Below is a response by former PNB Director Kim Kaufman to GCRC (LA wing of Siegel/Brazon faction) claims about the state of KPFK in Los Angeles, the biggest fundraiser in the 5-station Pacifica Radio network only two years ago. 

Responses to the GCRC so-called “FACT Check”

GCRC: Yes, some of the staff have been reduced to half time salaries; but NO, not all workers had their salaries halved:To deal with the current financial crisis, largely caused by a bloated payroll, staff with more than half time assignments, including those in managerial positions, were reduced to half time for a period of four months, with medical benefits fully retained.This protected the lower-paid workers.

Kaufman: This is nonsense. Everyone’s salary was cut to no more than 50% (with less than two weeks’ notice). To say “this protected the lower paid workers” is ginning up “class warfare” at KPFK. All the staff are getting low salaries for what they do. This is union-busting against the SAG-AFTRA union staff for political purposes. For a period of four months” was a lie when management said it and the GCRC repeated it. It is an even bigger lie now. What’s even worse, management, with approval of Treasurer Novick and iED and Chair of the Pacifica National Board, Lydia Brazon, is not going to purchase and send premiums to our listeners, owed to them for up to a year, if not more, in order to balance this year’s budget.

GCRC: No the measures taken were not a violation of union rights, nor an effort to undermine the staff union: As provided by contract, the union sought arbitration to which management agreed. Those whose hours were temporarily cut maintain their union membership; and retain their full medical benefits.

Kaufman: SAG-AFTRA claims KPFK management is breaking their union contract. Arbitration is expensive and is not a first step. It is the only step left when there is no good faith negotiation, which in this case came from KPFK management. KPFK collected dues from the union staff’s paychecks for six months – but did not send those dues to SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA declined to kick our staff out of the union. Since this matter became public, the union has now received those monies owed them. KPFK has been withholding seniority pay owed to staff. It is now being arbitrated.

GCRC: Yes, there is a financial crisis: Instead of maintaining the model of community-based radio with largely volunteer programmers trained and assisted by a staff of producers, the paid staffing at the station has increased steadily over the last few years. The growing payroll and overall staffing expenses have increased, even as listenership and daily listener support during fund drives dropped precipitously.

Kaufman: For ideological reasons, GCRC doesn’t like paying people unless perhaps it’s their friends. They believe people should produce shows five days a week for free. Not everyone can be like Fernando Velazquez who produces his half hour news show four or five days a week with no visible means of support. They only dislike certain programmers. The question is: why was payroll and other expenses allowed to increase with no oversight from the GCRC majority LSB? They have been in the majority for three years. No general ledger was kept for a year under the GCRC majority. There has been no permanent, qualified business manager for two years under their majority and poor, incomplete and sporadic financial reports.

GCRC: Yes, there is a democratic governance structure with a board comprised of listener-subscribers, the “owners of the station” (75%), with 25% representation of staff, both volunteer and paid staff. KPFK did not achieve quorum during the 2012 election, and the existing Board remained in place: The increasingly long fund drives and special premiums – what a former GM characterized as the sound of “shopping network” – meant that people became purchasers rather than listener-subscribers committed to the station. The other cause of extended terms on the LSB is that the former majority on the national board, then dominated by the Grace Aaron-Summer Reese bloc, voted not only to postpone the 2013 elections, but also voted to NOT include their vote in the minutes. However the audio of that Sep. 12, 2013 meeting can still be heard at kpftx.org.

Kaufman: Grace Aaron was long gone from KPFK governance by 2013. The 2013 election was postponed by the national board until 2014. There was no vote to withhold those minutes. The GCRC majority on the National Board ignored that PNB mandate and did not hold an election in 2014 with no reason given. Non-GCRC people recognize not holding an election in 2013 was a mistake despite the good faith intention that it was to fix financial problems. Unfortunately, once the extent and nature of some of the worst financial problems was discovered, management was removed, leading to the present chaos, crisis, insolvency and an investigation of Pacifica by the Attorney General of CA.

GCRC:  No elected Boards are not primarily responsible for the financial crisis: The Station Board essentially works with and advises the management on the budget, subject to final local and national board approval.

Kaufman: Sort of true except when it isn’t. Three years in a row, GCRC majority has produced and approved unbalanced budgets with from $150,000 to $1 million deficits. For the last two years, GCRC’s majority on the national board approved these deficit budgets along with their choice of management.

GCRC: Under this same democratic governance, when management was committed to community engagement and community-based radio in the past, million dollar fund drives were the rule within short time frames, and KPFK helped keep the network afloat.

Kaufman: This is going back 12 years. GCRC’s choice of management back then started the “special fund drive programming” drives that were just as heavily premium-driven as they are now. Any success was at least partially due to the high listenership in place when they took over.

GCRC: Even now, after years of strip programming and declining listenership, the democratically elected Boards proposed ways to avert the current financial crisis, including: restoring local news to regain listeners, relying on volunteers in the phone room rather than out-sourcing to a costly call-service that failed to record all premium requests, and objecting to the management budget once the fiscal year began.

Kaufman: Lack of financial reporting, LSB creating and approving bad budgets, no way to pay for local news or anything else.

GCRC: The national board mandated reducing expenses during fiscal year 2015 by $250,000 but instead of making the cuts the then interim manager added unauthorized expenditures exceeding the previously budgeted expenses.

Kaufman: No financial reporting during this GCRC’s iGM’s tenure, LSB creating and approving bad budgets in the first place.

GCRC: Yes, there is dissension and factionalism, but it is not only in the LSB. There have been factions among the staff for years, independent of the board elections: There are differences in political ideology, but these should not be insurmountable. The Grassroots Community Radio Coalition, and the Board members we have elected have a range of political views from Bernie Sanders supporters to revolutionary socialists, social democrats, to internationalists and anti-authoritarians, but we are able to work together for the good of KPFK and the cause of peace and justice.

Kaufman: But not financial solvency. And no justice, see KPFK and Pacifica: a Quiet Coup: https://www.laprogressive.com/kpfk-and-pacifica/

GCRC: There are differences around programming, both among members of the LSB and within the staff, especially around the emphasis on alternative health and spirituality programming during the fund drives. Despite differences, the entire Board has agreed on the need for restoring local news, on restoring the use of phone room volunteers during fund drives, on the need to attract new listeners and raise more funds off-air, yet previous management unilaterally moved in different directions. No, continuing the inordinate amount of fund drives is not the plan: The budget proposal for FY2016 proposes reducing on-air fund drives to 100 days from over 140. The key plan to restore the station to solvency is to attract new listeners and win back those we lost by restoring community-oriented programming. The Board has recommended financial plans that include formation of a Development Task Force to implement more off-air fund-raising. Grassroots members on the board also led in creating a Local Station Board fundraising committee (after several months of stonewalling by our opposition) and a plan for the Board to play a serious role in raising funds off-air for KPFK. In fact, with a better fund-drive plan in place, including reliance on local volunteers in the phone room, other initiatives can be implemented, such as a training program for stringers to help expand local news coverage and organizing community events both at the station and at community venues throughout Southern California.

Kaufman: See analysis of the GCRC’s budget below. It calls for 200 days of fund drive. And there will still be a deficit. The off-air fundraising plans is smoke and mirrors. It has never raised significant money for KPFK. The accounting for any of these events has been less than transparent, despite policies put in place for how to do it – which some GCRC folks objected to.

GCRC: Yes, we agree with Sonali Kolhatkar when she writes: “There is a public hunger for the kind of commercial-free programming that KPFK offers: analysis that indicts capitalism for the ills of climate change, calls out police brutality, prioritizes the victims of war over the desires of warmongers and showcases struggles for social and political justice. If only she would stop exploiting her self-interest. If only she would willingly share “her airtime.If only she would be truthful.

Kaufman: The above shows the resentment for the GCRC for some of the targeted programmers on their removal list. Union-busting is not the way to make programming changes.

GCRC: This is a rebuttal and a clarification at the same time – we mean neither to react to nor demonize our opponents. What you can expect from the members of our coalition is that we will act as steadfast stewards of KPFK with a commitment to bringing in the voices of our diverse communities! With that understanding, we ask that you vote for all eighteen GCRC endorsed candidates; rate them according to your own preference from #1 to #18 (and please remember to include the two write-in candidates).

Kaufman: The alternate to the insolvency the GCRC has inflicted on KPFK in the last three years (whether by incompetence or willful malfeasance) is to vote for the candidates on www.candidateslate.org.