Originally posted April 8, 2014

Berkeley-Pacifica’s payroll administrator received a letter from Oakland law firm Siegel and Yee on March 28th instructing them to provide online access to Pacifica’s payroll accounts to three individuals: Raul Salvador, the former probationary CFO terminated by the board of directors on January 2, 2014, disputed board chair Margy Wilkinson, and Bernard Duncan, who was publicly reported hired as an interim ED on April 3rd, one week after the date of the letter. Continue reading Impersonating The Corporate Counsel →

Originally posted April 7, 2014

Berkeley-A community meeting hosted by the Berkeley station’s Community Advisory Board was held at the South Berkeley Center Center at 2939 Ellis Street in Berkeley on Sunday April 6th and attended by about a hundred people. The vast majority expressed great concern about the abrupt attempted firing of the executive director and the prospect of the network breaking up via the sale of one or more radio licenses.   People asked for clarity about KPFA and Pacifica’s finances as they talked about the upcoming audit. Continue reading Community Concern Rises & Who’s On First? Pacifica Board Meeting →

Originally posted April 4, 2014

Berkeley- Nine members of the current Pacifica Foundation board of directors (Pacifica Directors for Good Governance) have filed suit to try to bring to an end the self-destructive spiral of the nation’s first listener-sponsored radio network. The complaint alleges irreperable harms resulting from the board’s reckless termination of Reese and succeeding actions, and requests intervention to protect the nonprofit from uninsurability and operational gridlock. The suit requests preliminary and permanent injunctions enjoining the board from continually violating the nonprofit’s bylaws, breaching the director’s contract and taking further actions absent documentation of properly noticed meetings and the issuance of approved minutes. Continue reading Lawsuit Filed To Uphold Reese Contract, Rogue Board Paralyzed →

Originally posted April 2, 2014

Berkeley-Armanino McKenna, the auditing firn which recently delayed Pacifica’s 2013 audit due to the inability or unwillingess of Berkeley station KPFA to provide reconciled accounting records, issued a management letter to the Board of Directors. In it, they observed that “the communications process and governance structure relating to individual divisons and the national office appears less than optimal. The overall success of the Foundation requires a collaborative operating mechanism between the national office and the individual stations. This was particularly in evidence with regard to the general lack of responsiveness during the audit from certain divisons in response to document requests from the national office”. Continue reading Auditor’s Management Letter to Pacifica Board Demands Accountability →

Originally posted April 1, 2014

Berkeley-A lawsuit will be filed in Alameda County today by Pacifica Directors for Good Governance against the 12 Pacifica Foundation board members who have engaged in a series of illegitimate actions to destabilize the 65-year-old public radio network. The lead plaintiff is current board member Heather Gray, who is one of two representatives for Pacifica’s 180 program affiliate stations and is associated with WRFG (Radio Free Georgia). The 16+ page brief requests injunctive relief to protect Pacifica from adverse impacts resulting from the board majority’s illegal actions. Continue reading Pacifica Directors For Good Governance To File Suit Today →

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.
Continue reading Snoop Camera and a Discussion with the CPB Inspector General →