NATCHEZ — The newly appointed Natchez Convention Promotion Commission met Wednesday for the first time with a full commission to examine a number of issues facing the City of Natchez’s tourism operations.

The six-member commission was finalized Tuesday, with the Natchez Board of Aldermen’s appointment of commissioners Barbara Bruce and Dana Williams. The four other commissioners — Lance Harris, Katie Johnson McCabe, Helen Moss Smith and Mary Lee Toles — were appointed late last month.

The selected commissioners replace commissioners the previous board of aldermen asked in mid-April to resign after ongoing personnel issues at the Convention and Visitors Bureau and conflicts with then director Kevin Kirby, who was terminated at the same time.

Interim commissioners have been serving on CPC for the past few months to allow tourism operations to continue.

The commission took care of a few housekeeping items and discussed ways to move forward.The city’s Office of Tourism Management and the CVB has been operating with limited staff for several months in the absence of a permanent director to make necessary hires. Tricentennial Director Jennifer Ogden Combs stepped into the role of interim tourism director.

“The intent of the (Wednesday) meeting was really organizational,” Combs said after the meeting. “I think everybody on this new commission is really committed to Natchez going forward.

I’m excited about it and look forward to actually working with them in their process of looking for a new director. The interim board that has been in place for the past few months has been just great to work with, and I look forward to working with the new commission.”

The commission is set to receive training on its duties as well as educational information on the state legislation that created the commission in a retreat that has not yet been scheduled.

The board of aldermen sought input from the John C. Stennis Institute of Government on interpretation of the legislation as well as the management agreement between the city and the CPC, which expired some time ago.

The aldermen have requested a work session for the board and the CPC to hear the report from the Stennis Institute and to discuss the city’s tourism operations.

Combs said the CPC needs to deicide whether that training and informational retreat will happen before or after a new director is hired.

In other news from the meeting:
-The commissioners appointed Harris, who is executive director of the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, as chair of the commission and McCabe, an Ameriprise Financial office manager, as secretary/treasurer.

-The commission discussed appointing a board attorney. Commissioner Helen Moss Smith suggested former city attorney Hyde Carby. Other suggestions included former commissioner Jeremy Diamond and Bruce Kuehnle, who represents the Natchez-Adams School Board of Trustees.
Combs told the commission that while the city has an attorney, the CPC is a separate entity, so the city attorney cannot advise the commission.
The commission appointed a legal committee to explore attorney options and agreed to take up the matter at a later date.

-The commission appointed Lauren Middleton of United Mississippi Bank to the Tourism Marketing Advisory Committee at the recommendation of the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce.

The commission is tasked with appointing the marketing committee, which oversees the establishment of a marketing plan utilizing the $2 occupancy tax, or heads-on-beds tax.

The marketing committee is comprised of representatives from the gaming industry, the Natchez-Adams Chamber of Commerce, the Natchez Business and Civic League, the Natchez Association for the Preservation of Afro-American Culture and other organizations.

The commission agreed to reach out to current marketing committee chair Lyn Fortenbery of Dunleith to get a list of committee members and when their terms expire, so that appropriate appointments can be made at a later date.

The commission also agreed to reach out to the organizations represented on the marketing committee for appointment recommendations.