provides mediations, arbitrations and facilitation services and that family cases in Brazos County are required to go to mediation under standing orders before a first hearing. “Within Brazos County, every family case has to go to mediation,” she said.

Ellis described the center’s staffing and operations: she said the center currently has three paid staff after a recent departure, she works part time (about 20 hours per week), and volunteers provide the mediators. The center handles roughly 300 to 350 cases a year and uses volunteer mediators who receive the center’s training at no charge.

Ellis outlined an upcoming project, a local “settlement week” that the center will facilitate in cooperation with an administrative law judge and the local bar association to provide free mediations while judges are at training. She referenced a code that requires counties with populations over 150,000 to provide two settlement weeks a year; for the current year the center plans a single settlement week as a pilot.

When commissioners asked about municipal funding, Ellis said the City of Bryan and City of College Station do not currently provide funds; Grimes County provides a $12,000 grant. Ellis said the $60,000 request is largely to cover rising rent costs and that the center can run multiple mediations simultaneously but is not yet at full intake capacity.

No formal vote or allocation was taken at the workshop; the presentation was heard as part of a series of outside-agency budget requests.