Month: February 2011

After Saturday’s Breakfast with the Morning Show, listeners took a giant check to KPFA with $61,200 in pledges — enough to restore the Morning Show through 2011. We hope you’ll take a moment to contact Pacifica’s executive director to urge her to accept the pledges. | EMAIL PACIFICA or PHONE 510-402-9880.

An unusually large number of listeners stayed for KPFA’s local station board (LSB) meeting later that morning. They came from around the greater Bay Area to address the board, such as long-time listener Bonnie Bell, from San Jose. “Every time there’s a fundraiser, I hear people say, ‘It’s your station. You contribute to it, it’s your station.’ But when the Morning Show was taken off, I didn’t feel it was my station at all.” | LISTEN TO AUDIO, more public commentary is linked at KPFA’s LSB page

GM resigns? What about KPFA’s $375,000?

As reported by KPFAWorker.org, staff were told last week that the station’s new general manager, Amit Pendyal, had resigned effective immediately, but Pacifica later said he had taken a “personal leave.” Pendyal has been in the job one month. “Just to put this in context,” said board member Dan Siegel during the board’s discussion, “at the beginning of 2009, each of our five stations had a permanent general manager. By the end of 2009, none did, and this is a major problem with the network from the point of view of fundraising, programming. That’s a material result of the chaos in the network and a change that we’d like to help rectify as the majority of this LSB.” Seigel also addressed Pacifica’s attempt to remove him from the local and national boards. | LISTEN TO AUDIO

New KPFA local board treasurer Barbara Whipperman was asked by the local board’s chair to look into KPFA’s finances, such as the claim last September that the station “can’t meet payroll” and thus, layoffs were required. Whipperman found that in September 2010 KPFA borrowed $12,500 from KPFT to make its mid-month payroll, an amount that was paid back to KPFT by October 15. At the direction of Pacifica management, KPFA loaned WPFW $18,000 for its September 30 payroll, a loan which has no repayment plan. “KPFA did have trouble paying a payroll in September,” notes Whipperman, “but in fact, that loan was paid back in October, and KPFA has been in a position to loan money to other stations, even with the idea that they might not get it back.”

Whipperman also looked into a recent major gift by a Berkeley donor. Both Pacifica and KPFA received equal amounts from the donor of $375,000 to establish endowment accounts, requiring both KPFA and Pacifica to invest the principal and spend only the earnings from each investment. Pacifica’s CFO LaVarn Williams has already spent Pacifica’s portion in violation of the donor’s wishes, and the network is now taxing stations to repay the fund. KPFA’s $375,000 endowment was deposited by the donor with a philanthropic fund management company for safe-keeping, and is expected to produce a sizable grant, available for withdrawal this summer. Whipperman also reported that CFO Williams recently made inquiries about the availability of KPFA’s endowment fund. Pacifica has also tied up $150,000 of KPFA’s reserve money for the last 3 years by using it as a guarantee on a line of credit for the national office. | AUDIO OF COMPLETE TREASURER’S REPORT, or see REPORT AND FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS

Noting that KPFA’s frontline staff have borne the brunt of cuts through layoffs and reductions in hours, the local board passed a resolution asking Pacifica’s executive director and chief financial officer to reduce their salaries by 10% for 12 months. The board also reaffirmed the sustainable budget it passed last year, which was overruled by Pacifica. The board sent it back to Pacifica’s national finance committee, and this time including expected income from the endowment and the $61,000 in pledges for restoration of the Morning Show.

The group of board members led by Tracy Rosenberg who call themselves “independents” failed to attend KPFA’s February board meeting, but at least five of them were spotted milling around outside the building while the meeting was in progress. You can find the unedited audio of the entire board meeting, minutes, and financial reports at the local station board’s webpage. [UPDATE: Pacifica has apparently removed the audio record of the LSB meeting, so we’ve given it a home here: KPFA LSB AUDIO part 1 | part 2 | part 3]

A friendly, upbeat, standing-room-only crowd gathered for Saturday’s “Breakfast with the Morning Show.” (CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS). Attendees included Larry Bensky (former Pacifica National Affairs correspondent), Aileen Alfandary (KPFA News co-director), Aimee Allison (former co-host of the Morning Show), Brian Edwards-Tiekert (former co-host of the Morning Show), Mitch Jeserich (host of KPFA’s Letters & Politics), Ying Lee (long-time KPFA listener), Laura Prives (Morning Show producer), Agustin Ramirez (ILWU) — and an enthusiastic group of listeners who love KPFA and want to put it back on the right track.

After the breakfast discussion and local station board meeting, listeners took a giant check representing $61,200 in pledges over to KPFA and left it in the former Morning Show office (if you’d like, you can still pledge here). Even though the Morning Show was the station’s biggest money-marker, raising three times what it cost to produce, Pacifica management axed the popular, long-running show in November. “Listeners were stunned hear Pacifica executive director Arlene Engelhardt claiming that canceling the Morning Show and laying off its co-hosts was necessary to address KPFA’s financial problems,” said Arpi Kupelian, a KPFA listener. The move elicted thousands of letters of protest from the station’s supporters, many of whom are also concerned that the layoffs violated the station’s union contract. The community fundraising effort to return the show to the air has so far been ignored by management.

Casualties of the Morning Show’s cancellation also include several unpaid staff, such as labor programmer David Bacon. Bacon hosted one of the few weekly Bay Area programs reporting on labor. “Bacon is the premier labor journalist in the US,” said UC Santa Cruz history professor Dana Frank. “His program is of vital importance for all of us in the labor and social justice movements throughout Northern California.”

Bacon was travelling and couldn’t make the meeting, but the ILWU’s Agustin Ramirez attended to talk about the labor show. “David’s show is a crucial resource for organized labor, and we want it back on the air,” said Peter Olney, organizing director of the International Longshore Workers Union.

On Tuesday, February 8, the Berkeley City Council unanimously approved a resolution urging all parties in the Pacifica-KPFA confict to negotiate or mediate in good faith to reach a speedy solution to the labor dispute and other issues. | KPFA News report by Aileen Alfandary

Both KPFA listeners and staff patiently waited hours to speak before the council, and then urged it to take action. “It grieves me deeply that KPFA and Pacifica — which we need more than ever — should be fighting amongst itself,” said long-time listener Ying Lee. “The Morning Show was a commons for me and my neighbors,” 20-year listener Andy Jamieson told council members, before Pacifica decided to “fence it off, take away the Morning Show, and fire Brian and Aimee.”

Antonio Ortiz, a KPFA engineer and member of CWA, noted that the layoffs of the Morning Show hosts did not follow seniority. He said the union wants to meet with management, and wants “to make sure the contract is adhered to and our workers’ rights are protected.”

“We have a national director saying she’s making $80,000 worth of layoffs to save a $3.5 million institution while she’s happy to spend money on $400-500 an hour attorneys,” laid-off Morning Show co-host Brian Edwards-Tiekert told the council. “The money that our listeners pledged to support programs at KPFA is being spent by Pacifica to fight the union that represents the people who make those programs,” he added.

Pointing to Pacifica’s stonewalling, Berkeley mayor Tom Bates said: “One party has indicated a desire to negotiate and mediate and another party has not. They need to recognize that we think it is important for them to get involved. We tell the Berkeley Bowl to negotiate with labor, we ask Berkeley Honda to negotiate with labor, we ask the people down in the marina who have the Marriott Hotel to negotiate with labor. We’re asking all the parties to truly negotiate.” | Video of entire city council meeting; KPFA discussion begins around 3:40

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution opposing the sale of KUSF, which has provided a wide range of public service programming for over three decades. Its owner, the University of San Francisco, has announced plans to sell KUSF’s license to commercial interests for $3.75 million.

Judge issues another TRO against Pacifica’s election tricks

An Alameda County Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Pacifica on Monday, after the network was sued by a KPFK/Los Angeles member who alleged the Pacifica national board was trying to fraudulently re-run a delegate election it didn’t like.

Pacifica claimed that the election of KPFK staff delegate Rodrigo Argueta was flawed due to a ballot that combined both listener and staff representatives, but Argueta pointed out that Pacifica wanted to rerun only the staff portion of the election — the one he won. A TRO was also issued two months ago against Pacifica, when it tried to retroactively disqualify 3 KPFA staff members’ votes to change the outcome of an election.