NATCHEZ — Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell broke a 3-3 tie at Tuesday’s board of aldermen meeting to rescind its recent city attorney appointment.

The motion to rescind the appointment of Everett Sanders was made by Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Smith, who said she thinks it is in the best interest of the board to interview potential candidates.

The vote came after the board met in executive session for approximately an hour with Sanders, who prior to the rescission acted as legal counsel during the board’s Tuesday finance meeting before its regular meeting.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis, Ward 2 Alderman Billie Joe Frazier and Ward 4 Alderwoman Felicia Irving voted against the motion. Those same aldermen voted for Sanders’ appointment July 1.

Smith, Ward 5 Alderman Benjamin Davis and Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard voted for the motion, and Grennell broke the tie. Smith and Dillard voted against Sanders’ appointment with votes for former Adams County Board of Supervisors attorney Robert “Bob” Latham, who was nominated by Smith.

Davis abstained from the July 1 vote, saying at the time he felt he lacked enough information about Sanders or Latham to make a sound decision. During discussion before the vote Tuesday, Arceneaux-Mathis, who nominated Sanders for the position he previously held for eight years, pointed out that Sanders was appointed by a democratic process.

“Somebody on the board, if they wanted to see other attorneys, could have made that motion at that time,” she said. “It was not done.

“This particular attorney, who is seated before us now, was then sworn in. So we’ve elected the attorney, we’ve sworn him in, we’ve used the democratic process … I think the majority rules … To rescind what we’re about to do now and go back and start all over, I think we’re not moving forward … and now we are going to do something else that’s going to delay us having an attorney.”

After the vote, the board sat silent as Sanders gathered his documents and briefcase, got up from the city attorney’s seat and sat in the audience.

Grennell then asked for permission to contact Adams County Board of Supervisors Attorney Scott Slover, who arrived shortly after to provide legal counsel to the board for the remainder of the meeting.

Sanders was nominated, appointed and sworn in July 1, just a few hours after Mayor Darryl Grennell and the aldermen were sworn into office.

Grennell had publicly tapped Latham as his choice for city attorney, and Grennell has said Sanders appointment blindsided him.

Sanders’ appointment has been a point of contention for the board of aldermen since it was made and has been a cause of public outcry from members of the public on both sides of the issue.

Much of the criticism of Sanders’ appointment has been directed at the fact that Sanders was city attorney when the city lost a judgment after failing to respond to an ongoing lawsuit by the court appointed deadline.

In the lawsuit, Roundstone Development seeks $1.8 million in damages after the city denied its zoning application to allow construction of a housing development stretching from Old Washington Road to Oriole Terrace.

In 2011, Circuit Court Judge Forrest “Al” Johnson ruled in a default judgment against the city for breach of contract and misrepresentation. Resident Gail Guido filed an appeal of Sanders’ appointment as city attorney in Adams County Circuit Court on July 11, the day before the board of aldermen met in executive session for nearly two hours on the matter and delayed the start of its meeting before a standing-room only crowd.

The board voted at that meeting to seek an attorney general’s opinion on the matter. The attorney general’s office, however, cannot issue an opinion on an issue if there is pending litigation regarding it.

Grennell said the aldermen would receive word today on when interviews for potential attorneys would be scheduled.

Smith asked if only Latham and Sanders would be interviewed, or if the interviews would be open to any interested attorneys.

Grennell said multiple attorneys expressed interest in the position prior to the appointment, and said it was his intention to contact those attorneys to extend an opportunity for an interview.

In other news from the meeting:

-City Clerk Wendy McClain informed the board that work on the 2014-2015 fiscal year audit — which was due June 30— is complete. McClain said the city’s independent auditor, Deanne Tanksley of The Gillon Group, is compiling the report, which will likely be sent to the state and presented to the board next week.

McClain also told the board she would be bringing budget amendments to its next meeting, saying a few areas of the budget were “severely” over budget. Some departments are also under budget, and McClain said she would offer a full explanation to the board when she presented the budget amendments.