On July 31, 2015, a revised Statement of Information was filed with the California Secretary of State moving the corporate headquarters of the “KPFA Foundation”, entity #C3803602, from the law offices of Siegel and Yee at 499 14th Street in Oakland California to the Pacifica Foundation at 1925 Martin Luther King Jr Way in Berkeley California. Continue reading “KPFA Foundation” Headquarters Relocated to 1925 Martin Luther King Jr Way
Berkeley – The KPFA Foundation, a new California not for profit organization, was incorporated in the State of California on September 24, 2013 under Entity # C3606802. The Articles of Incorporation, which can be seen here, steal the entire 1946 Pacifica Foundation mission statement and quote it as the mission of the new not for profit organization. The name of the person incorporating the new nonprofit is Margy Wilkinson, who signs the Articles of Incorporation. The corporate headquarters of the KPFA Foundation is the Siegel and Yee law firm at 499 14th Street in Oakland, California. The agent for service of process is attorney Dan Siegel. The Articles of Incorporation for the KPFA Foundation do not vest any other parties besides Wilkinson and Siegel. Continue reading KPFA Secession Documents
Berkeley – Despite receiving over $9.3 million dollars in charitable contributions between October 1, 2014 and May 31, 2015, Pacifica Radio has indicated that it is unable to pay a $55,000 outstanding bill to auditor Armanino LLC in order to meet legal requirements to continue operating as a licensed not for profit organization in the State of California. California’s Nonprofit Integrity Act requires all California charitable corporations with gross revenues of $2 million or more to prepare annual financial statements audited by an independent certified public accountant (CPA). The audited financial statements must be made available for inspection by the Attorney General and the public no later than nine months after the close of the fiscal year covered by the financial statement. Pacifica’s deadline was June 30, 2015. The radio network is in the middle of an investigation launched in December of 2014 by the Registry of Charitable Trusts at the California Attorney General’s office.
by Jeffrey Blankfort, Maria Gilardin, Curt Gray, Marianne Torres
I have learned that a group that had formerly called itself the Concerned Listeners, a faction in the community that are partisan supporters of the status quo controlling clique that runs KPFA and which oppose accountability and participation of ‘outsiders’ in the station, is now calling itself Save KPFA. The choice of this name is an ahistoric action that speaks of an arrogant sense of entitlement, and a lack of knowledge or interest in how KPFA has developed and changed through its history as a ground-breaking community radio station.
A snip from the Pacifica National Board meeting of July 9th. A fascinating exchange where the board votes to tap KPFA’s bequest money to pay off the remaining $65,000 on the bill for the last audit, as the auditor will not start the already overdue FY 2014 audit without full payment. PNB treasurer Brian Edwards-Tiekert of the Save KPFA faction was very quick in previous years to accuse Pacifica of “raiding KPFA’s bank accounts”, often falsely. Now that the Siegel/Brazon faction controls Pacifica, he changes his tune and announces at the end of this snippet that “If management doesn’t grab money from anywhere in the network it can to meet the foundation’s obligations, it is failing in its duty of care” Edwards-Tiekert’s public accusations and petition in 2009 are documented in this Berkeley Daily Planet article www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-…llen-Taylor and the retraction issued the following week by the reporter: www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-…llen-Taylor. Akio Tanaka’s editorial followed: www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-…Akio-Tanaka
Berkeley – Seemingly uncontroversial proposals to videotape a regular public meeting of the KPFA local station board were met with opposition by the Save KPFA faction. Save KPFA-affiliated board member Mal Burnstein – just days after trying unsuccessfully to raise the minimum annual donation for Pacifica membership and voting rights from $25/year to $40/year – ranted in response to the videotaping request:
“The KPFA Local Station Board is not a public entity; it is therefore not covered by the First Amendment. and the First Amendment has nothing to do with what KPFA should or should not cover”. Continue reading A Good Board Is A Secret Board
by Daniel Borgstrom
Longtime KPFA listeners remember 1999 as the year of the Hijacking, the Lockout, and the massive response. Ten thousand people marched through the streets of Berkeley chanting “Take back KPFA!” and “Save Pacifica!” And, as a matter of fact, KPFA and Pacifica Radio were rescued. The good guys really had won, or so it seemed at the time. But the struggle has continued. Today, in 2015, the future of KPFA/Pacifica is more precarious than ever.
Sadly, this KPFA scenario is a common one in the affairs of humankind. I missed the French Revolution, but I imagine it went much like the one at KPFA. The Bastille was stormed in a day, but what followed were meetings, meetings, and more meetings. That’s probably true of all revolutions: there’s a dramatic moment, then months, years, even decades of intense, parliamentary struggle. Issues get complicated, seemingly arcane, and the struggle is vicious; people are sent to the guillotine. Why the conflict? people ask, wondering why the former comrades can’t just be nice to each other and get along. Continue reading Lords, Ladies and Peasants at KPFA: An Allegory of the Struggle at KPFA
Selected snippets of discussion from Pacifica National Board governance committee meeting on July 7th, 2015. Subject is the proposal of Save KPFA’s Mal Burnstein to raise the Pacifica voting member fee to $40. Speakers in order are KPFA listener representative Mal Burnstein, KPFK listener representative John Wenger (speaking against the idea) KPFT listener representative Nancy Saibara Naitoma (also speaking against the idea) and then Mal Burnstein again. The motion died at the end of the discussion.
Originally posted July 1, 2015
Berkeley – In fairly stark terms, Affiliates Director Ursula Rudenberg addressed the national board and asked them to support a plan she has been developing for over a year for Pacifica to administer a group underwriting plan for the 200+ Pacifica affiliates (independent radio stations that partner with Pacifica – most of them already take underwriting as independent entities). Rudenberg told the board they could embrace the plan or face the erosion and end of the Affiliates program which she said was “no longer competitive”. Some snippets from the meeting were recorded by a NY-based listener and are available here. The national board did not embrace the plan. The NY listener characterized the meeting as follows: Continue reading Empty Pockets
Originally posted June 25, 2015
Berkeley – The Pacifica National Board, after 15 months of ad-hoc legal consultation, is moving ahead with appointing a corporate counsel. Unfortunately, the fix appears to be in for the law firm of former board member Dan Siegel. Siegel and Yee has been an active factional entity within Pacifica for years, sending three of the firm’s employees to the KPFA local station board in the last six years as listener representatives with the Save KPFA group. Jose-Luis Fuentes, a Siegel and Yee associate from 2002-2014, is on the search committee appointed by the board, despite his 12 years of employment at one of the applicant firms. Continue reading Factional Lawyering
