It’s been almost a year since SaveKPFA submitted over 800 signatures from KPFA listener-members seeking the removal of Pacifica Treasurer Tracy Rosenberg — the architect of Pacifica’s purge of the Morning Show. Against our wishes, and over our repeated protests, Pacifica delayed the recall election past December 31 — which was the date called for in its own rules and bylaws. That bought Rosenberg’s supporters six months to raise money for a “no” campaign mailing.
In a bizarre turn of events, Rosenberg has now sued Pacifica over that very delay. Her legal argument? That the gap between the voter eligibility deadline Pacifica set when it verified the recall petitions, and the date Pacifica actually mailed the ballots, is too long. Her suit asks for the recall election to be thrown out altogether, and asks the judge to make Pacifica pay her attorneys’ fees. Don’t expect Pacifica’s attorneys to defend this one too vigorously…
On August 1, an Alameda County Superior Court judge issued a temporary order to place all recall ballots under seal until a hearing on Rosenberg’s lawsuit, now scheduled for September 10. On August 4, SaveKPFA observers documented the retrieval of recall ballots from a Berkeley PO box, and their sequestration in a nearby safe deposit box. They report what appears to be a VERY LARGE number of ballots waiting to be counted (see photo at above). SaveKPFA offers a few thoughts on these latest developments:
- Rosenberg could have raised her procedural concerns much sooner — perhaps even before ballots were mailed. The suit doesn’t appear to be the action of someone who wants a smooth election process, but rather that of someone seeking maximum delay.
- Rosenberg filed the suit just before ballots were to be counted, and sought an order to prevent the counting itself (rather than to prevent Pacifica from acting on whatever the count was). This indicates Rosenberg expected to lose the vote count.
- Any remedy likely to come from her lawsuit — including an entirely new election — is unlikely to produce a different result. So Rosenberg appears to be playing for time.
Rosenberg told the East Bay Express that the vote was too expensive, but KPFA listener-member Mark Spindler told the Daily Californian that “the question should be why is Pacifica teaming with anti-union attorneys” to use donations to fight listeners and staff. He added that Rosenberg “needs to be held accountable for what she has done, and this recall is the vehicle for that.”
