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Rehire Tom Coffin

From: Deborah Moscato
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 10:01 PM
To: 'SFranklin@AtlantaGa.Gov'Cc: 'mary@marynorwood.com'; cmuller@atlantaga.gov
Subject: Rehire Tom Coffin

Dear Mayor Franklin:

I am outraged at the firing of one of the best advocates we have in the city of Atlanta for our tree canopy. If anyone should be fired, it should be the manager who fired him or some of the other arborists who are not doing their job in enforcing our Tree Ordinance. For years, I have had frustrating experiences with the city of Atlanta and as well as careless contractors, including being involved in the appeal process only to lose to the developers & contractors. The trees are one of the MAIN reasons I moved to Atlanta from the suburbs 20 years ago. We need to stop the bleeding! Between this issue and the illegal alien problems we have right here in our neighborhood, I may choose to leave Atlanta if things don’t improve.

Atlanta's tree canopy is invaluable and needs to be protected and preserved by strict enforcement, usually in the form of heavy fines and stop work orders, by the COA arborists. If the climate at the Bureau of Buildings and Permits is such that arborists fear that enforcement will result in the loss of their jobs, the climate needs to be changed.

Please rehire Tom Coffin and see that all COA arborists can and do enforce the COA Tree Ordinance as Tom has done.
Best regards,

Debbie Moscato
Atlanta, GA

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