The fired arborist, the silent city, and now ‘the plan’

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.)