Originally posted April 18, 2015
Berkeley-On a sad note, long-time KPFA board operator and music host Wesley Burton was killed in an automobile accident in the early hours of the morning on Saturday April 18th driving home after hosting Sideshow Radio, a late night hip-hop show that ends at 2:00am. Burton leaves a wife and several children. Continue reading Shutting Down While Breaking Even
Published June 4, 2015 in the LA Progressive
Pacifica is a nonprofit corporation that consists of 5 fm radio stations, a 60 year old archive and about 100 affiliated stations. The five stations are:
Continue reading What’s Up (or Down) with Pacifica? by Grace Aaron
KPFK is Pacifica Radio’s (the long-lived progressive radio network that started public radio in the United States in 1946), Los Angeles station. Currently going through a very difficult financial period and a controversial management transition, the station has become a flash point recently on questions of privilege, race and gender and has introduced some interesting questions about la causa of black and brown liberation. Continue reading Open Letter from Tracy Rosenberg: When Privilege Subverts: A KPFK Story
Originally posted April 6, 2015
Berkeley–Pacifica’s much-delayed FY 2013 financial audit, after 11 months in the making, $80,000 spent, and close to 300 hours of auditing services, has been exposed as faulty with double-accrued expenses. The entry of the same bills twice was caused by the tumult instigated by the 2014 rogue board which has been utterly resistant to competent financial staffing and has not even seen a list of how much money Pacifica owes. The late audited financial statements, delivered 9 months after the 6-30-2014 State of California deadline, don’t hold up under scrutiny. Simple questions like the Audit Committee’s request for a list of accued legal expenses, revealed six-figure disrepancies with the general ledger and failures to reduce accounts payable after paying bills, a pretty basic bookkeeping requirement. Continue reading Recording Expenses Over and Over Again
Originally posted March 26, 2015
Berkeley-Pacifica’s response to the December 17th document request by the California Attorney General, sent on February 17th, contains some startling omissions to straightforward questions. For example, question 12 from the AG asks for “records of all donations and grants received by PFR, including but not limited to donations received via Twitter, Facebook and Pacifica’s websites, from January 1, 2010 to the present”.
Pacifica was not gifted with a huge amount of donations and grants in 2014, but Pacifica’s CFO Raul Salvador can be heard announcing the receipt of a $150,000 unrestricted donation from the Toyashima Foundation drawn from a T. Rowe Price brokerage account in this sound clip from the Pacifica National Board meeting of July 31, 2014. Continue reading The Stuff They Forget
Dear Margy –
I do not wish to add to your worries – since as both Chair and Acting Executive Director of the foundation for nearly a year, you have had enough to worry about.
However, I have no choice. Several times now, because of the many apparent cases of financial irregularity that have come to light, I (and other members of the Audit Committee) have made repeated requests to our auditors for specific information pertaining to foundation income, expenses, and payables. But, surprisingly, the auditors were unwilling (or, as they claimed, unable) to release this information (even though it is supposed to be public under California law). Instead, they told me that the information was in your possession and CFO Raul Salvador’s. If I wanted it, they said, I would have to ask you. Continue reading To Be Or Not To Be – A Pacifica Whistleblower – An Open Letter from Stephen Brown
Originally posted March 16, 2015
Berkeley-“I’m not even thinking about the FY 2014 audit”. Those were the words of Pacifica’s auditor on March 10, 2015 at Pacifica’s audit committee. The audit he is not even thinking about is due to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on April 17, 2015, so the nails in the coffin on Pacifica’s dwindling chances of being restored to Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding eligibility just got hammered shut. Continue reading The Gagged Auditor
Originally posted March 3, 2015
Berkeley-At the last Pacifica board meeting, CFO Raul Salvador revealed that Pacifica management has been unable to access the Corporation for Public Broadcasting online submission site for, apparently, the last ten months, as the federally funded agency has demanded a letter signed by all 22 board members in order to reauthorize access to the Isis system. It is impossible for Pacifica to formally request an extension with no log-in capability. Pacifica’s FCC/CPB attorney John Crigler was reported to be out of town. The board passed a motion stating Wilkinson and Salvador were authorized representatives with the votes of 15 of the 22 board members in the affirmative. There is no indication the motion will have any impact on CPB’s request for a written authorization with board member signatures. Salvador stated that Pacifica remains in ineligible status and stated there has been no indication Pacifica has been or will be reinstated as an eligible CPB grantee. Continue reading Corporation For Public Broadcasting Not Recognizing Pacifica Management
Originally posted February 25, 2015
Berkeley-Pacifica Radio sent “something” to the California Attorney General last week, but exactly what was sent has been concealed from the board of directors, at least those of them not affiliated with the rogue majority. Despite repeated requests for a copy of the jump drive sent to the AG’s office, IED/chair Wilkinson has failed to provide it more than a week after the deadline, and says she will not be able to get copies to board members until next week. This would be a problem for board members if omissions and errors are found in the documents as the board of directors is collectively responsible for the contents sent. Among the documents sent was not the long-delayed audit of the year ended 9-30-2013, which remains undone after 17 months. Auditor Armanino has declined to sign an engagement letter with Pacifica for the next fiscal year, which ended on 9-30-2014. Continue reading The Cat Getting Out Of The Box
Question and answer session from national finance committee on February 9, 2015.
The audio contains a 19-minute exchange (in two parts) between former PNB vice-chair Bill Crosier (who just rejoined the finance committee as volunteer treasurer for Texas’s local station board) and Pacifica’s CFO Raul Salvador.
