Norris City Council takes issue over unauthorized report
Officials: Chairman of Water Commission sent letter to customers
Norris Water Commission Chairman Richard Dyer sent out a mass mailing to the city’s water and sewer customers last month under his own signature as chairman, purporting to be the commission’s official “Annual Report to Our Customers.”
But at last week’s City Council meeting, Mayor Chris Mitchell and other council members said that the report was never officially reviewed nor approved by the Water Commission during any legal public meeting, and therefore was merely a personal communication from Dyer himself.
Mitchell said he had determined that even though the letter stated that it was from the Water Commission, the fact that the commission never approved it made it just Dyer’s own missive, not the commission’s.
Councilwoman Loretta Painter echoed that sentiment.
“This was never discussed or voted on by the Norris Water Commission,” said Painter, who also serves as the City Council’s official representative on the five-member Water Commission. “I do not consider this a report from the Norris Water Commission.”
Councilman Will Grinder agreed, saying, the report “should not come from an individual.”
Councilman Chuck Nicholson added, “Board and commission reports should be reviewed and approved by commissions as a whole.”
Norris resident George Miceli also said during the meeting that he believed the letter was from the Water Commission.
“I took it as an official communication from the Norris Water Commission to the public,” Miceli said.
Painter also questioned the legality of Dyer using the official mailing list of water and sewer customers to send out a personal communication, something Painter believes may have been in violation of state regulations regarding privacy of utility customers’ personal information.
She also said she wants to know who gave Dyer the utility’s address information.
The top of Dyer’s mailing headlined it: “State of the Utility – 2022, Norris Water Commission (NWC) Annual Report to Our Customers.”
At the bottom, it was signed: “Richard Dyer, Chairman Norris Water Commission, 865-494-9555.”
Dyer did not respond to a phone message from The Courier News seeking an explanation of the report and clarification of whether the letter was reviewed and approved by the Norris Water Commission prior to its distribution.
The Tennessee Sunshine Law, also known as the Open Meetings Act, requires public boards and commissions within the state to conduct all business in public.
Dyer’s report begins:
“The NWC staff successfully completed a safe year of operations with no injuries or accidents, and this 100% incident-free rate includes our part-time employees and contractors.”
One statement in Dyer’s missive, concerning pollution from the city’s sewer system entering nearby Buffalo Creek, also appears to have been deemed untrue by another member of the Water Commission.
Dyer wrote:
“The NWC received accolades from [Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation] staff during a recent … meeting” during which Dyer asserts a TDEC official “applauded Norris for assisting in delisting Buffalo Creek” as an environmentally threatened stream and “stated that Buffalo Creek is the first stream in TN to be delisted.”
But in a statement to the City Council during a recent workshop on water and sewer issues, NWC member Margueritte Wilson wrote:
“I must correct misinformation that the NWC received from TDEC and we recently provided to the public.” (In this statement, Wilson appears to suggest that Dyer’s letter was, in fact, an official communication from the Water Commission.)
“We stated that the creek where our sewer plant discharges, Buffalo Creek, has recently been delisted by EPA,” Wilson continued.
“ … TDEC told us Buffalo Creek is the first stream in TN to be delisted; this statement is not true. We have since been informed that other streams and stream sections throughout TN have been delisted specifically for nitrate, nitrite and phosphorus.
“However, Buffalo Creek is not 100% delisted as it continues to be impaired by E. coli bacteria; this is due to the cattle grazing.”
Norris is under a “director’s order” from TDEC to clean up discharge of polluted water into Buffalo Creek from the nearby sewage treatment plant on East Norris Road.
The mandated work is expected to cost the city $7 million or more over the next several years, and must be completed to avoid further fines from the state for environmental violations attributed to the Norris Water Commission.