The enclosed open letter was sent to selected press and the Pacifica National Board on September 13, 2015
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We, the undersigned local station board candidates in the 2015 election, call on Pacifica Radio to keep their commitment to the network’s donors and send out ballots for board elections now. It has been three weeks since Pacifica announced ballots would not be mailed.
This election was postponed by board vote to August of 2014 and is now more than a year overdue. We are just a few of the more than a hundred Pacifica members across the country who have stepped up to replace board members whose terms expired more than twenty months ago and who are not sitting legitimately on Pacifica’s local and national boards, including the last two national board chairs.
Money is not being saved by delaying elections. The network is continuing to pay the salaries of six independent contractors, a national election supervisor and five local election supervisors. Election expenses are going up as a result of this delay. Pacifica cannot afford this.
With the national election supervisor identifying and contracting with an experienced online voting vendor, Pacifica can manage ballot printing and postage costs without engaging in this irresponsible and suspicious delay.
Pacifica’s public image does not benefit from the perception, or the actuality, of an unpopular board of directors clinging to their expired seats. A radio network that demands justice and accountability from others on a regular basis, must also demand these things from itself. When it’s time for a referendum on the performance of the boards of directors from the members, then it is not for that board or any of the board’s employees to thwart that referendum.
It’s way past time to hold this election.
2015 Local Station Board Candidates
Grace Aaron
Ken Aaron
Teresa Allen
Fred Blair
Sharon Brown
Bruce Caukin
Sandy Childs
Don Cook
Bill Crosier
Jim Dingeman
Ann Salisbury Doneen
Roberta Eidman
Stephen Frantz
Jaime Gomez
Jan Goodman
Frank LeFever
Ali Lexa
Jonathan Logan
Rob Macon
Carl Makower
Barbara Marbach
R. Paul Martin
Mike Mora
Eve Moser
Myla Reson
James Sagurton
T. M. Scruggs
Alex Steinberg
Kevin White
Bob Young