A collection of informal minutes from the monthly meetings of the KPFA Local Station Board, composed of 25 elected representatives, 18 listener reps, 6 staff reps, and one rep from our affiliate station KFCF in Fresno.
Election
2007
Election
II
Election to be Voided?
Election
Results new
Fair Elections Committee
new
Current Issues:
Dismantle
the LSB?
Program Council Ignored
Sunday Salon Replaced Wrongly
Bust
the Unpaid Staff Org?
Voice of the Poor unwanted?
LSB Meeting Reports:
9/06 to recent
Events & Audios
Archives:
Pro-democracy
letter
Letter against KPFA Democratization
"Why Did the Staff not Prevent the 10-Year Corporate Raid?"
A Chronology of the attempted takeover of Pacifica
2006 Election
issues
(still very relevant!)
Since the LSB's approved minutes may not be posted until many months after the meetings, there are no draft minutes, and the official minutes are rather sketchy, we will post here any insightful informal reports we can obtain.
While they may not be regularly produced, we plan to post them in a more timely manner.
Seeing the LSB in action is essential to understanding the basic issues, the performance of our elected representatives, and is an important guide to voting for reps.
To visit the LSB monthly meeting & to see agendas & minutes, go to http://lsb.kpfa.org/
To hear meeting audio archives, go to http://kpfalsb.org
***************************************************************
AUDIOS
from KPFA's LSB meeting of March 8, 2008
from
Brian Shiratsuki
part
1
http://pacificana.org/public/files/KPFA/Media/2008/20080308-1104-KpfaLSB.mp3
part
2
http://pacificana.org/public/files/KPFA/Media/2008/20080308-1204-KpfaLSB.mp3
part
3
http://pacificana.org/public/files/KPFA/Media/2008/20080308-1304-KpfaLSB.mp3
part
4
http://pacificana.org/public/files/KPFA/Media/2008/20080308-1404-KpfaLSB.mp3
***************************************************************
AUDIO from
KPFA's LSB meeting of February 9, 2008
from Brian Shiratsuki ?
Entire meeting
http://kpfalsb.org/archive/20080209-lsb.mp3
***************************************************************
AUDIO from
KPFA's LSB meeting of November 17, 2007
PUBLIC COMMENTS
only
from Brian Shiratsuki
Public
comments
http://pacificana.org/17-november-2007-kpfa-lsb-public-comment
***************************************************************
Sorry, due to pressures of the current LSB election, & subsequent
events
we are behind in the next half year of reports:
September 15
October 20
November 17 - audio of Public Comments
December - no meeting?
January 12
February 9 - audio
March 8
- audio
***************************************************************
NOTES from KPFA's LSB Meeting of August 18, 2007
notes by Anonymous, edited by Mara Rivera
***************************************************************
This meeting was mostly taken up with the issue
of the Unpaid Staff Organization.
The issue of the Program Council also came up.
Start at the Current Issues section for a fuller treatment of these issues,
including the link to Maria Gilardin's "Why did the Staff not Prevent
....." (at the bottom of the "Bust the...Union" page.)
After the initial standing items and arranging of the agenda, there were
18 public comments!
*** PUBLIC COMMENTS
1 - & 3 - were by members of the Poor News Network, which has a once
a week spot on the Morning Show. Tiny was the second speaker. It seems
that Poor Network News has had a place on the Morning Show once a month,
because they could not afford to produce the show more often. Now they
are ready to move to every other week, but the Morning Show claimed they
were not up to the proper broadcast standards and would need to hire an
editor, which they were able to do.
After some unique programs, and participation at the U.S. Social Forum,
the Morning Show denied them a second program. In a letter, they have
said:
"In the end - we at POOR know that the MORNING SHOW never wanted
us to have this much airwave access and that it is totally un-founded
what they are saying but we need the community to respond to this threat.
We provide as much access for voices as we possibly can and these are
voices that are not being heard ANYWHERE else - abuse of incarcerated
peoples written by incarcerated peoples - responses to gentrification
and eviction by the people threatened with eviction, youth crime by youth
who facing profiling, and on and on- WE are here to keep this channel
of access for the people and by the people and if anything we should be
increased rather than scaled back and we hope that you all agree and speak
up or we might not be able to be heard in this arena for much longer!"
[To read the rest of this letter and a comment.go
to Voice of the Poor...in Current Issues.]
2 - Nick Alexander of the unpaid staff denounced the attempt to ban the
UPSO as union busting.
[see iGM memo]
4 - Steve Zeltzer, labor activist, also spoke about the General Manager's attempt to ban the UPSO
5 - Jim Weber congratulated a section of the Board for their achievements and urged them to influence the upcoming LSB elections. He said the station is under attack and the LSB members can save it.
6 - Ruthanne Shpiner of Pushing Limits, unpaid staff member, spoke against the move against the UPSO.
7 - Shahram Aghamir of Voices of the Middle East and a UPSO Council member spoke against the decertification
8 - Bonnie Faulkner of Guns & Butter, full time volunteer, said that 2 days before the UPSO concluded the election, it was called illegitimate. The proposed new criteria for unpaid staff eligibility would eliminate many voters.
9 - (the note taker did not get the name of this commenter or their comment)
10 - Pedro Reyes, a 7 year volunteer with La Honda Bajita. There has been no way to file complaints. This 25 year old program with 30 collective members only just recently got a computer.
11 - Doug Edwards, long time program host of Eartime, asked if a temporary General Manager has the right to dismantle a whole organization, one which was having meetings and in the middle of an election.
12 - Tracy Rosenberg, former Local Election Supervisor and community
representative to the Program Council, pointed out that under the GM's
directive at least 100 unpaid staff would be disenfranchised.
The UPSO was attacked because it was becoming functional again (there
were no complaints from management before this when it was dysfunctional).
The iGM was holding up the mailing of the ballots.
13 - Nancy Cherney (sorry, the note taker did not get her comments)
14 - Malihe Bazazan of Voices of the Middle East - The attack on the UPSO is a moral issue - the denial of democracy.
15 - Lisa Dettmer of Women's Magazine - unpaid staff wants leadership, and respect, not "management".
16 - Dave Heller, former candidate for LSB - There were problems with the way the election was managed last year, e.g. the candidates' statements carts were not played until 2 weeks after the ballots were sent out.
17 - Bonny Bone, music programmer - cedes her time to Tracy Rosenberg to finish her comments.
18 - Tracy Rosenberg continues - The UPSO officers didn't hold its scheduled
election for 2 years., so others (Shaharam) stepped up to perform this
function.
A list of unpaid staff is needed to be designated who can vote in the
upcoming LSB election, and in last year's election several lists were
generated but lawyer Dan Siegel said that the only acceptable list was
the UPSO's own list.
*** TREASURER'S REPORT
*** No Interim GENERAL MANAGER'S REPORT - Lemlem Rijio absent
*** UPSO proposal - Anthony Fest
[full text is posted at http://www.pacificana.org/book/export/html/107
]
Here is a summary of the proposal itself :
Management should
1) Withdraw the memorandum claiming to derecognize the UPSO and alter
the standard for unpaid-staff participation in the 2007 LSB election.[see
iGM memo]
2) Acknowledge the UPSO as representative of the unpaid staff.
3) Admit the newly elected UPSO Program Council representatives to the
Program Council.
4) Provide access to KPFA meeting rooms for UPSO meetings or business.
5) Place information on the UPSO page of KPFA's website and send out UPSO
announcements on the KPFA email list when requested by the UPSO Council,
6) Assist the UPSO Council when it prepares an updated list of unpaid-staff
members eligible to run and vote in the staff component of the 2007 LSB
election.
discussion:
Brian - I don't know if I endorse this solution. . . .
Unpaid staff is the backbone of KPFA. They should have the choice..but
the question is determining who works at KPFA- card checks (?).
Their election committee is self appointed. . . . . . . .
Would like to see Management put up a solution.
Sarv -
Mary -
LaVarn - Shahram of the UPSO Council should speak. He should have equal
time (Brian spoke a long time against the proposal)
Shahram -
PhoeBeAnne - Don't demonize others. Just proceed with what you need to
do.
Bonnie - Many problems with the UPSO - election irregularities - unruly
meetings - poor participation.
vote:
YES: Sasha Futran, Joe Wanzala, Henry Norr, Richard Phelps, Stan Woods,
LaVarn Williams,
Akio Tanaka, Anthony Fest, Mary Berg, Lewis Sawyer, Annie Hallatt, Andrea
Turner, Tico Chacin
ABSTAIN: Sarv Randhawa, Sherry Gendelman, PhoeBeAnne Sorgen, Bonnie Simmons,
Brian Edwards-Tiekert
CHAIR not voting: Conn Hallinan
absent: Attila Nagy, Noelle Hanrahan, Chandra Hauptman, Miguel Molina,
Rosalinda Palacios,
Mark Hernandez
[This vote transcended the usual polarization - on the one hand supporters of democratic decision making (to include listeners and staff, paid and unpaid), and on the other supporters of decision making by the entrenched staff faction alone.]
*** CODE OF CONDUCT FOR LSB - Annie Hallatt
This was tabled because it was a statement of an objective but needed
more formulation.
*** PROGRAM COUNCIL CANDIDATES PRESENTATION- Annie Hallatt
Annie attempted to explain that the urgency behind introducing the applicants for community rep to the program council was that the iPD Sasha Lilley and iGM Lemlem Rijio were interfering in the process of choosing new reps and delaying it so that the PC would be unable to operate in an urgent time.
She was told this was not on the agenda, (and there was a time constraint), but you can see her previous letter to the LSB about the situation on this site under Current Issues: Program Council Ignored, the second letter.
Three candidates, approved by the Program Council, were then introduced. Their written statements had been given to the LSB members, and they were allowed to speak for 2 minutes, and answer members' questions. The candidates were Virginia Browning, Mary Prophet, and Tracy Rosenberg.
At the next LSB, meeting more candidates will be presented, from a second list which the iPD and iGM had not yet given the Program Council.
*** EXECUTIVE SESSION
The public part of the meeting was adjourned so that the LSB could do
their evaluation of the interim General Manager.
***************************************************************
NOTES
from KPFA's LSB Meeting of July 21, 2007
held in San Francisco at New College
by Mara Rivera
This meeting was recorded by Neil Maclean at New College and is archived
at
http://www.warmcove.org/pacifica/kpfalsbnotes/kpfalsbjuly21st.htm
or at http://www.pacificana.org/node/98
,on the front page (for now) or see KPFA
**************************************************************
This meeting had three main items:
1 – Adoption of the yearly budget proposal
2 – A statement of support for the striking garbage workers
3 – Public Comments
No Executive session was scheduled because the subject, Rosalinda Palacios
had a fourth excused absence.
After setting the agenda, etc., the meeting began with:
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Almost all the commenters began by thanking the Board for holding this
meeting in San Francisco.
[Meetings are usually held in Berkeley, rarely in other listening areas
such as the North and South Bay, and this may be the first time in SF.
The Board now has a policy to have every 3d meeting outside of Berkeley.]
1 Steve Zeltzer of the Labor Collective spoke in favor of the motion
he had asked to be introduced to support the garbage workers strike (see
last part
of meeting notes)
2 Mara Rivera, long time listener/supporter, spoke against the way
the selection of the new replacement for Larry Bensky’s two hour
Sunday program was made – by the management alone, ignoring the
Program Council and many needs of the station.
This will be posted as an article in the Current Issues section.
She also asked that reception be improved in SF so that more people could
hear the station.
3 Jane Jackson, former LSB member, seconded the first 2 comments,
and put forward her latest project, protesting torture at Guantanamo,
by wearing orange, and has various message items such as a scarf, available
for purchase.
4 Jim Weber, listener activist, thanked the Board for the frequent on
air announcements publicizing this SF meeting.
He asked that more station staff attend the LSB meetings, as well as more
members of the public.
5 Maria Gilardin, past staff development & promotion director, chair
of the former Women’s (program) Collective, KPFA reformer, LSB member,
and producer of TUC Radio
http://www.tucradio.org/about.html
spoke about KPFA’s policy of restricting the recording and dissemination
of speeches from events it frequently sponsors.
She gave examples of being barred from recording speakers, even with the
permission of the speaker, audio recording prohibited, and being told
that KPFA does not want the information free on the internet because they
might want to sell it for fundraisng!
She spoke of a case where a progressive news organization was prevented
from recording and a major left magazine was not even allowed to record
for the purpose of posting a transcript of the talk on their web site.
KPFA delayed transmission of important information on the war on Iraq
and time sensitive environmental news.
Maria’s TUC radio provides cutting edge public affairs programming
free to all media stations and she feels it inappropriate that KPFA does
not support the free flow of such information.
[ LSB rep Richard Phelps has a pending agenda item to prohibit restricting
of such information for fundraising, which directly relates to this practice.]
6 Martha Hoffman, SF listener, came to this meeting to see how the LSB
meetings function, after hearing the announcements on the air.
She had several suggestions for improving the meeting, and noted that
many of the Board members were not listening to the public comments.
Later in the meeting 2 more public comments were heard, after the budget
was passed and before the LSB adjourned for a lunch break:
7 Jack Williams, interviewed earlier on Emmit Powell’s Saturday
a.m. show, a former or present sports star, presented an opportunity for
KPFA fundraising involving a 20 acre tract of land he got the government
of Kuwait to buy in Northern California. They want to fund organizations
using it in fundraising events for their own orgs. He is approaching organizations
in Berkeley.
8 Dr. Eddie C. Welbow, Liason of the Bayview Hunters Point Environmental
organization which is addressing gentrification of the Bayview, health
and environmental racism issues connected with the project at the old
shipyard there, wants airtime for these issues. He suggests that the station
lacks diversification mandated for recipients of federal funds.
KPFA BUDGET PROPOSAL
This proposal was presented to the Board in detail by Treasurer Brian
Edwards Tiekert and was passed unanimously after the members asked many
questions and presented suggestions.
Lois Withers, KPFA’s Business Manager was there to help present
it and answer questions.
KPFA has the most accurate most detailed financial reporting of any station.
The new budget is a viable one.
Some issues raised:
There is to be small decrease in fulltime staff hours, across all departments,
necessary to meet expenses. Health benefits continue to increase and part
time staff increase the impact of it.
Listener support is down 10%, and funds from bequests etc. up.
Brian says the internet has caused decreases in listenership to all radio
stations,
but KPFA’s is up in its signal areas; it has just lost 2 former
signal areas due to the FCC permitting other other stations into our bandwidths.
On air fundraising days will be decreased slightly.
LSB members expressed concern about decreasing dependence on listener
funding.
LaVarn and Richard spoke about the key role of quality programming in
gaining listener support. LaVarn pointed out the case of WBAI whose number
of the listeners and is now insolvent, being funded by the rest of the
network. Gary Null, one of those fired, recently fundraised for KPFT Houston
and brought in $200,000. Our stations must be attracting younger wage
earning progressives.
Richard said that we haven’t gained subscribers during the Bush
debacles. Our station should be but is not in the forefront of antiwar
activism and other people’s movements. It does not present the progressive
spirit of the time as it once did and which gained it loyalty.
Brian, Lois, Bonnie (?) said this was not the time or it was outside their
scope to deal with programming issues.
But the issue came up of the programmer (therefore all programmers) being
warned not to urge listeners to attend rallies, thereby having a chilling
effect on activism – came up again.
[We might add an article about this to the Issues section.]
A disconnect between the views of management – expressed by Lois
Withers – that this made the station legally liable – and
the fact that 3 lawyers involved with KPFA have denied this – was
again revealed.
Brian had several concern about the approximately 20% of funds due to
the National Office for Central Services.
He originally included 6 motions into his report regarding charges by
the national office.
During the agenda setting these were removed and placed on the regular
calendar of motions, to be discussed after the Budget O Proposal, and
will be dealt with there.
After discussion of the budget, it was passed unanimously.
ADVISORY MOTIONS REGARDING CHARGES BY NATIONAL TO THE STATIONS –
Brian Edwards-Tiekert
These motions are on the agenda of the National Finance Committee, to
be dealt with at the Los Angeles meeting of thePacifica National Board,
to be held next weekend. They will be decided there.
Our LSB’s vote on these motions is purely advisory.
Nevertheless, most of the rest of the meeting was taken up with these
motions, so that only one other pending motion was dealt with.
These 6 motions were all passed.
I will note a few of the objections to those where there were No votes.
1 – Apart from the Central Services levy (of 19.5% of funds raised),
the National Office shall not impose national programming costs on stations
(for costs already incurred by National) without prior informed consent
of the station managers.
2 – Apart from the Central Services levy, the N.O. shall not bill
Pacifica stations back for the cost of paying its National Election Supervisor.
Against: Station elections are
all-important to network democracy and must get enough material support
(Richard Phelps)
3 – Fundraising for the Pacifica Radio Archives shall be limited
to one day a year
The N.O. shall try to keep it funded with Central Service levy money and
N.O. fundraising.
Against: The Archives are one of
the best achievements of Pacifica. Decisions about it should be made by
an informed national leadership body.(Richard) Several fundraising days
are alright, we get to hear more archival programs, which is desirable.(Attila)
4 – The Pacifica National Office shall try to increase funding for
Free Speech Radio News (alternative news service carried by many Pacifica
Stations and affiliates)
from the same above 2 sources.
Against: Many of these proposals
are “me” (KPFA) over “we” – the Pacifica
wide network carrying out our missions of disseminating information not
found in the corporate media, and operating democratically. (Richard)
5 – The Pacifica national Office shall pay rent for their office
space in the KPFA building.
6 – The Pacifica National Office shall bear the costs of maintaining
and operating the satellite uplink used to distribute its national programming,
instead of KPFA.
STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR THE GARBAGE WORKERS’ STRIKE
The LSB passed the following statement:
Support for Labor in Lockout
The KPFA LSB Local Station Board calls for an end to the lockout of Alameda
County members of Local 70 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
and for good faith negotiations with Local 70 and further that there be
no retaliations against members of the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union and International Machinists Union.
Motion passed by acclaim
This motion was introduced just prior to the meeting and had not been
worded, so it took much discussion to craft it,
There was a sense of urgency about passing it because of the crisis of
the situation and the past failure to pass a statement supporting the
striking Honda workers, due to the stonewalling of one faction. [See last
item on Elections 2006 page.]
Conn Hallinan supported it strongly saying that this is a case of a huge
corporate employer going up against a powerful union in order to defeat
trade union power in the most union-progressive area, Alameda County of
the Bay Area, a place which has enjoyed a good quality of life thanks
to unionization.
Richard Phelps said that this was an attack on the working class and an
attempt to go back and reverse former gains.
Brian said this was not proposed in good faith but as an instrument to
divide the group by pointing to some as not sufficiently progressive.
The chair was asked to rule this kind of attack as out of order.
THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED in spite of an attempt to discuss having the
September meeting in Santa Rosa or San Jose. in order to allow the listener
groups there time to make the necessary arrangements.
***************************************************************
NOTES from KPFA's LSB Meeting of June 16, 2007
by Bob English, edited by Mara Rivera
***************************************************************
The first part of the meeting was taken up with setting the agenda.
***
There was to be an Executive Session at 3 p.m. to examine the attempted
misuse of funds by an LSB member, Rosalinda Montes Palacios. This was
previously disputed as being inappropriate for an executive session, as
it is not a personnel matter. The LSB members are not personnel, they
are elected representatives, and the public which elected them needs to
know what they are doing. However the LSB majority allied with the Concerned
Listeners slate with whom she is allied, and staff, decided to the contrary,
wanting to protect her confidentiality.
Since this member has not attended the last few meetings, including this
one, since this matter came up., there has been no such "Executive
Session" so far. (Her absences have been excused.)
The draft minutes from 4/28 were approved. The minutes from May have still
not been.
There was no audio recorded from this meeting, probably because it was
not at its usual venue.
***
Next, motions from the "Consent Calendar" were addressed.
* MOTION CONCERNING PLACE & TIME OF NEXT LSB MEETING - by Henry Norr
The July meeting was proposed to be held in Fresno, or possibly the August
meeting.
Our affiliate KFCF broadcasts from Fresno.
Instead, the July meeting is now set for San Francisco on July 21 at New
College, 777 Valencia Street near 19th Street in the Mission, San Francisco.
Reception of KPFA is not good in every part of San Francisco, but there
are some listeners there, so this needs to be widely publicized.
Previously the LSB has met outside of Berkeley only occasionally. However
Henry Norr's motion to have more meetings in other communities in the
listening area was recently passed.
***
PUBLIC COMMENT
Only one comment, by Jim Weber. He said people who hated KPFA used to
attend the old
Local Advisory Board (unelected precursor to the LSB), and that an LSB
member stopped the Community Advisory Board from functioning democratically.
(Doesn't make sense? - sorry, that's my best account of his comment.)
***
* EVALUATION OF INTERIM GENERAL MANAGER by LSB
Forms were distributed for Board members to fill out. Staff department
heads fill them out as well.
The Interim GM is Lemlem Rijio, who is also the Development Director.
***
* PERSONNEL COMMITTEE QUORUM
- was waived for dealing with General Manager evaluation.
Two people pointed out that the committee was initially stacked with staff
members and current attendance is poor, and that it really should be reconstituted
with people who will attend regularly. [Many committees
have few non-staff members.]
***
* TREASURER'S REPORT - Brian Edwards-Tiekert
It was proposed that the Treasurer's Report be limited to 1/2 hour, to
allow time to cover other agenda items. This was voted down. The treasurer
and another staff member said there was a fiscal crisis and the LSB could
not neglect its financial duties.
[Lengthy treasurer's reports are customary, and
the staff members and Concerned Listeners have taken the position that
the LSB is there to provide fundraising and outreach duties, etc., rather
than addressing programming concerns and policy.
See the Bylaws, Section7, article 3, see especially #G
www.dogsofnow.net/bylaws/art7sec3.html
(indexed)
or http://lsb.kpfa.org/pacificabylaws
]
The financial report and discussion continued until 5 pm (over 2 hours)
and no other agenda items were covered.
The station has more revenues than expenses, in spite of a fund drive
shortfall.
A surplus is projected but costs are increasing. Staff has been reduced
by attrition. [The increase in paid staff hours, almost doubled in the
last few years, has been a cause for concern, in a station run largely
by volunteers.]
Payments required by the national office are an increased expense. There
was a concern about the subsidizing of New York station WBAI by the national
office, with its funds which come only or mainly from the other stations.
KPFA pays a large share of this.
LaVarn Williams, former KPFA treasurer and a current national director
and Finance Committee chairperson, pointed out that we have this information
about national expenses and funds because 2 directors forced their right
to examine (among others) the national financial records, against the
resistance not only of the former national Executive director, but also
people on the KPFA staff and board, some of them at this same meeting.
There was some discussion of the situation at WBAI - their fundraising
is continued for many days because they do not receive sufficient pledges,
the Program Director runs the station with the support of a faction of
the LSB who blocks his mandated evaluation, the program quality has deteriorated
as competent staff who criticized the regime were fired,
and listeners lost, the national governance has not held the PD accountable
or addressed programming, there is intimidation and violence at the station,
and much more. (The treasurer said he's not aware of these problems.)
The treasurer plans to propose at the July Pacifica National Board meeting
that the national office that they pay rent on their office space at KPFA,
and that they return to the 5 stations their assessment for Free Speech
Radio News (actually being funded by the many affiliate stations.)
On assessments for programming produced by the Pacifica national office,
Brian said it was good but had too many attached administrative expenses
while programming was underfunded.
There is a new budget proposal, which will be reviewed by the LSB at a
separate meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 5 pm.
***
NEXT PUBLIC MEETING OF THE LSB:
Saturday, July 16
11:00 a.m.
at New College
777 Valencia Street near 19th Street
SanFrancisco, CA
(16th Street SF BART station, any Mission Street bus to 19th, walk 1 bl.
west, turn rt.)
********************************
LSB Meeting
of May 19
No
notes were taken at this meeting
.The audio is at: http://kpfalsb/org
and the proposed agenda at: http://kpfa.org/lsb
********************************
BETWEEN
THE MINUTES: A LEGAL SESSION AT THE LSB
Notes from KPFA's board Mtg of March 24, 2007 at Café de la Paz
by Daniel Borgström
********************************
http://www.intergate.com/~daniel41/2007/02/between-minutes.html
KPFA's board meeting of March 24th was mostly devoted to special
presentations by HR Director Yolanda Thomas and Pacifica Legal Counsel
Dan Siegel. Q&A sessions followed, during which two previously
unresolved legal questions were brought up for discussion: The first
related to the disciplining of a fellow board member; the second was
the legality of a directive issued by KPFA's IPD (Interim Program
Director) Sasha Lilley.
Yolanda Thomas made her presentation first, explaining her duties as
HR Director, which include assisting in the hirings of general manager
and program director, as well as the handling of other personnel
issues. There were questions and comments from several LSB members,
including two significant matters brought up by Sasha Futran and
Noelle Hanrahan.
Sasha Futran brought up a confidentiality issue: someone had posted
her résumé on a public website last fall in an attempt to
discredit
her during the LSB election. That could only have been done by
someone with access to KPFA/Pacifica records, and the act constituted
a violation of confidentiality. Sasha was elected in spite of the
attack.
Noelle Hanrahan told about her lawsuit against KPFA, which she said
cost the station around $450 thousand, including $258 thousand for her
and her lawyer. The suit had been her only option, she said, because
of the dysfunctionality of a management that was unable to deal with
such problems. KPFA/Pacifica needs a more appropriate policy to
handle matters like this, Noelle emphasized. Otherwise, costly legal
actions were likely to happen again, and cost the station more money
in lawsuits.
***
After the HR Director's presentation, Pacifica Legal Counsel Dan
Siegel spoke about the duties and limitations of the LSB. He
explained various issues such as conflict of interest as it might
relate to board members.
During Q&A, Attorney Siegel was asked general questions about
disciplining LSB members. Many of the questions concerned the matter
of confidentiality, or the lack of it, in such a process. Should it
be dealt with in closed session, and should names and facts be
released to the listener public?
Questions, comments and assertions flew back and forth across the
room. Some said it was a personnel issue, therefore confidential, so
the case should be resolved in closed session. Others took a
different view, maintaining that board members are NOT employees. LSB
member Richard Phelps pointed out that Pacifica Bylaw Article 6,
Section 7 stipulates that all board meetings are open to the listeners
except for those sessions dealing with items on a specified list, and
board member discipline is not on that list.
"We're a political body," said board member Phelps. "We
stand for
election. Therefore it's an issue of transparency."
This discussion on discipline referred to a matter which had come to
light during the previous meeting, concerning the purchase of an
airline ticket by a board member at Pacifica expense. Of course
neither the offense nor the offender was named at this time. The
ticket purchaser sat knitting a shawl, but asked no questions. The 30
days allowed to her by the bylaws to prepare her response has now
expired, and the matter is expected to come up on Saturday, April
28th. There will probably also be a struggle over whether or not to
hide the process in executive session
.
Sasha Lilley is KPFA's Interim Program Director, and on March 16th she
issued a directive to programmers, warning them NOT to "actively
urge
listeners to attend events over KPFA's airwaves because of issues of
liability." However, there seemed to be no liability issue. Then
someone (on Indybay, where it was discussed in detail) said it was in
order to comply with FCC rules. But the FCC rules didn't seem to apply
either.
It was LSB member Henry Norr who raised this question, asking Attorney
Dan Siegel if there were any FCC regulation which prohibited
programmers from encouraging listeners to attend demonstrations.
Siegel replied that no such law exists.
Almost everyone on the board had some question or comment on the
directive. It became the hot topic of the afternoon, and Counsel
Siegel demolished any pretense of logic behind the IPD's directive.
Siegel explained that KPFA is a non-profit organization, a "501c3".
It cannot endorse candidates. However, its very purpose as an
organization is to promote peace. That's what KPFA exists for.
LSB member Bonnie Simmons informed Siegel that KPFA had been
sued by someone who was injured at a demonstration.
"When was that?" Dan Siegel wanted to know, and asked for the
specifics. But nobody was able to present any case where KPFA or any
other station was sued just for urging attendance at a peace rally.
"Sounds like urban legend," concluded Attorney Siegel.
During all of this, Sasha Lilley sat in the back of the room, a couple
of rows behind me. She certainly must've heard everything that was
said. Nevertheless, instead of withdrawing her ill-starred directive,
she defended it during the management report to the listeners on KPFA
on April 2nd, after all the legal opinions were in. She has also
written an article in the Berkeley Daily Planet to defend it.
Three experienced lawyers have taken her directive apart, demolishing
it in detail. These attorneys are: the above Dan Siegel, Pacifica
Legal Counsel, Richard Phelps, LSB member and John Crigler, Pacifica's
FCC Counsel.
****************
For listeners wishing to read more about Sasha Lilley's directive,
below are a few of the links:
The text of Sasha Lilley's March 16, 2007 directive
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/03/20/18380236.php
Matthew Lasar's Letter defending Sasha Lilley
http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/387
Berkeley Daily Planet article by Sasha Lilley, reposted at Indybay.
This thread also has FCC specialist attorney John Crigler's letter to
Pacifica Executive Director Greg Guma.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/04/10/18394654.php?show_comments=1#18395279
LSB member Richard Phelps challenges IPD Sasha Lilley to debate the
policy on "Calls to Action"
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/04/15/18398944.php
The FCC rules
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/includes/33-nature.htm
****************
NEXT PUBLIC MEETING of KPFA's LSB:
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
11:00 am
at Freight & Salvage
1111 Addison Street
near San Pablo & University
Berkeley, CA
The AGENDA for April 28
http://www.kpfa.org/lsb/docs.php?type=agenda&id=15&doc=85
*****************************************************
NOTES from KPFA's board meeting of Feb 24, 2007
by Daniel
Borgstrom
*******************************************************
http://www.intergate.com/~daniel41/2007/03/notes-from-kpfas-board-mtg-of-feb-24.html
THE FEBRUARY meeting of KPFA's Local Station Board (LSB) was held on
Saturday, the 24th, at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Twenty three
of
the twenty five board members were present. It was a pretty busy
meeting, and below are a few of the highlights:
***
INTERVIEWING THE IGM (Interim General Manager)
IGM Lemlem Rijio was there for a monthly report and took numerous
questions from board members including Richard Phelps, Phoebe Anne
Sorgen, Sasha Futran, Mary Berg and Chandra Hauptman.
Richard Phelps asked how KPFA would cover the upcoming March 18th
demonstration to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the war in
Iraq. KPFA coverage of the previous event in SF (Jan 27) was sadly
inadequate, Richard said. The high point of that day was when several
thousand people marched out along the waterfront to the Alcatraz ferry
terminal and held a rally in support of the fired boatmen who were
picketing there. Those boatmen were KPFA listeners, KPFA supporters,
and they wondered why KPFA wasn't covering that event. They felt let
down.
So, Richard wanted to know, "Will the March 18th demonstration be
aired?"
Sasha Futran asked about UPSO (Unpaid Staff Organization), the
membership list, a procedure for keeping track of who's on it, etc.
It's been an ongoing problem that never seems to get worked out.
Sasha also asked why "Youth Radio" was canceled.
Lemlem explained that some of the young people on it had used
prohibited words that could get the station in trouble with the FCC.
"Why not pre-record the program and bleep out any objectionable
language?" Phoebe Anne Sorgen asked.
Lemlem said they're working to make sure "Youth Radio" will
soon
return to KPFA's airwaves.
Another issue that got raised was the complaint that "KPFA is
reporting off the wire." It was Phoebe who brought that up; she also
objected to the inadequate coverage of events in Haiti. Phoebe said
that people who'd backed her and helped her get elected to the LSB
were asking her those questions--why the lack of Haiti coverage, the
off-the-wire reporting. "Where do I go to ask these questions?"
she
said.
Over the years a good many people have objected to the KPFA news
practice of "reading off the wire." Nevertheless, the practice
goes
on, and people who object always seem to be left asking that same
frustrated question of "Where do I go to ask these questions?"
Those were some of the things that board members asked Lemlem Rijio.
She's been filling in as KPFA's Interim General Manager for almost a
year now, since April 2006, and is holding the position till the
station can find a permanent GM.
Meanwhile, the search for a permanent GM is supposed to be going on.
The board has a GM Hiring Committee, and there was a motion on the
day's agenda to re-elect that committee. That was done and the
members of the LSB's GM Hiring Committee will be:
Conn Hallinan
Andrea Turner
LaVarn Williams
Brian Edwards-Tiekert
Louis Sawyer
Sasha Futran
Joe Wanzala
Since 1999 KPFA has had a couple of GMs, neither of whom lasted long.
For the most of the last eight years since the hijacking, KPFA has
been without a GM.
***
AN UNAUTHORIZED USE OF FUNDS
In January the PNB (Pacifica National Board) met in Houston, Texas,
and KPFA's LSB sent its four delegates. KPFA/Pacifica pays their
airfare and some other itemized expenses. Anyone else who wishes to
attend must pay their own way; nevertheless, it turned out that a
fifth member of the LSB also flew to Houston at KPFA/Pacifica
expense--$609 of listeners' money. The expenditure was not authorized.
The matter was investigated and reported on to the LSB by LaVarn
Williams and Richard Phelps. LaVarn, Richard and other LSB members
have for years been fighting for financial transparency and
accountability in KPFA/Pacifica.
It's hardly a secret that the board is divided into two opposing
factions, and one of the major issues has been transparency and
accountability, which means access to records. The purchaser of the
unauthorized airline ticket is a member of the LSB, and consistently
voted with the people who opposed access to records. She was present
at this meeting; but sat there in silence when the matter was
disclosed. According to the bylaws, she has 30 days to prepare her
response.
***
LOOKING AT KPFA'S ELECTION PROCESS
Tracy Rosenberg and Les Radke had each presented their LSB election
reports to the board in January. They returned to the February
meeting for a question and answer session with the LSB. One thing
that came up was how the KPFA election system has influenced those of
the Bay Area. Les Radke reported:
"KPFA has led the way in publicizing proportional representation
(Single Transferable Vote) as an alternative to the US winner take all
system. KPFA therefore deserves credit for changes in the electoral
system in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and Davis, changes which
will allow alternative parties a foothold in challenging the parties
of the elites, the Democratic and Republican parties."
Tracy Rosenberg's report is at
http://www.kpfa.org/elections/2006/index.php
Les Radke is revising his report; apparently it's not yet posted.
***
FOLLOW-UP:
Regarding Richard Phelps' question about whether the Sunday, March
18th demonstration would be aired, it was. Two hours of the event
were broadcast live from the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza.
Earlier, however, on 3/16 Sasha Lilley (KPFA's Interim Program
Director) sent a rather strange notice to the staff. She warned
programmers NOT to "actively urge listeners to attend events over
KPFA's airwaves because of issues of liability." But it seems there
was no liability issue. So why this directive? Maybe we'll hear
about it at the upcoming LSB meeting on 3/24.
The text of Sasha Lilley's directive is at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/03/20/18380236.php
***
NEXT PUBLIC MEETING OF THE LSB:
Saturday, March 24th
12:30 p.m.
at Cafe De La Paz
1600 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA
(at the corner of Shattuck & Cedar St; half a mile north of the
Downtown Berkeley BART station)
The above article is at
http://www.intergate.com/~daniel41/2007/03/notes-from-kpfas-board-mtg-of-feb-24.html
*******************************************************************
NOTES FROM
KPFA'S BOARD MEETING OF JANUARY 13, 2007
by Daniel Borgström, assisted by Virginia Brown
*****************************************************
http://www.intergate.com/~daniel41/2007/01/notes-from-kpfas-board-meeting-of.html
KPFA's Local Station Board (LSB) met at Freight & Salvage on January
13th. Twenty-three board members were present. The meeting went
quite smoothly, without undue amounts of parliamentarianism, and
things got done. Briefly, here's some of it:
***
REPRESENTATIVES SELECTED FOR THE PACIFICA NATIONAL BOARD
Four LSB members were chosen to represent KPFA on the Pacifica
National Board (PNB). The new national board reps are:
LaVarn Williams (Listener Rep)
Sarv Randhawa (Listener Rep)
Chandra Hauptman (Listener Rep)
Mary Berg (Staff Rep)
***
VOTE ON BYLAWS AMENDMENT
The Pacifica National Board (PNB) is currently required to meet four
times a year. It was proposed that the number of meetings be reduced
to three.
People on both sides of the issue presented a pretty convincing case.
Those in favor of the change cited the expense. A meeting held in
NYC, for example, had cost $60,000. Also, having to fly around the
country four times a year is extremely time consuming.
Those opposed to the change said that members of the national board
need to meet face to face and get to know each other in order to do
business most effectively. Frequent public meetings are also
important so that the listeners of each signal area can attend. This
is part of having an open and democratic Pacifica. Despite costs,
these meetings are necessary, and it was suggested that costs could be
lowered though better planning.
The latter opinion carried the day and the proposed change was voted
down. (Of course the other Pacifica station boards will also vote on
this issue. Three of the five station boards must pass the amendment
for it to take effect.)
***
A CONFIDENTIAL MATTER?
Interim General Manager Lemlem Rijio attended this meeting, and
several of the LSB members asked her pointed questions on various
matters including transparency.
Richard Phelps asked about the recent hiring of the new Program
Director. "Where was the job opening posted?" Richard asked.
"That's a confidential matter," Lemlem replied.
"I'm not asking for confidential information," Richard said.
"I'm
asking how and where it was posted or publicly advertised. Surely
that can't be confidential."
Lemlem then said that she'd looked at several resumes, done some
interviews. Her explanation sounded rather vague, and it appears that
the opening wasn't posted.
KPFA/Pacifica Bylaws require that all positions and job openings be
publicly posted, widely advertised. The purpose of this requirement
is to get qualified applicants who are not just station insiders. For
years now, there have been accusations that KPFA is run by a clique of
insiders who are primarily interested in maintaining the status quo.
Meanwhile, KPFA's listenership has declined. The station has been
without a Program Director for eight years and appears to have
suffered from the resulting stagnation.
The LSB has a Personnel Committee which was supposed to be looking for
applicants. However, that committee apparently hasn't met for some
time. In fact, two of its officers, the chair and secretary, are no
longer on the LSB.
The newly appointed interim Program Director is Sasha Lilley. While
she is widely admired for the excellent informative interviews
presented on her own show "Against the Grain," she is also considered
by many to be one of the most insidery of the insiders. She has made
disparaging comments about listener input, and she was one of the
recipients of Brian's famous email calling for a brainstorming session
on things like "dismantling the LSB" and ways to "make
our enemies own
the problems that are to come".
Sasha Lilley may prove to be a good Program Director, but it is worth
asking about the other issues.
Another LSB member, Sasha Futran, spoke to the importance of posting all
openings, even the entry level volunteer ones. It's important, she said,
because the ones who get in as volunteers are the ones who are likely
to be around when permanent positions open up. Those openings have to
be available for everyone, not just people with inside connections.
***
TWO REPORTS on the LSB elections of last November
Tracy Rosenberg was the Local Election Supervisor here at KPFA, and
Les Radke was the Pacifica National Election Supervisor. Both turned
in detailed written reports. Lengthy, but well worth reading.
Hopefully they'll soon be posted at KPFA.org.
They recommend changing the timeline of the election. The last three
LSB elections have been in the fall--at a time which competes with
fund drives as well as a variety of national, state or local elections.
***
DURING LISTENER COMMENTS
Steve Zeltzer announced that the KPFA Labor Collective has submitted a
new one-hour labor pilot show called "Workweek" to the KPFA
interim
Program Director, the interim General Manager and the Program Council.
***
NEXT PUBLIC MEETING OF THE LSB
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
11:00 am
at Freight & Salvage
1111 Addison St. (near San Pablo & University)
Berkeley, CA
http://www.danielborgstrom.com
*****************************************
LSB Meeting
September 16, 2006
Notes
by Mike Donalson. with additions by
various others
*************************
Please correct me if I am wrong. I believe that there were four actions
or
reports and one abortive action at Saturday's LSB Meeting:
1) Eric Park's resignation was tendered and accepted--or something to
this
effect. This had been the subject of substantial wrangling and manipulation
by the staff faction at the August LSB meeting. Does this mean that the
next highest vote getter will be seated before the expiration of the current
LSB term?
2) The LSB voted to conduct the October meeting in Santa Rosa as part
outreach to the listener community and provide an opportunity for others
to experience and participate in a LSB meeting. This is something that
I
consider essential to the democratization of KPFA and Racifica.
The major arguments against such an action were:
a) it was inconvenient to meet outside of Berkeley,
b) the meeting might fall at the end of the next KPFA fund drive and make
it harder for some to pitch for funds,
c) meeting outside of Berkeley didn't do any good and the LSB should spend
more time doing outreach as individuals,
d) it might inconvenience one or both members from Fresno who ran for
election knowing that meetings should and could be held in representative
geographical areas,
e) the meeting will fall in the state and national election period and
the additional
travel time would interfere with election activities, and f) traveling
an hour to
Santa Rosa would be inconvenient.
3) A brief LSB Treasurer's Report was presented. The gist of the report
was that some accounting mistakes had been made and corrected, KPFA's
financial status is looking less rosy, health care costs are rising at
12%
per year, FSRN members have no health care coverage--even though they
are
part of the staff, that 'donor fatigue' is setting in at KPFA, KPFA's
status
as the cash cow of Pacifica is in jeopardy, the years' long budget crisis
at
WBAI and budget problems at other, unnamed, stations were a threat to
KPFA'a
budget surplus, the national budget shortfall and actual budget could
harm
KPFA's financial health, fundraising pitches for the Archives and other
special pitches were annoying listeners and were or could become less
lucrative, particularly since the Archive could no longer charge for
Democracy Now! Programs that are now available free on the Internet, and
the
governance process and democracy were too expensive and were a threat
to the
fiscal condition of KPFA and Pacifica. The later assertion was bolstered
by
the statement that each PNB meeting costs $63,000 and that governance
costs
$400,000 per year.
4) The LSB voted to oppose the Bylaws Amendment proposed by the PNB to
stack the PNB with a total of two PNB selected members.
5) The staff minority managed to delay the meeting long enough to prevent
a
vote on nullifying the one year ban by the Program Council on the Labor
Collective and any of its labor proposals.
The meeting had to end precisely at 4:00 PM because the meeting room is
a
private facility that demands that meetings end at 4:00 PM.
There are no provisions to continue meetings.
Mike Donaldson
Berkeley listener/activist
**************************
Mike . .. .
. . . Thanks for this report from the meeting.
As to point one, yes, the next highest vote getter, Miguel Molina
was acknowledged as the replacement for Erik Park, however he
could not be there because he was speaking at Mexican Independence Day
events in the North Bay.
As to the Treasurers report what was missing was the pantomine between
Sarv and Brian as Sarv pretended to ask Brian some questions about the
budget to which Brian offered some unecessarily ponderous answers.
Merely to waste time. They were later seen exchanging a high-five.
What was notable about the resolution on the banning of the labor
collective was the chicanery of the malignant Brian Edwards Tiekert.
This resolution was first brought forward at our April meeting in San
Jose and we spent virtually that entire meeting setting the agenda so
that we could get this item first on the agenda and another resolution
to open up the LSB e-mail list to public view as the first items on
the agenda. Due to the blatant stalling tactics of the entreched staff
reps and those who masquerade as listener reps - Sarv Randhawa, Sherry
Gendelman, Rosalinda Palacios, Mark Hernandez principal among them we
never got to a vote. In other words, this resolution could have been
passed in April.
To make matters worse, the board secretary Mark Hernandez unilaterally
undid what we had just spent a 5 hour meeting doing by changing the
order of the agenda so that the resolution on the labor collective
banning was no longer the first order of business.
At the June meeting, . .this resolution came up again for another
round of delays.
The main motion read:-
"Resolved: It is beyond the powers of the program council to determine
that any program producer is ineligible to have proposed programs
reviewed for air time based on alleged misconduct. The Program
Council's role is to review proposed and current programs to see if
they are approapriate for the station based on our mission."
Mary Berg makes a motion that the motion is out of order.
The Chair makes a ruling that the point of order is out of order.
Mary Berg appeals the ruling of the chair.
The Chair's ruling is sustained.
Brian Edwards Tiekert offered the following amendment seconded by
Rosalinda Montes Palacios:-
"This resolution shall not alter or reverse any standing decisions
of
the Program Council."
The motion was not voted on.
Then yesterday, Brian Edwards Tiekert offered the following motion:
"This resolution shall nullify the program council decision regarding
the labor collective."
In other words, he was putting forward an amendment he did not support
simply to confuse the issue and waste time. Since we would have to
debate and then vote his amendment up or down (he voted yes, even
though he did not support the motion) before we could go back and vote
on the main motion - by which time the meeting had to be adjourned
because we had to leave the building.
It is precisely this sort of sophistic manipulation of Roberts Rules
by Brian Edwards Tiekert and others that makes the LSB 'dysfunctional'
and prevents us from getting anything done.
Joe W.
********************
... adding to the report on fiance is the point that due to
the 'errors in calculation', the station needs to exercise the headcount
reduction contingency in order to achieve the $100,000 surplus ... the
reduction is in reality a plan to delay or cancel hiring positions
at the station ... we are now informed that this was immediately applied
to Flashpoints ...
peace,
LaVarn