KPFA recall vote

Recall supervisor: not so neutral

by

Last week, the supervisor Pacifica hired to run KPFA’s election, Matt Ward, threatened SaveKPFA that he would refuse to send out ballots unless we participated in an on-air debate — on two days’ notice. He also declined to give SaveKPFA any details on the ground rules and format for the debate until just before airtime. Once the debate started, he interrupted SaveKPFA‘s debater three times during her opening statement: telling her she couldn’t discuss the layoff notice KPFA’s union has just received, accusing her of hyperbole, and threatening to take away her time.

Then complaints started coming in from listeners who had called the studio to voice pro-recall positions and were rejected after a call screener asked what they wanted to say. We believe this is the first time KPFA has ever screened calls-ins for content during an election debate. When one pro-recall voice did get on-air — and started to explain why she had stopped supporting Tracy Rosenberg — Ward started interrupting her almost immediately. He let all other callers go on at length. Ironically, Ward had published a rule that KPFA staff members could not participate in the debate — then he let two pro-recall unpaid staffers on the air to speak uninterrupted, even after they identified themselves as staff members.

Then ballots hit mailboxes. Ward had modified the text of SaveKPFA‘s recall petition before printing it in the ballot package: contrary to Pacifica’s own recall procedures, he took out three topic sentences summarizing the charges against Rosenberg, as well as the entire concluding paragraph of the petition. Now the ballot language doesn’t match what over 800 KPFA listeners had signed onto (here’s the original recall petition that listeners signed and the actual ballot that mailed). So much for a fairly-run election!

Make sure your vote is counted!

by

HELP US MONITOR THIS ELECTION! Please let SaveKPFA know when you get your ballot and have voted by contacting us at votesavekpfa@gmail.com or (510) 969-9373. Or, if you prefer, you can answer this convenient online survey. You’ll be helping us document the vote in case there are challenges to the process.

IF YOU DIDN’T GET A BALLOT, or if it is lost or damaged, contact election supervisor Matt Ward at kpfarecall@gmail.com or (323) 375-4126. We’d appreciate it if you’d copy SaveKPFA at votesavekpfa@gmail.com or (510) 969-9373.

Ballots were mailed June 28 to KPFA listener-members in the Tracy Rosenberg recall election. We urge you to join these endorsers in voting YES on the recall. Here are some KEY VOTING POINTS:

1. Fill in the WHOLE “YES” square on the ballot in black or dark blue ink. That is, don’t just make a check mark or “x”, but fill it all in completely.

2. Resist the temptation to write anything else on the ballot or mark it in any way other than the vote box. If you made a mistake marking your ballot, contact the recall supervisor and request a replacement ballot right away (and we’d appreciate it if you’d copy SaveKPFA).

3. IMPORTANT: Keep your PIN ballot stub as proof that you voted. All ballots in KPFA elections have PIN barcodes on them, so that no subscriber may vote more than once. If there are issues with the fairness of the vote process, we’ll be asking you to help us prove that, and your PIN stub may help. The PIN numbers also mean when you request a duplicate ballot, your first ballot will be discarded and only your second one will count.

4. Mail your ballot so it is received by August 3 (preferably in the provided return envelope) to: KPFA 2012 Recall Election, PO Box 11708, Berkeley CA 94712-2708

5. DO NOT drop off your ballot at the station. Ballots are only accepted by post and must be RECEIVED BY AUGUST 3.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO WITNESS THE BALLOT COUNT, come to the public ballot pickup at the Berkeley Post Office on August 4, 10 am. Votes will be counted at the Pacifica National Office, 1925 Martin Luther King Jr Way in Berkeley at noon the same day.

Layoffs imminent at KPFA: vote YES on KPFA recall to stop the next purge

by

This is a message from Brian Edwards-Tiekert, who hosts UpFront on KPFA.

Hi everyone,

If you’re a KPFA member, you should have just received what may be the most important KPFA ballot you ever get. It asks whether or not to recall Pacifica Treasurer Tracy Rosenberg. At stake is whether KPFA survives as we know it. That’s why I’m urging you to vote “yes” on the recall. | SEE RECALL ENDORSERS

Some background: Rosenberg was the chief architect of a political purge that killed KPFA’s biggest fundraiser—The Morning Show. That purge was a watershed: it was the first time the factionalism of KPFA’s board (where I served as a worker-elected representative) penetrated the station’s day-to-day operations (where I worked as a program host). Rosenberg and Pacifica used a real financial crisis as a pretext to fire  their political enemies, throw us off the air, and replace us with their own supporters.

That move cost KPFA tens of thousands of listeners, and hundreds of thousands of pledge dollars. It also violated the station’s union contract – which is why Pacifica had to reverse most of the layoffs (including my own) it made in that purge.

Inside KPFA, we’ve been slowly re-building. Thanks to heroic fundraising efforts, excruciatingly long fund drives, and a windfall estate gift, we’ve managed to keep the station solvent — KPFA’s April financial statements show us almost exactly on-budget (within 0.75% of budget goals), which means we’re on track to finish the year with an operating surplus of over $150,000.

We’re moving forward: in late May, KPFA launched UpFront — a program I co-host at 7:AM. We launched on three days’ notice, with no publicity, in the final week of a fund drive. But in that first week, we still became the station’s top fundraiser, clocking $40,000 raised in the seven days we were on the air. If we can keep it up, KPFA can start shortening its fund drives and try to win back some of the listeners who’ve left.

Unfortunately, we’re poised to lose it all.

Yesterday, Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt sent a letter to KPFA’s union (and copied to Tracy Rosenberg), giving formal notice that there will be a new round of layoffs in 30 days. As long as Engelhardt is in charge of Pacifica, and taking her cues from Rosenberg, any such cuts will come in the form of another political purge. I doubt KPFA’s ability to recover from this one.

But if Tracy Rosenberg is recalled, it will send a strong message about what KPFA’s listeners will and will not stand for – it may back Pacifica off from making these unnecessary cuts, or at least from making them into a political purge. Most importantly, recalling and replacing Tracy Rosenberg should tip the balance on the Pacifica National Board, and lead to the swift departure of Pacifica’s Executive Director, Arlene Engelhardt–the most aggressively anti-union manager I’ve seen in my nine years at KPFA.

They are killing our network. The Rosenberg/Engelhardt regime has racked up massive bills from $400- to $500-per-hour law firms that Pacifica’s used to fight its unions, its dissident board members, and the organizers of this recall election. Meanwhile, Pacifica’s been routinely shorting paychecks for union members at KPFA, and fallen so far behind on payments to Free Speech Radio News that the program may cease broadcasting within a month. (And yet, somehow, Pacifica’s board majority has found tens of thousands of dollars with which to fly 22 board members from across the country to a four-day meeting in a Hotel in Berkeley next month.)

The best defense Rosenberg’s supporters have mustered is a tepid appeal to “stop the infighting”. But Rosenberg is actually one of the worst purveyors of infighting — she just happens to be doing it from a position of power, from which infighting comes in the form of politically-targeted layoffs and program changes.

Help get out the vote. KPFA elections have low turnout, and tend to be decided by relatively small margins—which is why your actions are so important.  Please:

  • Pass this email on to people you know who might be KPFA members.
  • Go to the website www.savekpfa.org to learn more about the recall campaign.
  • Most importantly, return your ballot now so you don’t forget.

In solidarity,
Brian Edwards-Tiekert
Co-Host, “UpFront”, KPFA 94.1 FM
Former staff representative (2004-2010), KPFA Local Station Board