The Pacifica National Board (PNB) met February 7-10 in Washington, DC. After a close election, Margy Wilkinson, a member of SaveKPFA and former chair of KPFA‘s local board, became Pacifica’s new chair.
Margy is a long-time union activist who is also involved with Grandmothers Against War and is an active volunteer in the Berkeley public schools. Over her two years as chair of KPFA’s local board, she demonstrated a real knack for bringing calm and civility to an often acrimonious setting. Here’s hoping she can keep it up at the PNB!
In related news, this year’s PNB no longer includes Tracy Rosenberg, the board member who engineered the destruction of KPFA’s Morning Show in 2010. She reached the end of her term limit. Filling her seat on Pacifica’s Finance Committee will be worker representative Brian Edwards-Tiekert — one of the Morning Show hosts she encouraged Pacifica to lay off (he was re-instated with full back pay and now hosts UpFront).
The PNB elected Tony Norman as its vice chair. He is an attorney who has previously served as chair of the local board of Pacifica station WPFW in Washington, DC. As secretary, the PNB elected Cerene Roberts, a delegate from New York City’s WBAI, and as assistant secretary, Adriana Casanave from Houston station KPFT. | LISTEN to the PNB meeting: agenda, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Has there ever been a Pacifica board more out of touch with KPFA’s listeners? Three days ago, the board’s lame-duck majority passed a McCarthy-like resolution to quash dissenters in the network.
Hundreds of listeners and staff wrote to members of the Pacifica National Board (PNB) earlier this month when the anti-dissent “loyalty” measure first came up, calling it a political witch hunt. (A sampling of the letters is here, and you can add your voice here.)
“Putting forward rules about ‘loyalty’ under the guise of financial duty is a trick that Joe McCarthy himself would have been proud of,” wrote listener Elly Larsen. “Stop the witch-hunting, get back to fixing the network, which is badly broken, or you’re going to lose the whole kit-n-caboodle with your juvenile power games.”
Drafted by allies of KPFA board member Tracy Rosenberg, the “loyalty” measure bans those who dissent from serving on local or national boards. Cloaked in references to “harmful or malicious behavior,” including “breaches of loyalty” and “fiduciary care,” its main target is the Morning Show 4 — KPFA board members Margy Wilkinson, Dan Siegel, Mal Burnstein and Conn Hallinan — who led a 2011 SaveKPFA campaign that collected over $60,000 in pledges to restore the KPFA Morning Show, after Pacifica claimed it cancelled the show for financial reasons.
A few of the hundreds of KPFA listeners who pledged to help bring back the Morning Show.
Hundreds of listeners gave pledges of support (not actual money) in that campaign, but Pacifica refused to accept them. Rosenberg’s allies then slapped the four SaveKPFA activists with a lawsuit demanding $800,000 in “damages” for the fundraising activity, which they claim is “disloyal” to Pacifica. The lawsuit is pending, but Rosenberg has been publicly proclaiming it as a win for her side.
“I am appalled and shocked to hear that 4 KPFA listeners, all of whom are much respected in the community, are being sued for $800,000 for their KPFA fundraising activities,” wrote KPFA listener Alan Smith to the Pacifica board, echoing many others. “It is clear whomever drafted [the measure] has no sense of history or progressive values and does not belong on the Pacifica board.”
“The idea that someone breached their fiduciary duties by raising money for the station – NOT self-dealing – is itself ridiculous,” KPFA listener Clyde Leland wrote to the Pacifica board. “The further step of making loyalty a qualification for service on the Local Station Board is worse. It is sickening anti-democratic moves like this that are tearing this station apart.”
The “loyalty” measure was tabled on a vote of 11-9 two weeks ago, but mysteriously appeared on Pacifica’s phone meeting agenda last Thursday, during which it was “taken off the table” and immediately voted on it (a violation of procedure). Nia Bediako, a delegate from New York’s WBAI, has asked that the record show that the resolution was not properly before the body.
Contempt for listeners, democratic process
“The measure displays a stunning contempt for the process and the KPFA listenership,” said Margy Wilkinson, former KPFA board chair and one of the station’s delegates-elect to the Pacifica board, who listened to the meeting online. “It was clear from the discussion that Pacifica’s own attorney had counseled against adopting the measure, and we know that board members had received many messages from listeners urging them to reject it.”
Supporters of the “loyalty” measure included Pacifica board chair Summer Reese, a KPFK delegate, who despite having not been part of the meeting, phoned in just before the vote to support it, making the count 10-10. Then, KPFT delegate Bill Crosier, serving as chair, broke the tie, making the final recorded vote 11-10.
Several board members who supported the measure are lame ducks whose terms have technically expired. In violation of Pacifica’s bylaws, incumbent board members had unilaterally extended their own terms by delaying seating of incoming PNB delegates until late February.
How much damage can they do in the next month? The anti-dissent measure was only one of several measures passed which will further undermine local control at KPFA and other Pacifica stations. Newly-elected Pacifica delegates may move to reconsider the “loyalty” measure and others when they are finally seated next month. We’ll keep you informed.
“Let me paint a picture of where KPFA is now — because it should concern all of us — no matter which side we’re on,” writes Margy Wilkinson, chair of KPFA’s local board in an open letter to listeners. Wilkinson cites evidence of the dramatic loss of listenership following Pacifica management’s purging of the station’s most listened-to program, the Morning Show, produced by a crew of young, diverse journalists. What follows is a tale of stunningly undemocratic dirty-tricks, financial mismanagement and anti-union maneuvers that have caused KPFA listeners to demand an immediate change in Pacifica’s management — starting with the recall of Pacifica treasurer Tracy Rosenberg. | READ WILKINSON’S ENTIRE LETTER
The Pacifica National Board (PNB) met February 7-10 in Washington, DC. After a close election, Margy Wilkinson, a member of SaveKPFA and former chair of KPFA‘s local board, became Pacifica’s new chair.
