Current KPFA manager Andrew Phillips is just an interim appointment by Pacifica’s Arlene Engelhardt. KPFA’s elected Local Station Board gets to choose the finalist pool for the permanent GM hire. If you know anyone who’s qualified, please encourage them to apply. The job description is here.
Phillips gave a surprise on-air “report to the listeners” last week, and was confronted with many critical questions from callers. One caller suggested the $70,000 that KPFA has paid to anti-union lawyers should be deducted from the salaries of managers. Ira in Oakland summed up many listeners’ feelings, saying “it disturbs me to no end that the station that I’ve been contributing to for 30 years doesn’t even allow free and open discussion on the air of the issues.”| 3 MIN AUDIO CLIP
Want to see station debates up close, or give your local reps some feedback? All are welcome at KPFA’s monthly Local Station Board meeting, which happens this Saturday, July 16 from 11am-4pm at the Humanist Hall (390 27th St @Broadway) in Oakland. Here’s a map and more information, including the agenda.
On Friday, June 3, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ordered the Pacifica National Board to seat SaveKPFA-affiliated representatives Laura Prives and Dan Siegel, and scheduled a contempt of court proceeding against Pacifica next month.
Both Siegel and Prives were elected as delegates from KPFA’s Local Station Board to the Pacifica National Board (PNB) last January. But the PNB majority had refused to seat Siegel, claiming his relationship with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan constituted an “appointed political office” (even though it clearly was not), which made him ineligible. The PNB barred Prives on the grounds that Siegel’s vote had tainted her election, while it illegally extended the terms of two other KPFA representatives more friendly to the PNB majority.
Some of the hundreds of listeners who pledged to restore the Morning Show
Superior Court judge Frank Roesch quickly rejected Pacifica’s arguments in March, and issued a preliminary injunction requiring Prives and Siegel to be seated. Bizarrely, Pacifica attorney Richard Phelps (who also serves on KPFA’s Local Station Board) convinced the Pacifica National Board to appeal the ruling, and to defy the injunction pending the appeal’s outcome. On Friday, the judge re-affirmed his original injunction, and ordered PNB Chair Summer Reese (who is from Los Angeles) and PNB Secretary Carolyn Birden (who is from New York) to appear in person to face a contempt proceeding on July 1.
Reese has now sent Dan and Laura notices that they are (finally!) being seated as members of the Pacifica National Board. Their terms were supposed to begin six months ago.
In a separate action, Phelps is suing several SaveKPFA members for their role in collecting $63,000 in financial pledges to restore The Morning Show. (That’s right — he’s suing them for fundraising!) Phelps alleges the fundraising activity was “disloyal” to Pacifica, and he’s demanding $800,000 in damages.
Attorneys at Siegel & Yee sought to have the suit dismissed as a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), but a Fremont-based judge allowed it to move forward. Phelps filed the lawsuit in Fremont, presumably to avoid landing in the Oakland courtroom of the judge who has repeatedly ruled against him. Phelps already lost one SLAPP motion when he brought a harassing suit against SaveKPFA rep Dan Siegel — the judge in that case ordered Phelps to pay Siegel $10,000 in attorney’s fees.
