November 19, 2003
The Honorable Mary Norwood
Councilmember
Atlanta City Council
55 Trinity Avenue, SW
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Dear Councilmember Norwood:
I am in receipt of your correspondence to Commissioner Jack Ravan and am responding on his behalf.
I am concerned about operational responsibilities and the time required to respond to the myriads of issues, many of which we have previously addressed. I asked the city attorney to develop a comprehensive list of responses to both written and verbal questions raised at the City Council meeting and work sessions of this week which we intend to address in writing with a response deadline of Monday, November 24th by close of business. You will recall that this process has been fruitful in the past, and will provide members of the City Council the opportunity to have a thoughtful and thorough review of the material at your leisure.
During the course of preparing this response, we cannot continue to ignore the ongoing operational responsibilities of the Department of Watershed Management. Everyday, leaks and failures occur on an ongoing basis and require the hands-on involvement of the management team. Continued review of issues previously addressed is damaging our ability to manage and improve operations. Public health, employee and safety responsibilities are being threatened as a result of these activities.
I wish to also take this opportunity to express my concern about your insinuations made on both the council floor and commission meeting regarding alleged improprieties. Should you have a factual basis for any allegations of wrongdoing regarding me, the management team or consultants, I urge you to report those to the appropriate parties. There is an established mechanism in place to address alleged improprieties. If you have no factual basis for or proof to substantiate your implied allegations, I request that the innuendos cease immediately.
Sincerely,
Shirley Franklin
SF/zg
cc: Council President Cathy Woolard
Members, Atlanta City Council
Linda DiSantis, City Attorney
Commissioner Jack Ravan
Leslie Ward, Internal Auditor
William Duffey, US Attorney, Northern District of Georgia
Paul Howard, District Attorney, Fulton County
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