Gray Panthers of San Francisco 2940 16th Street, Room 200-4, San Francisco CA 94103 415-552-8800 [email protected]
Dear Quincy McCoy,
As long time supporters of KPFA, members of the San Francisco Gray Panthers are writing to tell you of our disappointment in recent management decisions at KPFA. Continue reading Letter from the Gray Panthers
Originally posted October 27, 2014
Berkeley-Pacifica’s finance committee bears the responsibility for reviewing and recommending divisional budgets for the 5 stations, national office and archives and consolidating those 7 documents into an organizational budget for the upcoming year. That task is supposed to be completed by September 30th. But a month after the end of the fiscal year, the end is nowhere in sight. Pacifica is careening into 2015 with no fiscal plan at all. Continue reading The Nonprofit Without A Budget
Originally posted October 17, 2014
Berkeley-The new corporate call center collecting pledges for Pacifica stations KPFK in Los Angeles and KPFA in Berkeley is owned by Bruce Hough, an Oregon republican who runs a Tea Party campaign advertising/fundraising business called Impact Marketing with his partner, rabid Tea Party congressman Sal Esquivel. Esquivel traveled to Arizona to stand with Michelle Malkin, the Minutemen and others in support of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB 1070. Hough (who regularly threatens to move his Medford-based call center Comnet to Nevada should the Oregon legislature raise taxes) and Esquivel are regularly called out for Tea Party shenanigans including funding vicious attack ads against local Democratic candidate and military veteran Jeff Scroggin. The ads were so disgusting that two out of three local Republican County commissioners refused to endorse Tea Party candidate Doug Briedenthal, whose “Friends of” committee had the same address as Hough’s Impact Marketing and paid for the mudslinging ads. Hough and Esquivel were labeled “Rogues of the Week” by the Williamette Weekly for an unethical scam to charge gulliable voters to email Congress. Hough and Esquivel also house conservative PACS (political action committees) at Impact Marketing giving aways hundreds of thousands of dollars to local and national Tea Party candidates. Each call to donate to KPFA or KPFK routes .90 cents a minute to Hough’s company or $3-5 per call. Continue reading Donating to the Tea Party and Expelling Spanish Speakers
Originally posted October 12, 2014
Berkeley-Pacifica narrowly acquired FCC permission to engage in fundraising for an outside organization – 4 days after doing it – and by accident. After happening to listen to an edition of the Sojourner Truth program on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles last weekend promising 1/2 the pledges raised to a health charity for Ebola relief in West Africa, former PNB treasurer Tracy Rosenberg sent a note to Pacifica’s FCC lawyer giving him a heads-up on the third-party fundraising and asking him to make sure KPFK would not be fined. The attorney hand-delivered a notification to the Federal Communications Commission two days later and received permission based on the relevant facts presented in his written request. Continue reading Ebola-Gate
An Open Letter To The Pacifica Community
It is way past time to put our radio network under the leadership of people who know how to supervise the operation of radio stations. The post-coup situation cannot continue. Not for another day and not for another week.
The executive director position needs to be immediately filled with an interim director with sufficient experience not to endanger the licenses. The Pacifica National Board (PNB) has had applications for months from at least two individuals with decades of experience managing radio stations. One of them needs to be placed into the interim executive director position immediately. Continue reading Wilkinson Lies To The Federal Communications Commission
Originally posted October 5, 2014
Berkeley-The network’s controversial CFO, Raul Salvador, has not responded to last week’s revelation that he did not, in fact, recently “discover” payments to the network’s profit-sharing pension fund had not been made in 2013, but made that decision himself in a meeting with the third party administrator in the summer of 2013. And he concealed it in the last Pacifica audit which reports the $200,101 accrued for both retirement plans was paid. The whereabouts of the $92,413 said to be paid to the pension plan, but never received, is unknown. Continue reading Archives Begone
By Akio Tanaka
[KPFA LSB Member 2006-2012]
Article as flyer: Peace to KPFA
Whenever there is a conflict, there is always an escalation in rhetoric, like when there was the divisive and inflammatory charge a few years ago that the Pacifica National Office engaged in union busting. We should avoid getting caught up in the rhetoric and address the real problems and concerns. Continue reading Bringing Peace to KPFA
Article from the Bakersfield Californian: March 28, 2011
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A wrongful termination lawsuit filed by one son of Cesar Chavez against another alleges various instances of malfeasance within an organization central to the legacy of the late civil rights and farm workers union leader.
But the legal action filed in Kern County Superior Court on Friday goes well beyond that, accusing the center’s executive leadership of various misdeeds — including potentially illegal behavior — ranging from retaliatory firings and age-based discrimination to nepotism. It further alleges that Paul Chavez refused to fire an unnamed former business associate accused of stealing $500,000 from the organization. Continue reading Background Info on Pacifica’s Controversial CFO
A comment posted in Current Magazine in April of 2014:
The Pacifica Foundation’s 1946 founding mission statement commits it to (in a small nutshell) delivering educational radio programming oriented to peace, social justice and conflict resolution, wide-ranging political, cultural and artistic expression, and to “the full distribution of public information”. Continue reading Cui Bono?
Originally posted September 27, 2014
Berkeley-The financial shenanigans at Pacifica Radio, which former ED Summer Reese referred to in this April 1 interview, have impacted one of the foundation’s two employee retirement plans as $92,415 has potentially flown the coop. An outside audit by Helin Donovan, required by the pension plan’s 3rd party administrator, revealed 2012 deposits (due 9-30-2012) were never made, despite an affirmation by Pacifica’s auditor Armanino that the 2012 payments *were* made. The $200,101 amount Armanino states was paid into the network’s two retirement plans matches the records in the CFO’s financial statements (Lines K112-113) exactly. Continue reading Pension Fund Cover-Up
