Selected snippets of discussion from Pacifica National Board governance committee meeting on July 7th, 2015. Subject is the proposal of Save KPFA’s Mal Burnstein to raise the Pacifica voting member fee to $40. Speakers in order are KPFA listener representative Mal Burnstein, KPFK listener representative John Wenger (speaking against the idea) KPFT listener representative Nancy Saibara Naitoma (also speaking against the idea) and then Mal Burnstein again. The motion died at the end of the discussion.
Empty Pockets
Originally posted July 1, 2015
Berkeley – In fairly stark terms, Affiliates Director Ursula Rudenberg addressed the national board and asked them to support a plan she has been developing for over a year for Pacifica to administer a group underwriting plan for the 200+ Pacifica affiliates (independent radio stations that partner with Pacifica – most of them already take underwriting as independent entities). Rudenberg told the board they could embrace the plan or face the erosion and end of the Affiliates program which she said was “no longer competitive”. Some snippets from the meeting were recorded by a NY-based listener and are available here. The national board did not embrace the plan. The NY listener characterized the meeting as follows: Continue reading Empty Pockets
Factional Lawyering
Originally posted June 25, 2015
Berkeley – The Pacifica National Board, after 15 months of ad-hoc legal consultation, is moving ahead with appointing a corporate counsel. Unfortunately, the fix appears to be in for the law firm of former board member Dan Siegel. Siegel and Yee has been an active factional entity within Pacifica for years, sending three of the firm’s employees to the KPFA local station board in the last six years as listener representatives with the Save KPFA group. Jose-Luis Fuentes, a Siegel and Yee associate from 2002-2014, is on the search committee appointed by the board, despite his 12 years of employment at one of the applicant firms. Continue reading Factional Lawyering
Citizen Arrests and the CIA: An LA Weekend
Originally posted June 16, 2015
Los Angeles – Pacifica’s National Board held one of its increasingly rare in-person board meetings in Los Angeles this past weekend, as LA station KPFK, the most financially successful Pacifica station as recently as 2013, contines its rapid free fall into insolvency. In May, outgoing IED Margy Wilkinson saddled KPFK with a community college teacher as a new general manager, Leslie Radford, whose only credential appears to be a few years as a factional fighter on the local and national boards. Continue reading Citizen Arrests and the CIA: An LA Weekend
Wilkinson’s Note Pad
Originally posted June 9, 2015
Berkeley- A note pad found on the floor at the Pacifica National Board meeting in November of 2013 and belonging to soon-to-be board chair and interim executive director Margy Wilkinson has been given to Pacifica In Exile. The note pad details strategic notes regarding the board’s in-person meeting, as well as notes from a few KPFA local station board meetings of the same period. A full scanned copy of the contents will be made available in the future, but some highlights from the national board section are below. Continue reading Wilkinson’s Note Pad
Uprising at KPFK
Originally posted June 1, 2015
Berkeley-Controversy continues to rage at Pacifica’s Los Angeles station KPFK-FM, after former board chair Margy Wilkinson appointed former board member and factional crony Leslie Radford as the new permanent general manager at Pacifica’s LA station KPFK, one day before vacating her position as interim executive director. Incoming ED John Proffitt was driving across the country to begin his tenure on May 11th when the hire was made. The manuever has thrown Pacifica into chaos and deeply depressed fund drive revenues at KPFK. As recently as 2013, KPFK was the network’s most successful fundraiser. Continue reading Uprising at KPFK
Is Broadcasting Community Events Selfish?
Originally posted May 23, 2015
Berkeley- Former Board chair Margy Wilkinson, who deposed her predecessor in March of 2014 and then served as Pacifica’s interim executive director for most of the last 15 months pulled a last-minute fast one a day and a half prior to new ED John Proffitt’s arrival in Berkeley, by appointing former board member and factional crony Leslie Radford as the new permanent general manager at Pacifica’s LA station KPFK. The maneuver has thrown Pacifica into chaos and incited an uprising at LA station KPFK. Continue reading Is Broadcasting Community Events Selfish?
Beware The Last Days
Originally posted May 12, 2015
Berkeley-Board chair Margy Wilkinson, who deposed her predecessor in March of 2014 and then served as Pacifica’s interim executive director for most of the last 15 months (briefly interrupted for 90 days by Bernard Duncan who departed for New Zealand), pulled a last-minute fast one a day and a half prior to new ED John Proffitt’s arrival in Berkeley by appointing former board member and factional crony Leslie Radford as the new permanent general manager at Pacifica’s LA station KPFK. Continue reading Beware The Last Days
Pacifica’s CFO Resigns
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
Petition: Tell the Pacifica National Board to Protect Whistleblowers, Not to Punish Them
Originally posted May 2, 2015
On April 30, 2015, the majority on the Pacifica National Board (PNB) voted in closed session to remove Kim Kaufman, a Director from KPFK who has repeatedly tried to get the PNB and management to investigate financial irregularities and missing/incomplete information supplied to the California Attorney General.
The retaliation against Kim Kaufman by the PNB is one in a long line of incidents where people trying to draw attention to fiscal mismanagement at Pacifica stations have been harassed, fired, run off and recalled. Continue reading Petition: Tell the Pacifica National Board to Protect Whistleblowers, Not to Punish Them