December 2018
Pacifica’s Elections: National Election Supervisor Replaced; National Board Creates Massive Conflicts of Interest and Violates Pacifica Bylaws:
 California Attorney General Xavier Becerra |
Throughout 2017, the PNB neglected the election timeline, rejected attempts to self-correct in July 2018, and ignored the board chair’s report that the California Attorney General’s office had advised that elections not be held if not fiscally possible and had recommended that a timeline reflecting that position be adopted. |
 Removed Nat. Election Supervisor Graem Drew, |
Throughout 2017, the PNB neglected the election timeline, rejected attempts to self-correct in July 2018, and ignored the board chair’s report that the California Attorney General’s office had advised that elections not be held if not fiscally possible and had recommended that a timeline reflecting that position be adopted.
When the Pacifica National Election Supervisor (NES) declared on Oct. 30 that the membership lists were such a mess that fair elections were impossible and cancelled them, the Pacifica National Board (PNB) said he’d resigned and told the new Executive Director to hire someone else. |
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On Tuesday, Nov. 20, rejecting a timeline suggested by the new NES that would’ve given members notice of elections, the PNB retroactively set a voting eligibility cut-off date (aka the Record Date), perhaps to accommodate some of their would-be candidates, and violated the bylaws, including by changing a single date to a 20-day period and extending a 1-year look-back period to almost 13 months. On Nov. 29, they refused to put aside the current corrupted process and did not vote on the latest timeline proposed by the NES.
The PNB is trampling member rights, throwing good money after bad, and inviting litigation — on your dime. |
2. Station & Network Updates
No WBAI Local Station Board Meeting (LSB) Since June:
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Former chair Robert Young, who had been scheduling only about half of the meetings in 2017 & 2018, quit in October, delaying his notice until it was too late for anyone else to arrange the regular meeting. Vice Chair Michael Ochoa just repeated that performance with his resignation two days short of mandated notice for the December meeting. Not much is expected of the remaining officers, secretary Jim Dingeman who has been blocking the General Manager evaluation since June or treasurer R. Paul Martin who was the cheerleader of the phony boycott of 2016 while the station was being pressured by the Empire State Office Building owners. All four men are from the Indy Caucus-ACE faction. |
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And like the KPFA LSB in Berkeley, Indy-ACE is stealing the rights of runners-up outside their faction. A Berkeley lawyer on that LSB is suing Pacifica in order to be able to violate the bylaws by filling vacancies with friends not on the runners-up list. He lost and appealed, and lost and again appealed the decision. The lawyer said to be representing Pacifica keeps billing us/you. At WBAI, the officers won’t add new members to the LSB listservs, so they don’t get information to which they’re entitled and can’t communicate with the people who voted for them and whom they serve. |
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Each LSB is a committee of the national board, but strangely, since July, the national board chair has been forgetting to put a motion to address our meeting problem on the agenda. Indy-ACE member Alex Steinberg joined to block discussion of the issue. |
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Indy-ACE members won’t let the local board function, yet most are running again. To paraphrase a judge regarding some other Pacifica shenanigans, they must think you’re stupid.
The Pacifica National Board will meet on Thurs., Dec. 6, at 8:30pm. You can listen to that meeting here: kpftx.org. They can be reached at PNB@pacifica.org. We will update you on their actions. |
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