Originally posted May 7, 2015

Berkeley–Pacifica’s chief financial officer Raul Salvador suddenly resigned on May 6, 2015 at 10:00am. The resignation is effective May 15th, four days after new Executive Director John Proffitt begins work on May 11th. Salvador’s tenure at Pacifica was stormy, marked by the Board’s decision not to move ahead with his permanent hire in January of 2014. The decision was reversed by the new incoming board a month later, leading to the departure of most of the national office accounting staff. Continue reading Pacifica’s CFO Resigns →

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 →

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 →