Joshua Anderson, commission chair, will apply for Norris post
JOSHUA ANDERSON
“I do plan to apply,” Anderson told The Courier News.
He is the first so far to express interest in the position, which officially comes open June 27 when the resignation of current City Manager Scott Hackler takes effect.
As a practical matter, though, Hackler has agreed to stay in the job at least part time until his replacement is hired.
Anderson, who is 38, said he will give up his current full-time position as a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service if he is appointed city manager in Norris.
But he also plans to continue to serve on the County Commission if he is re-elected in August. He is an independent candidate who will be running against two Republican candidates for one of the two seats in commission District 3.
He also said he probably would continue to serve as commission chairman at least until September, which is when the commission usually chooses a chairman.
Anderson was elected to a four-year term on the commission in 2018 as an independent candidate, and is in his second year as chairman of the 16-member commission.
Anderson lives just outside of Norris off Norris Freeway (U.S. 441), and previously worked as a Tennessee agricultural extension agent.
He said he has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics and business.
He grows vegetables at his home that he sometimes sells at the Norris Farmers Market.
“I would obviously have to give up the post office job,” he said. “I have been wanting to look at doing that anyway. I work six days a week. I’ve kind of been looking around for another job anyway.”
Anderson is popular as a commissioner representing the Norris area. There have been questions about whether his elected position was in conflict with the federal Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from running for partisan elective offices.
But he said that running as an independent candidate was approved by the Postal Service.
To accommodate the Norris City Council schedule so he could attend those meetings as required of the city manager, Anderson said he probably would quit his seat on the County Commission’s Operations Committee, which meets on the same Monday nights as the city council.
“I could join the Budget Committee, which meets at 4 p.m.,” he said.
No official application or selection process has yet been announced by the city of Norris. But that will be the topic of a special called meeting of the City Council set for 5 p.m. Friday (June 24) at the Norris Community Center.