Norris council passes on helping ICE
Observers packed the meeting room for Monday night’s Norris City Council meeting, many of them there to protest a proposed resolution that would have allowed the Norris Police Department to be certified to help the U.S. Immigration and Customs Service in its efforts to fight illegal immigration. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
At the beginning of the council’s June meeting, during the period in which the council approves the agenda as submitted by city staff, Mayor Chris Mitchell made a motion to remove consideration of Resolution 22-2025 from the agenda.
That measure, if approved, would “authorize the Mayor and the City Manager, on behalf of the City, to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as a participating United States government agency, to provide for operational assistance pertaining to enforcement of laws to combat illegal immigration … ”
Mitchell said he felt that such a proposal would need to be presented by the chief of police and discussed in a workshop meeting if the council were to consider it, but he also said that he was not in favor of even holding a workshop on the issue.
The council, on a vote of 4-0 (with Councilman Bill Grieve absent), approved Mitchell’s motion and dropped the resolution from the agenda.
Mitchell said he did not intend to see the resolution placed on a council agenda again.
“I don’t think it is a topic for Norris,” he said.
It was an emotional moment for the council and more than 50 people packed the council room at the Norris Community Center clearly in opposition to the proposed resolution.
City officials said after the meeting that most of the people there were from Oak Ridge, representing the Anderson County Democratic Party.
Several of them spoke against the measure, with one saying that “We don’t want ICE in Norris.”
There was no response when the mayor asked for a show of hands as to whether anyone on the council or in the room wanted the city to hold a workshop meeting to discuss the ICE resolution.
Councilwoman Loretta Painter said Tuesday morning that, “I think what we did was the right thing to do. If the police chief wants it, he should schedule a meeting to discuss it.”
In other business, the council:
n Approved on second and final reading the city’s 2026 budget, but without yet setting a property tax rate.
City Manager Adam Ledford said the actual tax rate will be set later, after the city receives the certified rate from the state Board of Equalization.
Although property value estimates have increased significantly through this year’s countywide reassessment, state law requires local governments to set their new tax rates to maintain the same level of revenue that was received under the previous year’s tax rate. Local governments are not permitted to benefit automatically from the new property assessments, under state law, unless they go through the required formal process to raise their property taxes.
Ledford and Mitchell have said the city does not intend to raise taxes for the new fiscal year.
The new operating budget, which does not include water and sewer, calls for spending $2.797 million during the 2026 fiscal year, against projected general revenues of $2.2 million. The spending plan includes capital expenditures that would be offset by grant money.
Total local tax revenues are projected to be $1.2 million, including $788,000 in real property tax collections and $280,000 in local-option sales taxes, along with other lesser revenue amounts and sources.
Other money for the budget will come from “intergovernmental revenue” of $673,775, $197,860 in charges for administrative services, $6,500 from licenses and permits, $2,680 from fines and penalties, and $148,000 in miscellaneous revenues.
Full-time city employees will receive “cost-of-living” raises of 3%, and permanent part-time residents will get raises of 4.5%, Ledford said. The difference in the raise percentages is because part-time employees do not receive benefits.
n Passed a motion to have the city Public Works Department remove the deteriorating sidewalk in front of Norris Middle School. The city has been debating what to do about the sidewalk for “about 15 years,” Mayor Mitchell said, and recently gave up a state grant that would have paid for part of the cost of rehabilitation of the sidewalk.
n Approved on first reading an updated ordinance on removal of junked cars on property within the city, which would require a court order first before a vehicle could be removed from private property.
