New Day Pacifica bylaws vote begins June 7 – VOTE YES!

Please VOTE YES in the upcoming 2021 Pacifica bylaws referendum, sponsored by New Day Pacifica. Ballots will go out June 7, 2021 via email and/or mail and deadline to vote is July 7, 2021. If you didn’t get a ballot, request a replacement here.

READ about what’s happening at Pacifica in this article from Zack Kaldveer and Sherry Gendelman in Counterpunch. LISTEN to a recent report broadcast on KPFA News.

KPFA’s Local Station Board (or LSB) VOTED YES on May 15th to support the New Day Pacifica bylaws to bring more accountability to the Pacifica National Board (or PNB). “New Day Pacifica wants governance to help all Pacifica stations to become financially self sustaining by producing engaging, diverse, independent, programming. KPFA with its higher membership, experienced management team and skilled staff have shown that it can be done,” writes listener group KPFA Protectors.

The New Day Pacifica bylaws would require a smaller, more functional national board. Twelve directors would be directly elected by the listeners, the paid and unpaid staff, and the affiliates. These 12 directors would appoint 3 at large directors with broadcasting, financial and management expertise. The Local Station Boards would focus on outreach, community engagement and fund raising.

In addition to KPFA’s LSB majority voting to support the new bylaws, the majority of the members of Houston station KPFT’s LSB present at their last meeting also voted to support the bylaws.

To learn more about current issues at KPFA and Pacifica, please check out these groups:

New Day Pacifica is widely endorsed by listeners and staff, and is proposing new bylaws and a new board structure to save the network from mismanagement and financial disaster.

Pacifica Safety Net, a California non-profit organization formed by Pacifica radio listeners, volunteers and donors to protect the Foundation’s five local stations.

Lawsuit against Pacifica directors for financial malfeasance moves forward

A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles is allowing a lawsuit filed against two leaders of the Pacifica National Board by three people affiliated with the local and national boards of KPFA to go forward. The LA Superior Court judge ruled late last month that the legal action charging malfeasance, negligence and financial mismanagement by Grace Aaron and Alex Steinberg of the Pacifica Foundation national board of directors, can proceed after minor amendments to the complaint. The action has been brought by Andrea Turner, Christina Huggins and Donald Goldmacher, all current or former members of the national or local KPFA advisory board, who say the defendants have the put the radio network in serious financial jeopardy. LISTEN | Larry Buhl reports on the Pacifica Evening News (May 7, 2021)

Who’s voting YES on the critical Pacifica bylaws change, and why

voteyes

Vote YES on new Pacifica bylaws to save our stations!

If you did not receive a ballot, you have until Thursday, March 19 to request a replacement here. Have you learned more and want to change your vote? You can have your ballot “reset” (once only) until March 19 for e-ballots. Fill out this form and explain in the last box that you want to change your vote. DEADLINE for receipt of all ballots (paper and email) is Thursday, March 19

LISTEN to this KPFA News story about the bylaws vote

Join these endorsers to vote YES for Pacifica’s future

Over a thousand listeners and staff are urging a YES vote on the Pacifica bylaws change, including Brian Edwards-Tiekert & Cat Brooks, co-hosts of KPFA’s Upfront | William (Bill) Fletcher, Jr., host of WBAI’s Arise! | Larry Bensky, former national Pacifica correspondent | Mitch Jeserich & Diana Martinez, KPFA’s Letters & Politics | Kris Welch, host of KPFA’s Living Room | Sonali Kolhatkhar, KPFK’s Rising Up with Sonali | Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, activist/author | Ian Masters, KPFK’s Background Briefing | Mimi Kennedy, actress/activist | Matthew Lasar, Pacifica historian, author of Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network | Sasha Lilley, KPFA’s Against the Grain | Roy Tuckman, host of KPFK’s Something’s Happening | Aileen Alfandary, KPFA News co-director | Peter Franck, past president, Pacifica Foundation (1980-1984) | Corinne Smith, KPFA’s Upfront | James & Coleen Nagel, KPFT’s Howlin the Blues | Philip Maldari, KPFA’s Sunday Show | Bonnie Simmons, KPFA music programmer | Mark Maxwell, host of KPFK’s RISE | Nuri Nuri, host of KPFT’s Blues Brunch | Carol Spooner, former PNB member (2002-2004) | Reyna Cowen, KPFA film interviewer | Richard Wolinsky, KPFA’s Bookwaves | Dwayne Bradley, KPFT staff | Don Goldmacher, film producer | Bob Baldock, KPFA staff, and many others | SEE ALL ENDORSERS and add your own name

The future of Pacifica depends on you

Pacifica’s five stations – KPFA, KPFK, WPFW, KPFT and WBAI – are a critical resource for progressives, but its dysfunctional national governance has brought the network close to financial collapse. The Pacifica National Board has mortgaged the buildings of KPFA, KPFK, KPFT and the historically significant Pacifica National Archives as loan collateral for $3.25 million in debts accrued by WBAI. The board does not have a plan to pay this loan off, which comes due in 2021. READ MORE on what the problems are and why we need new bylaws from Rethinking Pacifica.

Why should you vote YES on the bylaws change?

Brian Edwards-Tiekert, co-host of KPFA’s Upfront: “I served 10 years as a worker representative on boards for KPFA and Pacifica, and am 100% certain about one thing: the current byzantine, factionalized board structure is killing this organization. A YES vote represents a chance to pull Pacifica our of its nosedive.” READ BRIAN’s OPEN LETTER

William (Bill) Fletcher, Jr., writer/activist, host of WBAI’s Arise!: “Pacifica is in a terminal crisis. Let’s face it truthfully and without the rhetoric…Pacifica needs a new business model if it is to survive and play its crucial role.”

Fourteen members of KPFA’s Local Station Board write open letter urging a YES vote VOTE YES: “We are concerned that the Pacifica network and KPFA are threatened by mismanagement by the Pacifica National Board” write 14 members of the local board. “PNB dysfunction put KPFA’s building at risk for auction for unpaid taxes because Pacifica officers failed to take action to clean up the paperwork” after two corporate name changes.” It is time for change: READ THEIR OPEN LETTER

We, the members, are the guardians of KPFA and all Pacifica stations
“Our stations could be powerful and influential at a critical time,” writes RethinkingPacifica.org, the group of members who are proposing the changes, but “Pacifica is too dysfunctional to rise to the challenge.” A new board and bylaws can get the network back to health and back on track for the progressive community. Be aware there have been many false allegations from opponents (more here). VOTE YES!

YOUR BALLOT must be received by March 19 at 11:59 p.m. EST. If you didn’t get a ballot or misplaced it, request another ballot here. You can also change your vote by filling out the same form and noting that you want to change it in the form’s last field — your ballot can be “reset” only once. VOTE YES!

Please circulate and share this message broadly with your friends in all the listening areas: San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington, DC and New York City. This is a nationwide-effort to get out the vote.

QUESTIONS? email us at votesavekpfa@gmail.com | visit us at savekpfa.org | join us at Facebook.com/SaveKPFA