Fresh Loaf

His name’s James Shelby. He previously served as deputy commissioner and acting commissioner. According to the City of Atlanta, Shelby…

… was appointed by Mayor Franklin to provide leadership for the Department of over 200 employees which is comprised of the Bureaus of Buildings, Code Compliance, Housing and Planning. Prior to joining the Department in 2004, Mr. Shelby served as Planning Director for the City of Jackson, Mississippi. Mr. Shelby holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in City and Regional Planning from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Shelby’s got a big job ahead of him. Although former Commissioner Steve Cover has, by nearly all accounts, left the department in good shape for his successor, Shelby’s taking the reins at a time when the city’s still dealing with a foreclosure crisis and its accompanying code-enforcement problems. City Councilmember Mary Norwood recently targeted the bureau of buildings for an audit. That bureau’s arborist office is still reeling from allegations it fired Tom Coffin, its most dedicated of treehuggers, to appease disgruntled developers. (An internal investigation concluded the arborist wasn’t a team player.)

Regardless, welcome to the job, Commissioner Shelby!

(Many apologies for the terrible photo. The city doesn’t give you too many options when it comes to photos of employees.)

Bookmark It

The internal investigation conducted by the City of Atlanta into why former arborist Tom Coffin was fired is complete, the AJC reports. Its conclusion? He wasn’t a team player, yo.

On Monday, the city’s human resources director wrote a letter to Coffin that said he was fired by the city’s Planning and Community Development department “as a result of an unwillingness or inability to work in a team environment.” The three-page letter says Coffin reinspected properties checked out by co-workers without his supervisor’s approval, unnecessarily issued “punitive citations” as the primary means of tree conservation and that he too frequently sought reprimands against his subordinates instead of trying to mentor them.

Coffin denied each of the findings and said he plans to sue the city for wrongful termination.

Bookmark It

City of Atlanta Planning Commissioner Steve Cover has resigned. According to a department spokeswoman, he submitted his written resignation this morning. He’ll officially leave the department on Oct. 3, after which he’ll join HOK Planning Group.

Deputy Commissioner James Shelby will be acting commissioner.

Cover’s department has been at the center of an unlikely controversy involving the firing of Tom Coffin, a senior field arborist with the city. City Hall’s kept mum as to why the arborist was dropped off the payroll — which in itself isn’t too strange, as commenting could lead to a lawsuit. Nonetheless, that silence has helped fuel speculation that Coffin was edged out to appease the development community.

The arborists’ office is part of the bureau of buildings, which is also part of the planning department. In the wake of Coffin’s ouster, City Councilmember Mary Norwood has called for an audit of the bureau.

Bookmark It

The controversy swirling around the firing of city arborist Tom Coffin is now being discussed on Daily Kos. A member on the left-leaning website posted a PDF of a e-mail communication between city Planning Commissioner Steve Cover and Ibrahim Maslamani, the director of the city’s bureau of buildings and Coffin’s former boss.

In it, Maslamani asks for marching orders after support for the former arborist started pouring into City Hall. In his response, Cover tells Maslamani to “stick to our plan” and to “give Luz a heads up.” (Click here to read the e-mail thread.)

The poster on Daily Kos suspects “the plan” refers to a permit streamlining strategy suggested by the Bains Group, a consulting firm that conducted a pro bono evaluation of city operations in 2004. Mayor Shirley Franklin followed their suggestions; Borrero led the effort. The changes to the permitting process were completed in June 2007 and included tinkering with the tree ordinance.  (The ordinance has been a sticky issue in the city, both praised by eco-minded residents as a way to preserve Atlanta’s urban forest and derided by developers as a bothersome and unfair obstacle to building. Property owners, even ones who want to preserve trees, have expressed frustration with it, saying it’s prevented them from removing trees they feel pose a danger to person and property.)

(more…)

Bookmark It