Theater, ballet groups back in good standing with city, though IRS process drags on for BOTTG

Benicia Ballet Theater finally has all its necessary paperwork to receive its city Arts and Culture Commission grant, the City Council heard this week.

But while another group, Benicia Old Town Theatre Group, has state documentation that it’s cleared as a nonprofit organization, it is waiting for Internal Revenue Service paperwork, and that agency has a long backlog.

Nonetheless, the Council decided that the theater company had endured enough hardship and that it should get its grant, too.

Agencies that receive Arts and Culture Commission grants are supposed to be recognized by both the IRS and the state of California as nonprofit organizations.

The ballet had been awarded a $3,800 grant, and the theater group, $7,240.

Had the Council voted differently, the theater’s money would have been distributed among other grantees.

The ballet group learned about its status discrepancy when the IRS said that paperwork it needed to file to maintain that status never arrived.

The company has been working since 2012 to restore its nonprofit designation; ironically, it received IRS notification before it got its California papers.

Artistic director Margaret Kenrick said the company had been told in mid-2013 the process would take three weeks. That stretched into three months.

Then the federal government went into temporary shutdown. Only recently did the final paperwork come through so the ballet group could provide copies to Diane Smikahl, public library director, who is the Arts and Culture Commission’s staff adviser.

Benicia Old Town Theatre Group’s problems began more than a year ago, when board members learned its treasury had been gutted and its financial papers were missing.

The group’s former treasurer, Kimble Goodman, was accused of embezzling the money. The case remains an active court case, but has been delayed while Goodman changed attorneys.

President Dan Clark said he hoped the matter would be resolved soon, with Goodman paying restitution to the theater company.

That resolution could come as early as today, with Goodman due in a Vallejo courtroom, or the case could be continued if another date is set, Clark said Tuesday.

Councilmember Mark Hughes said Tuesday he found four points to consider in making an exception for the theater group, which Smikahl said might not get IRS approval until the end of the year, missing a Sept. 30 deadline the Council set earlier.

Those four points were “case by case,” “common sense,” “good faith” and “unusual circumstances,” Hughes said.

He said he pondered those and reminded the rest of the Council that the theater group had been around for several decades. In fact 2014 marks its 50th year of producing plays and musicals.

“We have confirmation from the state, and it’s a long line with the IRS,” Hughes noted.

Councilmember Alan Schwartzman asked when the theater company submitted its IRS request. Clark said it went out just before the temporary federal government closure last October — just about a year behind the ballet group.

Clark explained that once the missing money was discovered, new accountants were hired to put the theater group’s financial house in order.

But the board had no documentation to give to the accountants — those papers vanished with the money, Clark said. The accountants had to reconstruct the group’s financial history before submitting papers to the IRS.

However, BOTTG got a clean bill of financial health from California’s Franchise Tax Board and the secretary of state’s and attorney general’s offices.

“We’re also thrilled,” Smikahl said.

Councilmember Christina Strawbridge said the theater group will ask members of Congress to help expedite the process with the IRS.

Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, in turn, praised Strawbridge and her husband, Scott, for their own behind-the-scenes work to bolster the acting company.

The two, she said, “have been doing an extraordinary job. That’s very uncommon.”