Compass Facility Management, the Iowa-based firm that operates Vicksburg’s convention center and auditorium, won a $14,613 contract bonus for the year based on use of the buildings and rentals of local hotel rooms.

City officials approved a $26,511 invoice from the company Monday that included the incentive fees.

&#8220They exceeded their goals even with an adverse year with hurricanes,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.

Larry Gawronski, executive director for Compass here, said the yearly goal for attendance at the convention center was 50,000 people. A tally showed 52,770 attending various events. The number of usage days at the convention center also surpassed the target of 185. Gawronski said there were 219 events held at the center between Oct. 1, 2004 and Sept. 30, 2005.

He also said the goal for hotel rooms rented by patrons of the convention center was 7,000. However, 9,565 hotel rooms were booked for events held at the convention center.

Under contract terms, the incentive fee is capped at $30,000.

The firm also manages about 12 other public arenas and meeting facilities, most of them in the Midwest. Former Mayor Robert Walker negotiated an $8,333 monthly contract for Vicksburg Convention Center operations in April 2001 and $2,000 monthly for Vicksburg Auditorium operations was added several months later.

Both were business-building and budget-saving moves for the venues formerly managed by city employees.

Thursday, Compass was also hired in a split vote as the contract manager of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, a city-county agency created by state statute in 1972.

The convention center, opened on the Mulberry Loop downtown in 1997, cost $13 million and was paid for with 10-year bonds. The Miss Mississippi Pageant is the largest event there.

The center was used as a shelter for hurricane evacuees for the month of September and part of October. Events scheduled for that time were canceled.

Convention center and auditorium operations are paid for with rental income, a 2 percent tax added to hotel room rentals and a general fund supplement.

The VCVB is not expected to face any additional costs through the deal advocated by Leyens and approved in a split vote last week. It is a tourism-development agency, managed by a board of 11 city and county appointees that had been deadlocked on the hiring of a new executive director.

State Rep. George Flaggs has said he is seeking an attorney general’s opinion on the move because he doesn’t think the VCVB’s founding legislation allows a company as opposed to an individual to be employed as executive director.

The VCVB operates two visitor centers, prepares and mails brochures, and advertises local attractions with up to $1 million per year received through a 1 percent tax collected on restaurant meals, bar tabs and rooms rented by the night.

In other business, city officials: