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A Plea to "Change a Terrible Wrong"

From a broadcast email sent by Dr. Jeri Breiner...

dear mayor, having worked for dhr years ago, i do appreciate the constraints you must operate under. i know your power is restricted and has a path that we probably cannot understand. please do understand that our pleas are only personal because we believe you are our only hope to change a terrible wrong. Not just to reverse tom coffins firing, but to make sure that the fines he was about to impose are followed through by the arborist department and to make sure that department is not being told by the director of the bureau of buildings or his direct superiors to not carry out their jobs. although i know you are ending your term, i still hope the passion you have always shown still exists. there is a big problem in tree protection for your city, my city. developers know, as do home owners and contractors, that penalties after the fact are rarely followed through on, if they occur at all, when it comes to the tree ordinance. the same goes for soil and erosion enforcement. i truly hope that our requests energize you to push the people that do have power to do their jobs... to make our city remain the city of hardwoods and maples and streams. we are asking you to go out of your box, to help us correct a disease in our city government. i do not believe that the intention is to give you bad press; rather, to give you more power to do what only a mayor can do for her city. please revisit this issue. it is=2 0not unwarranted and is backed by data.

thank you so much for any time you spend on correcting this issue. sincerely, jeri breiner, ph.d.

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