Benicia Public Library Director Diane Smikahl will ask the City Council Tuesday to accept an Arts and Culture Commission recommendation to continue its 2014-15 grant funding allocations for two groups whose nonprofit status came into question in the last grant cycle.

Those two organizations are the Benicia Ballet Theatre and the Benicia Old Town Theatre Group, Smikahl wrote in a May 29 report to City Manager Brad Kilger.

“The grant funding criteria established by the Arts and Culture Commission requires applicants to establish and maintain nonprofit status in order to receive grant awards,” Smikahl explained.

However, the two companies were allowed to receive their first-year grant money when the Council decided that their history of providing artistic and cultural enrichment in Benicia, plus the unusual circumstances of the status loss, meant that special consideration could be given.

The Council decided to review the matter again at the beginning of the second-year funding cycle, Smikahl wrote.

Margaret Kenrick, Benicia Ballet Theatre artistic director, has contended since 2013 that her organization’s nonprofit status has remained intact.

She told the Council in October that some of the ballet group’s paperwork sent to the Internal Revenue Service was lost, though others contended the paperwork didn’t get filed in time.

Kenrick said the IRS had been changing how it documents nonprofits, and that Benicia Ballet Theatre’s paperwork was lost during that process.

She said at the time that representatives of the IRS assured her that the nonprofit status was in order; however, delays and a temporary federal government shutdown prevented receipt of the necessary documents in time for the group to give to the Council.

Once that paperwork arrived, Smikahl said, the city also needed California’s confirmation of the ballet’s nonprofit status, which has since been submitted.

The Arts and Culture Commission has recommended giving the ballet the grant money for which it was approved, $3,800 for its summer program.

“Benicia Ballet Theatre has provided a written update providing their reinstatement as a nonprofit organization,” Smikahl wrote in her report.

However, “Benicia Old Town Theatre Group is still working with the Internal Revenue Service to be reinstate,” she added.

The commission has recommended that Benicia Old Town Theatre Group be given until Sept. 30 to be reinstated as a nonprofit organization. If it can’t meet that deadline, the commission has recommended distributing its $7,240 grant to others that have been awarded Arts and Culture grants, Smikahl wrote.

BOTTG’s situation arose after a former treasurer, Kimble Goodman, was accused of embezzlement after board members discovered in March 2013 that the theater company’s bank accounts were depleted of thousands of dollars.

BOTTG President Dan Clark said Monday that Goodman’s case is on the Solano County Circuit Court’s calendar at 10 a.m. Friday in Vallejo, either to resolve or set a preliminary hearing.

“Our nonprofit status has been restored by the State of California,” Clark said, “but there is a massive backlog at the IRS, and they are months behind in processing requests for reinstatements.”

Smikahl has provided a resolution that would let the Council divide up the BOTTG grant, with $4,400 going to Arts Benicia, $1,200 to VOENA, $810 to Benicia Ballet Theatre, $40 to Benicia Literary Arts and $390 to the Benicia State Parks Association.

However, Smikahl also provided the Council a separate resolution to consider in case the panel decides to let the theater company keep its grant.

In other business, the Council also will decide whether to designate Mayor Elizabeth Patterson as its voting delegate to the League of California Cities annual business meeting in Los Angeles.

Kilger may become the alternate voting delegate, if the Council agrees Tuesday.

The annual conference of the League of California Cities will take place Sept. 3-5, and the business meeting will convene the last day, Kilger wrote in a May 15 report to the Council.

For the city to vote at the meeting, the Council must designate up to two delegates, he wrote. The voting delegate must be present at the meeting, so it is common to appoint an alternate so a city can have a voice in the League’s resolutions and policies.

Among the speakers this year will be Dr. Benjamin R. Barber, whose address is titled, “If Mayors Ruled the World,” the same title as his book; he contends that the future of global governance lies with cities.

Particularly in places where national leaders are unable to work cooperatively with nearby neighbors, city leaders are able to establish networks to solve local challenges, he has said. He has proposed that those partnerships could be turned into a “parliament of mayors.”

Speaker Michael Pritchard’s topic is “TEAM — Together, Everyone and Anyone Matters.” He will speak on collaboration, cooperation and connectivity, describing how they can be used to build a thriving community.

Tours, workshops and training sessions also are scheduled.

The selection of Patterson and Kilger is part of the Council’s consent calendar, made up of items that will be decided by a single vote without comment unless a member of the Council or the public request separate consideration.

The panel also will consider denying claims against the city by Tina Miller, who said she was injured while walking on the waterfront pier; and two residents, Aaron Houston and Farida Kanjani, who said city employees damaged the pressure regulator valves they installed at the residents’ homes.

The Council will meet in closed session at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to discuss legal matters. The regular meeting will start at 7 p.m. in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.