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Tom Coffin, the Atlanta arborist whose firing last summer caused a firestorm of controversy, says he’s suing the city.

In a suit filed Friday, Coffin’s attorneys say his supervisors at City Hall violated the state’s “whistleblower” statute when he was fired after raising questions about his colleagues’ alleged lax enforcement of the city’s tree ordinance.

“The City Council passed and the Mayor signed the Tree Protection Ordinance in recognition of how important trees are to the health and well-being of the city,” Coffin says in a press release. “I was hired to enforce the law and to ensure that my colleagues did so as well. My firing leaves the city with a broken ordinance and a mockery of enforcement. It is outrageous that I should have to sue for my job while the City, in the midst of a severe economic crisis, pays five field arborists to ‘look the other way’ and make excuses for their lack of performance and accountability to the law.”

Coffins wants the city to rehire him and pay compensatory damages. He is represented by Brian Spears and Gerry Weber, former legal director of the Georgia American Civil Liberties Union.

View the press release and a pasted version of the suit after the jump. You can also download a PDF of the suit here.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Tom Coffin, former Atlanta arborist

Tom Coffin, the Atlanta senior field arborist whose firing last summer sparked a firestorm of controversy, says he’s mulling legal options if the city doesn’t rehire him.

In mid-December, his attorney told the city — in the form of an ante litum notice — that he planned to sue to under the city’s “whistleblower” statute. Coffin has maintained he was fired because he alerted superiors about alleged lax enforcement by his colleagues of the tree ordinance — an eco-minded yet controversial law that forces homeowners or businesses to meet criteria before cutting down trees. Coffin, whom we cheekily referred to as a real-life Lorax, helped write the ordinance, and has earned both praise and scorn from residents and developers for keeping a watchful eye on its enforcement.

In an open letter last week to the city council and residents, Coffin said he’d prefer to be rehired and get back to enforcing the tree ordinance rather than head to court to argue a case he thinks he can win.

Coffin writes:

“…I seek reinstatement to the Sr. Arborist position that I won through merit and lost through deceit. I wish to continue my nearly 12 years of service to the city in formulating, implementing and enforcing one of its signature environmental laws. I seek my job back. I ask for compensation for lost salary and benefits, and for the legal costs incurred by me since my firing in July 2008. These demands are reasonable and minimal. I ask that the [city's Public Safety] Committee recommend this result to Council in the interest of justice, fairness and economy.”

Beth Chandler, the city’s attorney, says the law department is reviewing Coffin’s claim. There is no timeline for when a decision will be made, she says.

In an earlier open letter to city council and residents, Coffin said the city’s tree ordinance, in his absence, has become a “dead letter.” Coffin, who travels around the city on a recumbent bicycle, told CL on Friday that even months after he was sacked by the city he still finds himself surveying trees and reporting possible violations to the arborist’s office.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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The blog, “Holding Atlanta City Government Accountable,” isn’t written by Tom Coffin, the arborist who was fired by the city for working too hard, but by fellow tree lovers in Atlanta who are keeping watch on the ongoing investigation into his ouster. It’ll include documents related to Coffin’s firing, news stories and information about suspicious tree removals.

Check it out here.

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Tom Coffin, the dedicated Atlanta arborist who was fired by the city in late July for what seems to be simply doing his job, has not given up on his fight to uncover why he was dropped off the city payroll. (To get the background about Coffin’s firing, click here.)

The real-life Lorax sent word this morning that the city’s investigation into his termination is now complete:

I received word from HR investigator Al Elder that his investigation is complete and is now undergoing executive review.  I assume that “executive review” means that the report is now on the mayor’s desk, though Mr. Elder declined to clarify who is doing the review.  I have been given no time frame for a decision and don’t know if the review will take days or weeks or months.

Meanwhile I made an Open Records request for the July and August “Inspections Completed By” reports produced in the Arborist Division to supplement the January through June data that I have circulated.  The chart below indicates that in the short run at least the only change in the enforcement pattern of the field arborists is to finally bring me in line with my former subordinates, by default.

The big blue and red bars represent Coffin’s average monthly inspections from January to June and July, respectively. The other three sets of initials are his former colleagues’ monthly inspections during the same time periods.

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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.)

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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.

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The firing of City of Atlanta Senior Arborist Tom Coffin that was first reported here and quickly became national news has not slowed down. The Fulton Couty Taxpayers Foundation is calling for an e-mail campaign urging Mayor Shirley Franklin to investigate Coffin’s recent dismissal.

Here’s what the group sent out to members via e-mail:

Dear Members and Supporters,

Last week, Senior Arborist Tom Coffin was fired without explanation.

The story was so poignant, that the New York Times picked it up, as well as the Associated Press, Discover Magazine (Blog), Huffington Post, Fort Mill (SC) Times, Columbus (Ga) Ledger-Enquirer and The Examiner.com. See the link to the left for the NYTimes article.

According to sources, the battle has developers and builders on one side and Atlanta’s trees on the other. Coffin cited over 70 violations of illegal tree removal from developers during his tenure. As of today, Coffin has not been told the specific reason for his firing.

Couple this with developers wanting to use TAD funds for projects (on the ballot this November) and the blatant mismanagement of the City, we must wonder what is really happening and why a loyal, City worker was fired with no explanation.

We urge you to email Mayor Franklin, calling for a full investigation into Coffin’s dismissal. The FCTF will pass on more information as we receive it.

Sincerely,
Barbara Payne
Executive Director

Payne forgot to include Franklin’s e-mail address. If you’re so inclined, contact the mayor at sfranklin(at)atlantaga(dot)gov.

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JIM MARTIN: Soundly defeats Vernon Jones to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate; will face Saxby Chambliss in November.

TED JACKSON: There’s a new (Democratic nominee for) sheriff in town.

CLAYTON: Kem Kimbrough beats controversy-prone Sheriff Victor Hill for the Democratic nomination.

DEKALB CEO: Burrell Ellis beats Stan Watson and, with no Republican contender in the race, is the new CEO.

EX-BIN LADEN DRIVER: Found guilty today in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial.

SEA TURTLE NESTS: A record number have been found in Georgia this year.

ARBORING A GRUDGE: The New York Times reports on former Atlanta senior arborist Tom Coffin, who was fired July 29 for pointing out to his bosses the under- or nonenforcement of the tree ordinance in certain parts of the city.

WILLIE B.: The subject of a new documentary produced by Andrew Young.

UGA: Named by Sports Illustrated as the magazine’s preseason No. 1 and featured on one of five regional covers this week.

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Tom Coffin, a senior field arborist for the city of Atlanta, was fired on July 29 and has released a letter in which he outlines his concerns for the program that has both generated controversy and praise for its efforts to maintain Atlanta’s green canopy.

In a letter addressed to Mayor Shirley Franklin, the Atlanta City Council, the Tree Conservation Commission and citizens at large, Coffin says he was fired after he raised questions about the lack of accountability expected of the arborists and lack of enforcement of the tree ordinance on certain properties.

He also displays graphs that show he was one of the hardest workers the department had. Compared to his colleagues, Coffin conducted nearly double the number of property inspections. And according to graphs produced with information from the agency, his jurisdiction in the northeast quadrant of the city showed the highest number of ordinance enforcement and activities.

And, of course, in addition to enforcement activities I handle one-third of the total field workload in the arborist division. My firing will not increase either the efficiency or the effectiveness of service to the city. Both are likely to plummet.

Of what this all means in the big picture:

My job is certainly important, especially to me. The greater question, however, is the impact of my dismissal on the urban forest that defines Atlanta and greatly enhances the quality of our lives. If the Bureau of Buildings succeeds in this attempt to silence the demands I have been making for accountability to and enforcement of the law, the Tree Protection Ordinance becomes a dead letter, suitable for framing.

A bit of trivia: Coffin was one of the founders of The Great Speckled Bird, Atlanta’s original alt-weekly.

CL is still waiting for a spokesperson from the city’s department of public works, the agency that oversees the arborist’s office, to return a call for comment.

A city spokesperson responded via e-mail:

Mr. Coffin’s termination is a personnel matter and not related to budget reduction. I assure you we have other arborists who are trained and knowledgeable in the tree ordinance who will handle and protect the City’s tree canopy as required by our codes. The Sr. Arborist position will be opened soon and we will hire the most qualified person for the job.

In a phone interview with CL, Coffin said he’ll appeal his dismissal. His full letter is pasted below the jump. To view it as a document with graphs he says support his claims, click here.

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