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All Illegal Tree Cutting Miraculously Halted

Attachment to a broadcast email from Tom Coffin:

Citation Abuse

In his September 29, 2008 letter justifying my firing as Senior Arborist for the City of Atlanta, HR Investigator Al Elder castigates me for supposed overuse of citations to enforce the Tree Protection Ordinance. He states that “Your supervisor and subordinates considered this approach extreme and elected to work with citizens in a more collaborative/non-confrontational manner.” He does not explain how these measures, which he identifies as “stop work orders, imposition of tree protection fencing, posting of corrective notices, prescriptions for silvicultural treatments, [and] requirements for 5-year survivability reports,” apply to trees removed or destroyed without a permit.

He is perhaps correct, however, as the following chart may indicate. The data is official, provided me as part of an Open Records request:



Another month has gone by since my dismissal on July 29. Quite miraculously all illegal tree removal and destruction in the city has either halted or is being dealt with by these collaborative/non-confrontational means.

We will see: I have repeated my Open Records request for access to the records of all such collaborative/non-confrontational activities by all field arborists, myself included, for June, July, August and September of 2008. I will tabulate and share the results with you as soon as I receive the records.

Tom Coffin
October 11, 2008

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