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{Pacifica Press Release} Management Change at KPFK-FM Los Angeles

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February 27, 2017

For Immediate Release

Contact: Bill Crosier, Interim Executive Director  Email: [email protected],

Management Change at KPFK-FM Los Angeles

Los Angeles – KPFK-FM will have a new general manager, effective immediately.

Senior Producer Christine Blosdale will be stepping into the general manager role temporarily, for a period anticipated to be 4-8 weeks, until a longer-term interim general manager is selected. Blosdale has been a long-time employee of the station, and her success in fundraising for KPFK has been widely noted. Continue reading {Pacifica Press Release} Management Change at KPFK-FM Los Angeles →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Disruptathon

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Berkeley- After a brief interval of being able to conduct business due to the voluntary exit of the remnants of the Siegel/Brazon faction from the February 10 board meeting, the respite ended on Thursday February 16. Four hours of chaos ensued.

Despite the able chairing of newly-elected chair Jonathan Alexander, the angry former majority put on a show, displaying their ample ability to interrupt, bully, shout, scream and disrupt. The board took two votes of almost no consequence, one to revote on acceptance of the affiliate director vote tally that includes the votes of WBAI’s directors that had been excluded, and one to postpone discussion of a bylaws conflict. Not much for four hours of work. The comparison to the productive meeting on February 10 is striking.  Continue reading Disruptathon →

Documents

{Pacifica Press Release} Pacifica Foundation Appoints New Executive Director To Grapple With Financial Challenges

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February 11, 2017

For Immediate Release

Contact: Bill Crosier, Interim Executive Director  Email: [email protected]  Telephone: 713-305-5346

Pacifica Foundation Appoints New Executive Director To Grapple With Financial Challenges

Berkeley-The five-station Pacifica Radio network opted for change in 2017 by removing Lydia Brazon, the interim executive director since 2015 and replacing her with 2010-2012/2016-2017 Director William Crosier. Continue reading {Pacifica Press Release} Pacifica Foundation Appoints New Executive Director To Grapple With Financial Challenges →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

2017 Board Finally Shows Up

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Berkeley-15 days after being seated, the 2017 Pacifica National Board finally threw off the shackles of the previous board, refusing to concede to an imperial order from 2016 officers Adriana Casenave and Janet Kobren to unilaterally adjourn the February 10 meeting without conducting any business. The expired officers got on the phone call, established a quorum was present, and then claimed the previous year’s officers had to “approve the meeting in advance” and therefore the meeting was to be adjourned without any vote. The ploy didn’t work and a quorum of the board remained on the call after half a dozen Siegel/Brazonites hung up, passing several motions and then moving on to an executive session. Quorum was re-established in the closed session and the 2017 board made a change in the interim executive director position, relieving former board member Lydia Brazon of the position and appointing Houston listener rep Bill Crosier, pending the hire of a permanent executive director. A 20-minute summary reel of the open session of the meeting can be heard here. The meeting notice can be seen here.   Continue reading 2017 Board Finally Shows Up →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Maybe A New Start

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Berkeley – A new Pacifica National Board will be seated (or at least attempt to be seated) on January 26. After directors elections were completed at all five Pacifica stations, the 2017 station reps are Alex Steinberg, Ken Laufer, Kathryn Davis and Cerene Roberts from NY, Nancy Sorden, Benito Diaz, Maskeelah Washington and Jim Brown from DC, Bill Crosier, Bob Mark, Rhonda Garner and Adriana Casenave from Houston, Grace Aaron, Jan Goodman, Jonathan Alexander and Sharon Brown from Los Angeles and Akio Tanaka, Andrea Turner, Bill Campisi and Sabrina Jacobs from Berkeley.

Two affiliate directors were elected last December in a process marred by the board majority’s refusal to seat three directors chosen by New York’s newly elected delegates on December 14. At the urging of the sole seated WBAI director Cerene Roberts, the PNB threw out the NY election for PNB representatives in December using the excuse that the directors election was not specifically noticed on the kpftx.org meeting page.  Continue reading Maybe A New Start →

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Election In The Garbage Can Redux

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A brief clip from the Pacifica National Board meeting of 1-12-2017 with the lame duck board. It starts with the usual protest about the board excluding 75% of WBAI’s representation, which they have now done for 345 consecutive days. KPFA director Jose Luis Fuentes seems to make an intoxicated aside. Then we move on to once again, for the second time, decertify the 2016 board elections. The board moves to pay someone undetermined $1,500 to recount the ballots and if the recount changes the results, then director and officer elections of the past month would all get redone. IED Brazon then contradicts  and says the board is acting contrary to the bylaws (a point Pacifica in Exile has been known to make) and  the 2016 LSB elections are indeed certified.

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Notice Was Immaterial

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Berkeley – After throwing out two consecutive elections by WBAI’s delegates to fill 3 WBAI vacancies on the national board, and rigging the 2017 affiliates director election by not allowing any independent WBAI directors to vote, PNB treasurer and board majority member Michael Novick admitted that “in retrospect”, the board majority was wrong and the “flawed notice” was immaterial. In correspondence with a Pacifica employee, Novick said:

“I abstained on the vote not to seat the people elected at the LSB meeting in December. In retrospect I think the flawed notice was immaterial, as it had no impact on the outcome of the vote. Since I abstained, however, I am not in a position to move for reconsideration” Continue reading Notice Was Immaterial →

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Pacifica Vs. Obamacare (and a point of snipe)

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A summary reel of Pacifica’s December 27 national finance committee. In order:

1) A brief discussion of the still-invisible FY 2014 audit, which at two years late is claimed to be done but is impossible to locate

2) The motion to pass DC station WPFW’s budget, which like all the budgets in the current cycle is both 3 months late and inaccurate pending  large rises in central services fees several stations will face due to Cerene Robert’s SCA motion granting credits for sideband rental revenue

3) A discussion and vote on the budget for LA station KPFK, where GM Leslie Radford, already responsible for $285,000 in contract violations, proposes balancing the budget by stripping Pacifica’s LA employees of all dependent health care for both spouses and dependent children. In addition to the ERISA issues brought up on the call, later research uncovered the proposal was a violation of the employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act and would lead to more fines and penalties for Pacifica. The board majority on the committee passed it anyway

4) A late night poison pill from Cerene Roberts.

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Winning Isn’t Everything

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December 26, 2016

For Immediate Release

Winning Isn’t Everything

Berkeley – After disenfranchising NY station WBAI of 75% of their national board representation, Pacifica’s national board held elections for two 2017 affiliate directors. The two affiliate directors will be the tie-breaking votes on the 2017 PNB after the independents won resounding election victories in Los Angeles, Houston and New York. Incumbent affiliate directors Efia Nwangaza and Temba Tshibanda both voted not to seat the directors chosen by NY’s newly elected delegates, who they feared would not vote for them to retain their affiliate seats in 2017. Sole NY representative Cerene Roberts brought motions twice last week to eliminate elected NY directors not affilated with her NY branch of the Siegel/Brazon faction. A legal letter sent by LA attorney Jerry Manpearl to the board prior to their second vote to disenfranchise WBAI can be seen here.  Continue reading Winning Isn’t Everything →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Catch 22

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Berkeley – The second Pacifica National Board meeting in three days went no better than the first with another three hours of invalidating elections on the agenda. The board took no action to change or correct their Tuesday action of decertifying the entire 2016 delegate election, despite a legal opinion informing them the certified election results are final. There has been no word from IED Brazon, National Election Supervisor Lynne Serpe or election vendor True Ballot if or when the board’s requested “recount” would be performed.

Having decided the results of the elections,  60 newly elected delegates in all five signal areas, and any actions those new delegates take are “provisional” for an indefinite period of time, the board majority went on to finish the total disenfranchisement of NY station, WBAI, once the pride of the network for its fearless reporting and countercultural dominance. After throwing out WBAI’s election of national representatives that occurred on December 7th, the board majority then threw out the WBAI election of national representatives that occurred on December 14th, invalidating a total of 13 elections in 3 days. You can hear an 11-minute summary reel of the meeting here.  Continue reading Catch 22 →