The Columbus Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors will not meet today as previously scheduled due to lack of a quorum.
CVB officials sent an email to local media outlets Friday confirming the May meeting had been cancelled and the next meeting will be held June 16.
Because the board currently has eight members, five would be needed for there to be enough people to have a meeting.
CVB Executive Director Nancy Carpenter said four members informed staff last week that they could not be present for a May 19 meeting due to prior business and family commitments. It is not publicly known who those four were. Citing privacy concerns, Carpenter declined to identify them after consulting with CVB board attorney Chris Hemphill.
CVB board members are not elected but appointed by Lowndes County supervisors and Columbus councilmen. They oversee a $1.6 million budget generated by a 2 percent restaurant tax.
The board is supposed to be comprised of nine members, but it has only had eight since last June. That’s when Columbus Mayor Robert Smith and Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders removed their appointment, Harvey Myrick, from the board. They have yet to replace him. Supervisors and councilmen each appoint four other members.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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