Berkeley-To recap, after WBAI was forcibly shut down by Pacifica’s new interim director without board authorization, a temporary restraining order has prevented the termination of WBAI’s staff while allowing program content to be piped in from California. In the after-shutdown vote of the Board of Directors, which was held over two nights on October 12th and 13th, after five board members were prevented from voting on the 12th, the Board voted 12-9-1 to restore WBAI, change their officers and remove attorneys Foster Garvey from the case, but their decisions are frozen pending the federal court.
The board members who have turned Pacifica over to the federal government after being out-voted are:
Christopher Cory (KPFA), Sabrina Jacobs (KPFA), Jan Goodman (KPFK), Mansoor Sabbagh (KPFK), Bill Crosier (KPFT), Donald Goldmacher (KPFA), Adrienne La Violette (KPFT), Wally James (KPFT), and Gerry Boast (Affiliate).
Berkeley-The legal wheels are spinning at a rapid speed and it is not easy to keep up. We will try to keep you as informed as we can.
Unable to accept their 12-9–1 loss at a board vote on 10-13-2019, the 9-person shutdown crew on the Pacifica National Board appealed to the federal courts to strip control of the Pacifica Foundation from the members and their elected representatives and the judge has at least partially complied. The Pacifica Foundation board’s ability to take actions is constrained until October 21st per the United States government
An AM order prevents the restoration of WBAI until a hearing on October 21st, prevents the majority of the Pacifica National Board from changing their officers, and prevents them from restoring WBAI for six days, essentially making the foundation a ward of the court, and stripping democratic control of and autonomous action by the Foundation. Membership donations of $1,000 provided the bond for the suspension of membership rights.
Berkeley-On the evening of Sunday October 13th, the majority of the Pacifica Board of Directors voted to restore WBAI-FM to local content and staffing and undo the heist that occurred on October 7th. This vote also occurred on Saturday, October 12th, but on that day the perpetrators decided to “not count” the votes of five members of the national board from three different signal areas and then muted their telephone lines so they could not participate in the board proceedings.
The twelve directors who met on Sunday night, who represent an absolute majority of the Pacifica National Board and include at least one director from each of the five signal areas, also did the following:
1. Removed the vice chair of the board from the vice chair position
2. Removed the secretary of the board from the secretary position
3. Instructed law firm Foster Garvey to withdraw from all litigation on behalf of Pacifica
All 12 board members, who represent a quorum of the nonprofit’s board of directors formally waived notice requirements for the special meeting and convened on a conference line that did not permit the involuntary muting of participants.
Berkeley-Faced with an imminent loss on an after-the fact and in-secret Pacifica National Board vote to approve the shutdown of WBAI-FM, the perpetrators are changing the voters. During a closed session meeting on Saturday night, a letter was presented proposing to invoke conflict of interest charges against 75% of WBAI’s elected directors, who are charged with being the voice of WBAI’s 8,000 members on the Pacifica Foundation board. The charges of conflict of interest invoked Section 5233 of the CA Corporations Code which is about financial conflicts of interest. The 5233 accusation seeks to prevent three of WBAI”s elected directors from being allowed to vote on all matters affecting WBAI members indefinitely. The three votes being eliminated are unable to vote on whether or not they are eliminated, allowing a minority of the board of directors to “vote” to disenfranchise the majority and therefore win a series of votes they would otherwise have lost.
The vote on the Pacifica National Board is vital because the actions to terminate all of WBAI’s staff and turn the NY community radio station into a repeater can only be legally supported as an action of the licensee, which are the 22 members seated on the national Pacifica board. If the majority of the directors seated on the Pacifica National Board do not support the shutdown of WBAI, the action is not an action of the licensee.
The removal of voting rights is being applied to WBAI staff representative Shawn Rhodes because is WBAI staff, and WBAI directors Alex Steinberg and James Sagurton because they are plaintiffs in WBAI vs Pacifica, the request to the Supreme Court of New York to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the shutdown of community radio operations in the New York metropolitan area.
Update 10-9-2019 WBAI programmer Paul DiRienzo reports that WBAI programmers and staff finally made it back into their facility to discover that all of the computers had been removed, wires were ripped out from the inside of microphones and station’s emergency alert system had been taken. A WBAI programmer purchased a new one on a credit card. DiRienzo also reported that the hotel rooms the Pacifica operatives stayed in had been reserved “months ago”.
Update 10-8-2019. In a day of fast-moving events, SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents WBAI’s employees filed a complaint that Pacifica Foundation had violated Article XVI(a)(1) of the bargaining agreement by failing to provide notification to the union. WBAI plaintiffs then filed a complaint of contempt of court against the Pacifica Foundation for failing to comply with the 10-7 court order issued by the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
Berkeley-In the morning, a crew of Pacifica Foundation board members led by brand new IED John Vernile, locked out the staff at WBAI-FM in New York and then fired them all, told the landlord to rent the space to someone else, and started piping in content from the West Coast over mid-Manhattan. In the night, the Supreme Court of New York told them to stop it and restored WBAI’s facilities, equipment, studio space, employees and control over the airwaves.
If this feels to you like a flashback, well there’s a reason for that. Two decades ago, the Pacifica Foundation locked out employees at Berkeley’s KPFA and started piping in content from Texas. At that time, the nonprofit’s board was united in their desire to teach KPFA a lesson and extract the millions in license value. Not this time. At least half of Pacifica’s elected board wasn’t informed, had no idea. and never consented. That’s probably why Supreme Court judge Frank Nervo (at home and in his pajamas) called a halt to things. This is what he said.
The Supreme Court of the State of New York has issued a stay and temporary restraining order enjoining the Pacifica Foundation from 1. Seizing any property files or equipment from WBAI 2. Terminating any employees of WBAI 3. Preventing WBAI from broadcasting it’s regularly scheduled programming. 4. Interfering in the business or orderly administration of WBAI pursuant to Section 1315 of the NYC Not for Profit Code and the Pacifica Foundation bylaws until a hearing to be held on October 18th.
