[Kzyxtalk] Cut The Crap - Says Former Board Majority Member

[BC]

*June 28, 2014*

*For Immediate Release*

*Cut The Crap - Says Former Board Majority Member*

*Berkeley*-The continued shuttling of the Pacifica Network's legal 
business to the law firm of board member Jose Luis Fuentes has incited 
the rage of Texas listener rep Hank Lamb. Siegel and Yee, the law firm 
run by Oakland mayoral candidate Dan Siegel, his partner Alan Yee -the 
campaign treasurer for Oakland mayoral candidate Jean Quan 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=nQmeup5InQzBC6o8TQjpw2TdhrDFW8kk>- 
and former Oakland City Council member and failed 2012 candidate for 
Oakland City Attorney 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=8MeQlRnwrARUgvD8Vx1aAIH%2BSEI5sToj>Jane 
Brunner, Â has taken on 3 legal matters for Pacifica since the March 
25th resignation of corporate counsel Terry Gross. None of them have 
been voted on by a majority of the currently-seated board of directors 
as required by California Corporations Code Section 5233, when a public 
benefit corporation enters into a contract which financially benefits a 
member of the board of directors.

Lamb's long rant by email, which he sent to all of his colleagues on the 
board as well as a Pacifica discussion list-serv with 100+ members, can 
be found in its entirety here. 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BFwM0V7qJM8MtXkjjxQ43jyel3x12%2BeX>Â In 
it, Lamb refers to the "bullshit" he is being told by officers of the 
board and puts the current board majority "on notice" that they have 
lost him as a member. Lamb goes on to state: "/This will end in court. 
The majority, at this point, has got to be stopped. They are no longer a 
majority and not representative of Pacifica in any way, as far as making 
decisions in huddles or outside PNB meetings and it had better stop. I 
am ready to pay any price to get things on the table, public and righted."/

The filing by Siegel and Yee sent in on Pacifica's behalf in the case 
/Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship (Free Speech Radio News) vs 
Pacifica Foundation Radio /- apparently without the knowledge of many of 
the members of the board - claims the contractual agreement between 
Pacifica and the independent news production, which Pacifica defaulted 
on after not getting Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding, isn't 
"authorized" 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=0AqwYyyL2cA1oDbtTJHlU2TdhrDFW8kk>. 
Pacifica contracted for the daily half hour newscast for more than a 
decade and provided it to all five Pacifica stations as well as 180 
affiliate stations who paid Pacifica for access to the program via the 
Audioport distribution system.

The abrupt removal of community-based programming in the AM hours at 
Berkeley station KPFA continues to generate negative reactions 
throughout the Bay Area. Noted author and long-time Pacifica supporter 
Michael Parenti wrote 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=w%2FQHpQ%2BYHicldRk%2BJiihq2TdhrDFW8kk>"/I 
believe it is of the utmost importance to keep the Morning Mix at its 
morning drive time  in order to give it the largest possible 
audience/." Cazadero-based listener-sponsor Lani Ka'ahumanu asked to 
have her name removed as an endorser of "Save KPFA" and wrote 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BzUu7ebNWgSc%2FVYa2GXQpGTdhrDFW8kk>"/Quite 
frankly Iâ??m not only disappointed, Iâ??m upset. For a community 
station to disappear important community people and their programing in 
one fell swoop shows a basic lack of respect for everyone concerned 
including listeners/." Noted actor, director and long-time Pacifica 
supporter Danny Glover mentioned he listened to Morning Mix programs 
when at home in the Bay Area. The San Francisco Green Party passed this 
lengthy resolution at their June 25th meeting 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=E034CCz%2BYdXm7yo7f3XbaGTdhrDFW8kk>expressing 
their conviction that local coverage will suffer from the ill-considered 
change forced through by the board majority.Â

Here's an excerpt: /"This may not be of concern to KPFAâ??s wealthier 
subscribers who never have and never will have to live next to an oil 
refinery, a crude-by-rail transit line, an oil storage tank, or any of 
the radioactive and otherwise toxic sites that the U.S. Navy abandoned 
all around San Francisco Bay. They may never have to face any number of 
other injustices in their daily lives, but if KPFA is to foster real 
community within the fm signal area it claims to serve, in accordance 
with its mission, it must consider these injustices to some as 
injustices to all. It must not exclude them from the stationâ??s early 
morning hours."/

A petition to reverse the saturation of drive time with syndicated 
programming is located here. 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hpbwf8jgWAZ448Uj7O1y%2B2TdhrDFW8kk>

Pacifica has not made any announcement who the 4th executive director in 
the last 3 and 1/2 months will be, 4 working days before the departure 
of the current occupant to New Zealand. Payroll and benefits 
administrator Weiling Thai is the latest employee to join the exodus 
from the national office, started by controller Maria Gaite who quit 
several weeks ago.

Pacifica's national finance committee issued a plea on June 10th for 
financial statements/data, but nothing has been released 3 weeks later. 
The committee meeting on June 24th was canceled along with a scheduled 
meeting of the audit committee. Berkeley station KPFA has released no 
financial data since February. The annual audit has no scheduled date 
to begin. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting extension filed by 
Reese and administrative manager Tamika Miller the day after Reese's 
termination has expired. Annual financial reports are due to CPB in 
March and payments are made to stations in May and November of each 
year. Pacifica has missed all of the filing deadlines for 2014 funding.Â

New York station WBAI continues to face a forced antenna relocation 
after the Empire State Building landlord returned two months worth of 
payments for the station's equipment space rental ($100,000). With new 
FM antenna space coming into the Manhattan market after 1 World Trade 
Center opened for business, rental prices are expected to drop and it 
may be possible to extricate WBAI from its enormously expensive 
agreement with Empire State, which runs until 2020. This is the first 
good news on the WBAI front for some time. Specifications have been 
filed with the Federal Communications Commission to move the 
broadcasting equipment to the Conde Nast building at 4 Times Square. 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=t7MeIJOJhTyMDBnWuhVRZmTdhrDFW8kk>Questions 
remain about the remaining liability on the existing lease, and 
replacement costs for WBAI's fragile and aging transmitter.

The next hearing in /PDGG vs Pacifica/ has been kicked over to August 
14th.Â

A petition to prevent the rumored break-up of the network can be found 
here. 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=EsBVNXJET52OoUuB3OJCEGTdhrDFW8kk>

/###/

/Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied 
history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of 
marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai 
massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than 
turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases 
including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the 
constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling 
following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica 
Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, 
Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and 
syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented 
listener-supported radio./

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