NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez is two months behind on the car note for the vehicle purchased by former tourism director Kevin Kirby, but has taken no action to pay the bill.

City Attorney Hyde Carby said Tuesday he has received calls from Home Bank, the bank that financed the 2013 Lincoln MKX which Kirby purchased while he was a city employee.

The car was titled in the name of the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission.

Members of the commission later objected to Kirby’s purchase of the vehicle and the details surrounding its financing.

The commission’s attorney, Christina Daugherty, requested in late March to enter into mediation with the city to determine what should happen to the car, but mediation did not take place before the members of the commission were asked to resign April 4.

Home Bank has not received payments for two months, Carby said Tuesday.

The future of the vehicle is almost certain to be decided by the city, Carby said, rather than the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“I think in any scenario, the city will end up with that vehicle to surplus it, pay it off, whatever you decide,” Carby said, addressing the Natchez Board of Aldermen at Tuesday’s meeting. “But I’ve talked to (City Clerk Donnie Holloway) and looked through legislation; the city could pay the two months, that way we’d let Home Bank out of a bind.”

Carby said he expects the commission to sign the car back over to the city once the commission is re-created, but at the moment without any members on the commission, it’s impossible to transfer the ownership of the vehicle.

Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard said he sees the car as the city’s responsibility from the beginning.

“Kirby was director of tourism for the City of Natchez and the offer made to him included the vehicle,” Dillard said.

Natchez Mayor Butch Brown said the vehicle should be paid for by money received from a Mississippi Department of Tourism grant for the operation of the visitor center.

“There’s money in our accounts that will cover transferring the cost of that vehicle back into the visitor center budget in the office of tourism,” Brown said. “If you don’t want to do that, it’s not a bad ride for the mayor to have — a nice Lincoln.”

Brown said he thinks the vehicle should always have been paid for through a city account, but was funded through the CVB in error.

Holloway said the state money used for the visitor center had been transferred to the CVB and was no longer accessible by the city clerk’s office.

The $275,000 was received from the state department of tourism in fall of 2015, Holloway said Wednesday.

He said $100,000 was used to renovate the colonnades site near the visitor center and $175,000 was transferred to the CVB account in November 2015. The expenses for the operation of the visitor center, which previously were handled directly by the city, were also moved to the CVB’s docket to be paid for by the account.

Holloway said the instructions to transfer those funds to the CVB came from a memo from the mayor’s office, but Brown said he had not given such instructions.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Brown said at the meeting Tuesday. “I have no idea who sent it.”

Holloway asked at the meeting whether a resolution could be passed by the board to move the funds back to the city, but Carby said the funds would not be accessible until a quorum of the Convention Promotion Commission was replaced.

“I don’t see how you could authorize yourself to get CVB money,” Carby said. “I hope board will consider paying it so you don’t put your good friends at Home Bank in a bind. That’s just a recommendation — do what you will with it. But if you don’t pay this bill, you’ll have problems with the bank.”