State of Colorado looks to recapture $828,000 in grant money given to Opus Creative Industries

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment says the nonprofit that ran Opus Creative Industries before it abruptly closed last week spent roughly half of a $1.7 million workforce innovation grant on costs that state officials “disallowed” due to alleged lack of proper documentation. Now, the state is seeking reimbursement.

Opus, operating under the nonprofit Colorado Springs Community Cultural Collective run by local arts advocate Linda Weise, provided training to early childhood providers, culinary arts students and media technology trainees. The Collective also worked on an overhaul of City Auditorium but ended the contract in fall 2023 due to fundraising problems.

The Pikes Peak Workforce Center, which administered the state grant, said in a statement that the agency “firmly denies any allegations of wrongdoing or mishandling of funds” and blamed the problem on the Collective’s failure to provide traditional timesheets to document worker hours.

It’s the latest financial problem to emerge for Opus. Shortly after the Independent published a story on March 28, Weise issued a release saying the Opus programs would shutter March 31.

The Independent’s report documented through public records and interviews that the Opus operation appeared to be under severe financial strain, evidenced by bounced paychecks to workers, nonpayment of vendor bills and past-due rent of more than $52,445, according to a “Demand for Payment of Rent or Possession” posted on its front door on Jan. 15, 2025.

The story also reported complaints from workers, who said they were unhappy with training they said didn’t meet their expectations.

Opus’ release said public money had dried up, leading to the closure, and quoted the board chair Deborah Hendrix as saying that “conversations are underway with interested industry and education partner agencies regarding assuming the programs.”

The Collective was formed in 2020 by Weise to redesign City Auditorium, a 100-year-old arts and community meeting venue downtown. After the Collective spent millions of tax dollars and donated funds, Weise ended the agreement in fall of 2023, saying she was unable to raise the estimated $85 million required to overhaul the facility.

She then focused on the Opus programs, which were spinoffs of the Collective and were partially funded with a workforce innovation grant.

STATE REVIEW

The grant money at issue, nearly $1.7 million, came from the American Rescue Plan Act via the state. The county gave an additional $700,000 through other programs. The city allocated $2.4 million from its American Rescue Plan Act funds, along with another $250,000 of local tax money, to the Collective.

While a city spokesperson says the city did not audit the nonprofit’s expenditures, the state conducted a “monitoring review” of the Workforce Center that spanned Sept. 13 to Oct. 4, 2024. (A Workforce Center spokesperson previously said the grant money ran out when the last reimbursement was made to the nonprofit in late November 2024.)

“This review revealed numerous compliance issues pertaining to federal Uniform Guidance … and State fiscal rules for the various programs provided by PPWC and subrecipient CSCC (Opus Creative Industries),” a Colorado Department of Labor and Employment spokesperson told the Independent via email.

That review concluded that “$828,371.78 of disallowed costs were found to have been awarded to Opus Creative Industries,” the state’s spokesperson says, adding that state Labor Department and Colorado Workforce Development Council officials “have been working closely with PPWFC [the Workforce Center] to establish appropriate corrective actions and a repayment plan for the disallowed costs.”

The state spokesperson said “disallowed costs” are those that cannot be reimbursed by the grant program and must be paid with non-federal funds.

The state’s review looked at 24 invoices that totaled $1,321,568.14, and officials identified that $828,371.78 of the costs weren’t allowed. Those included payment for employee salaries without proper documentation, paid internships and apprenticeships, program and student supplies, incentives, and administrative costs, such as payroll processing fees, the state spokesperson said.

The Collective, the spokesperson noted, has non-profit status but invoiced for taxes, “which are not an allowable cost.” (Generally, nonprofits don’t pay taxes.)

After the review was concluded last fall, “We took immediate action to hold the recipient accountable and protect the use of these tax dollars,” the state spokesperson said.

The Workforce Center provided a letter written on its behalf by an attorney to the state agency. The March 19 letter focuses on how workers’ hours were documented.

The letter cites the state’s refusal to accept affidavits of “time and effort” signed by employees rather than time sheets as documentation for hours worked. Specifically, it states that “a third-party recipient [the Collective] failed to properly generate documentation with respect to time spent by personnel who were awarded funds….”

Attorney Benjamin Hase, of Denver, also notes in his letter a lack of specific guidance from the state about what type of documentation was acceptable and argues that affidavits from employees providing “detailed accounts of work performed” should be acceptable.

In a statement, the Workforce Center notes that besides the affidavits, the agency offered other things provided by Opus as evidence, including employee declarations, calendars, and “detailed case notes” maintained by the Opus employees.

“These case notes specifically detail the training activities provided to their clients, clearly substantiating the employees’ time, effort, and scope of work performed under the grant,” the Workforce Center statement said.

Hase’s letter proposes that the Workforce Center engage in a “corrective action plan.”

“A reasonable resolution could involve enhanced record-keeping procedures for future compliance rather than an unnecessary financial penalty,” the letter states.

Additionally, Workforce Center spokesperson Becca Tonn said via email the matter is ongoing; thus, it’s not yet known what the source of the money to be paid back would be, or whether it will be repaid. She also noted the Workforce Center notified the nonprofit’s board chair and Weise of the dispute on Dec. 17, 2024.

CITY MONEY

After the Independent’s story was published online on March 28, Weise told The Gazette that the nonprofit had outstanding debts of more than $250,000 but that the city still owes the Collective $250,000.

Asked about that, the city denied any additional funds are due to the Collective.

City spokesperson Vanessa Zink points to the last amendment to the contract with the Collective, signed by then-Mayor John Suthers on Dec. 6, 2022, and by Weise on Dec. 7, 2022. That change called for the city to pay the Collective $250,000 from the city’s general fund, which is supported by local taxes, in addition to the $2.4 million in ARPA money previously committed. The Collective, in turn, submitted an invoice for $250,000 to the city the next day, Dec. 8, 2022, and the city paid the invoice on Dec. 16, 2022, Zink said.

The December 2022 agreement notes that no future contributions will be made without a written agreement and that “the City is under no obligation or requirement to make any such future contributions.”

Despite that, the nonprofit sent the city an invoice on July 20, 2023, seeking $250,000, but the city refused to pay it, Zink says. (Mayor Yemi Mobolade was sworn into office in June 2023.)

In an email to Deputy Chief of Staff Ryan Trujillo dated Nov. 28, 2023 — after Weise ended the agreement with the city — Weise claimed the city owed the extra $250,000, citing a meeting earlier in the year among her, the Collective’s board members, then-Chief of Staff Jeff Greene and then-economic development official Bob Cope. “The CSCCC [the Collective] was asked to submit the invoice for payment for community events in 2023,” Weise wrote. “These funds were separate from the initial $250K awarded for 2022 events.”

The Collective’s board Chair Hendrix and Weise did not respond to questions for this story.

Pam Zubeck has covered the Pikes Peak region since 1993. Send news tips to [email protected].