Meeting separately, Vicksburg and Warren County governing boards filled two slots on the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau board Monday, leaving two open – one of them the crux of sharp dissent.

Supervisors and the Mayor and Aldermen agreed their one joint appointee to the 11-member panel, Nelda Sampey, should continue to help guide tourism development.

Also, city appointee Patty Cappaert was unanimously chosen to serve another four years.

Sampey was first appointed by both boards in May to fill what was thought to be an unexpired term. The need to reappoint her arose when the Chancery Clerk’s Office and the City Clerk’s Office discovered the term had expired two months after she was appointed.

After Monday’s action, supported 4-1 by supervisors, Sampey will serve a full four-year term, ending in 2010.

However, because of record-keeping differences, the city will show it expiring Aug. 6 of that year and the county will record the ending date as July 1.

District 2 Supervisor William Banks was the dissenting vote on reappointing Sampey, who was elected chairman shortly after her appointment. He again voiced his discontent that selections were coming from a pool of candidates screened by Vicksburg Warren Community Alliance, a self-formed group whose Tourism Council includes many attraction owners.

&#8220Whose opinion is it that she’s doing such a good job?” Banks asked after the meeting.

During the meeting, Banks again moved to name former city appointee Bobbie Bingham Morrow to the board. District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon again joined Banks, with all other supervisors dissenting.

Banks said he promises to offer Morrow’s name for a county appointment to the board &#8220each and every time it comes up.”

The District 2 vacancy arose after restaurant owner Bobby Doyle turned in a resignation letter to Banks Aug. 7.

Supervisors also voted 3-2 against District 1 Supervisor David McDonald’s request to seek an attorney general’s opinion letter on whether each supervisor is entitled to make a VCVB appointment without a vote by the others.

Board Attorney Paul Winfield characterized the problem at hand as &#8220more procedural than legal.”

The 1972 local and private law creating the agency says each supervisor is to have one appointee, but fundamentally, the board can only act through votes taken and recorded in county minutes.

District 4 Supervisor Carl Flanders said Winfield’s views on the matter were good enough for him, and that an attorney general’s opinion was not necessary. Flanders, while joined by Banks and Selmon in voting against requesting an interpretation, still criticized the law as vague.

&#8220It’s just a poorly written state statute that ties the hands of local boards,” he said.

Before the vote on seeking an opinion, Selmon had offered an alternative motion to bar the board from making any appointments to the VCVB until supervisors receive an opinion letter. It was similarly rejected 3-2.

Monday’s actions leave VCVB board membership at eight.