by DAVID HAMILTON

NATCHEZ — A special call meeting Monday between the City of Natchez and the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission could determine whether the two entities will enter into a new management agreement a half-decade after the last agreement expired.

The meeting is scheduled to take place 4:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers on Pearl Street. NCPC Chairman Lance Harris said the current management agreement between the parties actually elapsed in 2012, though both groups had mutually consented to continue operating under the agreement.

“I’m hoping that we can get this management agreement approved and work towards getting it executed,” Harris said. “We’re 5 years past due, in my opinion.”

The purpose of this proposed new agreement, Harris said, is to clarify which entity has oversight over certain matters, which has been a confounding issue between the board of aldermen and NCPC.

“I think it’s been a little bit of a quagmire in the past,” Harris said. “We’re aiming to untangle everything and just make everything really clear who does what and how they do it.”

Harris said the previous agreement was fairly ambiguous.

One such clarification the proposed new agreement spells out concerns which body has oversight regarding the city’s tourism director. Harris said the NCPC commissioners are proposing their body have all authority in the hiring process.

In October, the aldermen and NCPC debated this exact point, with the aldermen ultimately assuming responsibility and subsequently hiring current tourism director Jennifer Ogden Combs.

Though Harris said he agreed with the board’s decision and that Combs has done “a tremendous job” to date, he believes the NCPC should have been the body to handle the process. He now hopes this agreement will set in stone the oversight the NCPC has over tourism.

“We pay the salary, we pay those funds, so we believe we need to have that governance and that authority,” Harris said.

Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell said he expects Monday’s meeting to go smoothly. He and the board of aldermen have now had nearly three weeks to review the proposed agreement.

“We’re entering into an agreement to be able to perform on the payroll of all (the NCPC’s) employees,” Grennell said.

Grennell said the NCPC would provide money to the city, which would then be used to pay employees of the tourism department.

“It’s basically a dollar-for-dollar situation,” Grennell said. “The city won’t be out any money.”

Harris said forming this agreement has been a top priority for the commission since he came aboard late September 2016.

Four months earlier, the board of aldermen had asked for the resignations of all six commissioners after extensive personnel issues at the Convention and Visitor Bureau, causing Harris and the other commissioners to “start from scratch.”

“(This agreement) is one of the big things we’ve been working on for the past seven, eight, nine months,” Harris said.

Harris said the commission has proposed a three-year term for the agreement.

The NCPC also has a special call meeting scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Convention and Visitor Bureau Board Room to discuss the proposed management agreement.