Berkeley – The ironically named “Pacifica Safety Net” has had their 1st and only tax filing rejected by California’s Attorney General, demonstrating that co-founders Donald Goldmacher and Sherry Gendleman, aren’t up to running a nonprofit organization. 

While the AG public notice sticks to all the things that are missing, when you dig into the filings, it becomes clear that they are fraudulent on numerous counts. 

Berkeley – The ironically named “Pacifica Safety Net” has struck again. While we weren’t sure Donald Goldmacher could top his previous pathetic performance as a nonprofit board member when he petitioned the LA Superior Court to have a receiver take the nonprofit’s assets away, he has done it. Now he has petitioned the FCC to take one of his valuable radio licenses away and give it to someone else. The Federal Communications Commission is in receipt of a formal request not to renew the broadcasting license of WBAI-New York from Donald and his cohort Sherry Gendelman.

The petition itself is viewable here. Like most Goldmacher-prepared Pacifica documents, we would characterize it as a haphazard mess. The primary complaint, which is alternative health information on WBAI, is outside the jurisdiction of the FCC. By definition, they are content-agnostic. If they didn’t renew broadcast licenses because of on-air criticisms of the COVID vaccines, they would have had to delicense the entirety of red state talk radio. Otherwise, there are some random treasurer’s reports from WBAI and some evidence of both management and the LSB responding to issues with premiums, which is what you would actually want to see happening i.e. complaints and then board and management response. 

Berkeley – At a court hearing in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday March 11, the New Day Pacifica countersuit was struck in its entirety. The judge’s ruling was procedural in nature. The countersuit filing listed as “plaintiffs” a number of individuals in the Los Angeles area who were not defendants in the initial lawsuit and therefore ineligible to file a countersuit. It’s a rookie mistake and does not speak well to the New Day legal team, but the upshot is that their suit is stricken from the record, along with a “demurrer” or attempt to have the countersuit dismissed by the Pacifica Foundation. At the same hearing, a request from Pacifica for an ex parte proceeding to freeze New Day’s emails to the members was denied. This brings New Day’s attempt to get a legal ruling that the staff and listener votes in the 2021 bylaw referendum be “combined” or the WBAI staff vote thrown out (both scenarios were requested in various legal filings) back to zero. While it may be inevitable that they will re-file without the incorrect plaintiffs, we would take a moment to reflect on the vast waste of money this effort has become and hope that saner minds will prevail. Virtually any use of listener donated funds would be more constructive than this. We estimate the total from the referendum and the associated legal fees from both sides (New Day has been raising funds for their legal costs from Pacifica members) must total more than $400,000 by now, and this is money that would have helped out struggling KPFK-FM in Los Angeles a whole lot. The judge’s ruling is here. 

Berkeley – After months of “Stop the Steal” rhetoric, New Day Pacifica’s court appearance came and went with a whimper. After two earlier defeats on motions to move the legal proceedings to Alameda County and prevent the seating of the 2022 KPFK Local Station Board, the court turned down flat a request to overturn the defeat of New Day’s bylaws proposals and to install the New Day proponents as the officers of Pacifica. The court stated the motion was a “thinly veiled attempt to reverse a vote”. On January 21, the court will consider a request to dismiss the New Day Pacifica countersuit in its entirety, leaving intact only the litigation regarding the alleged improper use of Pacifica’s mailing list by New Day. 

Berkeley – The voting period ends for this year’s local station board elections on October 15th. If you are eligible, please get your ballot submitted by the 15th of October at midnight eastern standard time. You can find our voting recommendations here. If you need to secure a replacement ballot or think that you should have gotten one, but haven’t, you can request a new ballot here.  Candidate debates and statements are available here.

This edition will be KPFA-heavy, so apologies in advance to members at other stations. The editor has had a busy few weeks and needs to get caught up on happenings outside of the local signal area. We will attend to that and cover matters at the other 4 stations shortly. 

Berkeley – This is the second of two emails. The initial one focused on Pacifica Foundation news and this contains endorsements for the 2021 local station board elections. Your ballots have been sent on Monday and you have until October 15 to vote. Pacifica in Exile is an independent publication and our endorsements are not affiliated with any third party. 

Berkeley – This is the first of two emails. This initial one will focus on Pacifica Foundation news and the next one will contain endorsements for upcoming local station board elections. Your ballots are being sent today and you have until October 15 to vote. 

The KPFA Protectors – Safety Net lawsuit from Don Goldmacher and company seemed to have gone away after last week’s scathing denuniciation and dismissal of the case from LA Superior Court judge Michael Stern. But, apparently not discouraged by the judge’s sharp words, the Safety Net – Protectors filed an appeal, making sure that the flow of member dollars out of KPFA will continue for some time. At last count, the LSB member’s lawsuit has cost KPFA $71,000, more than 10% of the fund drive goal. The KPFA LSB Protectors majority under board chair Christina Huggins (a plaintiff) has not engaged in fundraising to offset the costs of their lawsuit to the station, instead raising funds independently on a Go Fund Me to cover their own costs. The Go Fund Me has raised about $9,500, only a fraction of the costs with the majority coming from just a few wealthy funders including celebrity divorce lawyer Harold Mayerson.