Jones resigns chair of Alliance Tourism Council|[03/09/07]

Published 12:00 am Friday, March 9, 2007

Ann Jones on Thursday stepped down as chairman of the Vicksburg-Warren Community Alliance Tourism Council, a position she’s held nearly two years.

&#8220I feel like we need fresh ideas and fresh faces,” she said.

After a vote by Tourism Council members who attended Thursday’s monthly meeting, it was decided that Paul Caudillo, an owner of Annabelle Bed and Breakfast, would take the lead slot in the self-formed community organization.

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&#8220I want this to continue to go in a positive direction and bring more people to town,” he said. &#8220There’s going to be a big effort getting the groups together to move in one direction.”

The switch in leadership came the same day board members of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, the sole funding arm for area tourism, met in a special called closed meeting to discuss a lease drawn up by bed and breakfast owner and downtown property owner Harry Sharp, who was not present. The session, which lasted about 35 minutes, also included discussion about two open staff positions at the VCVB due to resignations. Board chairman Nelda Sampey said the board would not vote on either matter until its regular meeting March 22.

The VCVB has been renting space from Sharp at 15 percent of market value since shortly after the agency was forced out of its headquarters at 1221 Washington St. due to the collapse of the Thomas Furniture building in January 2006.

Sharp’s original lease with the board stated that the group could stay there at that rate for five months and, after that time, would come together to work out a more &#8220fair” arrangement. Before that was done, District 4 Supervisor Carl Flanders chose Sharp as his top pick for his seat on the board, which brought up questions of whether it was a conflict of interest for the property owner to receive money from a board on which he sat. Two months later, an opinion letter by the state Ethics Commission called such an arrangement &#8220unethical” and Sharp’s nomination remained on hold. Two weeks ago, Sharp offered his building to the board rent-free for up to 120 days, after which time, if appointed, the board would have to find another space. But, after no response from the 11-member city/county appointed board, Sharp pulled his name from the nomination. He will no longer offer the building rent-free, but has offered an arrangement closer to market value. The board did not reveal the terms of the lease.

Sharp cited VCVB inaction as one of the reasons for his withdrawing his interest in serving on the volunteer panel. Jones, who has been an advocate for combined advertising efforts in tourism, said one of her main frustrations has been getting the VCVB to change the direction of its advertising.

&#8220We need to have more input into the planning with the VCVB and the rest of the industry,” she said.

During Jones’ tenure, the Tourism Council raised $110,000 for broadcast advertising, established a screening process for potential VCVB board members and was successful in its push for the tourism board to hire Compass Facility Management as its consultant.

The VCVB was created by the Legislature and is separately funded by a 1 percent tourism tax that now raises about $1 million per year. For several years, there has been vocal dissatisfaction by some tour operators to VCVB’s performance.

Jones, an owner of the Sweet Olive tour boat, said she will remain active in the council, which is one of several arms of the Alliance, a group formed in 2001 as a liaison among local entities to assist in tourism, government, industry and local retail business. Its former director, Scott Martinez, headed the group for nine months before taking a job with the Mississippi Development Authority.

The Tourism Council will meet April 5.