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Rosenberg faction walks out of LSB meeting in attempt to spike budget
What’s Tracy Rosenberg doing with the extra time her lawsuit has bought her? This Saturday, August 4, Rosenberg led her Independents for Community Radio faction in a quorum-busting walkout from KPFA’s Local Station Board (LSB) meeting, with the explicit goal of blocking the board from approving KPFA’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
These 6 board members joined Rosenberg in walking out: Anthony Fest, Cynthia Johnson, Janet Kobren, Henry Norr, Akio Tanaka and Kate Tanaka.
Without an approved budget, Rosenberg could use her position as Pacifica treasurer to draw a budget up for KPFA — and impose layoffs that way. While chairing Pacifica’s Finance Committee, she led a new charge to get Pacifica to impose massive staff cuts on KPFA and other stations.
KPFA is projected to end the current fiscal year with a surplus, so its 2012/2013 budget contained no staff cuts. The station’s budget was calculated according to guidelines in a resolution, authored by KPFA delegate Dan Siegel and overwhelmingly passed in late July at Pacifica‘s National Board meeting in Berkeley. The resolution directed general managers of all 5 Pacifica signals to assess their stations’ current financial situation within a week, and if a station were on budget, there would be no need for cuts.
Saturday’s LSB meeting was under-quorum by one vote, after Rosenberg and her 6 colleagues walked out. With the budget’s approval due that day, and no guarantee of further extensions, the remaining 12 board members voted unanimously to approve the budget. A provision of Roberts’ Rules of Order allowed the members present to act without a quorum on any urgent or important matter, and then seek ratification at a later meeting.
Without an approved budget, Rosenberg could use her position as Pacifica treasurer to draw a budget up for KPFA — and impose layoffs that way. While chairing Pacifica’s Finance Committee, she led a new charge to get Pacifica to impose massive staff cuts on KPFA and other stations.
KPFA is projected to end the current fiscal year with a surplus, so its 2012/2013 budget contained no staff cuts. The station’s budget was calculated according to guidelines in a resolution, authored by KPFA delegate Dan Siegel and overwhelmingly passed in late July at Pacifica‘s National Board meeting in Berkeley. The resolution directed general managers of all 5 Pacifica signals to assess their stations’ current financial situation within a week, and if a station were on budget, there would be no need for cuts.
Saturday’s LSB meeting was under-quorum by one vote, after Rosenberg and her 6 colleagues walked out. With the budget’s approval due that day, and no guarantee of further extensions, the remaining 12 board members voted unanimously to approve the budget. A provision of Roberts’ Rules of Order allowed the members present to act without a quorum on any urgent or important matter, and then seek ratification at a later meeting.
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http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/08/04/18718871.php
Either way, it was arrogant and unnecessary. This kind of juvenile behavior doesn't belong on any nonprofit board, but especially one that is treasured by the community and trying to work its way out of a crisis.
And it's a crisis caused by these people. Don't vote for them or their friends in the next round.
For some sanity, see http://www.SaveKPFA.org.
KPFA got close to a financial insolvency in the fall of 2010 because the board was not paying careful attention to the budget as the economy tanked between 2007 and 2010. I do not think we want to repeat that.
The board was handed the budget on the evening before the meeting which did not give us any time for review, so some of us asked the Chair to reschedule the meeting until we had sufficient time to review the budget. I think we owe our listener constituents a careful review of the budget.
One can only shake one's head.
Statement from Independents For Community Radio on August 4th KPFA LSB Meeting
To our friends at KPFA:
We are writing to express our disappointment at being unable to attend the scheduled August 4th KPFA Local Station Board meeting. The primary item on the meeting agenda was the board discussion and vote on the 2013 KPFA budget.
The budget draft was sent to the local station board at 5:09 pm on Friday August 3rd. The backup material needed for the review was sent at 6:10pm on Friday August 3rd.
The local board can't do a substantive budget review when members are given less than 16 hours to read the document before voting on it. The members of Independents for Community Radio ask the rest of the KPFA local board to responsibly exercise financial oversight by scheduling a special board meeting immediately for a comprehensive budget discussion and vote before the end of the month of August.
We will support the rest of the board in requesting an extension from Pacifica's Finance Committee to allow the board to schedule the meeting prior to the end of the month. An extension request is in effect until August 14th. The original deadline for local station boards to forward approved budgets was July 31, 2012.
The current response from the chair of the KPFA Local Station Board is that it isn't possible to schedule a special meeting for budget review because not enough members of the board allied with the Save KPFA faction can attend such a special meeting.
We ask the board to put aside such concerns and enable the board to review the documents for 3-5 days prior to attending a board budget discussion and vote. Rushing to push forward a document without adequate time to review it is an irresponsible practice and one we cannot endorse.
Anthony Fest Cynthia Johnson Janet Kobren Henry Norr Tracy Rosenberg Aki Tanaka Kate Tanaka
WBAI's board is meeting tonight, having only gotten their budget very late last night too. Unfortunately, having to scramble to come up with a plan at local stations is necessary since the people at Pacifica national (whose contracts were not renewed) and the PNB's treasurer didn't do their jobs and make any viable plans. Their performance was sorely lacking at the last PNB meeting.
This has happened far too often, by one or more unbalanced budgets being presented at the last minute, under time pressure for their approval, by Save KPFA/Concerned Listener treasurer Brian Edwards-Tiekert for one, with the result that our station's finances were run into the ground.
Our People's Radio/ICR representatives also allowed this to happen.
That's why I'm totally supportive of these folks now insisting, correctly, on adequate time to review and discuss the budget proposal.
No way do I want any more irresponsible budgets to jeopardize the existence of our beloved station and irreplaceable network.
Please make sure you join KPFA or renew your membership as soon as possible, so you can vote these irresponsible and/or calculating destroyers out of office this fall.
Current, a public media blog: Pacifica budget cuts delayed
http://www.current.org/2012/08/pacifica-budget-cuts-delayed/
Surprising developments at the PNB meeting in Berkeley
http://www.savekpfa.org/surprising-developments-at-the-pacifica-national-board-meeting
Pacifica’s long-awaited audit shows where the money goes
http://www.savekpfa.org/pacificas-long-awaited-audit-shows-where-the-money-goes
Pacifica demanding $1 million from stations to fix network’s financial problems:
http://www.savekpfa.org/pacifica-demanding-1-million-from-stations-to-fix-networks-financial-problems
Rosenberg supporters withdraw support:
http://www.savekpfa.org/recall-endorsers-pro-and-con
Rosenberg sues over KPFA recall, ballot count delayed:
http://www.savekpfa.org/rosenberg-sues-over-recall-ballot-count-delayed
There's a Difference Between a Balance Sheet and an Income Statement
by Accountant
Sunday Aug 12th, 2012 8:31 AM
You need to understand how to read a balance sheet and the difference between that and an income statement. KPFA's division of the Pacifica Foundation includes the value of a property on Martin Luther King Jr Way that is worth some money. It's not liquid money and you can'y pay your bills with it unless you borrow against it. KPFA has no other cash reserves at this time and isn't remotely rich having squandered a million dollars between 2008 and 2010 and now having very few assets beyond the building that houses it and a few hundred thousand at the SF Foundation reserved for capital expenses (which should be used to renovate the abandoned restaurant at 1921 MLK. It's an eyesore and you don't let your property deteriorate for a decade).
WBAI doesn't own a building so obviously when they run a deficit, there is nothing to offset their net worth against. They don't really have one besides some radio equipment, most of which has depreciated into financial irrelevance.
The reality is that Pacifica does not declare the value of the radio licenses themselves as an asset, and in so doing they obscure the reality that they are worth millions and millions of dollars, and WBAI is the most valuable asset of them all. The mission of the organization is not the speculative sale of radio licenses so the accounting does not reflect that, but that is the financial reality.
Not liquid, bad cash flow, operating expenses that exceed revenues, but tremendous assets of great value. If we want to keep them then the operating expenses need to come into balance.
-- and I would add to the above: http://www.supportkpfa.org , http://danielborgstrom.com , http://www.stopthekpfarecall.org