Leadership at the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts knew things were getting dicey in May when they were pressed to pay their bills. And then again in June, as they missed their window to negotiate a new contract with the city, they were standing on the precipice.

“What I will tell you is that, in full transparency and honesty, this organization has been functioning in a cash crunch since the day I walked through the door,” BOPA CEO Rachel Graham, who joined the arts nonprofit in March, told her board in an emergency meeting Thursday.

But even with all those warning signs, BOPA kept walking. And it appears they’ve now walked right off the cliff.

BOPA hired accounting firm Marcum LLP to review its books, which determined that without changes, the nonprofit will operate at a deficit that could balloon up to $650,000.

On Wednesday, The Baltimore Banner reported BOPA was insolvent. On Thursday, Graham said they were asking the city for a bailout to keep going. In order to even consider the request, Graham said the city will need a one-year plan for how BOPA will operate at its “barest existence” and information pertaining to anticipated future losses. BOPA wants $1.8 million in supplemental funding in addition to being paid the remainder of its city contract.

Mayor Brandon Scott’s office said the city will continue to make quarterly payments to BOPA, per its contract, but additional money will come with strings attached: an independent, forensic audit.

“The picture presented by BOPA at this afternoon’s board meeting is deeply troubling and raises more questions than it answers,” Scott’s office said, adding that while the city will continue to support the arts, it will not do so without a “serious conversation” regarding BOPA’s long-term future. Undergoing the audit also does not guarantee Scott’s office will send more money to the nonprofit.

Baltimore Comptroller Bill Henry also supports the audit request.

BOPA’s board of directors went into closed session to talk about “personnel and business location” but did not take any votes, interim chair Andrew Chaveas said, meaning any staff reductions or closure of offices won’t be decided until their meeting next week at the earliest. BOPA employs at least 22 people, according to its website, has an expansive downtown office and manages several other city-owned or leased properties, including the old Bromo Seltzer tower.

During the emergency meeting, Graham told the board that, at the same time the city’s top arts organization was struggling to make payroll, Graham went ahead with plans for Artscape, BOPA’s premier event, without consulting anyone.

“When it came to the decision around Artscape, that was not put to a vote,” she said. “It was not put to a conversation.”

Artscape is an annual festival that, in lean years, costs upwards of $1 million to produce. BOPA is still trying to determine how much it actually costs — Graham said they’re still receiving invoices for stage rentals and services provided, and that her team did not have a “true understanding” of Artscape’s financial commitments.

As to why she made the decision to forge ahead with Artscape, Graham said there were a few reasons. Sponsorships had been sold, for one, and cancellation would have further damaged the nonprofit’s already tarnished reputation.

“Quite honestly, for me, is that it’s a situation of ‘Well there goes BOPA again,’ and ‘There goes BOPA not supporting the arts community again,’” Graham said.

Bad weather derailed Artscape, forcing organizers to cancel the headlining acts on two of the three evenings. And with their lack of funds, BOPA is still behind in paying vendors, Graham said.

Graham takes full responsibility for the decision to go forward with Artscape and said she understands the impact of the choice. But, even if they had been able to fully cover costs for the event, Graham said BOPA “would still be at a deficit.”

BOPA has operated at a deficit for years. At the end of the 2019 fiscal year, the arts group had $5.8 million in net assets, according to federal tax filings. At the end of fiscal year 2023, it had just $1 million in assets. Put another way, in just four years BOPA depleted roughly 80% of its assets.

The organization has been racked with scandal over the past two years in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and internal management disarray. Its last permanent leader, Donna Drew Sawyer, resigned in early 2023 following a bitter, public dispute with Scott over its failure to stage the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. The agency under Sawyer also ran afoul of the city’s Law Department when it tried to trademark Artscape, a direct violation of its contract.

It was later revealed after Sawyer resigned that she received thousands in severance paid from BOPA’s budget without the city’s knowledge.

Much of the financial mismanagement seems to have occurred under Sawyer’s purview, and now Graham is left to dig the organization out of a mess she didn’t create.

The former head of external relations for the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, Graham received praise from members of the Baltimore City Council earlier this year for helping to steer the group back on track.

She said Thursday that work is underway: “I will tell you that this team has worked tirelessly to figure out a mess that it did not create.”