Financial statements show that KPFA is still owed $1.4 million by Pacifica

by

At the March 3rd Local Station Board meeting, treasurer Barbara Whipperman and KPFA business manager Maria Negret reported serious problems getting documentation from Pacifica for “bill-back” expenses being passed on to KPFA. Each of the five Pacifica-owned stations, including KPFA, are obligated to pay 19.5% of their income to the network for central services. “Bill-backs” are in addition to that.

Over the past 16 months, Pacifica has been receiving and keeping funds intended for KPFA, including grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, bequests, and stock donations — ostensibly to apply toward debt KPFA owes it. Often, KPFA doesn’t find out Pacifica has accepted money on its behalf until months after the fact.

The amount of KPFA funding that Pacifica has intercepted over the last 16 months adds up to about $681,700. KPFA has also been paying bills from Pacifica “bill-backs” for legal expenses, administrative services, and the like — if you add the money KPFA has paid directly to the amount Pacifica has intercepted, the total is approximately $854,000. Here’s the problem: Pacifica’s bills to KPFA over the same period only total to $700,000.

So what happened to the $154,000 KPFA overpaid? “Well, that’s what we would like to know,” the business manager said.

Meanwhile, the bills from Pacifica have been short on detail. For instance: Pacifica charged KPFA $115,000 in legal expenses relating to “labor issues” in the past 16 months, but has provided KPFA very little documentation on what the charges are for. In past years, Pacifica shared itemized billing statements from attorneys, and KPFA’s staff were able to catch items incorrectly charged to KPFA for expenses incurred at other stations. Now, KPFA’s staff don’t even know what the station is being charged for.

“If Visa were to send you a bill in the mail and say ‘you owe $10,000,’ would you just pay it without asking what that was about?” said Negret.
Pacifica’s financial statements also show that its National Office and other parts of the network still owe KPFA $1.4 million dollars in long-term debt. | LISTEN to 3 minute clip of business manager | LISTEN to the entire board meeting: part 1, part 2, part 3

This is what democracy looks like? Really?

by

Three-and-a-half months, and counting. That’s how long KPFA listeners have been waiting to vote on the recall of Pacifica board treasurer Tracy Rosenberg. As readers may remember, Rosenberg was one of the chief architects of the elimination of KPFA’s highly-successful Morning Show, and led efforts to illegally deny duly-elected KPFA representatives, who opposed her, their seats on the Pacifica National Board.

Listeners submitted a recall petition on September 1 and, according to Pacifica’s bylaws, ballots should have been mailed between December 15 and 30.

After months of stalling, Pacifica informed SaveKPFA last week that it has finally hired an election supervisor — but it hasn’t told us who that is, or what the long-overdue ballot schedule will be.

A cynical observer would point out that Rosenberg’s allies on the national board have deliberately delayed the election to give Rosenberg time to organize her campaign, which she had not been able to do by the ballot deadline of December 30. Whether that, or incompetence, or a disdain for the democratic process, Pacifica’s clear violation of its own bylaws led listeners on Feb. 28 to file a charge with the California Attorney General’s office, which oversees California non-profits. | LISTEN to 2 min audio clip from KPFA News | READ board rep Jack Kurzweil‘s YES on recall essay

L.A. Theatre Works booted off KPFA, but welcomed with open arms at sister station KPFK

by

KPFA’s sister station in Los Angeles, KPFK, announced it scored a coup by signing up the award-winning program L.A. Theatre Works to run every Sunday night. “We feel it is far and away the best radio drama show in the country,” KPFK’s interim program director Alan Minsky told the press.

This is the same program that interim KPFA managers Andrew Phillips and Carrie Core removed from KPFA’s airwaves last fall, despite an outcry from listeners. They filled the time slot with two programs hosted by allies of Pacifica management, The Week Starts Here and TwitWit (actors reading a Twitter feed from a computer screen). Fresno’s KFCF, which re-broadcasts much of KPFA’s programming, soon dropped the new programs and reinstituted L.A. Theatre Works.