After months of board members playing lawyer and reciting legalese, Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau Attorney Chris Latimer provided the board with an opinion of how executive director Nancy Carpenter can use a vehicle owned by the CVB during the board’s monthly meeting on Monday.
“I’ve researched Nancy Carpenter using the CVB vehicle,” Latimer said. “The law is this — the CVB is a public entity, therefore it must comply with the laws that apply. A person must only use the vehicle for work and not personal use. However, the board may make a determination that, if it benefits the CVB and the employee is on call, the vehicle can be taken home at night.”
Board Chairman Dewitt Hicks asked if the ruling applied to all public entity vehicles. Latimer answered in the affirmative and suggested the board make a motion on allowing Carpenter to take the vehicle home at night. He also said the policies regarding liability on the vehicle would be the same regardless of when it was used.
“I had used the vehicle for personal use before talking to Chris,” Carpenter said. “I was told by the auditor and a CPA to keep a record of my mileage and I paid taxes on that mileage.”
Latimer said he felt Carpenter had complied with the law after he had discussed it with her on July 23. Carpenter’s husband, Carol, is also listed on the vehicle’s insurance policy. Latimer said he would research the second driver issue and provide an opinion at the board’s October meeting. The board voted 6-1 to allow Carpenter to use the car on an on-call basis. Whirrlie Byrd voted against the motion. Board members Harvey Myrick and Mark Castleberry were not present at Monday’s meeting.
The board also discussed the final clearance reports on the Juneteenth Festival and the Southside Blues Festival. The clearance reports must be approved before the final installment of grant money may be issued to festival organizers. Bernard Buckhalter motioned to accept the clearance report for Juneteenth, a longtime community festival organized by District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks.
“I noticed in the report that there were checks written out to cash,” said newly appointed member Leon Ellis.
Buckhalter said the checks were written to cash and then used to pay for the festival’s entertainment. Board member Rissa Lawrence said Brook’s festival showed a profit of more than $6,000 in 2011 and $3,000 in 2012.
“Last year, they showed a profit of $6,046 and this year they had a profit of $3,670,” Lawrence said. “This festival is a non-profit. I want to know where the money is going. Is the profit something we need to be concerned about?”
Although Brooks was not present at the meeting, Byrd said the money had been used for a garden for school-aged children.
“If (Brooks) is showing a profit and it is not being spent for start-up money, where is it going?” asked Lawrence. “We gave him 65 percent of his total budget and I think this is a concern for us. I’m not singling out Mr. Brooks, but if they are showing a profit, it needs to be used as festival start-up money.”
The board accepted the Juneteenth clearance report on a 4-3 vote. Lawrence, Ellis and Bart Wise opposed the motion.
During a discussion on the Southside Blues Festival, organized by Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor and District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith, Wise said there were several checks written to one of the festival’s organizers.
“This (clearance report) really opens up a can of worms,” said Wise. “There are a lot of cash receipts paid to cash — a check would have been more appropriate. There were also several checks made payable to (Gene Taylor), which is not good at all as far as where the money really did go. There is no system of checks and balances.”
Although Taylor was present at the meeting, he did not address the issue. Buckhalter said all of the receipts were in place in the report and the money was used to pay the entertainment.
After passing revised grant guidelines in August and holding a workshop to discuss the new guidelines with festival organizers, Carpenter said there would be some changes concerning future clearance reports.
“We have new guidelines,” said Carpenter. “If this happens again, they won’t get paid the second half of their money.”
The board 4-3 to accept the Southside Blues Festival’s clearance report. The CVB board will next meet Oct. 15 at 4 p.m.
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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