Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Election In The Garbage Can

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Berkeley – In an abruptly called “special meeting” on Tuesday evening, one of two Pacifica National Board meetings called for this week, the outgoing board majority decided they didn’t like the results of the 2016 board elections and threw them out after certification by the independent national election supervisor and True Ballot, a nationally recognized election services firm. They declared in a motion they wanted a “recount” and that the seating of newly elected delegates, and any officers and national board members they elect, and any business they transact were all “provisional” until further notice. Continue reading Election In The Garbage Can →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Are Two Meetings Better Than One?

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Berkeley – The upcoming week features not one, but two, Pacifica National Board meetings on December 13 and December 15. The long-scheduled December 15th meeting is when the board will select two affiliate directors for 2017 from among 5 applicants, and a recently called special meeting was initiated by directors Cerene Roberts, Adriana Casenave and Janet Kobren for December 13. The reason for the sudden meeting on the 13th isn’t entirely clear with the meeting notice saying the meeting is about 2016 local board elections and the FY 2014 audit. The 2016 elections were certified as complete last Wednesday. A draft of the FY 2014 was distributed to Pacifica’s audit committee last Monday. Roberts, Casenave and Kobren have not indicated what motions, if any, they may be presenting for board for consideration. Continue reading Are Two Meetings Better Than One? →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Report Back from KPFA Local Station Board

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Update November 21st. Please see the bottom of the post for supporting documents and a 15 minute summary audio reel from the meeting.

Berkeley-The following is provided as an eyewitness report back on the actions taken by the KPFA local station board at their November 19th board meeting. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the audio recording of the meeting has not yet been provided by the board. Once it has been, a summary reel will be prepared by Pacifica in Exile and made available on the website at pacificainexile.org and on the Pacifica in Exile Soundcloud page. The original 3.5 hour meeting audio will also be made available on Soundcloud and on the Pacifica website kpftx.org as soon as it is posted.

This report will include a description of the actions taken with some analysis of what can be expected to follow. Please bear with us as explanations may get a little complicated. We welcome follow-up and/or clarifying questions from Pacifica members via the comment function on the website or by email to [email protected]. Continue reading Report Back from KPFA Local Station Board →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Rumored Asset Grab

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Update: As of 11/17, the rumor is not a rumor. KPFA local station board member Sharon Adams as apparently the voice of the “crisis group” released the following document:

kpfa-lsb-dissolution-of-pacifica

The drift seems to be that if the PNB does not either swap out WBAI’s license, transfer KPFA’s broadcast license and 40% of the real estate assets at a fraction of  their value and/or allow some unidentified group of “core people” to unilaterally rewrite the foundation bylaws, the authors intend to sue to dissolve the Pacifica Foundation.

Berkeley – A reliable anonymous source has indicated the Berkeley wing of the Siegel/Brazon faction, who refer to themselves as “Save KPFA”, intend to present an offer at the next KPFA local station board meeting on November 19 to pay off Pacifica’s debts (last reported at $4-5 million dollars) and in exchange get KPFA’s broadcasting license transferred to themselves.  Continue reading Rumored Asset Grab →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Organizational Darwinism 2.0

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Berkeley – (From Day 4 of Trumpocalypse) … Pacifica’s outgoing Siegel/Brazon board majority hit the network’s five stations with a large central service fee increase, with the deepest impact to be felt at Berkeley’s KPFA and DC’s WPFW. The maneuver, which was pushed by NY rep Cerene Roberts and Houston rep Adriana Casenave, is complicated so bear with us for an explanation of what happened and the likely effect if not repealed. Continue reading Organizational Darwinism 2.0 →

Audio

Busted Eardrums

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At a 3-hour Pacifica National Board meeting on 11-3 at which nothing actually happened, Houston listener rep Adriana Casenave, always notable for the volume of her participation, goes for irony of the first degree by invoking a point of privilege regarding her nemesis, Houston rep Bill Crosier, accusing him of busting her eardrum.

Casenave then embarks on a lengthy screaming fit at 4x the volume as she goes to war with the chair – over a two-minute extension of time. After she loses her shrieking challenge to the chair and the 2-minute extension of time is approved, Casenave exits the meeting, apparently unable to bear her defeat.

Be warned that the clip can cause aural discomfort and listen at your own risk.

From the same meeting is a brief bonus clip of a hilarious segment when no less than five board members change their vote at the last minute, apparently succombing to confusion about which faction is voting is yes and which one is voting no on a fairly innocuous motion to notice an affiliates director election for 2016-2017. It was the only substantive motion voted on for the three hour duration of the meeting.

 

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Documents and Meetings In Hiding

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For Immediate Release

Documents and Meetings in Hiding

Berkeley –  IED Lydia Brazon has failed to respond to a directors inspection request filed by KPFK listener representative and attorney Jan Goodman requesting the final SAG-AFTRA arbitration results at LA station KPFK. Goodman’s request was filed on October 14. Brazon had not replied as of the close of business on Tuesday October 25, much less provided the requested information.  California Corporations code section 6334 provides every member of the board of directors the absolute right to inspect and copy all books, records and documents of every kind. Members of the board of directors have not seen the SAG-AFTRA settlement signed by Brazon and unofficial corporate counsel Dan Siegel more than a month ago. Until recently, they had not even known the amount of money Pacifica was responsible for paying and when it had to be paid.

Continue reading Documents and Meetings In Hiding →

Audio

Radford’s KPFK Shutdown

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In this clip from KPFK’s 10-16 local station board meeting, GM Radford threatens that if she is forced to pay for the SAG-AFTRA arbitration loss caused by her union contract violations in 2015, she will turn off KPFK’s repeater signals in Malibu, Santa Barbara and Ridgecrest/China Lake, turn off the station’s transmitter altogether from midnight to 6am, and turn off the air conditioning.

Board members suggested instead reversing Radford-initiated program changes that decreased revenue and provided documentation that the changes had cost the station at least $137,000.

Radford replied that programmers whose hours were removed, Roy Tuckman and Sonali Kolhtakar had “refused” to return to their old on-air schedules. Later in the meeting, both Tuckman and Kolhatkar responded in emails that they had not refused and would be pleased to resume their previous broadcast schedules and fundraise for the station.

Turning off the transmitter from midnight to 6am would likely violate signed rental contracts in effect for the use of the station’s sideband signals, besides angering the large overnight audience cultivated by Roy of Hollywood for decades.

Financial statements released for the fiscal year that ended 9-30-2016 documented a KPFK listener support loss of $300K between 2015 and 2016, the largest in the network for the year.

As reported by the Pacifica National Office:

KPFK listener support  10-1-2014 to 9-30-2015: $3,000,802.

KPFK listener support 10-1-2015 to 9-30-2016: $2,701,054.

The $137,000 projected increase in listener support would pay for 65% of the cost of Radford’s union violations. A return to the pre-Radford listener support numbers in 2017 would pay for them entirely.

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

A Little California Fraud

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Berkeley –  Los Angeles station KPFK recently lost a large multi-grievance union arbitration with the station’s SAG-AFTRA bargaining unit after new manager Leslie Radford imposed unilateral work hour reductions, fired two employees and denied severance benefits. The settlement amount is at least $200,000 and will include back pay to approximately 20 employees whose hours were cut, the re-hire of two fired employees and the payment of at least four previously denied severance packages.

The preliminary decision and award from arbitrator Louis S. Zigman, Esq. was issued on May 31, 2016, after two arbitration hearings were held on January 21, 2016 and March 22, 2016. This is what it says.  Continue reading A Little California Fraud →