NATCHEZ — Natchez Aldermen voted 4-1 Tuesday that aldermen — and not the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission — will hire the city’s next tourism director.

The board had been mulling the decision since Mayor Darryl Grennell broached the topic at a specially called meeting last week to discuss whether the board of aldermen or CPC, which oversees the city’s tourism operations, would hire the director. Grennell also asked the aldermen to consider which board — aldermen or CPC — the director should report.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis made the motion for the board to hire the director. Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Smith voted against the motion. Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard was not present at the meeting.

Arceneaux-Mathis said both the aldermen and CPC should agree on interview questions and be present at the interviews of the final candidates.

The city is set to conduct in-person interviews of the final candidates for the position Saturday. While interviews were scheduled for three candidates, Arceneaux-Mathis said the list has been narrowed to two because one of the candidates accepted another job.

When asked by Smith, Arceneaux-Mathis said she thought the CPC should have no say in the final hiring.

Smith said she thought the logical way to evaluate the two questions before the board was to first decide to whom the director would be responsible and then who would hire the director.

Arceneaux-Mathis said she had another motion to make regarding the direct oversight of the director, but was attending to the hiring with her first motion.

The board then recognized CPC Chair Lance Harris, who cited various city code provisions that govern the city’s tourism operations. Harris also noted Senate Bill 3191, which empowers the commission to contract with various professionals, including executive and administrative personnel.

“With all that being said … my opinion and the opinion of the other commissioners is that we should have certainly the authority to manage this personnel and also to have a say in who this person is who is about to be hired,” Harris said.

After the vote, Smith said she did not think the move would matter because the city has good candidates for the position.

“When it comes down to it, the one who’s chosen will be a good (director),” she said.

Smith then cautioned the board about any action that might affect the legislation that governs the city’s tourism operations, because it could jeopardize funding.

“I think we all need to be very careful,” she said. “There is legislation that this state has … approved. … If we mess with that, we are going to be in a dangerous position to lose that funding, and I’ve been told that by legislators. They’re always looking for ways to not fund. I just want us to be very careful (in) saying that that legislation means nothing (to) this board.”

In a rebuttal, Arceneaux-Mathis said she the board of aldermen has never interfered with or directed the spending at the CVB and thinks the director is “perfectly capable” of keeping the aldermen informed of necessary tourism matters.

“The facilities (management) part of it, we are going to have to be involved in because it is our building,” Arceneaux-Mathis said. “But other than that, I don’t have time to go running down there, and I … don’t think anybody can say that I have ever been to any of (the CPC) meetings trying to interfere with anything they were trying to do because I know they know what they are doing,”

Arceneaux-Mathis said the tourism director has worn “dual hats for years,” referring to the director overseeing operations of the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the city’s Office of Tourism Management and reporting to both the aldermen and CPC.

“These hats have been worn by several people as dual hats for years, and I think they can go on … and I won’t touch it at this point unless somebody forces me to make a motion.”

In other news from the Tuesday’s board of aldermen meeting:

– The board awarded a bid for the former Natchez Inc. office space at the Natchez Convention Center to Natchez Pilgrimage Tours for $850 per month, which was the highest bid.

City Sightseeing bus tour company submitted the next highest bid at $800.

City Sightseeing owner Warren Reuther appeared before the board, saying that he thought as part of his bid, he would be able to present his company’s plans for the space.

Reuther’s company New Orleans Hotel Consultants also manages the convention center and owns the Natchez Grand Hotel.

Reuther said he thought job creation, investment and other factors should be considered as part of the bid.

Arceneaux-Mathis asked City Attorney Bob Latham about what the law states regarding the bids, and Latham said the city should take the “highest and best” bid.

“What qualifies as best,” Arceneaux-Mathis asked Latham.

In this case, Latham said, the highest bid would be considered the best.

When asked by Arceneaux-Mathis, Latham said factors such as job creation could be considered in a decision if they were part of the bid specifications. Those kinds of specifications were not included in the bid for the office space, Latham said.

Reuther made further attempts to convince the aldermen to reconsider, saying that when “we submit bids, we normally have an opportunity to present our program, and this is all part of our program (and) creating these jobs.”

Latham said the city  “can’t take into consideration what would be considered abstract facts as to what you were going to do with that space unless that’s something that’s requested by the city to consider when the bids are opened.”

Reuther suggested that the board could choose to throw out all of the bids, with Latham saying the board could do so if they felt an irregularity in the bidding process occurred.

Grennell said he did not see a valid reason for rejecting the bids and later said the space was advertised at the request of Convention Center Director Walter Tipton and no specifications about job creation or otherwise were requested.

Smith said the city would be setting an “illegal precedent” if it accepted a bid that was not the highest. Other factors that would need to be considered, Smith said, would be getting an attorney general’s opinion if Reuther did rent the space.

“That rent money goes to your business, ironically,” Smith said, referring to the fact that City Sightseeing would be paying rent to the convention center. “You would be paying yourself.”

Reuther rebutted by saying the center is owned by the city, but Smith again said it was Reuther’s business and that “you have to see the conflict of interest to the public that that would (create).”

The mayor and aldermen thanked Reuther for his business and investment in the city, but said they did not know how they could justify accepting a bid that was not the highest.

-The board will not host a second meeting in December because of the holidays and rescheduled its Jan. 10 meeting to Jan. 13.