A two-year contract will follow a 45-day exploratory deal between Compass Facility Management and the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, a narrow majority decided Thursday, breezing past an attorney general’s opinion saying the pact may violate state law.

The VCVB board’s decision will allow the Iowa-based firm to develop a management plan to propose to the board. After that report is presented, the firm is to oversee the bureau’s general management, personnel, budgeting, sales and marketing, public relations, convention and visitor services, operating services, special event coordinating and merchandising.

A motion by board member Bobby Bailess extends the initial contract a week, until March 9, to make up for time lost after the opinion letter was received. In the long-term deal, an option exists for a third year to picked up and add to the contract.

The motion to approve both contracts came on 6-5 votes, with the voting bloc aligned in a pattern consistent throughout the meeting.

Members Tim Darden, Patty Cappaert, Lamar Roberts, Bill Collins, Bobby Bailess and David Maggio voted to approve. Members Jessica Williams, Jo Wilson, Omar Nelson, Bobby Doyle and Bobbie Morrow voted no.

The action moves the city-county tourism agency, created by state law, closer to working in unison with the contract managers of two municipal venues, Vicksburg Convention Center and Vicksburg Auditorium. who are also charged with marketing the town.

By happenstance, Thursday’s meeting was actually held at Vicksburg Convention Center due to debris cleanup at the former Thomas Furniture building, which collapsed Wednesday near the VCVB’s building at Washington and Clay.

The vote came after nearly four hours of rancorous exchanges on everything from racism to parliamentary procedure, supplemented by criticism from Mayor Laurence Leyens, who said the VCVB was &#8220ineffective” and &#8220had no direction or plan.”

Leyens has backed the deal with Compass and said the job of executive director was too all-encompassing for a person.

The point made by the attorney general’s opinion, sought by state Rep. George Flaggs Jr. and delivered last week, was that the legislation creating VCVB in 1972 specifies a &#8220natural person” could be hired by appointed board members.

Bobby Bailess, an attorney who serves on the VCVB and convention center advisory board, said he &#8220does not agree with (the opinion) in either a legal or practical standpoint” and it was given no weight in the decision.

Leyens also called for the resignation of Bobbie Morrow, a city appointee to the 11-member board who has either voted against or questioned most motions made in reference to the company’s taking over much of the bureau’s operation.

Morrow responded by reading verbatim a full-page e-mail she sent to the mayor in August stating her concerns about the executive directorship of the bureau becoming &#8220secondary” to the Vicksburg Warren Community Alliance, which had shared office space in the bureau.

On that issue, the board split 6-5 along the same lines to renew the 90-day office space lease for Alliance.

At one point, Morrow and Bobby Doyle moved to name interim director Clara Ross Stamps executive director. Darden, elected new chairman of the board moments earlier, questioned the motion on the basis of an earlier tabled motion by Roberts, later brought off the table and enacted, that sought to spell out terms of the Compass contract and leave the executive directorship vacant.

Nelson, an attorney, and Doyle made impassioned pleas on Stamps’ behalf, questioning the wisdom of not retaining her services in that capacity.

It died 6-5 along the same voting lines.

Nelson first sought counsel from the state auditor’s office, believing bids were needed before contracts for professional service could be entered, but later dropped the request and allowed Roberts’ motion to be revived.

Nelson said this morning his reasons for it came from &#8220hearing the discourse of other board members about professional services.” Nelson was referring to statements made during the meeting by Bailess, who serves as attorney for the Vicksburg Bridge Commission, that professional service contracts do not have to be put out for bid.

His votes against the contracts came out of a concern for complying with applicable state laws on the subject, he said.

&#8220Compass is probably a great organization and great at what they do. But I was concerned about the law,” Nelson said.

Nelson also said he hopes the issue of hiring an executive director can be revisited after the contract term, adding he &#8220has always supported Clara (Stamps) and she has worked her way up to be here.”

Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, said today he will draft legislation supporting a hike in the tax that funds VCVB, which comes from surcharges on hotel rooms rented by the night and restaurant and bar tabs. If passed, the tax would increase from 1 to 2 percent.

But as part of the legislation, Flaggs said, he would change wording in the 1972 law. Currently, the law states that an executive director &#8220may” be hired. The legislation would change that to &#8220shall” be hired. Flaggs said his bill would also aim to have professional services put out for bid.

Flaggs said he was waiting on a joint resolution from the city and the county asking that the tax be doubled. County officials, however, demurred on joining the resolution.

During the meeting, the board voted 10-1, with Bobbie Morrow dissenting, to endorse the tax increase.

The board also took under advisement a request by Alliance to provide $37,000 in funding to a multimedia advertising campaign geared to attract tourists to Vicksburg.

Tom Pharr, operator of Anchuca Historic Mansion and Inn, told board members that the Alliance itself would contribute $20,000 toward the campaign, to air in television markets in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi as well print ads in a Dallas-based arts and culture magazine and billboards.

&#8220We need to stop the hemorrhage of tourism in Vicksburg,” Pharr said.

Pharr cited figures supplied to him by the Mississippi Welcome Center that indicated that a quarter of visitors to Vicksburg in 2005 came from Texas, prompting the need for the magazine ad.

Stamps sought to add clarity to the issue of tracking tourists, saying &#8220customer wants are always changing” and multiple strategies can be constructed to track how tourists spend money in Vicksburg.

The board voted to recess until 5 p.m. today, where it will discuss department reports and the Alliance request.

Members are volunteers, serving four-year terms. Five are appointed by the city, five by Warren County and one post alternates.