Norris utilities would become city department New measure passes on first reading at Monday meeting
The Norris water and sewer utilities would become a regular city department under the oversight of the city manager under terms of three ordinances passed 4-1 on first reading during Monday night’s regular City Council meeting.
A public hearing on the measures was set for 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 26, and the council will consider giving the issue final approval on second reading during a special called meeting at 7 p.m., following the hearing.
The only “no” vote on moving the utilities to department status came from Councilman Will Grinder, who has publicly supported and is politically aligned with the three former water commissioners who voluntarily resigned from the Water Commission in April.
During a meeting of the newly constituted Water Commission on May 31, with the five City Council members now sitting as the commission, a majority of the members signaled a willingness to move the utilities into a department.
It has been a controversial proposal that had been fought by Water Superintendent Tony Wilkerson and the three recently resigned commissioners – Richard Dyer, Sue Hill and Margueritte Wilson.
Under that plan, which Mayor Chris Mitchell said last month that he would like to see implemented by July 1, Wilkerson would remain in charge of the utilities, but he would be reporting to City Manager Adam Ledford, rather than to the five-person Water Commission as he has been for decades.
Even Wilkerson indicated during the May 31 meeting that he would support the move of the utilities to department status, which would be similar to the structure of the city’s police, fire, and public works departments.
Since then, Wilkerson, Ledford and Mitchell have signed a statement supporting the move, written by Mitchell.
The mayor’s statement reads:
“The Norris City Council is in a process of building on the progress/successes of the previous Norris Water Commission. We are currently serving as the NWC and in the process of the operations transiting to be a department. The purpose of the change is to provide the superintendent with additional support to address increased regulations in both Water and Sewer scopes.
“I encourage you to attend/participate in upcoming meetings and provide support to the water superintendent. We will succeed by working together and focusing on the future.”
Mitchell invited the other council members to sign his document after the meeting Monday night, and three of them did: Loretta Painter, Chuck Nicholson (who also is Water Commission chairman), and Bill Grieve.
Grinder told the other council members that he now supports the move, but would decline to sign the document.
“I believe it needs to be a department,” Mitchell said during the May 31 Water Commission meeting. We (Water Commission members) should not be doing operations.
“There are many cities our size or larger where it’s a department,” he said.
Nicholson agreed, saying, “I do believe in moving forward toward making the utilities a department.”
Painter, who first brought up the idea of making the utilities a department, reiterated that position, saying, “I think it should be a department.”
Grinder and Councilman Bill Grieve had not supported the move as of the May 31 meeting, but Grieve also did not speak out against it during that meeting.
Grinder, though, continued to resist the idea.
“I personally will not support a vote to make the utilities a department,” he said then, a position he reiterated Monday night. “ … My vision is [that there should be] no change in the [current] structure.”
There does seem to be unanimous agreement among the five council members that eventually a new citizen-based Water Commission should be appointed to replace those who resigned in April.
Mitchell suggested that such a move could occur within the next year.
“I think it’s achievable to make progress [on choosing new water commissioners] in the next nine to 12 months,” the mayor said.