Only five file for Norris City Council seats
These four incumbents are running for Norris City Council in the Nov. 3 municipal election, along with newcomer Zach Cross. These four are, from left, Alex Munro, Charles P. “Chuck” Nicholson, Travis Honeycutt and Bill Grieve. They are shown here at the August Norris council meeting. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
There’s still time for more candidates to file, but just barely. The filing deadline is at noon on Thursday (Aug. 20) at the Anderson County Election Commission office in Clinton.
On the ballot so far are Councilmen Bill Grieve and Charles P. “Chuck” Nicholson, who are the only previously elected candidates to file, along with Councilmen Travis Honeycutt and Alex Munro, recent appointments to the board, and newcomer Zach Cross.
Conspicuously absent from the race is Mayor Chris Mitchell, who has chosen not to run for re-election this year after serving nearly 18 years on the council – all of them as mayor.
Mitchell said in early July that he “will not be entering into City Council Election process this cycle.”
“I will be serving out my current term, and assisting in the transition process as requested,” he said in an email, adding: “I’m excited about starting some new great adventures.”
All five Norris council members are elected every two years.
The mayor is chosen by a majority vote of the new City Council when it meets for the first time, in December following the November election. The mayor’s position is never on the city’s ballot for voters to choose.
Grieve has served nearly six terms on the council, and has also served as vice mayor. He grew up in Norris from the first grade on, and later served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve for 29 years, seeing duty in Vietnam and later in Operation Desert Storm.
Nicholson, who was first elected to the council four years ago, also now serves as vice-mayor and chair of the Norris Water Commission. He worked for TVA for 40 years, and has been involved in city government since the 1980s with the Tree Commission and other boards.
Honeycutt was appointed to the council in December to serve the remainder of the term of Will Grinder, who resigned in late October.
Honeycutt, who has lived in Norris for about three years, said in an email to the city before his appointment that he has “led high-stakes federal business operations, worked with lobbyist organizations and worked to have bills passed in congress … Most recently managing a ~$100 million portfolio that delivers mission-critical solutions to the U.S. Department of Energy (including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex), the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, Tennessee Valley Authority and NASA.”
“In this capacity, I have overseen complex contracts, navigated stringent federal compliance requirements, balanced multimillion-dollar budgets, and built enduring partnerships with federal leaders in Oak Ridge and beyond,” Honeycutt said.
Munro, whose birth name is Alexander Hickey, was appointed during the July council meeting to fill out the rest of Loretta Painter’s term on the council.
Painter, who served more that 10 years, resigned in May.
Munro relocated to Norris from Tucson, Arizona, about three years ago, and is in his second term as a member of the Norris Planning Commission.
He lives on Dairy Pond Road.
He told The Courier News that he had changed his name, but did not say why.
He is a graduate of the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Cross, a Norris resident since 2011, had applied for Painter’s council seat.
He said at the time that he is a mechanical engineer with experience in “environmental regulation compliance,” “infrastructure planning and development,” and “conflict resolution and mediation.”