Metro Arts affirms FY2025 appeals process and denies three grant appeals after Submittable access disputes

The Metro Arts Commission voted to approve a formal FY2025 appeals process and to deny three grant appeals brought by nonprofit applicants, including the International Black Film Festival, after staff said award calculations relied on original applications submitted by the January 29, 2024 deadline.

Commissioners approved the appeals process as recommended by the executive committee and then heard three appeals in sequence. Interim Executive Director Ashley Batchelder explained that Metro Arts had downloaded original applications in late 2024 and used the revenue figures and uploaded documents from those originals when staff and the commission set funding formulas, so documents uploaded after the original deadline were treated as ineligible for FY25 award-size calculations.

Ingrid Brown, president of the International Black Film Festival, told the commission she could not view her original Submittable submissions and that portions of both the operating-grant and Thrive-grant entries were “not visible or accessible.” Brown said she had been told by Submittable support that one or more submissions had been deleted and later restored, but that when she followed the restored link it opened a February 16, 2025 version she had created after the original entry was missing. “I do not have access to that application to date,” Brown said during her appeal. She asked the commission to pursue an administrative review of Submittable records before adjudicating the appeal.

Batchelder said staff had reached Submittable IT and included an exported activity log and the downloaded original application in the meeting packet. She told commissioners the original application used to calculate awards showed a self-reported revenue of $21,000 and did not include an IRS Form 990; a later 990 uploaded after January 29, 2024 bore dates suggesting it was not part of the original filing and therefore applied to the next grant cycle. Based on the guidelines the commission adopted, Batchelder recommended denying the IBFF appeal and preserving the original operating award of $5,211.58.

Commissioners discussed whether technical or configuration problems in Submittable had prevented applicants from viewing or editing their entries. Brown argued that some missing activity and message history pointed to configuration changes rather than platform bugs; staff said they had attempted to restore and reconcile submissions and provided the commission with the Submittable activity export and related correspondence.

After discussion, the commission voted to deny the IBFF appeal. The recorded roll call on that item showed a majority voting to deny, with two commissioners recorded as voting no and one commissioner recusing themself from discussion and voting on the IBFF item because of a disclosed conflict. The commission denied two other appeals brought to the meeting (a Thrive appeal titled Dominique's Dominance and a Thrive appeal for The Art of Naturally Being, volume 2), following staff recommendations that those applications had been ineligible under the FY25 guidelines or lacked required materials.

Chair and staff said they will keep communicating with applicants about technical problems and intend to propose procedural fixes — including increased applicant-facing education, a short technical-fix window after Submittable closes, and clearer guidance on fiscal sponsorships — for the next grant cycle. Batchelder and commissioners urged applicants to reapply in the next cycle and offered one-on-one grant clinics and additional outreach.

The appeals items were heard after the commission approved the FY2025 appeals process, which specifies a timeline for notifying appellants, allows appellants three minutes to present (with additional time at chair discretion), gives the interim executive director three minutes to respond, and requires commissioners with conflicts to recuse. The commission voted to amend the initial time allocation to allow chair discretion to extend both appellant and staff time during hearings.

Commissioners stressed that while they had sympathy for applicants affected by platform problems and the shortened FY25 timeline, the commission’s decision was guided by the adopted guidelines and the documentation staff preserved from the original application period.