<html><body><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div aria-label="Compose body"><div class="commentmeta" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; width: 390px; color: #555555; line-height: 15.6px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; width: 390px; color: #555555; line-height: 15.6px;"><p class="comment-meta-1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 2px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; height: 18px; background-image: url('default/divider.png'); background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 2px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; height: 18px; background-image: url('default/divider.png'); background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x;"><cite class="fn" style="font-weight: bold; float: left; width: auto;" data-mce-style="font-weight: bold; float: left; width: auto;">John Sakowicz</cite><span class="reply" style="margin: 0px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; float: right; line-height: 11px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; float: right; line-height: 11px;"><a rel="nofollow" class="comment-reply-link" href="http://theava.com/archives/57058?replytocom=1068679#respond" aria-label="Reply to John Sakowicz" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; text-decoration: none;" data-mce-href="http://theava.com/archives/57058?replytocom=1068679#respond" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; text-decoration: none;">Reply</a></span></p><p class="comment-meta-2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; font-size: 11px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 11px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; font-size: 11px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 11px;">June 8, 2016 at 11:57 am</p></div><div class="text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; color: #555555; line-height: 15.6px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; color: #555555; line-height: 15.6px;"><div class="c" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 20px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 20px;"><div id="sce-comment1068679" class="sce-comment" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div id="sce-comment1068679" class="sce-comment" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">To the Editor:</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Scott Peterson is exactly correct in his discovery that KZYX’s Tax Form 990s and accompanying audits are seriously deficient.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">I suspected as much back when I was Board Treasurer at KZYX. At that time, I asked the station’s GM, John Coate, about our station’s financials and was stonewalled every time. Coate refused to meet with me, and he refused to speak with me either in-person or on the phone. I couldn’t even get Coate to tell me about our station’s bank borrowing — KZYX has a letter of credit at the Savings Bank of Mendocino County.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">I never met with Coate — not one single time — in the entire year I was Board Treasurer nor during the three years I was a Board Director, despite numerous requests. My phone calls were never even answered.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Coate wasn’t the only problem. The rest of the Board of Directors was also complicit, insofar as I was excluded from Board communications, i.e. email and phone calls with regard to serious station business. I was furthermore refused committee assignments by then-Board President Stuart Campbell. The rest of the Board just went along with Campbell.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The California Corporations Code provides that each Director must have the means of participating in all matters before the Board, including, without limitation, the capacity to propose, or to interpose an objection to, a specific action to be taken by the corporation. I was denied such participation.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Directors also have the absolute right to inspect financial documents — I emphasize an “absolute” right.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">There’s another thing that Scott Peterson is correct about.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">He and I both maintain that the station’s members have limited rights to inspect the station’s records. While statutory laws governing the types of records shareholders may examine are complex and may appear unwieldy, an experienced attorney may assist the members to take full advantage of broader common law shareholder rights of inspection. However, while members have rights to corporate information beyond those of the general public, members do not have unfettered access to corporate confidences and secrets — and at KZYX there are plenty of secrets.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">California Corporations Code § 1601 and the common law are sources of members’ rights of inspection, which provide vital pieces of information for members to maintain and oversee the integrity of their investment (membership dues). Sometimes, corporations have some contestable interests in nondisclosure, and corporations have long harnessed legal expertise to protect their interests — this includes KZYX spending almost $20,000 in legal fees last year. Likewise, members should not shy away from using the same tools to protect their rights. Thus, understanding the mechanics of creating a proper, legally sound initial inspection request at the outset is crucial for shareholders to protect their interests.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Notably, § 1601 sets out a baseline, minimum level of information that shareholders may access: “[t]he accounting books and records and minutes of proceedings of the shareholders and the board and committees of the board . . . shall be open to inspection upon the written demand on the corporation of any shareholder . . . for a purpose reasonably related to the holder’s interest as a shareholder.” This statute does not explicitly exclude other information, and courts have sometimes broadened shareholders’ rights under common law.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">A word about where this is all headed.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Attorney General of California, upon complaint that KZYX is failing to comply with the provisions of Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 600), 7 (commencing with Section 700) or 16 (commencing with Section 1600), or any other relevant setions of the California Corporations Code, may in the name of the people of the State of California send to the station’s GM and Executive Director notice of the complaint.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">If the answer is not satisfactory, the Attorney General may institute, maintain or intervene in such suits, actions or proceedings of any type in any court or tribunal of competent jurisdiction or before any administrative agency for such relief by way of injunction, the dissolution of entities, the appointment of receivers or any other temporary, preliminary, provisional or final remedies as may be appropriate to protect the rights of shareholders or to undo the consequences of failure to comply with such requirements.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">In any such action, suit or proceeding there may be joined as parties all persons and entities responsible for or affected by such activity. This means that KZYX’s Board will be held responsible for the actions of the station’s GM (past and present). Board Directors (past and present) are not immune from having personal lawsuits filed against them by the station’s members for negligence. Stuart Campbell can also be sued for self-dealing because he is both a Board officer and he hosts two radio shows (“Consider This” and “The Discussion”).</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">My complaints to the FCC will look like kid’s stuff when Scott Peterson finally gets around to meeting Peter Kafin and filing a complaint on behalf of the membership to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Attorney General of California.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Scott Peterson will do what I failed to do, and what caused a good man and real public radio professional, Raoul Van Hall, to resign — to end the cronyism, secrets and lies, financial recklessness, and ugly internal politics at KZYX.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">John Sakowicz<br>KZYX Board of Directors, 2013-2016<br>KZYX Board Treasurer, 2014</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">KMEC host and producer, 2015-present</p><div><br></div></div><div id="sce-edit-comment1068679" class="sce-edit-comment" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>