Originally posted June 16, 2014
Berkeley-The Pacifica Foundation is swapping out executive directors again, as temporary interim Bernard Duncan prepares to depart to his native New Zealand, apparently to be replaced by board chair Wilkinson as the 4th executive director in the last 4 months. Wilkinson, who has cited her own lack of qualifications, is a disputed board chair, and a holdover on the national board as her elected three year term as a KPFA delegate ran out in December of 2013. Duncan has requested not to return to Berkeley from Los Angeles and to exit his appointed position totally by July 5th.
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The board’s personnel committee met for the first time all year on Monday evening. They did not engage in a search for a new executive, but instead Jose Luis Fuentes of Save KPFA attempted to remove the authorization of the executive director position to hire station managers, the chief financial officer and national office staff and vest all hiring in the Pacifica National Board itself, badly breaching the line between boards of directors and the chief operating officer of an organization.
The board majority has missed deadlines for securing an election coordinator by 3 1/2 months and for opening nominations for replacement board members by two weeks. Nominations were supposed to open on June 1st. Two candidates for the election coordinator position have not had any response to their pending applications nor been interviewed.
A petition to keep the network together by the Pacifica Directors for Good Governance-affiliated directors has gathered hundreds of signatures in days from foundation members who do not want to see the network disassembled by the slim majority on the board. Their voluntary comments, ranging from anger to anguish, point to the network’s ongoing importance and the deep love many have for it.
A sampling of their comments is below:
The Pacifica stations are all we have. Do everything to preserve Pacifica.
This is a hostile takeover by enemies of the Pacifica foundation. Why are they allowed to be members of the foundation?
A small group within Pacifica has been working against the interests of the network for years. But, having gained a slim majority on the Pacifica Board, this group is now working to bring the network down as rapidly as it can and to convert whatever is left into a corporatized, politically centrist NPR-like organization. They cannot be allowed to do this. Pacifica is the only national network of progressive, community-oriented media outlets left in the US. We need to support the PDGG however we can to preserve Pacifica’s five-station network.
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I’ve been a regular listener/supporter of Pacifica since the Iran-Contra Hearings. The network is a public resource of incalculable value, and must not be broken up or asset-stripped at the whim of a minority in the Pacifica community.
Thank you for making participation in this cause accessible to the little people, and thank you for fighting this most important battle.
Clean up the board, amend the by-laws if necessary and restore fiscal responsibility. And resist all efforts to weaken Pacifica. The carving up and selling off of assets will surely line the pockets of unscrupulous predators and gift the right wing an undeserved victory. I personally believe Summer Reese should be reinstated with full compensation … asap.
KPFA has always been a lifeline to me. I am devastated that after what we went through in 1999 that we again have a hostile takeover of the network. The transparency and democratic processes we were guaranteed have vanished. Our 8AM show which was local and covered issues of interest for our Bay Area listener community was removed during pledge time and over the memorial day weekend. A non-local show was put in its place and we have lost greatly.
Who will hear us if New York loses the only true open broadcast not controlled by corporate desire to plunder our freedom? WBAI is a moral obligation, not something to be sold off for greed of others. It is irreplaceable.
Considering the very high profile of Pacifica (like the lone hero sticking the head out of the foxhole) and the utter absence of stations like the one’s that belong to it, there is a strong whiff of collusion between the rogue members and outside corporate influences that would love to silence Pacifica. This is my immediate suspicion. Defend the stations at all cost, and contact me further if I can help. I’ve called Siegel’s answering machine, and urge others to contact him, and for all those who are grateful for the presence of Pacifica to join this cause. Hands off OUR stations.
Comments by members of the Siegel/Brazon faction, which sits in a slim majority on the Pacifica National Board can be observed in informal online communications. In a Facebook discussion group, KPFA local station board member Kate Gowen called for the “amputation” of New York’s WBAI from the national radio network and former KPFA general manager Andrew Phillips declared “the East Coast stations are toast. Cut em loose”.
Andrew Leslie Phillips Of course the east coast stations are toast. Cut em loose. It’s over. Save what works and the east coast stations don’t. Fuck sentimentality.
Kate Gowen I don’t have any hope left to lose with regard to WBAI; my concern is that the dysfunction pioneered there is NOT going to stop there, and that even amputation will not stop its spread.
There has been no response from the board regarding the re-filing date for the erroneous 990/199 filings nor has the annual audit begun. A million dollars in Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding appears to be gone forever. The 2014 cycle should have resulted in initial payments to the 5 Pacifica stations in May of 2014, after completion of the audit by April of 2014, six months after the end of the last fiscal year.
This summary of 7 Reasons Why Pacifica Needs An Investigation breaks out the reckless and irresponsible actions of the 2014 board. A complaint filed with the California Attorney General by 8 former board members can be found here.
At KPFA in Berkeley, the founding station of the 5 Pacifica stations, a 5-hour local station board meeting occurred on June 14th. Despite the length of the meeting, no actions were taken by the board at all, but the meeting provided an up close and personal look at the state of Pacifica.
An impassioned public comment session at the beginning of the meeting spoke to community anger at the removal of local programming for a syndicated program from Los Angeles (after the first speaker, every single speaker following cited their strong objections to the move). The public comment session can be heard here. The program change has already elicited a slew of letters of condemnation from the San Francisco Labor Council, ILWU Local 10, the Golden Gate Letter Carriers Union,Veterans for Peace, the Gray Panthers and the Richmond Progressive Alliance.
A series of community events discussing the program grid change and the state of the network will be held in Northern California including:
KPFA’s local board also failed to vote on a resolution brought by SF Labor Council delegate, former Ramparts editor and KPFA local station board member David Welsh.
The resolution states: “Resolution that the KPFA LSB strongly recommends that the Pacifica National Board explicitly adopt the following written policy: That under no circumstances will the broadcast licenses of the five stations that comprise the Pacifica radio network be put up for sale or lease”.
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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.