Financially troubled BOPA asks city for help. Baltimore mayor seeks a forensic audit.

BALTIMORE — The financially troubled Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA), which organizes several major events, is asking for the city to help them get back on track financially.   
However, the Mayor’s Office, in partnership with the comptroller, is calling for an independent forensic audit of the BOPA’s financials. 
This comes as BOPA leaders called a virtual emergency board meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss the agency’s financial future.
“What we learned was that there were significant financial documents that were in fact missing,” said Rachel Graham, the chief executive officer (CEO) of BOPA. 
Graham and BOPA’s financial team hired Marcum LLP, an outside accounting services firm, to help reconcile accounts and bring them up to date. The nonprofit will operate at a deficit for the rest of the year that could go up to $650,000, according to our media partner The Baltimore Banner.
BOPA runs several citywide events such as Artscape, Baltimore’s Farmers Market and the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade.
The organization came under fire by city leaders in 2023 for canceling the MLK parade, causing the Mayor’s Office to take over its planning and call for then-CEO Donna Drew Sawyer to step down or risk losing funding.
It now has a new CEO who said the agency is focused on fixing its relationships at City Hall but she’s inherited an agency that needs work. 
“There were some concerns based upon that that we brought to the finance committee and the exec committee to request some special actions be taken because based upon cash flow as well as cash on hand,” Graham said. “We were facing challenges honestly with addressing payroll our basic expenses.” 
Marcum discovered that BOPA’s financial problems began years ago. 
“Dating back currently as far as 2019, the organization has run at a deficit,” Graham said. “In FY2019, the deficit was just under $1.1 million. FY20 the deficit was $53,756. There was a positive cash position in 2021, but we didn’t do any programming in 2021.”
Marcum representatives and BOPA leaders said they’ve spent months going through accounts and documents figuring out when and where the agency fell short. 
“We learned that there had been no reconciliation of our accounts since June of 2023 and our team had been operating essentially without a data-informed budget nor were they a part of the budget development process through most of FY2024,” Graham said. 
The question of payroll and events, like Artscape, also came to the table.
“We do have an investment account, a rainy day account that we then activated to make sure payroll was covered,” Graham said. “There has been this ‘Well, you shouldn’t have done Artscape.’ Even if we hadn’t done Artscape, we still would have been in the same position.” 
In June, Baltimore City’s spending board approved a one-year contract with BOPA.
BOPA is now leaning on Marcum to help them figure out how to get back on track. 
“Understanding what your budget is and understanding what you have to spend is really key to maintaining financial control,” explained a Marcum representative during the meeting. 
The Mayor’s Office said in a statement to WJZ Thursday afternoon:
“The picture presented by BOPA at this afternoon’s board meeting is deeply troubling and raises more questions than it answers. The Mayor, in partnership with the Comptroller, is calling for an independent forensic audit of BOPA’s financials. The City will not be directing any supplemental funds to the organization until the audit is complete. We want to make abundantly clear that the City and this Administration will always support the arts and artists in our city and that support will never be in question. We will continue to work with BOPA to identify the immediate needs, but there will be serious conversation about the long-term path forward.”
Scott said Baltimore’s art scene will remain a priority.
“We are monitoring everyone’s concerns like everyone else,” Scott said. “But we will do from the city’s standpoint whatever we have to do moving forward to make sure that we maintain the arts and culture community that we need here in Baltimore.” 
BOPA hopes to focus on bringing FY2024 to a close and getting the support they need.