Originally posted March 24, 2014
Berkeley-Today’s resumption of what passes for the work week at Pacifica Radio was chaotic. Here’s our best summary of what ensued.
A link to the request for an investigation filed at the CA Attorney General by 8 former National Board members on March 23rd can be found here.
Despite a March 20th Board of Directors vote to re-hire recently-resigned KPFK general manager Bernard Duncan into the interim executive director slot, alleged board chair Margy Wilkinson sent out this email today to network staffers:
Greetings: I want to thank the staff of Pacifica and the staff at each of the five stations for their hard work to keep the Pacifica Foundation functioning and moving forward. The Pacifica National Board voted to release Summer Reese by majority vote. A vote of the majority is a vote of the board. At this point I am acting Executive Director of Pacifica. Moving forward the board is currently engaged in appointing an Interim Executive Director to provide stability to the organization.
The email seems to indicate a hitch in the hire of Duncan, whose name, although he was the only candidate presented to the Board of Directors on March 20th, has still not been released publicly by the Board. Board members have not been informed what the status is of the re-hire. A request to Wilkinson to clarify was not responded to.
Board member Jose-Luis Fuentes, who works at the law firm Siegel and Yee, was on the telephone to Bank of America today seeking to change signature authority on network bank accounts. To change the authorized signatures on bank accounts is usually done formally via a vote of the full board. Fuentes was informed by Bank of America such a change would require a set of approved minutes recording a board resolution to change the authorized signatories marked with the corporate seal. The bank notified the national office of the request made and their denial. The Board has issued no minutes from any board meeting and has not filled the position of board treasurer in the past seven weeks.
Another request to strip alarm codes from the workers in national headquarters was also denied by the alarm company vendor, although it caused stress to national employees who described themselves as being “driven crazy” by their attempts to do their jobs with constant interference from the board and it’s conflict with the executive director.
A legal pleading to uphold the signed employment contract is expected to be filed quite soon.
At the end of last week, a Pacifica’s administrative manager, Tamika Miller, called for a long overdue office clean up and scheduled a routine shredding of papers which had been scanned & filed electronically. When Margy Wilkinson saw the shredding truck pull up at the Pacifica Office on Monday, she confronted the Tamika. The discussion grew heated and caught the attention of a nearby policeman.
Although early reports from inside the national office, where it was impossible for the occupants to hear what was going on outside, sounded potentially alarming, this incident pretty much fizzled into nothing. The basket of paper waste that started all the trouble is photographed here by Oakland photographer Scott Braley. Fortunately the verbal altercation between the alleged chair and foundation’s administrative manager Tamika Miller over the shredding pick-up did not spiral out of control. Officer Ceretti of the Berkeley PD spoke with both Wilkinson and Reese, ascertained that no weapons were on the premises, and appears to have merely filed a report.
3-24-14