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→
This audio clip contains an outburst by national board member Manijeh Saba – a listener representative from WBAI-FM – at the conclusion of the open session of the last board meeting. Her strong statement was removed from the audio archive of the meeting, but we have a copy here.
(It begins at about 2 minutes into the recording. The recording has all the discussion after the board vice-chair unilaterally declared the meeting “adjourned” without a vote).
There are some people whom I do not trust on the Pacifica National Board (PNB), but I really think most PNB members and Local Station Board members (at least for KPFT), even ones who often vote differently than I’d like, want to do their best to help Pacifica. But it’s difficult to know how to vote, especially the first year on the PNB, being bombarded with so much misinformation and rhetoric. (Those of you not on the PNB may not realize the PNB members get way more than even what’s on these Pacifica e-mail lists.)
It often boils down to whom do you trust, especially the first year on the board, because there are plausible-sounding justifications for voting just about any way on any issue. Sometimes we make mistakes regarding the trustworthiness of various individuals. I’ve found that some people who are polite can’t be trusted, while some who misbehave regularly can be right. So you can’t determine trustworthiness by watching who’s polite and who isn’t.
With WBAI and WPFW in better (still not good) shape now, perhaps they’re afraid she’ll be able to direct more of her attention to the west coast stations, and that she’s going to clean them up, and lay off a few employee friends of theirs who the stations cannot afford to keep on the payroll, and maybe find some things they’d rather keep hidden (such as why the general ledgers at both west coast stations have taken a year or more to get reconciled so the audit can proceed). Continue reading Bill Crosier #2: Why Do They Want Summer Reese Out?→
Some people have complained about Summer Reese’s resume, or lack of some specifics they wanted to see there, or how it compares with certain other people’s resumes.I’ve seen her resume and I’ll say publicly is that I think what matters most (especially in the Executive Director job) are someone’s dedication to the mission, accomplishments, energy, ability to get things done, ability to negotiate, follow-through, understanding of finances and leadership, attention to details as well as the big picture, and (especially for this job) an ability to put up with and work in spite of an incredible amount of harassment and BS and an extremely dysfunctional governance. Continue reading Bill Crosier #3: Summer Reese’s Qualifications and Social Security Number→
I want to correct those who keep saying (incorrectly) that Summer Reese broke a tie on whether to renew Arlene’s [Englehardt, the previous executive director of Pacifica] contract. I’ll also state that I voted against the motion to not renew Arlene’s contract. I wanted to give Arlene more time to cut expenses and increase listenership and membership to try to get Pacifica better stabilized, and was willing to extend her contract. But the majority voted not to renew it. Summer also did not vote on the motion to make her iED (also back in 2012).
Berkeley-A bar complaint has been filed in Pennsylvania against the vice chair of the Pacifica National Board, Tony Norman. Norman, a listener representative from the DC station, WPFW, has been criticized by some for not disclosing when he ran for the board that he was an elected commissioner in Washington DC. The bar complaint, filed in Pennsylvania as Norman is a member of the PA bar, relates to legal papers prepared by Norman on behalf of WPFW-FM’s former manager John Hughes. The WPFW local board has been wracked with conflict caused largely by extensive program changes implemented by Hughes. Eventually members of the local station board sued each other individually and Pacifica as well. Legal filings prepared by Norman on behalf of Hughes were filed without representation (or malpractice insurance) in the DC case, potentially exposing Pacifica to liability.Continue reading A Money Grab and Lots of Trouble with Lawyers→
We, the undersigned members of the paid and unpaid staff at KPFK-FM, request the Pacifica National Board to implement the recall procedure delineated in Article 4, Section 9E of the Pacifica Bylaws.
Berkeley-The audit, an annual right of passage for most large nonprofits and a requirement for ongoing public broadcasting grant funding, has been delayed by Pacifica’s auditor due to the chaos created by the Board of Director’s power struggle with the Executive Director. Armanino Mckenna, one of the nation’s largest auditing firms, pushed back the start date on Pacifica’s audit, already somewhat late, from the planned start date of Thursday March 27th due to the inability or unwillingness of member station KPFA to provide print or electronic copies of their reconciled accounting records. Continue reading Audit Delayed, LA Staff Attempt To Remove KPFK PNB Staff Representative→
