Originally posted June 20, 2014

Berkeley-At last night’s Pacifica National Board meeting, a number of unexplainable things occurred.

Despite a pronouncement by KPFA-affiliated director Jose Luis Fuentes (and Siegel and Yee employee) that the national board had passed a policy back in February that the executive director of the foundation was no longer permitted to hire station general managers without a vote of the board authorizing it,, a hire of Quincy McCoy as KPFA’s next general manager was announced by departing temporary ED Bernard Duncan. Without a vote by the board of directors ever having occurred. Inquiries to the board as to why they are not following their own policies were met with silence. Continue reading Incongruities →

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. Continue reading Musical Chairs →

Originally posted June 13, 2014

Berkeley-Members of the Siegel/Brazon faction, which sits in a slim majority on the Pacifica National Board, continue to express their enthusiasm for network breakup and the sale of one or more of the licenses of the smaller Pacifica stations, 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”. Continue reading Amputation →

Originally posted June 10, 2014

Berkeley-At Thursday’s Pacifica National Board meeting, the growing extent of the financial disarray at Pacifica was revealed. In a brief question and answer session with auditor Armanino McKenna regarding the network’s last 990 annual tax return, significant problems were uncovered. As mentioned in a previous issue of Pacifica in Exile, the tax return is hundreds of thousands of dollars out of whack with income and expense totals on the audit, released only a few weeks later. Worse, the return contains a certification that missing Schedule B is not required because Pacifica is not a publicly-supported organization. A publicly-supported organization  is one that receives at least 33% of its support from gifts, grants or donations from members whose basic purposes are to support the organization. Pacifica has always been one. Continue reading The Tax Man Cometh and The SF Labor Council Weighs In →