Originally posted July 15, 2014

Berkeley-The Pacifica Radio Network is entering its second week with no paid executive director. There is no board meeting scheduled to select one, leaving unelected retiree board chair Margy Wilkinson doing a dilettante job as the network struggles to survive. At the KPFA local station board meeting on July 12, director Jose Luis Fuentes, an employee of former corporate counsel Dan Siegel, said the volunteer ED was a “cost-saving measure” and suggested the job would not be filled until “there was less bad PR”. Fuentes previously made the motion to terminate the executive director (twice) and the job has been filled by two individuals for three intervals over the past 4 months, none for longer than 10 weeks. Continue reading No ED Until The Bad PR Stops →

Originally posted July 11, 2014

Berkeley-The rogue majority on the Pacifica National Board declined to appoint an executive director at Thursday nights board meeting. In fact, they declined to talk about the executive director vacancy at all. Unelected board chair Wilkinson, after failing to receive a majority of votes as chair of the board in February, has inserted herself into the executive director position at Pacifica twice in the last four months. The board also failed to discuss or provide any information on the attempt to relocate WBAI’s antenna to the Conde Nast building, the replacement of KPFT’s declining transmitter before the 5th temporary stay runs out in November, the now 18-month delay in Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds, the erroneous tax returns filed in 2013, and the audit that has not begun 9 1/2 months after the close of the last fiscal year. Continue reading The DIY Employer →

Originally posted July 6, 2014

Berkeley-The purges continue at Pacifica Radio. The latest victim is KPFK/KPFA interim general manager Richard Pirodsky, a 30-year radio operations veteran who was summarily removed from his position by the departing interim executive director Bernard Duncan, who executed Pirodsky’s termination in his last three minutes on the job. In the last week, the organization has seen the departures of the payroll and benefits manager, the administrative manager, the KPFK manager and the ED, with three of the four positions lacking a successor. This chaos creates a huge vacuum in an organization whose New York station is in crisis, whose public funding has been cut off, and which has not produced financial statements in months. Continue reading And Then There Were None →

Originally posted July 2, 2014

Berkeley-The last two days of the tenure of Pacifica Radio’s 3rd executive director of the year are passing with no replacement named. Despite a 3-hour secret session on Monday night, the Pacifica board majority took no action to transition the organization’s leadership, which will be basically be defunct through the July 4th holiday. The board also took no action regarding the latest missed deadline to begin the 2012-13 financal audit, which passed on June 30th without comment. The radio network has now missed all deadlines to submit annual financial reports for 2014 Corporation for Public Broadcasting  (CPB) funding. Continue reading Every Game They Play →

Originally posted June 28, 2014

Berkeley-The continued shuttling of the Pacifica Network’s legal business to the law firm of board member Jose Luis Fuentes has incited the rage of Texas listener rep Hank Lamb. Siegel and Yee, the law firm run by Oakland mayoral candidate Dan Siegel, his partner Alan Yee – the campaign treasurer for Oakland mayoral candidate Jean Quan – and former Oakland City Council member and failed 2012 candidate for Oakland City Attorney Jane Brunner,  has taken on 3 legal matters for Pacifica since the March 25th resignation of corporate counsel Terry Gross. None of them have been voted on by a majority of the currently-seated board of directors as required by California Corporations Code Section 5233, when a public benefit corporation enters into a contract which financially benefits a member of the board of directors. Continue reading Cut The Crap – Says Former Board Majority Member →