Greenway art cost big money

The controversial nonprofit that commissioned the elaborate art installation that flew over the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway last year spent more than $1.7 million to bring the project to life — a three-fold spike over its original budget that’s become a new lightning rod in how the publicly funded group manages its finances.

The cost overruns approved last year by the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy board are a focus of a recently surfaced “Greenway Whistleblowers” report that has already prompted the nonprofit to name an internal investigator to probe allegations of financial misconduct.

Among the report’s targets is the much-touted Janet Echelman art installation, a sculpture of colorful netting that soared 350 feet over the Greenway from May until last October. The Conservancy splashed a photo of it across the front cover of its latest annual report, which credited the sculpture, known as “As If It Were Already Here,” as having “brought the gardens beneath alive.”

But the report also says that the large-scale project represented the “largest increase” in its ever-expanding program budget. Its budget ultimately ballooned to $1.77 million, according to the nonprofit’s chief of staff, Michael Nichols, a more than $1.2 million hike from its initial estimate of $500,000 in 2014.

Nichols said the project was covered completely by private funds and art grants.

But the “Greenway Whistleblowers,” which claims it’s a group of past and present volunteers and staff members, slammed the overspending as the most recent example of a nonprofit that “indulges in unbudgeted projects.”

Its 20-page report accuses the conservancy of slicing the Echelman project’s costs into several vague categories — including in a $2.8 million public art budget — making it harder to determine its cost at a time when the state poured millions of dollars into the nonprofit.

“It is imperative that the right actions are taken and the appropriate changes are implemented in order to hold the Greenway at the same standards as the rest of the public-funded organizations in Massachusetts,” the report reads.

Nichols said all project costs were voted on in open meetings, and that the $2.8 million budget went toward roughly a dozen separate projects, not just the Echelman project.

Yet last Wednesday, the Conservancy’s finance and audit committee voted to name an “investigating officer” under its whistleblower policy to review the report’s allegations. Nichols said board member Bud Ris will lead the probe.

“The Conservancy is aware of the email/communication and is in the process of reviewing the details in accordance with the process set out in our policy for reviewing allegations of improper conduct,” Nichols said. “We owe it to our staff, our visitors and our stakeholders to review any allegations, as we hold ourselves to the highest standard of accounting and financial reporting.”

The Greenway Conservancy spent more than $3.5 million in taxpayer money from July 1, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2015, and expects to receive more than $2.1 million in state funding and in-kind contributions from MassDOT when the new fiscal year begins July 1.

The Herald reported this spring that the state had quietly inked a new two-year lease with the Conservancy last year, despite calls from as far back as 2012 under the Patrick administration for the nonprofit to wean itself from taxpayer support.

In a statement, MassDOT spokeswoman Jacquelyn Goddard said that the agency’s financial backing under the agreement is limited to maintenance costs, not salaries or the Echelman project. But she added that MassDOT “encourages the Greenway Conservancy to practice fiscal responsibility and control costs in their operations.”