Originally posted June 25, 2015
Berkeley – The Pacifica National Board, after 15 months of ad-hoc legal consultation, is moving ahead with appointing a corporate counsel. Unfortunately, the fix appears to be in for the law firm of former board member Dan Siegel. Siegel and Yee has been an active factional entity within Pacifica for years, sending three of the firm’s employees to the KPFA local station board in the last six years as listener representatives with the Save KPFA group. Jose-Luis Fuentes, a Siegel and Yee associate from 2002-2014, is on the search committee appointed by the board, despite his 12 years of employment at one of the applicant firms.
Siegel, who twice served as Pacifica’s interim executive director in the last decade, has cut a destructive swath through Pacifica’s post-democratization history including being pitched off an LA-based sexual harassment case by insurance provider Chartis for trying to represent at the same time both Pacifica and a manager accused of multiple incidents of lesbian harassment (Eva Georgia), solely negotiating the 2007 Democracy Now contract renewal which many hold responsible for Pacifica’s severe financial problems, firing elections supervisor Casey Peters in 2007-8, replacing him with himself and then harassing Peters and his wife at their personal residence, and running an alterna-fundaiser to divert listener pledges from KPFA/Pacifica to the Save KPFA faction. Siegel has expressed support for the sale of WBAI’s license and coined the term “organizational darwinism” to support the concept that not all five of the Pacifica stations should continue to operate.
Depositions filed in support of the petition to disqualify Siegel and Yee from further representation of Pacifica Radio in court can be read here.
A corporate counsel is supposed to provide equilateral service to all the members of the board of directors and provide impartial legal advice to the board of directors, while managing all litigation activities across the country.
National board member Jose Luis Fuentes continues to sit on KPFA’s local station board and represent KPFA on the national board despite moving to Los Angeles 4 months ago. Fuentes has not stepped down from his position as a KPFA delegate, although he announced at the national board meeting that he was now a “member” of KPFK-Los Angeles and made a $1,000 donation to the LA station last month. Fuentes is the third delegate on KPFA’s local board who does not live in the station’s signal area, joining Save KPFA members Burton White and Kate Gowen who reside in Oregon.
At the June 16 national finance committee meeting, ED John Proffitt reported the 2013 audit (completed in March of 2015) cost an additional $65,000 (on top of the $70,000 originally charged) which Pacifica has not paid. (Total audit fees for the FY2010 audit were $66,000). Armanino will not start the 2014 audit until Pacifica pays the additional $65,000. Proffitt stated the national office cannot pay the money in a “lump sum”.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and State of California Registry of Charitable Trusts deadline for the submission of the completed audited financial statements is June 30, 2015 – 9 months after the close of the last fiscal year.
The first week of new KPFK-Los Angeles manager Leslie Radford’s tenure, which closed out KPFK’s month-long fund drive, was a disaster, booking only $67,000 in receipts for the period June 1 to June 5, barely a third of the station’s weekly fund drive goals. Per statements given out at the national board meeting, KPFK joined east coast stations WBAI and WPFW in the “less than $75,000 in the bank” club as of May 31st, a disturbing situation to be in right after the Spring fund drive cycle.
Even KPFA, the beneficiary of several bequests, was surprisingly low on cash after a fund drive booking about $525,000 in pledges and the receipt of $941,000 in bequests a month ago for a total of $1.45 million. The station reported cash in bank at May 31st at less than $700,000.
Pacifica in Exile readers may write to the board at pnb@pacifica.org.
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Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica’s storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin’s incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.