I strongly oppose any plan to remove the grant programs from the Council on Culture & Artsand place them under Leon County administration or the tourism department.

 This is not simply an administrative change. It is a decision that could weaken one of the most effective, accountable, and community-centered funding systems that makes Leon County great.

 As a former grant programs manager for COCA, I worked closely with Leon County staff for years to build and ensure a rigorous funding process that continues to this day. I am proud that COCA's grant funding application and review process was run with even more detailed, rigorous, and demanding scrutiny than the Leon County tourism funding process.

Arts and culture organizations are not simply handed public money. Every year, COCA brings in new outside evaluators to review grant applicants to evaluate financial sustainability, responsible management, strong leadership, operational planning, program effectiveness, community impact, long-term viability, and tourism impact.

These organizations demonstrate, year after year, that they are financially viable and responsibly managed. They submit budgets, narratives, documentation, plans, outcomes, and evidence of public value and tourism impact. They demonstrate not only that their programming was impactful, but that their organizations manage public funds responsibly.

I fully support government accountability. Public dollars should always be handled with transparency and care. But Tallahassee’s arts organizations have already been operating under a demanding system of accountability for years.  COCA understands that system. COCA knows these organizations. COCA works with them regularly, not just during grant season, but throughout the year. It understands their missions, their challenges, their audiences, their finances, and their role in the larger cultural economy of the region.

That kind of expertise matters.

While these organizations have always promoted tourism, they are not tourism organizations. They support cultural development, community engagement, education, neighborhood vitality, economic development, and community identity. COCA is far better positioned to evaluate the full scope of what arts organizations contribute to the Tallahassee and Leon County economy. 

 Finally, and perhaps most importantly, COCA is a nonprofit organization that has been carefully, professionally, and independently managing grant funding on behalf of the City of Tallahassee and Leon County since it was founded in 1985. That independence is not incidental. It is essential.
Keeping the funding process outside direct county administration helps protect it from unnecessary politicization. Grant decisions should not be subject to the shifting priorities, personal preferences, or political pressures of elected officials. Given its 40-year track record and history of responsible and rigorous grant management, COCA is much better suited than the tourism department to independently manage all the county’s tourism grant dollars, instead of the other way around.

 Removing grant administration from COCA would not make the process stronger. It would risk making it less informed, less independent, and more political. Leon County should continue its proud tradition of investing in its arts infrastructure that makes the region a great destination, not weakening the organization best equipped to support it.

COCA’s management of the grant funding is essential to the continued health and vibrancy of the Leon County arts and culture community. Remember the words of Joni Mitchell’s ballad, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” Don’t let them pave paradise to put up a parking lot.

 That is why this funding should remain with COCA. 

Kevin Carr is the former grant programs manager for the Council on Culture & Arts. He is still very involved in supporting arts organizations in the Tallahassee area.

See the full story from theTallahassee Democrat here.

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