Doug Gruder, the Brentwood resident on Urban Avenue whose approximately 120-year-old oak was removed by the city on Friday, met with his ward 2 aldermen (Brandon Wegge and Sunny Sims), the city administrator and city arborist on Tuesday. Wegge sent this statement from the meeting to 40 South — from Sims and him — to 40 South that afternoon. First thing they did was apologize to the resident, Doug Gruder.
City Administrator Bola Akande also made a statement on the meeting.
Wegge and Sims’ statement:
Note: This response is from Sunny Sims and Brandon Wegge – Ward 2 Aldermen
Our sincere apologies to Doug- no resident should have to come home to this kind of shock, further exacerbated by it being over the Holiday break. This should not have happened like that.
Sunny and I just had a 2 hour meeting with Doug, Bola Akande (City Adminstrator), and Peter Van Lin (Brentwood Park Operations Superintendent/Arborist) to understand this issue. Here are the facts that we learned in the meeting:
– There was a city wide inventory of trees completed in 2014. The Oak is in the easement along the road, which means it is the City’s responsibility to maintain.
– Doug should not have been held responsible for maintaining the tree in the past.
– Peter Van Lin made a determination in July that the tree was a safety concern due to 25% dead limbs and observed tree rot. This assessment was verified by a second Arborist at Davey Tree.
– A letter was sent on December 12th notifying Doug of the upcoming tree removal- Doug did not receive this letter.
– Davey Tree should have put a notice on Doug’s door at least one day prior to the removal, and a sign on the Oak itself. This did not occur.First of all, there was a catastrophic failure to notify Doug of what was going to occur. The letter that was sent on December 12th was not received. It was sent via normal mail, and was a form letter that is sent to everyone that will have a tree taken down in the right of way. It was addressed to “Brentwood Resident”. We have verified that others did receive this letter, but Doug did not. Even if he had received it, it would not have clearly articulated which tree was coming down and 9 days is not sufficient time for a resident to express their concerns before proceeding. Davey also did not put up the correct markings. If this had happened, at least it would have given us an opportunity to reassess the situation before proceeding.
Second, Doug’s property was not treated with the respect it should have been. By taking down the tree in rainy weather, his yard has been turned into a muddy mess. More care should have been taken by Davey to avoid this as well as the other damages to his lights and steps.
Here are the next steps:
1. Davey will stand down on an further work on this lot. Doug is going to document all of his current issues (i.e. broken lights) and future concerns (i.e. rotting roots leading to yard collapse). Davey will prepare a detailed schedule of how the remainder of the tree will be removed, the stump ground out, and all of the issues and concerns will be resolved. This discussion will include Doug and look at options for a replacement tree.
2. Sunny and I are working with Bola and her team to outline a revised process for communicating to residents when something like this is going to happen to allow adequate time for concerns and reassessment as needed. I really like Doug’s idea of hanging a ribbon the tree itself, and are discussing use of certified mail, etc… This will be presented to the Board on Tuesday. This will not help the past, but will ensure that it does not happen again.
3. Doug should not have had to pay out of pocket for maintenance on this tree. We have Bola to look at ways to rectify.
Our trees are a critical piece of Brentwood. The environmental and aesthetic benefits they are never in question and I am glad that we have a very qualified full time arborist on staff. We are committed to protecting the “urban forrest” as much as practically possible, while ensuring the safety of residents. I have no doubt that everyone at City Hall shares that sentiment.
Sunny Sims and Brandon Wegge
Ward 2
Doug, I think you should embrace that stump. If it were in my yard I would paint it a bright, reflective pink or red and shine a spotlight on it at night. I would put up a BIG sign in the same pink or red reading “Mayor Chris Thornton”, every time a decorated something different, I would take a picture and post it on face book so for the next 120 years if his kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, cousins, alumni wanted to know more about good, old Mayor Chris Tornton of Brentwood they would see his prowress.
Doug, just think you can decorate this for Halloween, make it an Easter bunny with big ears and a cotton tail, fly a flag when appropriate, next Christmas you can make it a Santa Claus or put a big red bow on it.
These are just a few of my ideas, I’m sure the readers will be able to add to this list.
I’m sorry, did the Mayor become some supreme ruler since the last election? As we are yet to hear anything come from his office regarding this situation, this comment was childish and immature. As pointed out by Mr. Gruder, his alder-persons have been very helpful and responsive in this situation, and you can expect that Mr. Thornton will be the same. Doug Miner, as this comment is nothing but defamatory and inappropriate, I ask that it be removed.
Doug Miner does NOT evaluate the truth. He just reports it. He only follows factual leads and posts them publically. SO BACK OFF.
Re: In case some do not understand chain of hierarchical command—THE MAYOR HAS STRICT LIABILITY FOR WHAT IS DONE UNDER HIS WATCH.
Chris’ mayoral team not commenting on this bungling of what should have been a negotiated, conservative review and compromise is HIS responsibility Chris has NOT been forthcoming or transparent about City issues, except for the honeymoon of2-3 months as mayor. Failure to secure written consent from homeowner by registered mail left the home owner completely out of the loop. The fact remains the property was private, the home owner should have directly communicated with authorities in BCH. (IMO) The reason Chris has failed to involve himself at this stage is there are ground for litigation. Failure of due diligence, unlawful trespassing to remove the tree in the absence of conferring with the property owner, failure to have an independent ( non-city contractural arborist) review without bias, the status of this property matter are all gross negligence from the top down. This was clearly a breach of the rights of ownership by that homeowner.
GET COMPLETE LISTING OF ALL AUTHORIZING SIGNATORIES, USE THE HOME OWNERS PHOTOS—WHICH PROVE HIS STATEMENTS, AND THEN DECIDE ON WHAT WOULD SATISFY THAT HOMEOWNER.
This debacle of failures and failure to consider more conservative measures lands squarely on the mayors desk. As indifferent, plain unprofessionally, ineffective and lame–this mayor needs to go. As a person, i like Chris and his wife–they are charming. But this is a negligent, shoddy way of bulldozing over resident’s private property. AND THANK YOU DOUG MINER FOR BRINGING THE COMMUNITY UP TO SPEED ON THE TEPID CONCERNS OF THE MAYOR, BY DISCLOSING WHAT NO ONE WOULD OTHERWISE FIND OUT.
I worked for a local utility for many of years and had to write and obtain easements. An easement given for a utility, sidewalk, roadway, public use, etc… does not give the entity granted the easement the right to remove trees or anything else from the property without consent from the property owner. Most times compensation is given for the market value of the item or tree removed to the property owner through the consent process. An easement does not take away the property owners rights, it grants access/use to the property by another entity or individual.
If this is the way the City wants to go, they need to realize that probably 90% of the lots in Brentwood have easements along the property lines. Guess its time for the City to start maintaining each of those trees and mowing the grass within those easements too by their philosophy. Or we the people should fear them coming into our property and doing the same. Good luck Mr. Gruder.
Way too many people on here seem to jump to conclusions without waiting for a response from the city or responsible parties. This coined “War on Trees” has been blown far out of proportion. From my perspective, this incident with Mr. Gruder was the result of a communication issue between the property owner and the City. People saying things such as “call all the tv stations too and have them get in the face of some of these people” is exactly what we don’t need. From what I have seen, the City and alder-persons involved have been more than proactive at resolving this issue and preventing it from happening again. Regarding “draining the swamp”, a concerned, caring, and responsive alderman such as Mr. Wegge is exactly who we need representing us. As concerned citizens and residents, we should focus our attention on Davey Tree, the contractors responsible for the property damage described in the letter from Mr. Gruder.
From Doug Gruder:
I couldn’t agree more in terms of the help and pro-activism taken by Brandon Wegge and Sunny Sims my Alderman and Alderwoman. They have bee very supportive in all of this!
I also agree that this should never happen again and hopefully the city has learned something from this, unfortunately that will not help bring back MY OAK TREE or my property value. Hind sight is 20 20.
Brentwood is a City that has been in existence for well over a century. You would think that they would have figured most of this out by now and learned from these kinds of mistakes from their past. Obviously they have not, or possibly it is the new regime that is now in place with in our City Administration. Either way, mistakes like what happened at my property should not be occurring within a small community like ours that has such an extensive history.
Brentwood calls themselves “The City Of Warmth” . I do not feel any warmth from the City Administration right now…. It used to be that most of our City Administration lived right here in Brentwood. We ate with them, drank with them, went to church with them, our children went to school with their children. It is not that way anymore. A lot of our City Administration do not live in Brentwood any more.. They live in other cities. I do however, feel warmth and compassion from my aldermen and neighbors who are residents of the city, who live here as I do and take pride in feeling that they have the right to the Quiet Enjoyment of their homes. No one should live in fear that when they go off to work that they will not find their home as they had left it, or fear the City that they entrust their well being and safety to will be the very instrument in the autonomous non-communicative destruction of one’s property!
Thank you to all of you who have shown support, who have empathized and made me feel that I was not fighting this alone. To those of you who disagree and don’t like all of the articles and comments you are reading about this.. That is your right. But keep in mind that one day what happened to me could happen to any one of us… And when it happens to you, you will be just has hurt, shocked, disgusted, and outraged as I am. Keep that in mind if something like this ever happens to you, your family, your next door neighbor, or your best friend! What happened to me at my home last Friday should NEVER EVER happen to any one of us!!! We should all feel safe when we leave our homes to go to work each day!!!
Sincerely,
Doug Gruder
Wow. The City took responsibility for the issues, is going to deal with what happened, and is coming up with a plan to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.
Now what are all those other commentors going to do with their pitchforks and torches that they have been bringing out all week?