Questions swirl around the Regional Arts Commission

The biggest funder of arts in St. Louis is under scrutiny. The Regional Arts Commission (RAC), established by Missouri lawmakers in 1985 to distribute grants for arts and culture, is now the subject of a state performance audit after whistleblower complaints alleging excessive staffing expenses and bonuses. Host Jacob Kirn sits down with reporter Jim Drew to unpack what's going on — from questions about how RAC classifies its administrative spending to stay under a legally mandated 15% cap, to CEO Vanessa Cooksey's total compensation exceeding $200,000, to more than $841,000 spent on travel and consultants over three years. They also dig into life event gifts made with tax dollars, a $24,000 grant with ties to former Mayor Tishaura Jones, and a previously unreported effort to secure a share of the Zoo Museum District property tax. State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick expects to complete his review by the end of 2026.

Show links:

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2026/03/16/regional-arts-commisson-travel-zoo-museum-district.html

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2026/03/06/state-investigation-targets-regional-arts-grant-to.html

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2026/03/12/rac-weighs-gift-policy.html

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2026/03/03/state-auditor-probes-regional-arts-commission.html

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

This is the Art City Report. Your weekly dive into the biggest stories from the St. Louis Business Journal about business and everything else in the whole of the Gateway Art. Sponsored by Meryville University.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

I'm Jacob Kern. The biggest funder of arts in St. Louis is the Regional Arts Commission. Missouri Lawmakers set that up in 1985 to distribute grants for arts and culture. It gets about 27% of a 3.5% hotel-motel sales tax in the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County. For the Regional Arts Commission, that came out to$7.5 million in 2024. But there are now questions about how the Regional Arts Commission has been run. The Missouri Auditor is probing the agency, and we have found expenditures from the Regional Arts Commission that appear inconsistent with its mission. Joining me now to talk about that is reporter Jim Drew, who has been covering this issue. Welcome, Jim. Thank you. So first, I think we should give people an idea of what RAC is. So what did the state statute that that set it up as something that gets public money, what did it say?

SPEAKER_04 1:31

The state law was that RAC was created to distribute funding to nonprofit organizations and individual artists for activities in St. Louis City and St. Louis County. It's a 501c3, but it may be best described as a quasi-governmental agency because it distributes and spends tax money. And the state law required that RAC would be audited annually and that there is a 15% cap on the amount of annual revenue that RAC can spend on administrative or staffing expenses.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

What kind of projects does it fund? Just giving people an idea. What kind of culture and arts are we talking about?

SPEAKER_04 2:08

Over the past 40 years, RAC has awarded thousands of grants, totaling about$100 million. Major recipients have included the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Shakespeare Festival, the Muni, but it also awards dozens of smaller grants to support artists in St. Louis City and County. And RAC says the grantees offer entertainment, educational, and community building programs with creative disciplines, including theater, music, dance, and visual arts.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

But just thinking about what it is, where it is, it's run by a woman named Vanessa Cooksie. Yes. And she has a staff of people and they have an office. Can you help us uh understand where it is and those details?

SPEAKER_04 2:54

In terms of Vanessa Cooksie, she became the CEO in 2020. It is a small agency in that it has 12 employees. Three of those are consultants. And they have operating revenue in 2024 of about$13.7 million. In addition to the$7.5 million from the hotel-motel sales tax, it received$6.2 million in contributions and other revenue, which is primarily funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA, and an anonymous donor. And administrative expenses totaled about$13.4 million in 2024.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

So normally it's not getting ARPA money, and really vast majority is from this hotel tax. And the hotel tax also pays operations for the entity that runs the convention center. Sure. In terms of what has been going on with RAC recently, what has happened with the state auditor? He's a Republican. His name is Scott Fitzpatrick.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

Yeah, on March 3rd, he announced that his office had launched a performance audit of RAC to determine if it misused taxpayer dollars.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

And what is a performance audit? My understanding is that the state auditor does not automatically regularly review RAC. There are certain things where the state auditor does review them regularly, but I'm not aware of the state auditor reviewing RAC in my recent memory.

SPEAKER_04 4:26

Correct. A performance audit goes beyond a financial audit by examining how an organization operates in terms of compliance with laws, efficiency, and effectiveness. And Auditor Fitzpatrick said that what led to the investigation his office began last December was prompted by whistleblower complaints alleging excessive staffing expenses and bonuses in violation of the Missouri Constitution.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Yeah, because just to remind people here, the state statute that set up this agency said that they can spend what percentage on administrative expenses of the tax money or of their total money?

SPEAKER_04 5:06

Yeah, it's up to 15% is the cap.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

But what seems to have happened is that there are competing definitions of what an administrative expense is.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

Yeah, Auditor Fitzpatrick mentioned this on March 3rd, and what he indicated was that it appears that CAP was exceeded, and that RAC may have improperly classified spending on administrative uses as program expenses. So he's indicated that he's going to give RAC the opportunity to explain how they divided those expenditures between programs and administration.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

So what that could mean, just to in layman's terms, would be I have people on my staff, but in terms of my audit that Rack is producing itself, the Regional Arts Commission, they're not taking that personnel cost and counting it as administrative cost. Would that be the correct? Yeah, that's the issue there. Okay. Then on the bonuses, the state auditor, on the day that he said he's going to do this audit, he asserted right away that the Regional Arts Commission has paid bonuses to staff in violation of the Missouri Constitution. So what's going on there?

SPEAKER_04 6:26

The RAC is covered by the Missouri Constitution on bonuses. Why is that? Because they're functioning as a governmental entity by collecting and spending taxpayers' dollars. And what does the constitution say? The constitution says public employees can't receive bonuses.

SPEAKER_03 6:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

And we have reported that at least three employees have listed compensation, which was labeled other compensation. And so the question is whether that is the bonuses that Auditor Fitzpatrick has referred to.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Yeah, and in that category in IRS tax filings, it can include other types of compensation too. So we don't know that those are these alleged bonuses. One thing to keep in mind, the the leader of RAC, Vanessa Cooksie, got total compensation well in excess of$200,000. Right. So that's one thing.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

It's a good point because the IRS says that retirement and health plan payments can be included in that other compensation.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

Other things that that came out early was that in the auditor's demand letter of the Regional Arts Commission, he actually mentioned one of its grants that it had already made, and he wanted more information about that grant. What was it?

SPEAKER_04 7:47

So there was one grant, as you mentioned, listed, and that was to uh Corin Bolden, who has a company called Bold Moves Worldwide. His company received a$24,000 grant for the Rack Interarts Fall 2023 workshop. And essentially what that was is he is a motivational speaker in St. Louis and he visited five schools. Uh each of them received a$1,000 grant to their art departments to quote further foster healthy artwork projects according to a public document. The question then would be what the remaining part of that grant was spent on. And that we have not gotten word on that yet.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

In other words, with the$24,000 grant, we don't know for sure how much this Karan Bolden would have received from the Regional Arts Commission for this motivational speaking at schools. Right. And Mr. Bolden has ties to former mayor Tashara Jones, does he not?

SPEAKER_04 8:51

He does. He does. He uh introduced her at the State of the City address, and he referred to her as a friend whom he had known since she served as city treasurer. He also has basically talked to her just and referred to her as a big sister.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

And her final day in office, of course, she lost re-election last year in 2025. She declared her final day in office Coran Bolden Day. Right. She appointed, I think, six members of the Regional Arts Commission. So we wanted to know what she knew or understood about this grant that the state auditor is now seeking more information about. She didn't respond to us, but she did take to social media later and criticize us. And in one of the comments, she said that she had nothing to do with any of this. Something else, Jim, that came out was that Rack has given gifts, looks like personal gifts to people who are associated with Rack, board members, et cetera. What did those records show?

SPEAKER_04 9:55

So this record showed the state auditor had mentioned referred to these as life event gifts. And these are basically gifts for funerals and weddings. RAC now is considering implementing a policy that would place spending limits on these gifts because the records show that the nonprofit made expenditures for those purposes.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

One stood out to me in particular was to the chief of staff of State Senator Brian Williams, who could become the next St. Louis County executive. That individual sits on the Rack board. And what did he get from Rack?

SPEAKER_04 10:34

So in 2024, Rack paid$1,180 to go fund me for memorial to that commissioner's wife who had passed away suddenly. And he is chief of staff for Senator Williams.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

Yeah, and for that gift and for some of the others that have been in our that report, we didn't get a response from anyone who had received the gift or really from RAC explaining why they would do that with tax money. All we know is that they are now considering a gift policy when they did not have one before. The gift policy would cap gifts at$300, and they'd have to go to full-time staff of the Regional Arts Commission, which I guess would rule out these gifts to people who are just associated, board members, et cetera. Correct, correct. We'll be right back after this message.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

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SPEAKER_03 12:11

The state auditor is reviewing the Regional Arts Commission, but we've done so too. In looking through its expenditures the last few years, Jim, what did you find?

SPEAKER_04 12:22

From over the past three years, RAC has spent an estimated$841,000 on travel and consultants. And we found that some of those expenditures appear inconsistent with the group's mission.

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Yeah, one of those categories I would say was personal travel expenditures for the CEO, Vanessa Cookesy. What were those?

SPEAKER_04 12:47

Those were she attended four conferences. And the biggest, I think the issue or the question there is she was a fellow for a nonprofit group called the Eisenhower Fellowships. And this was in 2016. She participated in that and traveled overseas to Japan and Rwanda. She then attended three conferences held by the Eisenhower Fellowship, one in San Francisco and then two of them in Philadelphia. And Rack spent about$7,500 on that. The other one was she her biography on the Rack website says she's a proud member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. And last year Rack spent$2,000 for her to attend the Delta Sigma Theta National Convention in Washington, D.C.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

You mentioned consultants and travel expenditures over$800,000 over three years. 131,000 of that was in travel for 35 trips out of the area for RAC employees. In particular, there was one where they had sent 10 people to Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

Yes, that occurred in 2023. And there was questions about why they needed to send 10 people. And Rack essentially said that this was an event which was held by a grantmaking group, and that this was a way for employees to make connections and network and learn more about grant making.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

Yeah. So if 131,000 of that is travel, then really the vast majority of it is in consultant fees. We found some that appeared regular, normal type consultant work that smaller nonprofits might do, HR IT type work, but we didn't include that in that total. What types of other consultants have they been contracting with?

SPEAKER_04 14:55

One contract went to a Washington, D.C. firm that was founded by a former Democratic elected official. RAC was looking for ways to generate more resources. And one avenue that they looked into was Pine Street Strategies, which was founded by Don Callaway, former member of the Missouri House of Representatives, and worked at Anheuser Busch InBev, where he led the Federal Congressional Regulatory Affairs Group. RAC did contract with Pine Street, and it was, according to public records, to create a 2024 ballot initiative that, if passed, would have entitled RAC to receive a and quote, equal share of the St. Louis Regional Zoom Museum tax. And residents in St. Louis City and St. Louis County now pay a property tax rate of 6.67 cents per 100 of assessed valuation to support that district.

SPEAKER_03 15:49

Yeah, and I thought this was kind of one of the bigger revelations in this piece this week. If you think about it, it would depend how this ballot initiative would be worded. And of course, this never advanced. Right. But if it were not a tax increase, but merely putting RAC into the Zoo Museum District, and the Zoo Museum District funds the St. Louis Zoo, it funds the major city museums that you think about in Forest Park, and it also funds the Botanical Garden. If there would not be a tax increase, but there would have been a ballot initiative that it would have gone to voters asking to give RAC in a quote unquote equal share, as you say, those other institutions would lose significant sums of money. So I thought that was interesting. Again, summarizing that RAC has a dedicated tax funding source now, which is 27% of the hotel motel tax. They were seeking an equal share of the Zoo Museum District property tax that all city and St. Louis County property tax holders pay. So that was quite interesting. In terms of all this, what has Rack's response been to the state auditor and to our findings on their expenditures? What have they said?

SPEAKER_04 17:05

Rack really has not gone into great detail about the state auditor's performance audit. We received a statement from them about our story, which basically said regarding travel and consulting expenses, RAC employs external expertise and professional development opportunities when suitable to support its mission and follow best practices and arts funding, nonprofit governance and organizational management. All such costs adhere to the organization's established financial approval procedures. And that was a statement from the chair of the Board of Commissioners for REC, Tino O'Hoa.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

Well, it'll be interesting to see whether the appointing authorities keep things the same in terms of St. Louis City, the mayor, and the St. Louis County executive in terms of who's sitting on that board and what they're charged with doing. And we'll be watching this story because it'll be critical, I think, to see how arts are funded in St. Louis or whether things change, or if there's going to be change in this agency, the state auditor has said that he could be complete with his work by the end of 2026. That's it for this week's episode. Thanks to our guest, Jim Drew. To read Jim's coverage of this issue, see the links included in the show notes, or you can visit St. Louis Business Journal.com. As always, thank you to our supporting sponsor, Maryville University. We'll be back with you again next week.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Learn more about these stories in what we discussed in this episode at the St. Louis Business Journal Online, which is businessjournals.com slash St. Louis. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Art City Report Podcast series. New episodes released every week. Subscribe wherever you get new podcasts. If you like this episode, believe it's a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.