NATCHEZ — The Natchez Board of Aldermen finalized Tuesday the city’s cancelation of a lease agreement for the Broadway Street depot and agreed to reimburse the developer the nearly $80,000 spent renovating the building’s interior.

City Attorney Robert “Bob” Latham presented the mutual cancelation of contract documents to the board at its Tuesday meeting.

The board discussed the cancelation agreement in executive session prior to its regular meeting under the potential litigation exception of the Open Meetings Law, with Latham saying lawsuits might be filed if the agreement was not approved.

The cancelation agreement is with Mississippi River Visitor Depot LLC, owned by New Orleans Hotel Consultants President Warren Reuther.

The board voted on Sept. 27 to rescind the agreement, which former Mayor Butch Brown cast a tie-breaking vote to approve in November 2015.

Mayor Darryl Grennell and Latham met on Sept. 27, prior to the aldermen meeting, with Reuther and his attorney and former city attorney Walter Brown. The cancelation agreement states the meeting was at the request of Reuther to resolve issue.

The vote to rescind the lease agreement came after the city came under fire for the perceived lack of transparency and questions of legality in previous dealings for the depot, including a lawsuit filed by resident Gwen Ball, alleging the city did not follow legal procedure. The lawsuit was later dismissed because it was not filed within 10 days of the city’s decision as required by city law.

After the motion was made Tuesday to execute the cancelation agreement, Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis asked that Reuther be allowed to address the board regarding the cancelation of the contract if he wished to do so.

“I think it’s probably the right thing to do,” Reuther said. “It’s time to move on.”

Reuther added that he would like to see the request for proposals for the depot to be issued as soon as possible because his company is interested in submitting a proposal.

Reuther, whose company is also contracted to manage the Natchez Convention Center, appeared before the board again later in the meeting to announce that his company is soon bringing double-decker bus tours to Natchez.

Reuther’s company has a franchise for City Sightseeing bus tours, which are available in New Orleans and other cities around the country. The Natchez bus prototype Reuther showed the board looks nearly identical to the red and orange buses in New Orleans.

The hop-on, hop-off buses will run every 30 minutes, and riders can purchase a two-day pass, Reuther said.

Reuther said he will be meeting with Historic Natchez Foundation Executive Director Mimi Miller later this week to get her input on stops that should be included on the tours.

Reuther said the bus tours would create jobs in Natchez for bus drivers, tour guides and office personnel. The company plans to set up a reservation office in Natchez.

In other news from the meeting:

4The board appointed Barbara Bruce and Dana Williams to the last two spots open on the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission.

Ward 2 Alderman Billie Joe Frazier was the only dissenting vote, saying he was not present for the interviews and thought the city needed to revisit the appointments.

Grennell said electronic recordings were taken of the interviews and made available to any aldermen who could not be present at the interviews.

“I understand about the recordings … but I don’t do recordings,” Frazier said.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis abstained from the vote, as well as Ward 4 Alderwoman Felicia Irving, who said she had received word about the interview recordings but had not had time to review them. Abstentions are counted on the prevailing side of the vote, per Robert’s Rules of Order.

Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Smith said the appointments had been previously been delayed and she thought it was imperative that the appointments be made Tuesday so the city’s tourism department could conduct business with a full commission.

4The board approved a request from Convention Center Director Walter Tipton to advertise for the lease of Natchez Inc.’s former office space at the convention center. Natchez Inc. recently moved its offices to the Biglane building on Pearl Street.

The convention center would underwrite the cost of the advertisement, Tipton said when asked by Grennell.

Natchez Inc. paid $700 monthly for the office space, and Tipton said those funds went to the convention center to offset the cost of utilities. Tipton said the utilities for the office space and the convention center cannot physically be separated, so that is why the rent was used for utilities.

4Ward 5 Alderman Benjamin Davis reminded residents he will have a community meeting at 6 p.m. today in the Louis Gunning Safe Room near Natchez High School.