Originally posted March 24, 2014
Berkeley-A bar complaint has been filed in Pennsylvania against the vice chair of the Pacifica National Board, Tony Norman. Norman, a listener representative from the DC station, WPFW, has been criticized by some for not disclosing when he ran for the board that he was an elected commissioner in Washington DC. The bar complaint, filed in Pennsylvania as Norman is a member of the PA bar, relates to legal papers prepared by Norman on behalf of WPFW-FM’s former manager John Hughes. The WPFW local board has been wracked with conflict caused largely by extensive program changes implemented by Hughes. Eventually members of the local station board sued each other individually and Pacifica as well. Legal filings prepared by Norman on behalf of Hughes were filed without representation (or malpractice insurance) in the DC case, potentially exposing Pacifica to liability.
A copy of a complaint filed with the CA Attorney General by 8 former members of the national board can be found here.
Corporate counsel Terry Gross of Gross, Belsky and Alonzo, submitted his resignation on March 27th, after alleged board chair Margy Wilkinson disclosed his refusal to represent the board in legal actions related to the attempted firing of the executive director. Gross wished Pacifica well, but said he would not do what he was being asked to do by the board majority and said he had not been treated respectfully by some members of the board.
At last night’s board meeting, the board failed to produce or approve any open session minutes, leaving over 30 hours of meetings since January unofficial. The board also refused to hear member Richard Uzzell’s motion (see below) asking the board to reconsider the breach of executive director’s contract, which has led to organizational chaos and headlines across the country. The complete text of Uzzell’s motion can be found at the end of this alert. The motion was ruled out of order. A discussion of changing signatories on the network bank accounts was moved into closed session by KPFA rep Jose-Luis Fuentes so it could not be heard by the network’s members.
An open letter to the Board signed by hundreds of staffers, volunteers and listeners across the country can be found here.
In the closed session of the board meeting, the board seems to have taken some action in regard to the bank accounts and perhaps some sets of minutes were approved. [The web person removed some sentences from this report here since they reported matters from executive session]
Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.
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Richard Uzzell, a national board member from KPFT-FM in Houston offered the following motion to end the standoff between the Board and the Executive Director. The motion was ruled to be out of order.
Whereas, Pacifica has been thrown into chaos by the actions of the board; and we are facing a complaint with the attorney general, possible multiple lawsuits and are perceived to be self-destructing in public, and;
Whereas, this will not help our upcoming fund drives.
Whereas, the board needs to put the organization above our factional fights, as just about everyone has told us, and make it clear that we will proceed in the future deliberately and with caution, following sound personnel procedures and with sufficient independent legal guidance.
Therefore be it Resolved, that in the interests of the welfare of Pacifica and our five stations,180 programming affiliates and our archival collections, the Pacifica National Board declares that the motion to fire Summer Reese as executive director is declared null and void; due to the lack of notice, lack of legal and HR consultation, no provision for continuing operations, increased financial risk to the network and confusion for network staff and volunteers.
And be it further Resolved, that the Pacifica National Board agrees to proceed with a system-wide performance evaluation for the executive director per the contract terms and agrees that duly-retained corporate counsel and independent human resources professionals shall be present for all executive personnel discussions going forward.