Norris council picks Mitchell, Grieve as mayor, vice mayor
On a split 3-2 vote in both cases, the Norris City Council on Monday night chose incumbent Mayor Chris Mitchell to continue in that position, and Councilman Bill Grieve to be vice mayor.
Incumbent Councilwoman Loretta Painter made the motion to select Mitchell to be mayor, and Grieve seconded the motion. Then Painter, Grieve and Mitchell voted for Mitchell, while the two new councilmembers, Will Grinder and Jill Holland Ryan, voted “no.”
Ryan attempted to nominate Grinder to be mayor, but her motion was ruled moot at that point because there was already a motion on the floor to choose Mitchell, and Painter said that motion would have to be voted on first.
After that, Grinder, who was attending the meeting over a video internet connection, nominated Ryan as vice mayor, and Ryan seconded the motion. But Mitchell, Painter and Grieve voted “no” on that motion, leading to Painter nominating Grieve for vice mayor.
Mitchell seconded that motion, and he, Painter and Grieve voted “yes,” giving the post to Grieve.
The choices of mayor and vice mayor for the next two years had become a controversial issue since the Nov. 3 General Election, when newcomers Grinder and Ryan received the most and second-most votes, respectively, in the council election.
Both were sworn in to their first terms on the council near the start of Monday’s meeting, and the next order of business was to choose a mayor and vice mayor. Grinder had come in first place with 654 votes, and Ryan polled second with 646 votes.
Both said shortly after the election that they expected the five-member council to follow “tradition” and choose them for mayor and vice mayor, respectively. In the past, the top two vote-getters have usually been named mayor and vice mayor
Mitchell came in third in the election Nov. 3 with 625 votes, while Grieve was fourth with 604 and Painter was fifth with 561. During the Nov. 9 City Council meeting, members discussed the mayor/vice mayor selection process and heard comments from several citizens who urged them to follow the tradition and choose the top two vote-getters.
But Painter said during that meeting that she intended to break with tradition and choose the ones she felt would be “most qualified” to hold the positions. She followed that up with similar comments to The Courier News later.
“I tried to be as clear as I could be,” Painter said later of her comments during the meeting. “I think [Chris] is the most-qualified person.”
But Grinder told the Courier News then that he would expect tradition to be followed, and that he did want the mayor’s post. About 30 people attended the meeting, which was moved to the gymnasium at City Hall to accommodate more people under social-distancing guidelines.
Surprisingly, only one of those in the audience spoke on the mayor-vice mayor issue, Susan Miceli.
She said she did not believe that voters expected “tradition” to be followed automatically in the choices for the two positions.
“I’ve attended council meetings for the past 12 years and there has always been a discussion” as the council deliberated on the choices for mayor and vice mayor, she said.
Tuesday morning, Mitchell issued this statement via email to The Courier News as a follow-up to his being chosen to serve again as mayor – a post he’s held for the past 12 years:
“My focus will be on helping build a City Council Team,” he said. “We have several large projects started that will be completed soon and I am excited about our new City Council Team setting priorities for the next two years.”
In other business Monday night, the council selected Brad Hodge to continue for the next two years as City Court judge. He is a lawyer and a Norris resident who has held the position for several years, said City Manager Scott Hackler.
The city judge position comes up for renewal after each council election.