The Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts has agreed to pay its former executive director, Donna Drew Sawyer, an $83,232 settlement in exchange for her resignation as the leader of the city’s embattled arts council.

Though Sawyer stepped down Jan. 10, four days after Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called publicly for her ouster as CEO of the arts council known as BOPA, the settlement agreement wasn’t inked until May 11. The sum is the equivalent of six months of Sawyer’s salary, according to a letter written to The Baltimore Sun by Brian D. Lyles, chairman of the arts council’s board of directors.

The board attempted “to deal with this matter in the most fair manner possible, while also attempting to accommodate the demands of city leadership,” Lyles wrote.

Sawyer, reached through her attorney, Andreas Lundstedt, declined to comment.

But emails and meeting minutes obtained by The Sun as the result of a public records request shed light on tense and often painful negotiations that went on behind closed doors regarding the circumstances surrounding Sawyer’s removal and the difficult aftermath.

Two agreements were reached, and then withdrawn. At one point, BOPA staff members raised concerns that one proposal was so costly it might prevent the organization from meeting its payroll. At another point, Sawyer threatened legal action against the quasi-governmental agency she had headed for nearly five years.

“This was an unprecedented situation that required the Board to consider many factors simultaneously,” Lyles wrote, “but most importantly, the ability of BOPA to fulfill its contractual mandate to the City of Baltimore and the citizens who benefit from its diverse programming, its support for local creatives, and the presentation of celebrated citywide festivals.”

Sawyer joined BOPA in 2017 as its chief of external affairs. She was promoted to the top job the following year upon the retirement of the agency’s original executive director, Bill Gilmore. But following the pandemic, BOPA became ensnared in a series of well-publicized gaffes that ran afoul of the Baltimore mayor and City Council.

The city’s signature public art festivals, and in particular Artscape, were slow to return following the pandemic, causing the City Council in 2022 to claw back $196,000 in funds previously allocated for events that never occurred. When BOPA did put Artscape back on the schedule, the 2023 dates announced initially would have conflicted with the high Jewish holy day of Rosh Hashanah.

Then, on Jan. 5, BOPA announced that the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade was being canceled and instead urged Baltimoreans to take part in a “day of service” to honor the slain civil rights leader. The announcement was swiftly condemned by local officials, including U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume.

The next day, BOPA issued a “statement of clarification” implying that the decision to cancel the parade had been made jointly by BOPA and Scott’s office. Four days later, Sawyer was gone.

“As you know, we are greatly appreciative of your work on behalf of BOPA and saddened by this outcome,” Lyles wrote in a Jan. 9 letter formally asking Sawyer to resign. “However, like you have said, your current relationship with the mayor’s office brings us to this point and makes the situation untenable.”

Initially, BOPA offered Sawyer its standard employee severance package of two weeks’ pay for every year worked — a sum that in Sawyer’s case would have amounted to $38,415. In addition, there was talk of hiring Sawyer as a consultant for an additional six weeks at her previous salary level to “ease the transition” between her leadership and a temporary successor.

Initially, Sawyer agreed to the settlement package, the records show.

But on Jan. 29, she sent board members a long and angry email in which she asked them to instead award her severance that was equivalent to a year’s salary, or $166,464.

“Being forced to resign and castigated by the lies of a public official so that he could save face has done [irreparable] damage to me personally and professionally,” Sawyer wrote.

“The toxicity of the entire situation that played out so publicly in the media without the BOPA board defending me has destroyed my reputation and my future. Because of fear of retaliation by the mayor, I am unable to secure another position in a field where I had distinguished myself. ... This was an abrupt and unfair fall from grace.”

Sawyer also wrote that she initially considered suing both Scott and BOPA when the controversy erupted.

“The legal advice I received concerning my options to clear my name by addressing the illicit actions of Mayor Brandon Scott and to which BOPA would be party, would result in expensive protracted litigation for everyone involved,” she wrote. “That is not something I want for the organization I poured my heart, soul, and expertise into.”

Bryan Doherty, a spokesman for Scott, did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

The BOPA board voted on Jan. 30 to grant Sawyer’s request for a full year’s compensation, public records show. But over the next several weeks, staff members expressed alarm about the strain the settlement would have placed on BOPA’s finances.

On Feb. 14, the BOPA executive board voted to rescind the promised year’s severance to Sawyer and revert instead to its original offer of 12 weeks’ severance pay plus a six-week consulting fee.

Two days later, Lyles wrote an email to BOPA’s board asking them to approve the decision to withdraw the more generous offer to Sawyer.

“The cash outlay will jeopardize BOPA’s future, as we continue to resolve our status with the mayor’s office and outlay the funds needed to maintain staff and programs, especially the planning for Artscape,” Lyles wrote. “Note: the Maryland State Art Council is holding payouts of approximately $500,000 until all is resolved with the city. Likewise, other funders are also apprehensive. … If/when details of a very large severance become public, the optics would likely end BOPA.”

Over the next few days, the full board voted over email to revert to the smaller settlement offer, as the executive committee had recommended. But when the revised severance agreement was sent to Sawyer, she balked.

She noted that the contract with the city states explicitly that neither the mayor nor City Council has the power to hire or fire BOPA staff.

“On what grounds, other than the mayor’s illicit and false demands, was I terminated as CEO of BOPA?” Sawyer asked in a March 23 email to Lyles.

“The one year of severance originally confirmed by Board vote is the only amount that approaches compensation for the destruction to my career and my reputation and the extended misery that BOPA has put me and my family through.”

One week later, after Lyles had explained BOPA’s financial predicament, Sawyer backed down and indicated that she was willing to accept the original offer of 12 weeks’ severance plus a six-week consulting fee if she could receive the money swiftly.

“My goal is not to put BOPA at financial risk but to be treated fairly in this situation,” she wrote.

But by then, she had contacted Lundstedt, her attorney, and BOPA had gotten its own legal counsel involved. Between them, the two attorneys agreed on the six-month settlement totaling $83,232.

Lyles wrote in an email to The Sun that no board vote was taken to approve the settlement because the board had previously decided to authorize its attorney to negotiate on its behalf.

“HR [BOPA’s human resources department] and I were kept informed along the way,” Lyles wrote. “The six-month settlement was more than expected, but still avoids financial strain.”