Skip to main content

What's the Plan?

Internal emails obtained via Open Records Request, sent as an attachment to a broadcast email from Tom Coffin on August 13, 2008:

From: Cover, Steven
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 8:49 AM
To: Maslamani, Ibrahim
Subject: Re: firing of arborist Tom Coffin

Hang in there and stick with our plan. Give Luz a heads up.

From: Maslamani, Ibrahim
To: Cover, Steven
Sent: Wed Jul 30 08:16:39 2008
Subject: FW: firing of arborist Tom Coffin

The emails and phone calls started yesterday.

Ibrahim K. Maslamani
Director, Bureau of Buildings

City of Atlanta
55 Trinity Avenue,SW
Suite 3900
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Office 404-330-6152
Fax 4O4-494-1979

From: Linda Trower (email address deleted)
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 5:34 AM
To: Maslamani, Ibrahim
Cc: Franklin, Shirley; Mobley, Frank
Subject: firing of arborist Tom Coffin

Dear Mr. Maslamani--- as a resident of NPU-A I am saddened and puzzled by your firing of Tom Coffin. Tom is the best arborist our area of town (Buckhead) has had. It appears Tom was fired for doing his job, enforcing the tree ordinance. Please consider rehiring Tom Coffin.

Regards,

Linda Trower
Secretary, NPU-A

8/1/2008

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Appeals to the Tree Conservation Commission, 2008

Appeals to the Tree Conservation Commission, 2008 By Tom Coffin, Ph.D. Appeals to the Tree Conservation Commission are, by design, an integral part of the Tree Protection Ordinance. Like most laws, the TPO is a relatively blunt instrument. Though reasonable and effective most of the time, it does not cover all situations all the time, nor is it fair to all parties all the time. Appeals to the TCC provide an administrative means to resolve disputes. Unlike a Municipal Court hearing – also possible under the ordinance -- where decisions are usually based on the “letter of the law,” appeal hearings before the TCC often allow for some bending of the law as written to encompass a specific situation. At its best, the TCC acts as the “conscience of the community” in its decision-making. Both the commission and the appeal process have matured. After more than eight years of use and testing, both work rather admirably when allowed to do so. Under the Tree Protection Ordinance, every decision (s...
3 comments
Read more

Urban Forest Fiasco

From Creative Loafing... "Tom Coffin loves trees. And when we say he loves trees, he reaaally loves trees. The unfamiliar face – who was the city's senior arborist until he was fired July 29 – is the epicenter of the latest scandal to emanate from already embattled City Hall. The city's failure to specify why Coffin was fired (or who called for it) has led many to speculate about the cause – and jump to the conclusion that developers saw him as a threat. Even the New York Times took notice – and questioned whether Atlanta's development machine had chalked a win over the environmental community." ... more
Post a Comment
Read more

Huffington Post Comments

The Huffington Post picked up the New York Times story as soon as it was published. Here is a comment to the article from their Web site : "well it's nice to hear that at least someone was doing their job because when I drive through this city the question that repeatedly comes to my mind is: why does atlanta even have a tree ordinance? the developers here still clear-cut old large trees then replant saplings - and given the stress that these trees are under it is highly doubtful they will ever reach the size of the ones that are being cut down.I've lived here for almost 2 decades and I continue to be appalled at what the city allows developers to get away with here. we're running out of water and they still keep handing out the building permits. we're losing our oldest and largest tress to greed and the city just keeps handing out the permits. truely this city is f-ed at this point. so I guess given that developers always get their way in this place it comes as no...
Post a Comment
Read more