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ACME outlines options after internal review of Long Center grant administration; total payments disclosed
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Summary
ACME staff reported $45.44 million processed through the Long Center with 6.91% (~$3M) administrative costs, proposed contract governance improvements, and presented options including targeted contract amendments, an external audit (~$70,000), an RFQ for new third‑party administration, or a multi‑year phased return of grant administration in‑house.
ACME staff presented an internal review of the city's third‑party grant administrator contract with the Long Center and outlined short‑ and medium‑term options to strengthen oversight.
Assistant Director Morgan Messick told the Arts Commission that the city has routed about $45,442,209.37 through the Long Center since the contract began. Of that total, ACME reported that 92.63% (just over $42 million) went to grant awards, 6.91% (just over $3 million) went to administration, and approximately $212,000 went to one‑time setup costs such as the Submittable implementation. Program‑level admin rates varied; ACME said the Live Music Fund administration has been higher (about 17% for that program), while other programs show lower admin percentages (Elevate approx. 4.3%).
ACME described operational advantages in using a third‑party administrator: faster turnaround on payments, a wider range of payment options for awardees (not just mailed checks), reduced precontract burden for small awardees, and improved system reliability. At the same time, the internal review identified areas for improvement: lack of performance metrics tied to administrative fees, blurred lines between city oversight and contractor responsibilities, limited benchmarking of cost effectiveness, and no built‑in external evaluation.
To address those concerns, ACME proposed a three‑phase plan: immediate governance improvements (roles and responsibilities matrix, quarterly contracting meetings, baseline performance metrics), contract amendments to introduce performance expectations and invoicing transparency within 3–6 months, and ongoing monitoring/metrics to inform future procurements. ACME is considering a third‑party audit (an external quote was about $70,000, though the department is exploring lower‑cost internal audit support) and preparing to run a request for qualifications (RFQ) to benchmark market options. A longer path would be to bring grant administration back in‑house in a phased approach requiring additional FTEs and systems work; ACME included a scenario with 10 new FTEs as a multi‑year transition.
Commissioners pressed for better public explanation of how admin fees are computed line‑by‑line and asked ACME to produce clearer itemizations and program‑level admin visibility. Several commissioners and speakers noted past public reporting and news coverage on contract costs and asked that ACME be transparent, with some advocating experiments to move some grantmaking to community‑based administrative partners.
ACME said it found no evidence of financial malfeasance during the review and emphasized that the administrative cost overall (6.91%) is low relative to market expectations for similar third‑party grant administration work.
What’s next: ACME will continue quarterly contracting reviews, pursue contract amendments to itemize and tie administrative fees to deliverables, evaluate audit options, prepare RFQ materials to go out when procurement timing allows, and include contract metric updates to the Arts Commission in coming months.
