Members of the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board of directors grappled with a flurry of ethics issues during Monday’s regular meeting.
Discussion of the Mississippi Ethics Commission was listed on the agenda, and CVB Executive Director Nancy Carpenter said she would elaborate in her report near the end of the meeting. However, the nature of the commission’s involvement in board business came up early and often during the meeting.
During the discussion on the project-clearing report for the Legends Committee, board member Whirllie Byrd said she wanted to clarify that her role with Legends was as a volunteer only. She did not see her role as a CVB member voting on a grant request for the Legends event as a conflict of interest.
During the debate on whether to fund the Dream 365 event honoring Martin Luther King Jr., board member Bart Wise said he called the Ethics Commission to inquire whether serving on the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link board of directors posed a conflict since the CVB gives money to the Link for economic development.
He said he was told the process wasn’t the cleanest so Wise, who serves as CVB board treasurer, Board Vice President Mark Castleberry and CVB Board Chairman George Swales resigned from the Link board.
When members got to the agenda item regarding the commission, Carpenter said she was directed to ask the commission whether Byrd’s service on the Legends Committee posed a conflict of interest in voting on its funding request. The commission referred her to the state auditor.
Board member Bernard Buckhalter challenged Carpenter to show in the minutes where the board voted to direct her to make that inquiry. “This board is a public board, and we speak through our minutes.”
Carpenter said the directive came when she gave her regular report.
Board member Dewitt Hicks, an attorney, said any board member can ask a public official for an opinion from the state Ethics Commission. He added he would prefer such questions come from the group, not an individual.
Wise moved to retroactively ask the commission about Byrd. Buckhalter proffered an amendment that the request also include a question on whether CVB members who served on the Link’s board could properly resign from that board and still vote to give the Link money from the CVB.
The amendment passed with a 6-3 vote, but the original motion did not with a 5-3-1 vote, which means the question about Link board members will again go to the state Ethics Commission.
Swales said the bickering is troubling. “I don’t know why we have to continue digging old potatoes.”
Buckhalter added that if all the potatoes got dug on the first try, no one would need to dig again.
Carpenter reported the CVB special projects budget includes $98,000 to support fishing tournaments. That leaves $32,000 in that line item to help with spring soccer tournaments. The special projects budget is for sports events only.
Wise said the CVB is operating in the black. This month’s expenses showed $7,000 to the good. The CVB received $122,000 in restaurant sales tax revenues from the city this month. A year ago, the CVB received $99,000 in revenues.
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