Thursday, September 19, 2019

PACIFICA CHANGES LEADERSHIP & MAY ADOPT A NEW GOVERNANCE SYSTEM


Pacifica radio, America’s most dysfunctional and embarrassing noncommercial media organization, has dismissed Grace Aaron as Chair of the Pacifica National Board (PNB) and is considering a proposal to replace the organization’s entire system of governance.

In what appears to be a takeover attempt, a faction of the PNB, led by former interim Executive Director Bill Crosier, reportedly held a “no confidence vote” regarding Aaron at a private meeting held on September 5, 2019.

Then Crosier and his associates posted a petition online [link] that demands that the PNB to hold a membership vote to approve their proposed plans. 

Bill Crosier

Crosier and his associates say big changes are needed:

 “The current Bylaws…have resulted in governance that struggles to function."

"Meanwhile, listenership, membership, and donations have declined."

 The debt is strangling the Foundation and our stations.”

The proposed By-Laws would change the way Pacifica makes decisions and handles its day-to-day operations. The changes Crosier and his associates are pushing include:

• Dismiss the current members of the PNB.

• Dissolve the local station boards at the five Pacifica stations. Then, create community Advisory Boards at each station.

• Following the transition period, the PNB will be composed of 11 Directors – 6 At-Large Directors, and 5 Station-Representative Directors. This reduces the size of the Board from 22 Directors to 11.

According to a post on the blog Pacifica Radio Watch [link], the PNB will have a series of meetings this evening (Thursday 9/19) to select a new Board Chair and decide on a “notice date” for Pacifica members to vote on the proposed By-Laws.

A “CIVIL WAR” FED BY DEBT, INCOMPETENCE & TURF PROTECTION

The situation within Pacifica is dire.  The organization still does not have a plan to repay a $3.2 million loan that was used, in part, to settle a court judgment involving years of past due rent owed to the Empire State Building where WBAI’s transmitter was until recently.

Paul Martin
According to a report dated September 11, 2019, by Paul Martin, treasurer of WBAI and a member of Pacifica’s National Finance Committee, interest payments of $70,000 per quarter begin in December.

There is growing resentment as a result of WBAI’s growing debt. The other four stations have grown tired of subsidizing WBAI at the expense of their own shops. Martin’s report says WBAI currently has $5,000 in the bank and owes $587,722.

Martin’s report provides a sign of how bad things are regarding payment of the loan:

“…the loan details may frighten some people because of the default language. Pacifica is not close to being in compliance.

There likely is unilateral agreement with this statement from Crosier’s petition:

“Today, [Pacifica is] facing mounting debt on account of hard decisions not taken years ago, and because of declining listenership, Pacifica will sink below the waves if it does not make a major course correction in its structure and leadership.”




3 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, these new bylaws were written by some of the worst players who have been in Pacifica’s governance for years and who leave behind a trail of damage to Pacifica. The majority of this group from Berkeley has long advocated for breaking up Pacifica so they could get control of the KPFA license for themselves. I wrote about some of them in my article: KPFK and Pacifica: Update 2019 https://medium.com/@KimKaufman/kpfk-and-pacifica-update-2019-11fcef73e2d9

    From a private email to me:

    “Trump’s not the only one who spits on and buffs-up a shiny object and throws it out to the crowd, and smiles - as they grab it and start to race around the park like squirrels on meth. Hell, I’ve been supportive of smaller Boards and less meetings for many years now, but to hear people act like these “New-Improved” Bylaws magically do away with decades of partisan fights and criminal plots to physically steal stations and to break-up one of a very few, left leaning national media networks; makes sweet little Pollyanna look like May West, with even more crimson lips.

    “Rather than providing leadership and an actual loan repayment plan and a business recovery plan, we get whistles and bells. We now have one more, in a long line of distractions. Sadly, this cosmetic “lipstick on the pig,” last minute revamping (that must pass a long and tortured approval process) does not miraculously relieve those currently thrust up in fiduciary responsibility.”


    Most of the people I have seen who are taking positions for or against have not even read the changes. They’re so fed up with the way things are they’re going to vote for anything that promises change – which is how we wound up with Donald Trump as President.

    More information on the changes here: https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2019/09/17/the-breaker-faction-s-complete-set-of-new-by-laws-a-new-pacifica-constitution-refounding-the-foundation/comment-page-1/?unapproved=33&moderation-hash=a09f8f4f2cf24a45a605e3b5bc1a49fa#comment-33

    And bios of the new directors: https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2019/09/17/bios-of-the-six-directors-at-large-and-the-three-alternates/

    - Kim Kaufman

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  2. Further comment to the link to the proposed list of new directors: they may have impressive accomplishments in their fields and activist credentials but none of them know anything about Pacifica, none have radio or other media experience, nor actual management or business experience. There will be no ED or CFO, only an outsourced accounting company which in over a year has produced little to nothing. What are these new so-called "independent" board members going to do but take direction from those that brung them to the dance? This is not hyperbole: this is the latest takeover attempt by those Berkeley folks who want to break up Pacifica to get the KPFA license for themselves.

    Pass the popcorn.

    - Kim Kaufman

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  3. Pacifica: The Slowest Flushing Toilet in America.

    You know, WPFW just filed their license renewal in May; the current term expires Oct.1st. Stations in California, Texas and New York will all be doing the same over the next year or two. One wonders if people are going to start challenging the license renewals based on character issues or some other related factor due to their inability to get their financial accounts organized, balanced, and audited?

    https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/broadcast-radio-license-renewal-dates-by-state

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