Thanks to a grassroots campaign for local control, Pacifica treasurer and KPFA boardmember Tracy Rosenberg is facing a recall. If you are a KPFA listener, watch your mail for a ballot. [UPDATE: Pacifica has missed its own deadline of Dec. 30 to mail ballots.]
When you do get your ballot, VOTE YES on the Rosenberg recall, which is endorsed by: CRAIG ALDERSON, Secretary, KPFA Local Station Board | AILEEN ALFANDARY, News Co-Director | TINA BACHEMIN, KPFA Reporter | DAVID BACON, labor correspondent, former KPFA Morning Show | BOB BALDOCK, KPFA Public Events Producer | LARRY BENSKY, Pacifica National Affairs Correspondent (1987-2007) | MAL BURNSTEIN, KPFA board member and retired civil rights lawyer | PAMELA DRAKE, Oakland activist | BRIAN EDWARDS-TIEKERT, KPFA News | DANA FRANK, Professor of History, UCSC | JON FROMER, singer/songwriter, NABET/CWA Local 51 shop steward | MARY FROMER, Organizing Director, SEIU Local 707, Sonoma County (retired) | DAVID GANS, music programmer, KPFA board member | SHERRY GENDELMAN, attorney, former chair, KPFA board; former chair, Pacifica National Board | CONN HALLINAN, columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus, the Daily Planet, contributor to CounterPunch, former head of UCSC’s journalism program | MATTHEW HALLINAN, Listener Rep, KPFA board | JOHN HAMILTON, KPFA News anchor | RICH JOHNSON, activist | RANSEY KANAAN, KPFA unpaid staff, founder AK Press and PM Press, co-founder San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair | LARRY KELP, KPFA producer and host, Sing Out! | ROSE KETABCHI, Free Speech Radio News | JACK KURZWEIL, Listener Rep, KPFA board | YING LEE, Asian-Americans for Peace and Justice | LAURA LIVOTI, Founder, Justice in Nigeria Now! | SASHA LILLEY, Against the Grain (Shop Steward, CWA Local 9415) | TIM LYNCH, KPFA producer and host, unpaid staff | PHILIP MALDARI, The Sunday Show (Shop Steward, CWA Local 9415) | JOANNA MANQUEROS, Music of the World, unpaid staff | DIANA MARTINEZ, Letters & Politics, unpaid staff | LAURA PRIVES, former Executive Producer of the KPFA Morning Show; Producer, Letters & Politics, KPFA board member, Pacifica National Board member | GLENN REEDER, KPFA News, unpaid staff | LYN HOLLANDER SAVIO, Mario Savio Memorial Lecture & Young Activist Award | DAN SIEGAL, activist and KPFA board member | VANESSA TAIT, KPFA News; co-founder, FSRN | JOHN VAN EYCK, former KPFA board member | BARBARA WHIPPERMAN, Treasurer, KPFA Local Station Board | MARGY WILKINSON, Chair, KPFA Local Station Board | RYCHARD WITHERS, KFCF General Manager (titles and organizations for identification only). See also SaveKPFA ENDORSERS and LISTENER LETTERS.
Why Recall Rosenberg?
Pacifica treasurer Tracy Rosenberg has been the principal defender of the current regime at Pacifica, the corporation that owns KPFA. With Rosenberg’s support, that regime has declared war on KPFA’s listeners and workers. It has:
- purged KPFA’s biggest fundraiser and most listened-to local program (The Morning Show), causing morning pledges to drop by more than half and putting the station’s fragile finances at risk
- conducted illegal, retaliatory layoffs
- wasted more than $80,000 of listener money on an anti-union law firm
- diverted workers’ retirement contributions for other purposes
- slapped gag rules on KPFA’s staff
- illegally barred KPFA’s elected representatives from taking their seats on Pacifica’s Board.
Impartial oversight of vote still in question
After an outpouring of listener pressure, management finally certified the recall election to proceed, but has been vague about how it will conduct the vote, or if it will follow Pacifica’s own rules and mail the ballots before year’s end. Hundreds of KPFA listeners signed the recall petition, which lays out the charges of election fraud, email theft, and the destruction of programming by Rosenberg. Hundreds more have signed a second petition demanding that a neutral third party oversee the vote.
Many who signed expressed their frustration with Pacifica’s actions against KPFA, led by treasurer Rosenberg and executive director Arlene Engelhardt. For instance, listener Fred Hosea writes: “The dysfunction, drama, loss of listener support, and mismanagement of the past year amount to an intolerable failure, with Tracy Rosenberg and Arlene Engelhardt at the corrupting center. Rosenberg must go with all due haste, with Engelhardt to follow.” | SEE PETITION OR PETITION SIGNATURES
Help SaveKPFA spread the word
To raise funds to cover possible legal costs and the expense of contacting all of KPFA’s 20,000 listeners, SaveKPFA has set up an online account for those who would like to support our work. (Of course, we encourage you to support KPFA as well.) If you’d like to be added to SaveKPFA’s endorsers’ list, please email us with your name and how you’d like to identified.
Pacifica admits it failed to deposit pension money
Pacifica has finally admitted that it was not depositing employees’ pension contributions into their accounts in a timely fashion “for the past few years.” The network has sent a memo to staff claiming it was a “misunderstanding,” and acknowledging that it must repay the missing deposits with interest. Since early October, KPFA’s union has been investigating the apparent diversion of funds, calling it a form of wage theft.
