Baltimore calls for audit of cash-strapped BOPA as troubled agency asks for $1.8 million

Mayor Brandon Scott’s office called Thursday for an “independent forensic audit” of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, and pledged to withhold for now a requested cash infusion of $1.8 million — casting doubt on the future of the besieged event-planning agency. “The picture presented by BOPA at this afternoon’s board meeting is deeply troubling and raises more questions than it answers,” a spokesman for the mayor wrote in a prepared statement.