Why should listeners vote YES on the recall of KPFA board member and Pacifica treasurer Tracy Rosenberg? | SEE RECALL FLYER (pdf)
Original KPFA radio dial, circa 1949
GOOD PROGRAMMING. The current regime at Pacifica National, supported by Tracy Rosenberg, has declared war against KPFA’s workers and listeners. They have eliminated The Morning Show, KPFA’s biggest fundraiser, and most listened-to local program – putting the station’s fragile finances at risk. They’ve ignored thousands of phone calls and emails from outraged KPFA’s listeners. When SaveKPFA supporters raised enough money to restore The Morning Show, Pacifica refused it. Fundraising during KPFA’s morning hours has plummeted since The Morning Show’s removal, and the toll is projected to reach $500,000 annually. This loss undercuts the financial health of the entire station. READ THE CHARGES HERE | SEE ENDORSERS | SIGN PETITION FOR NEUTRAL OVERSIGHT OF VOTE
LOCAL CONTROL. Pacifica has completely sidelined KPFA’s elected Local Station Board in choosing managers for KPFA, and illegally refused to seat KPFA’s democratically-elected representatives on the Pacifica National Board.
FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT. Pacifica has hired $400/hour anti-union attorneys to fight KPFA’s workers, and imposed the resulting costs – $60,000 and counting – on KPFA. Meanwhile, Pacifica is taking more money out of KPFA’s accounts for its own purposes than even the already-excessive amount budgeted. If we don’t break this costly impasse, we may lose KPFA.
Our only path forward is to directly remove the supporters of Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt from Pacifica’s Board. Tracy Rosenberg has been Engelhardt’s most ardent public defender. She drew up the secret layoff list that got The Morning Show cancelled. She’s also been the driving force behind Pacifica’s illegal moves to keep SaveKPFA’s representatives from taking the positions they were elected to on the Pacifica National Board. Rosenberg was censured by KPFA’s local board for her misappropriation of subscribers’ emails.
Who can vote?
You are eligible to vote if you are a current KPFA listener-member. That means in the past year you’ve either: 1) donated $25 or more to KPFA; or 2) volunteered three hours or more in the KPFA phone room. Please contact us if you fit these criteria but don’t get a ballot by December 30, 2011.
How can I help?
Talk to your friends and neighbors about what is happening at KPFA. Sign up for our email updates (top right of every page). If you’re willing to commit some time to doing outreach, email us and a SaveKPFA volunteer will follow up with you.
What’s the process?
Under Pacifica’s Bylaws, we needed valid signatures from at least 2% of KPFA’s listener-members, and we easily met that bar. Pacifica has validated them, and said it will send out a ballot by December 30. Tracy Rosenberg will get to publish a rebuttal in the ballot package. Then all of KPFA’s roughly 22,000 members will get to vote on whether or not to remove her.
What happens when we win?
Tracy Rosenberg will be removed from the Pacifica National Board and the KPFA Local Station Board. She’ll be automatically disqualified from running for re-election for a period of three years. She’ll be automatically replaced by the next runner-up from the last Local Station Board election. KPFA’s Local Station Board will pick a replacement to serve out the rest of Tracy Rosenberg’s term on the Pacifica National Board (PNB).
I want to know more about the charges in the petition.
Detailed background information is available at www.SaveKPFA.org. There is also informative reporting at www.KPFAWorker.org. Both sites source and attribute most of their information. Download this SaveKPFA flyer listing many of the recall’s endorsers.
What relationship does Pacifica have to KPFA?
KPFA, which began broadcasting in Berkeley in 1949, is part of the 5-station Pacifica network. The other stations are WBAI (New York City), KPFK (Los Angeles), KPFT (Houston) and WPFW (Washington DC). Each station elects 24 listener and staff representatives to its Local Station Board. Those local board representatives then each elect 4 delegates to sit on the 20-member Pacifica National Board, which hires the network’s executive director. Currently, the executive director is Arlene Engelhardt.
Why not recall other board members, or Pacifica’s executive director Arlene Engelhardt?
Under Pacifica’s bylaws, KPFA listeners may vote to recall only representatives to the KPFA Local Station Board. Other Pacifica board members would have to be recalled by their local listeners. The four KPFA local delegates who sit on the Pacifica National Board (PNB) are Laura Prives, Dan Siegel, Andrea Turner and Tracy Rosenberg. Rosenberg is the only KPFA delegate to the PNB who has supported Pacifica’s autocratic actions against KPFA listeners and staff. Arlene Engelhardt is not an elected representative, she is an employee hired and overseen by the Pacifica National Board. We have to change that board in order to remove her.
Won’t Pacifica be running this election? Can’t they monkey-wrench it?
Per Pacifica’s bylaws, the recall election will be held under the supervision of Pacifica’s National Board, which probably does have an interest in seeing the recall fail. And Pacifica’s got a poor track record on fair elections: in the past year, they have thrown out the votes of staff members at KPFA in order to change an election outcome, refused to seat duly-elected representatives from KPFA on the Pacifica National Board, and tried to force a new election at KPFK in Los Angeles when they didn’t like the results. In every case, Pacifica’s actions have been overturned by court injunctions.
Has a recall election ever happened within Pacifica before?
Yes — one year ago, Tracy Rosenberg stage-managed a recall campaign against Morning Show co-host Brian Edwards-Tiekert, who was serving as a staff representative on KPFA’s Local Station Board. (Because there are far fewer staff members than listener members, she only needed 7 valid signatures from KPFA staff to get the ballot qualified). That recall failed by a 2-to-1 margin. Shortly after it failed, Pacifica laid off Edwards-Tiekert and canceled The Morning Show.
Will this cost KPFA money?
It will cost KPFA the price of mailing ballots to 22,000 listener-members – somewhere in the vicinity of $10,000. We believe the cost is worth it, because the destruction caused by Pacifica’s actions is costing KPFA much more than that – up to $500,000 over the course of a year (and that doesn’t even include the $80,000 Pacifica has spent on anti-union consultants!) Also, our own surveys indicate large numbers of listeners became members in order to vote in the recall election and try to get KPFA back to health. With an estimated 400 people giving $25 in order to vote, the election expenses are a wash.
I have additional questions. How do I contact you?
SaveKPFA is an all-volunteer effort. The easiest way to reach us is by emailing votesavekpfa@gmail.com. If you’d like to talk by phone, you may reach us at 510-969-9373. Please be patient as the response has been so overwhelming it sometimes takes us a few days to get back to you.
