Consensus building and Compromise

By Andrew N. "Andy" Weissman

I am about listening, analyzing, questioning, balancing and in the end, working to bring about a result that brings together various and conflicting points of view for the best interests of CC.

Take my role in the oil field litigation with PXP and the County as an example. 4 groups of plaintiffs, County of Los Angeles, PXP, all with different interests and agenda, all involved in the same litigation.

On behalf of the City Council, I spent more than fourteen months in court ordered mediations, settlement conferences, meetings with the various participants, the attorney general's office and countless emails and conference calls with all of the parties and all of the attorneys involved in the litigation.

In the end, the parties reached a settlement. A settlement I am proud to say I had a hand in helping to achieve.

We didn't get everything we wanted, parties to compromise never do.

But the settlement results in greater public health, safety and environmental protections, which is what Culver City set out to achieve.

Not everyone believes that compromise is a good thing.

I respectfully disagree.

Compromise is the end result of a process that I have been preaching about and practicing for as long as I can remember.