Here
is a posting by one of the anti-democratic staff group, Sasha Lilley,
that makes clear that they do not want democracy or the involvement
of those that have supported the station for so many years, "gray
haired" folks that regularly attend the LSB meetings. The community
LSB members that consistantly vote with the anti-democratic staff
members on the LSB and are up for re-election, Annie Hallatt, Willie
Thompson and Mark Hernandez have not disavowed this anti-democratic
posting despite its distribution and discussion at LSB meetings. Please
read this carefully and contrast it with our 10 points for democracy
at KPFA. Ask Annie Hallatt, Willie Thompson and/or Mark Hernandez
in a public election forum if they disavow Sasha's anti-democratic
post? Hear their answer and you be the judge.
From : Sasha Lilley <sashalilley@yahoo.com>
Reply-To : lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org
Sent : Friday, August 20, 2004 12:13 PM
To : lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org
Subject : [lbo-talk] KPFA Staff Open Letter to the Local Station
I do think the bylaws are a disaster. And even worse
have been the actions of members on the LSBs who go
beyond their mandate under the bylaws by trying to
intervene into the daily business at the stations.
Can you honesty say that having an elected
board is
going to save KPFA and Pacifica from another takeover
attempt? The actions of those on the LSBs -- engaging
in bizarre parliamentary manipulations, sabotaging
essential station business, creating an unsafe working
environment for both staff and fellow board members,
slandering staff and management (for which litigation
may be in process) -- has opened up the stations to
intervention from the FCC and the state in this very
hostile political climate. You are probably aware
that both KPFA's and KPFK's licenses are up for
renewal next year and these sorts of irresponsible and
self-serving actions could very well lead to
revocation.
Do the bylaws "empower the listeners"
or just the very
few that have the time and inclination to get
involved? Is it the voice of all the listeners that
are represented on the boards or just a small few who
are harboring grudges dating back decades in some
cases? Our membership numbers in the tens of
thousands and our listenership in the hundreds of
thousands and yet people were elected to the KPFA LSB
with as few as 400 votes.
What good is democracy if it leads to the rule of a
small faction of people who are not representative,
either politically or demographically, of the
listeners as a whole? And you can talk about outreach
all you like, but built into this system is the fact
that, unlike those living on pensions, trust funds or
SSI, the majority of working people don't have the
time to participate -- even if they wanted to, which
itself is dubious from everything I've heard from
listeners, excluding the grey haired 40 people who
come to every LSB meeting with such regularity that
you could save seats in advance for them all.
Having lived through the Mary Francis
Berry era I am
concerned once again about the concentration of power
by Pacifica's board -- albeit for different purposes,
but with the same potential for destruction (I'd
rather not respond to the penis-waving statements here
about experience in the struggle, except to note that
I was a volunteer at KPFA at the time of the lockout
and was out in the streets with tens of thousands of
other people). One of the key issues during the
struggle against the old regime was how Pacifica was
draining the stations of revenue. Yet this year alone
the costs of the LSBs, the elections, and the Pacifica
National Board are projected to be $580,000 and it is
expected that the coming elections will cost much more
than last year's, making the next fiscal year's
expenses for governance even higher.
The June report from Pacifica's Chief
Financial
Officer states: "The variance which is most worrisome
is that of the [Local Station Board] elections. It
shows a negative variance YTD in April of 138k. On
projection, I have received word that the new
elections this summer and fall will cost the network
an additional 160k. This will bring the total
election costs in this fiscal to a grand total of
347k. (I had projected 268k by fiscal end but this
new figure supercedes that number.) This figure is
347k is 29% of the Network's working capital figure!
Governance costs here are actually higher when we
include National Board expenses (168k), Board related
legal expenses (50k), telephone costs (15k) - all in
one fiscal year. This totals 580k!.... Governance
costs, projected at 580 thousand dollars are 48% of
our required working capital, and 4.4% of our total
expenses. This does not include other normal
administrative expenses, insurance and other
requirements. We, as a Network, cannot survive this
kind of expense."
Instead of helping raise money for the stations -- an
essential part of the LSBs' mandate -- the governing
structure has become a big drain on them. As an
underpaid worker, and someone who routinely has to
deal with outdated equipment at the station as do 200
other KPFA paid and unpaid staff, the costs of this
(volunteer) bureaucratic stratum, intent on
increasingly consolidating power, is really troubling.
