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Metro Arts needs greater financial oversight, and an outside law firm has been hired to investigate multiple complaints to Metro’s Human Resources department, according to a letter obtained by the Nashville Banner.
Metro law director Wally Dietz detailed the issues to Metro Arts Commission members on Wednesday, including the need for Metro Arts to demonstrate proper financial controls before $2 million in surplus funds can be released. He included an update from Metro finance director Kevin Crumbo in the memo.
“Since December, it has come to the Finance Department’s attention that additional financial activities at Arts do not appear in compliance with Metro’s policies and procedures, and accordingly, raise questions about overall financial control and stability,” Crumbo said. “The work of Internal Audit and Finance is becoming more difficult due to Arts workplace conduct issues being investigated by the Law Department.”
Crumbo said that an internal audit ordered in December is still weeks away from being finished.
Crumbo also updated the commission on the second half of grant funding that Nashville arts nonprofits, big and small, are still waiting on. That funding would be fulfilled by $2 million in surplus funds from the FY2023 budget. Crumbo confirmed the sum in the letter, but also said “those funds will not be made immediately available until the Arts Commission can demonstrate its operations are stable and that its financial affairs are in good order.”
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Through a spokesperson, Mayor Freddie O’Connell declined to comment.
“The mayor strongly supports the arts and funding for the artists and arts organizations doing great work in the city,” says deputy communications director Alex Apple. “And at this time it is not appropriate for the mayor’s office to comment on an internal audit and HR investigation.”
In January, Nashville arts nonprofits received the first half of $3.8 million in grants that were supposed to go out in October. This delay was caused by a rocky year at Metro Arts, which has been in a state of disarray since allegations of racism surfaced in 2021, leading to overhauls in leadership. The end of 2022 was billed as a fresh start for Metro Arts, with a new director hoping to lead the charge toward more significant equity. But by the end of 2023, a messy grant distribution process had left the 15-seat commission with barely enough members to meet a quorum. As Mayor Freddie O’Connell hastily appointed members to those vacant seats, an internal audit revealed some practices that played a hand in the upheaval.
“Multiple Arts Commission staffers have come to Metro Human Resources to report behavior that may violate the Metropolitan Government’s Civil Service Policy 3.1-III, governing workplace conduct,” Dietz wrote. “The Workplace Conduct Policy prohibits behavior that creates an intimidating environment likely to interfere with the individual's work.”
The letter does not provide any details of the allegations. However, it does say that Metro Legal has hired attorney Luther Wright from the Ogletree Deakins law firm to investigate the allegations, including interviews with all staff.
Metro Arts grant funding typically goes out in October, and Nashville nonprofits of all sizes have come to depend on those grants for everything from payroll to programming. Many organizations did not receive an explanation for the delay until December, when Metro Arts Director Daniel Singh explained the delay at a specially called meeting of the Metro Council’s Public Facilities, Arts and Culture Committee. During that meeting, he also said that he had been instructed by Metro Legal in October not to speak with the press and not to address specific issues surrounding the grants.
