Brief snippet from KPFK local station board meeting of June 19th.
In order:
1) General manager Radford announces a plan to balance a very out of whack 2017 budget by not making any partial payments on KPFK’s 2015 $249,000 debt to its parent foundation. KPFK, due to its former fundraising prowess, has the biggest shared services fee in the five-station network. If it refuses to pay anything on the $249,000 debt Radford racked up from June to October of 2015, the radio network will be unable to pay for this year’s board election, or the 2014 or 2015 financial audits. The failure to file audits will prevent the restoration of CPB funding worth 3/4 of a million each year. Chief financial officer Sam Agarwal also reported Pacifica’s insurance carriers are demanding the audit report for 2014 and the network may lose insurance coverage if it cannot provide an audit report.
2) GM Radford reports she has been unable to hire a bookkeeper since January because the latest candidate she selected has disconnected their phone and disappeared.
3) In response to board member questions, Radford reports KPFK owes $25,000 to the Material World Foundation for mishandling a grant provided for the renovation of the station’s “Studio A”. Music director Maggie Le Pique indicate the funds were taken by Margy Wilkinson during her duration as volunteer executive director.
4) Radford indicates a goal of 35,000 sustaining members for KPFK. Sustaining members are those who agree to pay $10 or $20 monthly on an ongoing basis. When asked how many sustaining members KPFK actually had, Radford claimed 5,000 to 7,000 (a false claim also made by volunteer coordinator Adam Rice in the station’s email newsletter). Local board treasurer Fred Blair supplied the real number: 250.
5) The KPFK local station board passed a resolution declining to vote on any proposed bylaws amendments because they do not recognize the current board majority as legitimate and having the authority to approve changes to the bylaws. The motion passed with 15 affirmative votes.
I’m running in the KPFK Local Station Board Election 2016 for the 5th time. (Would you believe it?) And I know why. In my Candidate Statement I mentioned, I’m the only candidate left who hasn’t been on the board who can help fix KPFK and Pacifica’s financial woes. Which is true. Which is why my name always end up on the bottom of the KPFK Election results. I did the 6 O’clock news at KPFK. So I want to know how can I represent Pacifica in Exile in California. I can do fundraising, I can promote PIE causes. As quiet as it’s kept, I was the one who , out of frustration, contact Helen Mollick of the CPB to invest Pacifica’s practices. The CPB didn’t just decide to investigate Pacifica. Somebody had to have contact them. So If I can have an impact on an entire network, think what I can do to help change Pacifica corruption. How can I help?