Rosenberg faction walks out of LSB meeting in attempt to spike budget

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.