Berkeley – Pacifica Foundation Chief Financial Officer Sam Agarwal submitted his resignation today. Agarwal came to Pacifica in December of 2015 after the chief financial officer position had been vacant for six months following the June 2015 departure of his predecessor, Raul Salvador. Agarwal’s departure leaves the network with no executive management, following a succession of volunteer executive directors for 24 of the last 29 months.
Agarwal’s openness regarding the network’s tangled finances was noticeable, as well as the detailed financial reports he struggled to be allowed to present on the national board’s teleconferences.
His letter of resignation can be read here.
In it, he says: “I have concluded that under prevailing conditions, I cannot be effective at my job. There is a monumental amount of work to be done to pull the organization out of fiscal crisis, but I have not seen sincere efforts to do what is necessary to move forward. Although voluntary bankruptcy and re-organization may be the least desirable and most expensive option, yet with every passing day it may be the only option left because of dysfunction in the board, mismanagement and failure of leadership”.
The Pacifica National Board was busying itself with a premature annual evaluation of Agarwal’s job performance before launching a search for an execuitve director to replace former board chair Lydia Brazon. The Board will now have neither executive position filled as it faces significant challenges.
A timeline of the now two year old coup by the Siegel/Brazon faction can be seen here.
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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.
The first time I heard the word “dysfunctionality” used in a sentence was in reference to the PNB — this was 10 or 12 years ago at an NFCB conference. That was then, and this is now. And now …
Poor Sam. He tried hard. He tried to bring the dysfunction to light, he implored them time and again to develop a PLAN. But the folks on the board seem to think that PLAN is a four letter word.
Perhaps Robert’s Rules are to blame. It provides a rigorous, narrow framework suitable for decision making. What it does not do is facilitate problem-solving. The only constructive PNB meetings I’ve heard were those hosted by the renegade Bill Crosier who abandoned protocol and opened up the floor to ideas — brainstorming in effect. I really wish they would hold that kind of meeting — a kind of meeting that might produce a PLAN. In a normal meeting, half the time is consumed by talking about what to talk about. And the resulting agenda usually consists of items far removed from the problems at hand.
Now I know the PNB is just a decision making body. It is not set up to do things things like make PLANs — that’s up to committees. But don’t you see, that don’t work. It ain’t worked before and it sure ain’t gonna work now. Wait — I move that we create a Committee for Plan Development Committee. Or perhaps a Committee for Committee Improvement Committee. Oh where is there a twit-wit when you need one?
I’m an engineer by trade and by disposition. Engineering is problem solving. When there is a problem to be solved, and Pacifica clearly has a problem, brainstorming is usually the first tactic, followed by evaluation, listing pros and cons, risks and benefits — all of this resulting in a set of proposals and finally decision making. Robert’s puts the horse after the cart — the only thing you can bring forth is a Point of Something or a Motion to be decided upon. You cannot offer a suggestion, can’t say, “maybe this would work” or “here’s an idea”. You can’t have normal discourse or dialogue ’cause that is called “back and forth” which is verboten. You can’t even have a conversation.
I’m serious about this Robert’s thing. I’ve heard many times the frustration when someone has an idea they can’t present — they just want the floor and literally call for a ‘Point of Something’ to get it. When they get the floor they are required to put it in the form of a Motion and put it in writing even though the idea may be just an idea. Kindof like Hemingway — “The age demanded that we dance, and jammed us into iron pants.” That’s the rigidity of Robert’s Rules. Ok, rant off…
So how will it all play out? Dysfunctionality is a force that will not allow a recovery plan. There will be no voluntary bankrupcy ’cause that requires planning — Sam was overly optimistic. One by one the bills will go unpaid. One by one the lights will go out, the phones turned off. There will be a mass exodus when the insurance runs out. Employees will find new jobs when payroll is not paid. The courts and lawyers will be having a ball. Everything someday will be gone except silence.
But just think of all those wonderful historical microphones for sale on ebay. What am I bid?
Yep. This about says it all!