A volunteer team and police mentors recommended that Wheat Ridge join a statewide pilot run by the Mediation Association of Colorado (MAC) to offer mediation for civil neighborhood disputes rather than creating a city‑run program.

Project mentors, including Officer Joe Mallory and community volunteers, told the council the city lost access to Jefferson County mediation services in 2021 and later used an outside referral (OPAL) that produced little measurable outcomes. After surveying neighboring cities and mediation providers, the team said MAC — an umbrella organization combining several Colorado mediation groups — offers onboarding, promotion, phone/app intake and standardized reporting that would fill the service gap without Wheat Ridge building a local infrastructure.

Presenters highlighted costs and benefits. They said public data show police engagement costs in Colorado range roughly $500–$700 per call for service in civil disputes and noted that dedicated city staffing or building a volunteer lawyer corps can be time‑ and resource‑intensive. The team recommended participation in MAC’s pilot (recruitment Jan–Feb 2026, pilot launch March 2026) and said the MAC model charges an annual fee tied to case volume rather than requiring Wheat Ridge to hire full‑time staff.

Councilors asked how residents would be referred. Presenters said referrals could come from call takers, dispatch, police officers or direct self‑referral, and noted that cases involving ordinance violations (for example, weeds above the ordinance threshold) would go to code enforcement rather than mediation. Officer Mallory and other mentors described a civil‑standby option for police to keep the peace while referring people to mediation.

The team described an intake process that uses AI tools only to speed information gathering — not to replace human mediators — and emphasized that all mediations themselves would be conducted by trained, impartial people. "The intake is being done with using AI tools just to actually speed the intake. None of the mediation or the interaction has anything to do with any of those tools," a presenter explained.

Presenters said MAC offers standardized metrics and continuous reporting, which they argued makes it easier to measure effectiveness and ROI compared with past arrangements. They recommended staff submit an application to join the pilot and coordinate awareness campaigns at city events and with volunteers so residents know the service exists.

Councilors generally reacted positively, asking staff to clarify costs, case‑volume estimates and whether municipal court or diversion programs might leverage mediation; presenters said those are possible future options to explore. The council did not vote on the recommendation at the study session.