PACIFICA BOARD SHOWS ITS TRUE COLORS:
NO RESPECT FOR DEMOCRACY, LAW OR THE COURTS
The Pacifica Foundation Board lost yet again on July 14 when a CA Appellate Court dismissed their recent move to disqualify plaintiff’s counsel in L.A. Superior Court. In a pattern of bad behavior, Pacifica has consistently tried to delay the civil action filed against them for malfeasance, misfeasance and mismanagement, but the court just as consistently refused to do that.
An old legal adage says, when you don’t have truth on your side, you argue process, and attack the individual’s character. For the past seven months, Pacifica’s lawyers and the lawyer for the defendants have engaged in every stalling tactic under the sun to delay the lawsuit from moving forward in a timely manner, including completely false and defamatory personal attacks on plaintiff’s lawyers and a member of the Pacifica National Board, thus preventing the true facts from emerging about the malfeasance of Pacifica’s board of directors. Even worse, Pacifica is using donor contributions from KPFA donors to pay for lawyers, who keep losing at every turn. Are you upset yet?
A statement of a Pacifica Board officer who was quoted as saying “We want to make sure Pacifica pays for our defense, we absolutely can’t let them do discovery in the case.” What are “they” are afraid of? What will discovery reveal? Could it be:
- two sets of books at WBAI, use of hidden accounts, missing equipment?
- back door deals involving producers profiting from Pacifica broadcasts?
- corrupt conflicts of interest involved with the $3.2 million loan to bail out WBAI?
- dark money efforts funded by profiteering snake oil producers?
- the cover up of numerous violations of state and federal laws?
- major screwup of employee pension plans, NLRB issues?
- loss of over $12 Million in Federal CPB funding and the lies behind how it happened?
- 6 years of bad, late and “qualified, Going Concern” independent audits?
PACIFICA LOSES BYLAW ELECTION, BUT DECLARES VICTORY
56% of voting Pacifica members opted for proposed changes put forward by New Day Pacifica that would implement an effective democratic structure, directly accountable to the membership. But the board of Pacifica insists the failure of the staff of Pacifica to vote for these bylaw changes nullifies the result. Here are the numbers. You can decide what democracy really looks like in Pacificaland.
Listeners:Yes 6640 votes (56%), No 5216 votes (44%)
Staff: Yes 180 votes (41%), No 255 votes (59%)
Total: Yes 6,820, No 5,381
Source: Simply Voting (Pacifica’s election services vendor): Listener Results Staff Results
So… 1,439 more members voted YES than NO. But Pacifica’s argument is that the staff votes have more weight than the donor votes — In the words of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, “Some animals are more equal than others.”
The majority of donors who provide all the funding are being negated by a small group with a clear conflict of interest. The suspiciously enlarged staff at WBAI and WPFW have been browbeaten into believing that a new board would sell their stations and with it goes their radio programs. A complete fabrication. As of this date, Pacifica has refused to reveal and vet the station by station votes.
We’ll let the New Day Pacifica folks speak for themselves about their view of these election results. YOU must ask yourself who should be in power because the answer seems simple and one based on a genuine democracy – one person, one vote.
The present dysfunctional management of Pacifica will certainly continue to oppose the By-Law election results, and the issue appears to be headed to the courts. Despite all their pro-democracy propaganda to the contrary, it has no respect for democracy, law or the courts.
“Democracy at Pacifica” is a phrase used in arguments against any needed changes, but is not the reality. The only way to save Pacifica from inevitable collapse is through legal action. That is where we really need your help. We are winning in court, but the legal process moves slowly. As we said earlier, Pacifica management is doing all it can to slow the legal process down. The legal expenses to get to the truth comes at a real cost. Your continued tax-deductible donations have allowed us to get this far. Please help us save Pacifica and donate what you can, either by check or through our GoFundMe efforts
Thank you for all your continued support and faith.
-Pacifica Safety Net Volunteers