Why was Atlanta arborist Tom Coffin fired?
That’s a damn good question.
On one hand, you have an outspoken arborist who churned out more citations and inspections than his colleagues combined, holds a Ph.D in forestry from the University of Georgia, and by all standards and definitions, committed what may be the ultimate sin in municipal government: He actually — gasp — did his job. On the other, there’s...uhm. Well, no one really knows. Coffin says the firing was out of the blue and the city’s said it was not related to the $140 million budget shortfall. Surely there’d be a paper trail, right?
So I stopped by City Hall yesterday to review his personnel file.