Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s office has been weighing the pros and cons of a takeover of the city’s quasi-independent arts agency for nearly 18 months, according to an internal memo leaked to The Baltimore Sun.
For at least three years, Scott and members of the Baltimore City Council have expressed growing frustration with the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts (BOPA), which is charged with mounting public celebrations such as Artscape and New Year’s Eve fireworks, with operating the Baltimore Film Office, and with managing four facilities, including the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower.
But the four-page memo dated April 17, 2023, and written by Justin Williams, the deputy mayor for community and economic development, offers the most specific and detailed look yet at how long and how seriously Scott’s office has been considering bypassing — and quite possibly eliminating — BOPA in favor of getting into the festival-planning business itself.
“Will the administration continue to fund and have indirect oversight with an organization that is dysfunctional and doesn’t serve the needs of the creative community?” Williams’ memo asks.
“Or, will the administration leverage this transitional opportunity to re-order and realign a promising organization to meet all mutual goals? We are at a critical path. A decision must be made.”
The emailed memo was sent by Williams to Faith P. Leach, the city’s chief administrative officer, and to Chezia Cager, Scott’s former chief of staff. Two of Scott’s senior advisers were copied: Tonya Miller Hall and B.R. Hammed-Owens.
A statement released by Scott’s office Wednesday said that no actions have been taken as a direct result of this communication.
“This is a deliberative memo crafted a year and a half ago … which was clearly not executed on at the time,” the statement said. “The Mayor’s Office has addressed at length our posture during this latest period of turmoil in the organization.”
Last month, BOPA’s CEO, Rachel D. Graham, and interim board chairman, Andrew Chaveas, revealed that BOPA had run annual deficits since the 2018-19 fiscal year — and, less than three months into the current fiscal year, was once again out of money. BOPA asked the city to tide it over with $1.8 million in emergency funds, a request that the city refused pending the results of a forensic, or extra-detailed, internal audit.
Earlier this summer, the city inserted a kill clause into BOPA’s current contract that would allow it to defund the arts agency with as little as 30 days’ notice.
‘Option A’ and ‘Option B’
The transition plan outlined in Williams’ four-page memo presented two options for a path forward, though both would effectively have handed over much of the decision-making authority to Miller Hall, the mayor’s senior adviser for arts and culture.
“Option A,” according to the memo, would have worked toward “making BOPA whole again” by bringing the agency more closely under the control of the city. Under this plan, BOPA would have been run temporarily for up to a year by a two-member team — Miller Hall and Jessica Solomon, an organizational development consultant — that would have served as interim director/CEO.
“Option B” would have severed the legal and financial ties between the city and BOPA. This plan would have brought the city’s arts council, the Baltimore Film Office and the Public Arts Commission under an expanded Mayor’s Office for Art & Culture headed by Miller Hall. That office would benefit from taxpayer monies that previously had been directed to BOPA.
“Based on their complimentary skills, strong leadership styles and ability to execute big ideas, this team could reasonably start to rebuild BOPA’s board and the fractured internal infrastructure,” Williams’ email said.
“Option B” raised the possibility that BOPA could continue to exist and “operate under its own guidance as a private non-profit.”
In reality, defunding the organization could effectively signal BOPA’s demise.
Before the pandemic, BOPA staff members regularly raised about $9.5 million from private donations , and received an additional $2.5 million from city coffers.
The city’s share of BOPA’s total budget has increased only slightly in recent years, to $2.7 million. But in a board meeting last week, Chaveas revealed that during the past seven years, private fundraising at BOPA has fallen off a cliff.
Williams’ email even contained plans for how specific festivals might still occur and how different organizations managed by BOPA would continue to function.
“(Option A,)” the memo reads, “Events are BOPA’s sweet spot. Have them operate strictly as the [organizer] ] “]of an event.
“(Option B) Events are tourist and economic drivers. Events could be housed at Visit Baltimore or Live Baltimore to promote Baltimore living.”
Finding ‘the best path forward’
BOPA isn’t commenting on the recommendations in the memo. But in an email responding to questions from The Sun, Chaveas wrote:
“BOPA and the Mayor’s Office have been working together to reimagine the organization’s role and determine the best path forward for supporting the arts and culture community.”
To what extent the city is still deliberating the actions outlined in this memo remains unclear. Some of the recommendations mentioned in the memo were put into place, though a spokesman for Scott said that was a coincidence.
For example, the April 2023 document called for the BOPA board to expand from five to 11 members; not quite a year later, that expansion was announced. In addition, the plan called upon the city to exercise its ability to appoint three of those board members and it has done so, adding Miller Hall, the spoken word artist “Lady” Brion Gill, and Ellen Janes, executive director of the Central Baltimore Partnership.
Scott’s spokesman said the changes in BOPA’s board were instigated by a succession of retirements and resignations as board members’ terms expired.
Other recommendations in the memo never materialized. Solomon and Miller Hall never became BOPA’s interim managers. Instead, Graham was appointed BOPA’s CEO in February.
Under the transition management plan’s “Option B,” the popular farmers markets would have been folded into Baltimore’s public market system. It was suggested in the memo that events such as Artscape, the Baltimore Book Festival, Light City Baltimore, and fireworks on New Year’s Eve and Independence Day be mounted in the future by the tourism and development agencies Visit Baltimore or Live Baltimore.
“We continue to work with BOPA leadership and the Board to identify the best path forward and will make an announcement regarding that path if and when appropriate,” the statement from Scott’s office said.
“Anything beyond that official announcement would be purely speculative in nature at this point in time.”
Have a news tip? Contact reporter Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com , 410-332-6704 or @mcmccauley on X.
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