KPFA's New Domain Awareness Center and a Monday Discussion with the CPB Inspector General

 

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.

Alleged board chair Wilkinson announced to the Pacifica Board she had unilaterally engaged the services of attorney Hunter Pyle to pursue legal action against Reese, after corporate counsel Terry Gross refused and then resigned. Pyle worked for Dan Siegel at Siegel and Yee from 1997-2003 and was replaced by Jose Luis Fuentes, current Pacifica board member and another Siegel and Yee employee. Fuentes, who replaced Siegel on the national board in January of 2014, and then made repeated motions to breach Reese's contract, also attempted to gain control of network bank accounts last week, although he was not successful in doing so. No authorization was sought or provided from the board to direct organizational funds to Pyle. 

Coincidentally, Siegel himself announced the initiation of a lawsuit against the City of Oakland while embarking on a campaign to become the mayor of the East Bay city.

Several current members of the board are expected to move ahead with legal action to reverse the breach of the Executive Director's contract and rein in the rogue board majority.

A new expensive surveillance camera was installed on KPFA's 2nd floor with 24/7 video. The camera, which records the image of every person who enters the occupied national headquarters and feeds that information to the ad-hoc chair's office inside KPFA, was paid for with funds donated by KPFA listeners as Wilkinson has no access to national funds or other station bank accounts yet. 

Terminated CFO Raul Salvador has ties to former CFO Lonnie Hicks (Salvador applied to work at Pacifica in 2008 when Hicks was still employed and was recommended by former controller Lynn Magno. Magno was dispatched by Reese in 2012 after she found out Magno had been convicted of embezzling $90,000 from a former employer. The amount was incorrectly reported earlier as $19,000). Reese acted after Magno was found to be charging personal items on Pacifica's credit cards. Hicks sued Pacifica for wrongful termination and won a large settlement from the nonprofit radio network, largely due to Dan Siegel's testimony under oath attesting Hicks was fired by Pacifica because he was black.


The motion reinstating Salvador, despite a poor performance evaluation and 5 workplace complaints, was passed by the 2014 board less than a week after seating. The motion stated  "Director Fuentes moves that the Pacifica Radio Foundation Board of Directors reinstate the Foundation's (interim) CFO Raul Salvador effective February 7, 2014 under the same terms and conditions in existence on November 13th, 2013". On November 13, 2013, Salvador was on administrative leave due to a workplace investigation. The report issued by the certified workplace investigator was snatched by Wilkinson and has not been made available to the full Board of Directors. 

The legendary Roy of Hollywood joined programmer Eben Rey and Executive Director Summer Reese on KPFK's air where they talked at length about the current turmoil. 

A copy of a complaint filed with the CA Attorney General by 8 former members of the national board can be found here.

An open letter to the Board objecting to the breach of the Executive Director's contract signed by hundreds of staffers, volunteers and listeners across the country can be found here. 

Disputed chair Margy Wilkinson is reported to have said with regard to Reese's attempted firing; "it isn't illegal until someone says it is".

Reese has continued to report to work at the national headquarters since March 17th. 






###

Richard Uzzell, a national board member from KPFT-FM in Houston offered the following motion to end the standoff between the Board and the Executive Director: The motion was ruled to be out of order at the March 27th board meeting. 

Whereas, Pacifica has been thrown into chaos by the actions of the board; and we are facing a complaint with the attorney general, possible multiple lawsuits and are perceived to be self-destructing in public, and;

Whereas, this will not help our upcoming fund drives.

Whereas, the board needs to put the organization above our factional fights, as just about everyone has told us, and make it clear that we will proceed in the future deliberately and with caution, following sound personnel procedures and with sufficient independent legal guidance.

Therefore be it Resolved, that in the interests of the welfare of Pacifica and our five stations,180 programming affiliates and our archival collections, the Pacifica National Board declares that the motion to fire Summer Reese as executive director is declared null and void; due to the lack of notice, lack of legal and HR consultation, no provision for continuing operations, increased financial risk to the network and confusion for network staff and volunteers.

And be it further Resolved, that the Pacifica National Board agrees to proceed with a system-wide performance evaluation for the executive director per the contract terms and agrees that duly-retained corporate counsel and independent human resources professionals shall be present for all executive personnel discussions going forward.

###

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

--

Tracy Rosenberg
Executive Director
Media Alliance
1904 Franklin Street # 818
Oakland CA 94612
www.media-alliance.org
510-832-9000 x303
510-684-6853 Cell
tracy@media-alliance.org

Steve Brown's Letter to WBAI Supporters regarding Democracy Now!

Dear WBAI Supporter –

 

A significant part of Pacifica’s current financial difficulties stem from the debt it owes to Democracy Now, which is owned by Amy Goodman’s corporation. A number of listeners have written to ask how much Pacifica owes to Democracy Now, and how the debt came about. I will try to answer both questions below.

 

How much money does Pacifica owe to Amy Goodman &Democracy Now?

 

First some background

 

Democracy Now was created in 1996 by WBAI Radio, the New York station of the Pacifica Radio Network, which also owned the program and paid its production costs and the salaries of its employees. The program featured news, analysis, and opinion, focusing primarily on stories that were underreported or ignored by mainstream news coverage.

 

Recipient of numerous awards – including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television, the George Polk Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial's First Prize in International Radio, and (for its host, Amy Goodman) the Right Livelihood Award – Democracy Now is one of the best, and justifiably one of the most popular, programs on the Pacifica Network.

 

During the years in which Pacifica owned Democracy Now, it was the only program that actually made money for the network, over and above what it raised during the network’s regular on-air fund drives. This income comprised approximately $500,000 a year in syndication fees from more than 100 non-Pacifica stations (averaging $2,000-$5,000 a year per station), and approximately $250,000 a year in fees from listeners who wanted CD copies of past or present broadcasts (at about $10 per CD). The combined revenue for Pacifica from Democracy Now totaled approximately $750,000 per year.

 

Amy Goodman attempts to take Democracy Now away from Pacifica

 

However, all this changed in 2001, when Amy Goodman, the producer and primary on-air host of Democracy Now (and a salaried employee of Pacifica), dropped a bombshell on the Pacifica National Board. Goodman told the astonished board members that she would quit Democracy Now -- and stop raising money for the network’s on-air fund drives -- unless Pacifica turned over total ownership of Democracy Now to Goodman’s private corporation, free of charge, along with its entire 7-year archive of Pacifica-produced Democracy Now programs.

 

This was not a threat the board could ignore. Democracy Now was one of the network’s most popular programs, and Amy Goodman was the network’s No. 1 fundraiser, generating as much as 25% of Pacifica’s total revenue during its fund drives. However, another reason the board was devastated by Goodman’s threat – and felt powerless to resist it -- was that Pacifica was at a very low point in its history. It had just emerged from a grueling, and very costly, two-year court battle to democratize its governance structure, and as a result was weak and financially strapped; and its new officers, unsure of themselves and of their new roles, were desperately trying to stabilize the foundation and regenerate its revenue stream.

 

Pacifica caves in to Amy Goodman’s demands

 

So the almost prostrate Pacifica submitted to Goodman’s demands. It accepted a contract that was dictated almost entirely by Goodman’s own lawyer, who was also named as the contract’s sole arbiter, in case of any disputes. The contract not only turned overDemocracy Now to Amy Goodman – free of charge -- along with its priceless 7-year archive of historic programming; but also obligated Pacifica to pay, to Goodman’s corporation, a fee of $500,000 a year for the right to broadcast Democracy Now on Pacifica stations; it also gave Goodman the right to keep some or all of the approximately $500,000 a year in licensing fees (which used to go to Pacifica) for syndicating the program to other stations; plus it gave Goodman the right to keep the approximately $250,000 a year (which also used to go to Pacifica) for selling to listeners CD copies of past and present programs at $10 each. It also gave Goodman the right to solicit donations for her corporation from Pacifica’s own mailing list, which Pacifica was required to turn over to Goodman for her own use, in periodically updated copies.  

 

The contract that literally gave away Democracy Now to Goodman’s corporation was signed by only one representative of Pacifica, its board chair. However, before signing the contract, she had not consulted with any of the other 21 members of the board about the terms of the contract, nor did any of the other board members even see a copy of the contract or know what was in it before the chair signed it. (It was later discovered that, during the contract negotiations, the Pacifica chair was actually being supported financially by Goodman’s personal lawyer, and at the time of the signing was given $30,000 that had been collected for her by Goodman’s lawyer from his private mailing list.)

 

The Pacifica community is outraged at the giveaway

 

Announcement of the giveaway of Democracy Now was greeted with outrage by thousands of Pacifica staff members and listeners throughout the network; it was viewed as an act of betrayal. In the face of mounting protests, board members at first reflexively defended the contract (even though they still had not seen a copy, and did not even know what was in it). But as protests continued, some board members (among them, Carol Spooner) later publicly regretted their support of the contract, but nevertheless did not act to rescind it.

 

How much money did Amy Goodman make by taking Democracy Now away from Pacifica?

 

In the 13 years since Amy Goodman wrested Democracy Now away from Pacifica, she has billed Pacifica an average of $630,000 per year in direct fees, or approximately $8.19 million since 2001. During those same years she also collected licensing fees of $2,000-$5,000 a year from other stations – which, since Democracy Now claims that it is aired on more than 1,000 radio, television, satellite and cable TV networks, could amount to $5 million per year, or as much as $65 million since 2001. (However, this is only an estimate, since these income figures for Goodman’s corporation are not publicized.)

 

Goodman’s corporation also collects fees of $10 per CD from listeners who request copies of Democracy Now broadcasts. Using the figure of approximately $250,000 per year in CD requests, before Goodman took ownership, this could amount to as much as $3.3 million since 2001. (Again, this is an estimate, since these income figures for Goodman’s corporation are not publicized.)

 

To summarize the above figures:

 

The dollar amount that Democracy Now gained (and Pacifica lost or forwent) after it was given away to Amy Goodman’s corporation in 2001, is approximately $8.9 million in direct fees, plus approximately $68.3 million in licensing fees and CD sales, for a total of approximately $77.2 million. According to the limited public information available,Democracy Now reported its year 2011 income as $6.5 million, its assets as $13 million, and Amy Goodman’s salary, as corporation president, as $148,493. (All figures in this report are my own estimates, for which I will gladly apologize if incorrect, in the event that more accurate information is subsequently issued by Amy Goodman’s corporation.)

 

Are Pacifica’s payments to Democracy Now justified?

 

Many have asked how Amy Goodman can justify making Pacifica pay her corporation approximately $630,000 a year for the right to air Democracy Now, when other stations can air the program free of charge, for the first year, and then pay only $2,000-$5,000 per year thereafter. In other words, why does Amy Goodman charge Pacifica up to 315 times more than she charges other stations to air Democracy Now?

 

To my knowledge, no explanation for this extraordinary disparity in licensing fees has been provided by Amy Goodman’s corporation. However, in defense of Amy Goodman, it has been pointed out that she fundraises for Pacifica, free of charge, during its fund drives. That is certainly true. However, as stated on the Democracy Now website, Amy Goodman will also fundraise, free of charge, for any stations that air Democracy Now –but she does not charge them $630,000 a year for the privilege, as she charges Pacifica. All they have to pay is $2,000-$5,000 a year.

 

How much does Pacifica currently owe Democracy Now?

 

Regardless of what each subsequent Pacifica management team may have thought about the Democracy Now contract that was signed in 2001, nevertheless they have continued to pay its fees each year – until recently – when declining audiences throughout the network, and the cataclysmic Hurricane Sandy at WBAI in New York – placed the network under extreme financial pressure, and made it unable to keep up with its payments to Democracy Now. It is currently at least $2-$2.5 million behind in those payments.

 

There is no doubt that Pacifica owes this money to Amy Goodman’s corporation (which owns Democracy Now). But there is also no doubt that Amy Goodman’s corporation hasgained as much as $77.2 million as a direct result of taking Democracy Now away from Pacifica in 2001. (Which is exactly how much Pacifica lost by giving away Democracy Now to Amy Goodman’s corporation in 2001.)

 

What is the right thing to do ... now?

 

Many are now asking the question – Wouldn’t it be both generous -- and fair – for Amy Goodman to forgive this relatively small debt of Pacifica, in light of how many tens of millions of dollars she has realized as a result of acquiring Democracy Now from Pacifica, free of charge? Forgiving this debt will not harm her corporation, which is financially sound and supported by large foundation grants; but It could mean the difference between survival or destruction for the Pacifica network that launched her career, and has made her a millionairess many times over.

 

Stephen M Brown

sbrown13@...

Turning Off The Water and Firing The Lawyer

Berkeley-The Pacifica Board of Directors resorted to turning off the water tap on their national headquarters today, leaving the employees preparing the network's payroll disbursements unable to wash their faces or make a cup of tea until the water flow was restored. The desperate maneuver came from next door at KPFA, where the disputed chair of the board Margy Wilkinson has set up shop with the title of acting executive director once again. The Board of Directors of the radio network, which is under CPB enhanced attention for violating open meetings requirements, is delaying a financial audit, and is unable to re-license Houston station KPFT-FM at the FCC due to the inability to operate at full power, appears to be focused on a power struggle with the executive director and not the rapid collapse of their network.

A copy of a complaint filed with the CA Attorney General by 8 former members of the national board can be found here.

Staffers and volunteer programmers at the network's LA outlet, KPFK-FM, which just lost Community Service government funding for low listenership numbers in the nation's second largest media market, have petitioned for an election to remove their staff representative from the National Board. Their petition can be found here. 

An open letter to the Board signed by staffers, volunteers and listeners across the country can be found here. 

Wilkinson informed the Board on Wednesday that corporate counsel Terry Gross, of Gross Belsky Alonzo, a prominent and nationally-recognized attorney (his biography can be found here) has declined to represent the Board in any proceeding to assert the legality of the attempted firing or to remove the executive director from her workplace. Gross has not met with the full Board since early February. 

Wilkinson apparently plans to appoint an "interim corporate counsel" and claims to have secured representation for the Board from another attorney, although it would generally require both a vote of the full board and the participation of the current corporate counsel to allocate network resources to an outside law firm. The board can be contacted at pnb@... with regard to the unauthorized use of donated funds. The network's insurance broker has warned the Board about the prospect of uninsurability if the rate of litigation does not significantly drop. 

The Board next meets on the evening of Thursday March 27th at 5:30pm pacific. The special meeting notices only the approval of minutes (the board has not approved nor issued any in 8 weeks) and changing bank signatorys as the subjects of discussion. 

Richard Uzzell, a national board member from KPFT-FM in Houston has offered the following motion to end the standoff between the Board and the Executive Director:

Whereas, Pacifica has been thrown into chaos by the actions of the board; and we are facing a complaint with the attorney general, possible multiple lawsuits and are perceived to be self-destructing in public, and;

Whereas, this will not help our upcoming fund drives.

Whereas, the board needs to put the organization above our factional fights, as just about everyone has told us, and make it clear that we will proceed in the future deliberately and with caution, following sound personnel procedures and with sufficient independent legal guidance.

Therefore be it Resolved, that in the interests of the welfare of Pacifica and our five stations,180 programming affiliates and our archival collections, the Pacifica National Board declares that the motion to fire Summer Reese as executive director is declared null and void; due to the lack of notice, lack of legal and HR consultation, no provision for continuing operations, increased financial risk to the network and confusion for network staff and volunteers.

And be it further Resolved, that the Pacifica National Board agrees to proceed with a system-wide performance evaluation for the executive director per the contract terms and agrees that duly-retained corporate counsel and independent human resources professionals shall be present for all executive personnel discussions going forward.

The Board of Directors is not expected to agree to entertain the motion put forward by Uzzell. 

National office employee Maria Gaite, who is working as the network controller, issued the enclosed statement about the "Shreddergate" confrontation on Monday March 24th, which ended with the Berkeley Police Department retreating after disproving assertions by Wilkinson of a gun possibly being in the corporate headquarters where a six-month old child was with her mother, a network administrative employee, at work.

"This is just a misunderstanding. As you know I just came back to work here in Pacifica on February 16th.The paper garbage for which shredding was ordered has been siting in the Pacifica National Office prior to Summer’s appointment  in July of 2012. Working paper drafts, extra copies of GL, and other items that we worked on for audit and needed to be shredded were not shredded. We were so busy complying with the auditors’ requests and making sure the last audit was done correctly and completely. I and my staff did not have time to shred them ourselves. I ordered a shredding pick-up way back July or August of 2013 but it was not taken care of. As I also left without prior notice, the staff including Tamika and Summer did not want to touch any documents that I left in my cubicle without talking to me first."

"I want to put this in the record. Summer had no idea that the shredding company was ordered to come by this morning and shred the documents that should have been shredded last year It was ordered by another colleague and I was aware of it. I am sure that had Summer known about it, she would not have allowed the shredding company to come by. It was a bad call on my part to allow it to be done in the middle of this chaos. But I assure you that while we were talking to Margy and her group this morning, we were open for them to look at the items in the shredding bin except for the old payroll documents. The old payroll documents had employees’ tax identification numbers that we cannot leak outside the office."

"In the end, the shredding bin were pulled in so as to end all these contentions about the shredding of these old unnecessary documents."

"I would like to assure you and any interested party that in IN GOOD FAITH, we are doing our best to correct the problems that were left by the former ED, the former CFO, and the former Controller (prior to Summer’s appointment). These include insufficient internal control systems in the company, failure to update the books on time, and making sure that revenues, donations, or grants received by the company are properly accounted for."

"Also, I want to put this in the record that we continue working in Pacifica National Office despite all these disagreements among PNB members. We are doing our best to go on with our day-to-day duties, to complete Fiscal Year 2013 audit, and provide assistance to the five radio stations (on top of KPFA’s lack of bank reconciliations since October 2012 – yes that is 18 months behind this end-March). It has been hard for all of us here in the National Office. The pressure has been mounting up. I apologize that Margy’s group had it this morning from one of our team but there is just too much pressure added on her by the requests from Margy’s end. I reiterate that it had been hard for all of us here in the National Office since this thing came down Monday of last week. I am sorry for my colleague who had enough this morning…". 

"I hope somehow this sheds light on the chaos."

Maria Gaite
Interim Controller

###

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

--

Tracy Rosenberg
Executive Director
Media Alliance
1904 Franklin Street # 818
Oakland CA 94612
www.media-alliance.org
510-832-9000 x303
510-684-6853 Cell
tracy@...

Pacifica Radio in turmoil as ousted executive stages sit-in

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/27/us-usa-pacifica-radio-idUSBREA2Q06Q20140327

(Reuters) - The fired executive director of the Pacifica Radio network says she is not leaving the left-leaning organization's California headquarters, and equipped with an inflatable air mattress at her office, she is settling in for a fight.

Summer Reese, 40, was fired by the non-profit foundation's board in an 11-7 vote on March 13 and locked out of the headquarters in Berkeley, California, both sides said.
After cutting the padlock to get into the building, Reese has hunkered down for nine days with a team of supporters in the headquarters of Pacifica Foundation Radio, which oversees a five-station radio network serving New York, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Houston and Washington, D.C.
At least on a day-to-day level, Reese still claims to be running the network.
"This has shaken everybody up," Reese said, from behind her desk. "I'm being asked to follow the illegal actions of a rogue board."
She and her team have equipped themselves for their working sit-in, which Reese said involves around-the-clock shifts, with an inflatable air mattress leaning against a cubical wall and takeout food boxes plopped around the offices.
Reese argued she was not given a reason for being fired and that the move violated her contract, which required her to be terminated for cause.
After chairing the Pacifica national board for two years and working as both the chair and interim executive director for a year, Reese signed a contract in January to permanently take on the organization's top role. The agreement guaranteed her $315,000 over three years, according to a copy of the contract.
She said the board likely ousted her because she was demanding greater financial accountability.
Board Chair Margy Wilkinson agreed the organization has struggled financially but denied Reese's allegations. Wilkinson said she was prohibited from providing further details about Reese's dismissal, citing employee privacy rules.
"I think her response since she has been terminated totally validates the decision to terminate her," she said. "I think the board took an action that was appropriate and necessary."

The board is looking at legal options, Wilkinson added.
(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Lisa Shumaker)

Tracy Rosenberg's Response to Bob Lederer

Hi Bob,

 

I'm always leery of the "facts not fiction" posts. They almost always indicate "fiction not facts."  In my humble experience IMHO.

 

Since I'm in possession of Ms. Reese's resume as it was provided to the PNB personnel/ED search committee, I wonder why you consider a six month position 16 years ago as an office manager to be a "long association". I worked for a few months at Bloomingdales in New York selling hosiery in my early twenties, but I wouldn't say I had a "long association with the upscale retailer". I had a job. Used to supply very expensive pantyhose to the wife of the UN Chair at the time, Javier Perez De Cueller, who had a fondness for Dior. I also worked at Burger King for a few months in high school, but I wouldn't say I had a "long association with the corporate fast food industry". This is the kind of thing the world makes fun of Pacific for. Stretching things absurdly to try to make a predetermined in advance point. We should stop doing it. It's the opposite of our mission statement. 

 

It is true that Ms. Reese laid off 70% of the staff at WBAI. When you, Bob, were on the PNB, WBAI was also losing hundreds of thousands of dollars every year and people were known to observe that WBAI could not pay it's bills, yet somehow nothing was done. In 2008, Brian Edwards Tiekert even made a loud speech about how we were falling off the edge of the financial cliff, but nothing was done. Five years later, something was, and by an interim ED at that, who somehow had more courage than all the ED's and PNB's before her and admitted the obvious. Had it been done five years earlier, the severance would not have been a problem because Pacifica still had cash reserves, but 5 more years of WBAI hemorrhaging took care of that last $1.5 million dollars or so. It's a lesson for the whole organization to deal with problems when they are occurring, not after the fact, because people suffer when no action is taken until it is almost too late.

 

Carolyn Birden's Response to Bob Lederer

Bob Lederer's post is a mixture of fact and fiction, indeed.

***This guilt by association tactic is typical of the attempt to defer attention from the issue at hand:  Although Bob has had a long association with some rather unsavory people and organizations himself, citing these now would be a distraction.  Pots and kettles, as it were.

had become Interim Executive Director in August 2012 after the Board declined to renew the contract of the last regular Executive Director. And in November 2013, the outgoing PNB had conditionally offered her the permanent position.

***I'm not sure what "conditionally offered" means:  Reese was sent a "hire letter" outlining terms of employment.  She accepted that and the board agreed to offer her a permanent contract, which it did.  She signed that, the board signed it, and she was hired.  The JUC majority tried to break the contract by voting to do so, which is not how one breaks a contract.  

In New York, Reese is known for, among other misdeeds:

***Reese is known for many things, including extraordinary work keeping Pacifica from being sued during the course of her Interim tenure and weathering the results of some very dangerous moves by various staff members. Her ability to function was hampered by the Board's failure to authorize the hiring of an HR director, in the absence of which Reese consulted with our insurers and the lawyers they provided in order keep the Foundation out of legal trouble.  She successfully negotiated with the union at WBAI and agreed to as much of a cushion as was possible for the laid off staff, a layoff mandated by our desperate financial condition.  They received medical benefits during the months subsequent to the layoff, and separation payments as soon as she (somehow) located funds to pay them. For Lederer to hide his own complicity as a member of the boards (local and national) that ignored the station's desperate condition is despicable.

•     laying off three-quarters of WBAI's paid staff last August, including the News Department, yet not providing legally (and morally) required severance payments until 7 months later, after some former employees were forced into near-homelessness;

•     hiding from the board and listeners for 4 months the lawsuit filed against Pacifica by owners of the Empire State Building, that nearly led to WBAI's eviction from the broadcast antenna room until Justice & Unity blew the whistle and demanded a special Transmitter Fund;

***Justice & Unity (known locally as Unjustice and Disunity) did not "blow the whistle" or raise money for the transmitter rent, much less the replacement transmitter we need.  Instead, the JUC members of the WBAI LSB continually caused disruptions and created diversions to make sure the board remained divided and unfocused on anything so real as our financial picture. So far as I have been told, no member of the JUC has joined the new group of volunteers working at WBAI to mail out premiums and otherwise help out at the station.

Former Board Members File Complaint With CA Attorney General

March 23 2014

For Immediate Release

Former Board Members File Complaint With CA Attorney General

Berkeley-8 Former Pacifica National Board members from all 5 of the licensed station's signal areas across the country have filed a complaint with the California Attorney General today. The board members request the AG's assistance in investigating the chaotic board takeover of network, help to assure the integrity of the charity and to prevent further reckless actions by the board to destabilize the organization and/or cause the nation's first public radio network to collapse.
The complaint alleges "serious and substantial breaches of duty" by the newly-installed Board of Directors including creating liability, risking uninsurability, preventing access to counsel, and ignoring pending workplace harassment claims. The request for investigation comes from board members who served at various times between 2010 and 2013. The full text of the complaint will be available later today.

In the meantime, disputed board chair Margy Wilkinson confirmed to network employees that the Board of Directors is "having trouble producing minutes". The Board's Secretary has produced no minutes since the 2014 board convened 7 weeks ago. 25+ hours of closed meetings in that period of time remain totally undocumented.

9 sitting members of the Board of Directors issued the following memorandum Sunday evening to ease confusion among the network's employees, vendors and contractors who are unclear who to report to in the standoff between the executive director and a thin majority on the board.


MEMORANDUM
TO: All Pacifica Foundation Radio Employees, Vendors and Contractors
REGARDING: Business Operations
FROM: Pacifica National Board Members Listed Below
DATE: March 23, 2014

In order to minimize confusion and maintain the necessary operations of our network, we Pacifica Board Members (listed below) are writing this note to clarify the current state of affairs:

The Pacifica National Board of Directors has pursued an ill-advised and probably illegal course of action resulting in uncertainty in the direction of the day-to-day operations of the National Office.

The actions have been taken by a bare majority of the Board of Directors without required notice or independent legal input, despite our repeated request for legal and human resource advice. We believe these actions are not binding upon the Foundation.

We regret that the actions above have occurred, despite our strong opposition.
Corrective action will be taken shortly. In the meantime, it is imperative that operations continue as usual via the usual lines of authorization. We ask that you perform your functions as you would have done prior to March 13th in order to protect the assets of the network.

We deeply regret the behavior of some members of the Board of Directors and are concerned about the destructive impact on staff, vendors and the general public. We are committed to maintaining normal business operations and serving the public throughout this episode.

FROM PACIFICA NATIONAL BOARD MEMBERS: Carolyn Birden, Janet Coleman, Heather Gray, Kim Kaufman, Janet Kobren, Janis Lane-Ewart, George Reiter, Manijeh Saba and Richard Uzzell

A statement in opposition to the board's careless actions can be found here and is gathering signatures from board members, staffers and listeners.
The network's national headquarters remains occupied for the 7th consecutive day.


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Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

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Tracy Rosenberg
Executive Director
Media Alliance
1904 Franklin Street # 818
Oakland CA 94612
www.media-alliance.org
510-832-9000 x303
510-684-6853 Cell
tracy@...

Statement of Support for Summer Reese

Statement of Pacifica’s Local Station Board Members, Staff and Listeners

 

Pacifica National Board acted improperly in its attempted termination of Executive Director Summer Reese

Please read and sign the petition.

 

http://pacifica.supportkpfa.org/?p=91

Letter from Tracy Rosenberg

I saw the following letter on one of the Pacifica lists and thought it made a lot of sense:

Right Melinda. Now think about why that is happening and has been happening for more than 10 years. It's not an accident, Melinda. Other nonprofits don't have this set of problems. It's because the undermining of the governance system and the eventual breakup of the network have been the goal for many years. That is why you keep a Lonnie Hicks in place, even as he drives away one ED after another, including Greg Guma and Nicole Sawaya, both of whom were competent people and could have helped Pacifica and intended to. That is why a competent lawyer like Dan Siegel engages in the equivalent of legal hari-kiri by representing all sides (and no sides) all at once and specifically testifying to throw the Hicks case on purpose. That is why you prevent WBAI from ever escaping from a payroll and rent and tower lease that crushed it to death and rendered it a helpless liability when it was once the crown jewel of the network. Think about how you got here, who got you here and more importantly, how you are going to get out of it. That's what focusing means and the inability to do it is why Pacifica never escapes the vise.

Best,

Tracy

Steve Brown's letter to WBAI supporters

Dear WBAI Supporter –

 

 

Here is a video of Pacifica Executive Director Summer Reese using a bolt clipper to break the padlock installed at Pacifica HQ to keep her and the entire Pacifica staff from going back to work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvnV2no1Qs0  

 

The padlock not only locked out Reese but the entire Pacifica staff, which ground the work of the foundation to a halt. As you know from my prior emails, Reese (who has a signed 3-year contract with Pacifica) was fired, without notice or cause, in a last-minute, late-night phone meeting of the national board, an action that 10 of the national board members have called illegal and are considering whether to fight in a lawsuit.

 

Reese was fired after she found evidence of embezzlement of at least $80,000 at KPFA, and demanded to see the foundation’s books. The KPFA faction and their allies on the national board refused to turn over the books. Instead they rushed to fire her. So far they have still not turned over the books, but Reese says she intends to pursue her investigation of the missing funds “wherever it may lead.”

 

 

As you may also know, the faction of the national board that fired Reese is rumored to be making a secret deal, on its own, for an outside takeover of WBAI by an entity tied to corporate broadcasting interests. The plan is supposedly for WBAI to be turned into an NPR-type venue that will support the centrist faction of the Democratic Party (much like MSNBC, which is already a Democratic Party mouthpiece) in time to support Hillary’s predicted campaign for the Presidency. The takeover faction is headed by a California lawyer and former Pacifica board member who says he wants to sell WBAI and dismantle the entire Pacifica network. Reese and her allies on the board have vowed to fight for the preservation of Pacifica.

 

Here is a link to a March 20 explanatory article in the Villager by former WBAI programmer and board member Paul DeRienzo.

http://thevillager.com/2014/03/20/after-directors-firing-wbai-sale-is-now-rumored/

 

Please excuse me if you have already seen this material (or may not care). I know many WBAI listeners have not seen it, and are confused by all the claims and counterclaims, so I have decided to err on the side of providing more information rather than less.

 

Regards,

Stephen M Brown

 

Occupation At Pacifica Enters 5th Day, More Board Irregularities Come To Light

Berkeley-The resistance to the attempt to fire executive director Summer Reese by a newly-elected board of directors despite her binding employment contract has entered it's second week with no signs of slowing down. This morning, support volunteers were turned away due to a lack of space in the teensy office to accommodate them all.
 

A statement in opposition to the board's hasty and reckless actions can be found here (http://2014.supportkpfa.org/?p=91) and is gathering signatures from KPFA's board members and listeners.

 
The Pacifica National Board released an obscure statement that the unavailable position of interim executive director was offered to “a specific individual”, but numerous board members confirm that recently-resigned KPFK manager Bernard Duncan was the only candidate. Duncan's interest in trying to replace his former boss was presented to the board a directors a mere two hours before the board meeting.

 
Duncan remains under contract with Pacifica from his previous position and is on salary until April 15th with KPFK and scheduled for a lump severance pay-out in April. It is not clear to board members if the intent is to pay Duncan additional funds, if the previous employment contract is now “void” or what arrangements have been made by the woman who claims to be the chair of the board and made the motion for Duncan's hire by the board.

 
During Duncan's tenure, he was notified by several staff members of questionable activites in KPFK's business office where the bookkeeper was filling out tax returns for H&R Block during working hours using KPFK's computer equipment. The bookkeeper was terminated after Duncan's resignation by incoming general manager Richard Pirodsky shortly after he arrived at the Los Angeles radio station to take over operational responsibility. Board members indicate they attempted to discuss this matter, as well as the loss of the station's entire Community Service Grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting during the meeting, but were not heard by the board officers. Requests for legal guidance, as well as a background check for the candidate, were denied.

 
The corporation counsel, Terry Gross of Gross, Belsky and Alonzo, does not appear to have been present for a board meeting in more than a month and the board has released no minutes of record since January 23, 2014, the last meeting of the previous board of directors before the new term began. The board has met for approximately 50 hours of meetings since the turnover.

 
This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvnV2no1Qs0 ) describes some of the recent events that have destabilized the independent radio network.


Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

Occupation Continues Into 4th Day in Berkeley

New ED May Be Resigned LA Manager, Occupation Continues Into 4th Day in Berkeley

 

March 20, 2014 at 5:23pm

The Pacifica National Board, which attempted to terminate Executive Director Summer Reese only 7 weeks after signing a 3-year contract, and still has stated no reason for the rushed vote taken with no legal consultation, is floating a familiar face as her proposed replacement: a recently-resigned manager in their own network, Bernard Duncan who was the general manager at the LA station KPFK until a few months ago. Duncan, a New Zealander, had announced his intention to relocate back to New Zealand in the spring of 2014 months earlier in an email sent to the LA radio station's staff. Duncan's resignation came after the station's business manager was found to have been conducting a second job filling out tax returns for H&R Block using the radio network's computer equipment and after the Pacifica National Board made a human resources intervention into a program director hire that dragged on for almost two years with accusations of unethical behavior. KPFK, the network's LA outlet and one of the largest radio licenses west of the Mississippi River, was recently warned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that it would lose national funding due to listenership not reaching the minimum level for the signal and market size required to maintain funding.


In the meantime, the illegitimate termination continues to be resisted by Reese, the national office staff who work under her direct supervision, and many KPFA (the network's Berkeley outlet) local board members, staffers and members, several of whom banded together to create a statement that begins "We the undersigned members of the KPFA Local Station Board, staff and listeners, strongly believe that the members of the Pacifica National Board acted improperly at their late-night telephone board meeting on March 13, 2014, when they voted to fire Executive Director Summer Reese without due process". The full text of the statement can be found at supportkpfa.org

 
National office employees have had to clear gauntlets of board members to enter and leave their workplace. The office continues to be protected by local members and staffers who have manned it 24 hours a day since 6:30am on March 17th to allow the locked out employees to return and do their jobs. Video from the occupied site is available here (https://vimeo.com/89528192) and here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YWjwHl9ovU).


National office employees have expressed concern about the upcoming annual audit that was scheduled to begin on March 27th amidst the chaos, although the employees did manage to file CPB renewal paperwork remotely during the period of time they were locked out.


The board members executing the coup seem highly concerned about gaining control of the network's bank accounts and have made numerous inquiries of confused staff and vendors, (including the auditing firm) for bank account numbers and signature permissions, which has left staff and vendors concerned about who to give what information to.

 
The National Board has produced no minutes or formal record of its activities for the past seven weeks. The woman claiming to be the board chair, Margy Wilkinson, only received 11 votes, or 50% support of the board and was placed in the chair position by a quick vote after one opposed director left the room briefly. The vice-chair was forced to resign a position as an elected official in DC after fellow board members pointed out that the organization's bylaws forbid elected officials on the board and he had not disclosed his elected political position is his candidate statement. The secretary has been banned from the premises of WBAI-FM for physical encounters with other volunteers.

 
A rumored secret negotiation with an entity associated with MSNBC for the New York outlet WBAI appears to be linked to one of the lease bidders in a request for proposals issued by the network at the end of the last year. Reese is believed to have been not particularly favorable to that proposal and if forced to consider a lease operator, more favorably inclined towards another. It's unknown what role the uncertainty over WBAI's future as a left megaphone in one of the biggest media marketplaces in the world plays in  Reese's attempted ouster. This article (http://thevillager.com/2014/03/20/after-directors-firing-wbai-sale-is-now-rumored/) in NY's Villager describes some of the goings-on from the East Coast perspective

 
The attempted firing looks likely to be adjudicated by a California court, but in the meantime the Pacifica National Board plans to meet in a secret closed session this evening at 5;30 Pacific, 8:30 Eastern.


 
Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI.  Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

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