[EQAB-list] Apology

[Groton, James P. Jr.]

Dear Mr. Hardy,

On behalf of the Environmental Quality Advisory Board I would like to apologize for any perception that EQAB purposefully sought to exclude any parties from discussion of our recommendation to city council regarding issues related to open burning in Oak Ridge. Please let it be known to the developers' community that it was not EQAB's intention to leave developers out of ongoing discussions concerning the burning ordinances. 

As the agenda packets and minutes of our meetings demonstrate, we have had discussions related to open burning on our agenda regularly. These discussions have been ongoing for more than a year. In that time we have heard from homeowners, builders, and experts with local air quality organizations in neighboring counties and municipalities. We have also consulted with Oak Ridge city staff and with air quality officials in local governments.

We were hoping the City Council would direct city legal staff to begin drafting a proposed ordinance that would form the basis for fruitful and final discussions in a public forum. Until legal staff has provided input, we cannot even be sure whether all elements of our recommendation are feasible. We assumed that developers and the Chamber would have additional opportunities to join us in discussing and improving the draft ordinance before any final decision is made.

The timing of our communication was not in any way intended to thwart discussion or inclusion. Rather, there was miscommunication regarding deadlines for submitting material for the City Council agenda package.We were unaware that our communication would not be distributed to Council members until more than a week after we had submitted it. We readily admit that communication was inadequate and delayed until the last minute. That was a mistake.

Our desire is to leave these mistakes behind us and move forward. There were many items of agreement during informal discussions between EQAB and the Chamber's Development Forum a few months back. We hope we can move forward beginning with enumerating the shared solutions and reaching understanding on any other issues related to open burning.

Again I apologize for our error. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jmmy Groton

Environmental Quality Advisory Board, Chair

865-805-9908

grotonj at saic.com