By Tom Coffin, Ph.D.
Many people protested my July 29 firing at the first meeting of the City Council in August. There were also a few detractors, among them my former colleague and subordinate, Janell Bazile. Rank-and-file employees of the Bureau of Buildings are prohibited from speaking in public without the consent of management. Ms. Bazile was speaking for Arboricultural Manager Ainsley Caldwell, Bureau of Buildings Director Ibrahim Maslamani, Department of Planning Commissioner Steven Cover, and perhaps even Chief Operating Officer Greg Giornelli.
Ms. Bazile assured the council that my published evidence of “near total abdication of enforcement of the tree protection ordinance” was inaccurate. She argued that there were other important enforcement measures short of citations that can be used under the ordinance. She implied, without evidence, that such activities were the actual mainstay of all the field arborists but me.
This collaboration theory was accepted whole in the post-firing investigation ordered by the Mayor. It is also presented without evidence:
Ms. Bazile assured the council that my published evidence of “near total abdication of enforcement of the tree protection ordinance” was inaccurate. She argued that there were other important enforcement measures short of citations that can be used under the ordinance. She implied, without evidence, that such activities were the actual mainstay of all the field arborists but me.
This collaboration theory was accepted whole in the post-firing investigation ordered by the Mayor. It is also presented without evidence:
“Arborists may elect to use any of the following tools when working with citizens to preserve trees: stop work orders, imposition of tree protection fencing, posting of corrective notices, prescriptions for silvicultural treatments, requirements for 5-year survivability reports and issuance of citations.
You chose to enforce the Tree Ordinance primarily by issuing citations. Your supervisor and subordinates considered this approach extreme and elected to work with citizens in a more collaborative/non-confrontational manner.”
(Letter to me by HR Investigator Alfred Elder, 9/29/08. This and nearly all other documents related to my firing are available at http://holdingcitygovernmentaccountable.blogspot.com/).To test this notion I made an Open Records request for documentation of all such “collaborative/non-confrontational” activities by all field arborists for the two months prior to and the two months after my dismissal. Evidence of such activities appeared in 15 records. Each activity was tabulated separately.
The charts on the following page graph the results. As a person trained in both natural and social science, I tend to be very suspicious when someone claims that “the data speaks for itself.” In this case, however, the data virtually screams:
TC*: Fired July 29
SD**: Stan Domengeaux apparently resumed field arborist duties in August
Let me also update, through September, the illegal removal/destruction citations recorded by field arborists:
TC*: Jan-July 2008
SD**: Aug-Sep 2008
We need to remember that the reason field arborists are hired is to enforce the Tree Protection Ordinance. The real tragedy of my firing is that there is now no enforcement, of any kind, in three-fourths of the city. And there is no supervisor – not Ainsley Caldwell and certainly not Ibrahim Maslamani – who will hold people accountable, either for what they do or, as in this case, what they do not do.
Many people, including me, have invested much time and effort crafting, refining and trying to make the Tree Protection Ordinance work. I was fired for trying to hold my subordinates responsible for and accountable to the law. My firing vindicates the sham practice of most of the current field arborists. I think my firing is criminal, both morally and legally. It will be a bigger crime if the City gets away with it.
Notes on Data
Each field arborist activity is recorded daily on one of three types of “permits.” Numbered “ADDH” permits record all individual tree evaluations. Numbered “ACRC” permits record all citations for illegal removals and destructions. Everything else is recorded on numbered “AREQ” permits, including final CO inspections. In the June-September time period there were 49 AREQ’s listed as something other than “FCO Inspection.” In addition to the 15 permits considered above, one requested permit was not given to me, one was “closed” without apparent resolution, five were “closed” without comment, 19 were neutral site visits without adverse action, and three were attributed to Ainsley Caldwell (one Stop Work order, two neutral site visits). Three permits (one by Paul Lewkowitz, two by Michael Franklin) indicated illegal removals in the Comments section. None of these alleged illegal removals have corresponding “ACRC” permits.
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