Pacifica--to be mortgaged

The PNB must postpone the vote on the loan currently scheduled for today (8pm Eastern)



Today, the future of a significant percentage of the foundation's listener funded (and improved) hard assets is about to be mortgaged by a $1,000,000 loan signed with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on a 30 year note collateralized on KPFK's station building in LA.

I and the other listeners at the KPFK LSB meeting last night found out that a vote to approve the loan is scheduled to take place during today's PNB meeting at 8 pm (Eastern).

This loan, and other 'emergency measures' proposed behind PNB and Pacifica national office closed doors must be prevented!

According to the PNB's website, today's scheduled PNB meeting will be streamed over the internet. Does anyone on the list know if this is true?
http://www.pacificafoundation.org/pnb/component/option,com_events/task,view_detail/agid,212/year,2008/month,12/day,07/Itemid,48/

Also unknown publicly until last night, a local LSB member, Steve Wheatherwax, had the courage (and sense of responsibility) to report information from Pacifica PNB Chair and interim ED, Sherry Gendelman, that the PNB had already submitted a signed loan application through the funding institution and that the loan has already been approved by the bank.

What was clearly concluded by all in attendance at last night's nearly dysfunctional LSB meeting is that information about the most important issues this network could face is intentionally and systematically not being communicated adequately by the PNB to Pacifica's LSB members and especially to its listeners.

At the KPFK LSB meeting, one sole PNB member, Margaret Prescod, who before having to leave early to interview Mumia Abu-Jamal (thereby preventing her from being able to vote on the important LSB motion that was finally forged at the end of a rancorous and nearly sabotaged meeting) emphatically and unambiguously expressed her postion against the so-called solutions to Pacifica's financial problems being taken or promoted by the national board and other powerful people in the Pacifica chain.

Today's PNB meeting SHOULD BE CANCELLED ALONG WITH THE VOTE ON THE LOAN until Pacifica's listeners can be brought into the discussion of this loan and other suggested methods of 'solving' Pacifica's being conducted by arrogant and unaccountable Pacifica board members and Pacifica staff behind closed dooos, private phone calls and private email lists/chat rooms.

It's not enough to be streaming the PNB programs on the internet, at this moment, Sherry Gendelman should immediately order all five station managers to schedule a Pacifica PNB report to all five listenerships, with call-ins from LSB members around the network. This program must be simulcast on all five stations.

Establishing only a single email inbox for each board prevents listeners (but not Pacifica's elite) from lobbying PNB and LSB members selectively and privately.

One of the dozens of issues I neglected to bring up yesterday in the KPFK LSB meeting was to propose LSB motions and a PNB motion Pacifica's bylaws be amended to require all PNB and LSB members to publish their personal email addresses (established for that purpose on yahoo mail or gmail for example) on the PNB and webpages.

Anyone who assumes to have authority over this foundation and network of listener-funded stations should be directly and individually accountable to those who pay for the continued existance of the network.

The bylaws amendment should also require a generic telephone voice mailbox numbers for the PNB and LSBs to receive listener calls and leave their opinions on issues being considered (more often railroaded).

The fact that ONLY Pacifica's insiders and elite have direct (and private!) communication with those individuals who have power to dispense with listener-sponsor's funds is the most blatant example of intended and purposeful inequity in the Pacifica chain.

Please take immediate action to force the PNB to postpone the vote for this completely ill advised and stupid loan and to force this process out in to the open.

Jonathan Markowitz