Originally posted March 31, 2014
Berkeley – Executive Director Summer Reese has a Monday morning telephone conference with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Inspector General where she will be discussing the current state of Pacifica with the agency, which is holding over a million dollars in community service grants from 2013. Another 3/4 million in 2014 grants is on the line, endangered by the inability of auditor Armanino McKenna to go forward with an audit of the foundation’s books on March 27th.
Another 3/4 million in 2014 grants is on the line, endangered by the inability of auditor Armanino McKenna to go forward with an audit of the foundation’s books on March 27th.
Alleged board chair Wilkinson announced to the Pacifica Board she had unilaterally engaged the services of attorney Hunter Pyle to pursue legal action against Reese, after corporate counsel Terry Gross refused and then resigned. Pyle worked for Dan Siegel at Siegel and Yee from 1997-2003 and was replaced by Jose Luis Fuentes, current Pacifica board member and another Siegel and Yee employee. Fuentes, who replaced Siegel on the national board in January of 2014, and then made repeated motions to breach Reese’s contract, also attempted to gain control of network bank accounts last week, although he was not successful in doing so. No authorization was sought or provided from the board to direct organizational funds to Pyle.
Coincidentally, Siegel himself announced the initiation of a lawsuit against the City of Oakland while embarking on a campaign to become the mayor of the East Bay city.
Several current members of the board are expected to move ahead with legal action to reverse the breach of the Executive Director’s contract and rein in the rogue board majority.
A new expensive surveillance camera was installed on KPFA’s 2nd floor with 24/7 video.
The camera, which records the image of every person who enters the occupied national headquarters and feeds that information to the ad-hoc chair’s office inside KPFA, was paid for with funds donated by KPFA listeners as Wilkinson has no access to national funds or other station bank accounts yet.
Terminated CFO Raul Salvador has ties to former CFO Lonnie Hicks (Salvador applied to work at Pacifica in 2008 when Hicks was still employed and was recommended by former controller Lynn Magno. Magno was dispatched by Reese in 2012 after she found out Magno had been convicted of embezzling $90,000 from a former employer. The amount was incorrectly reported earlier as $19,000). Reese acted after Magno was found to be charging personal items on Pacifica’s credit cards. Hicks sued Pacifica for wrongful termination and won a large settlement from the nonprofit radio network, largely due to Dan Siegel’s testimony under oath attesting Hicks was fired by Pacifica because he was black.
The legendary Roy of Hollywood joined programmer Eben Rey and Executive Director Summer Reese on KPFK’s air where they talked at length about the current turmoil.
A copy of a complaint filed with the CA Attorney General by 8 former members of the national board can be found here.
An open letter to the Board objecting to the breach of the Executive Director’s contract signed by hundreds of staffers, volunteers and listeners across the country can be found here.
Disputed chair Margy Wilkinson is reported to have said with regard to Reese’s attempted firing; “it isn’t illegal until someone says it is”.
Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th.