Why We Endorse Concerned Listeners

The "Concerned" Listeners have brought us a $300,000 debt, a mandate to fire this reactionary Local Station Board majority, and their equally reactionary lackeys at the station promoting just another bourgeois radio station with no labor coverage on Labor Day and no regular daily labor programming, among many other things lacking. This hit piece is clearly on the wrong website and is an insult to anyone's intelligence. NO ONE IS CONFUSED ABOUT HOW TO VOTE. It is obvious that the "Concerned" Listeners thugs destroying KPFA have to go and so do their lackeys at the station.
Here is more on the horrors of the "Concerned" Listeners:
1. Dan Siegel
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/06/18621084.php

2. Conn Hallinan
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/20/18622611.php

3. Brian Edwards Tiekert
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/issue/2009-09-10/article/33708?headline=KPFA-Let-s-Get-Real

By far the best candidate is STEVE ZELTZER. His decades of labor journalism and knowledge of KPFA’s problems demonstrates his superior qualifications. He is running on a slate with JAIME CADER. See their website,
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/index.htm
and their statements at
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/candidates.htm#JC

His statement on lack of labor programming at KPFA on Labor Day and all other times is at
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/others/sashalilley.htm
and
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/08/18621303.php

At
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/07/18621104.php
there is more information, in particular, Steve Zeltzer speaks on a short video at:
http://www.blip.tv/file/2567220

The endorsers of the Voices for Justice slate are at
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/endorsers.htm
and are
Cindy Sheehan, Anti-war activist
Matt Gonzalez, Former president SF Board of Supervisors
Cynthia McKinney, Former Congresswoman
Gayle McLaughlin, Mayor of City of Richmond, California
Peace and Freedom Party California
Green Party of Contra Costa County Council
San Francisco Bayview Newspaper
Mary And Willie Radcliff, Publisher, San Francisco Bayview Newspaper
Gray Brechin, UCB Geography Department and Author "Imperial San Francisco"
Genoveva Calloway, Vice-Mayor, City of San Pablo
Jovanka Beckles, The Richmond Planning Commission
Education Not Incarceration, SF Chapter
Idriss Stelley Action and Resource Center (ISARC)
Trent Willis, Vice President ILWU Local 10
Clarence Thomas, Former ILWU Local 10 Secretary Treasurer
Francisco De Costa, Executive Director of Enviromental Justice Advocacy San Francisco
Roger Scott, Past President AFT 2121, Professor San Francisco City College
Bill Carpenter, Professor, San Francisco City College, Videographer
Todd Davies, Lecturer, Stanford University (endorsing Steve Zeltzer only)
Rick Hauptman, Chair, North Mission Neighborhood Alliance
Mary Ellen Churchill, Videographer and media activist
Lotus Fong, Community Activist
Philip Santos, Musician, member of American Federation of Musicians
Ralph Schoenman, Co-Producer Taking Aim
Cynthia Servetnick, Member IFPTE Local 21, Save the Laguna Street Campus
Lisa Milos, UCSF CWA-UPTE Member
Mary Ann Ring, UCSF CUE 9 Delegate
Russ Miyashiro, ILWU Local 34 Assistant Dispatcher
Brad Wiedmaier, SEIU UHW, Architectural Historian, 113 Steuart St. Labor Center Project
Jemahl Ämen
Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, Physician, Environmental Activist
Charles Smith, AFSCME 444 Chief Steward
Diane Brown, Member of United Teachers of Richmond, CTA/NEA and Progressive Teachers Caucus of Richmond
Riva Enteen, former Chair KPFA Local Station Board
JR Valery, Producer of the Black Report (endorsing Steve Zeltzer only)
Skip Charbonneau, member SEIU 1000
Regina Carey, Community Activist Marin County
Organizations after the names are identification only

People’s Radio also has good candidates at:
http://peoplesradio.net/election2009.htm

People’s Radio candidates are GERALD SANDERS, STAN WOODS, RICHARD PHELPS AND JIM CURTIS
Their endorsers are
Michael Parenti – Author & lecturer
The Peace & Freedom Party of California
The Petaluma Progressives
The Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance
Tony Sustak - Treasurer of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), former Richmond Greens leader, community activist
Jack Heyman – ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member rank & file organizer
Clarence Thomas - ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member
Robert Knight - WBAI & KPFA newscaster, of the Knight Report on Flashpoints
Bonnie Faulkner - Host of Guns & Butter, KPFA
Miguel "Gavilan" Molina - Host of Flashpoints, La Honda Bajita
Francisco Herrera – Musician, KPFA Flashpoints contributor
David Janda - KBBF, member of Voces Cruzando Fronteras, photogapher
Daniel Borgstrom - Author, former Marine against the war, KPFA activist, author http://www.danielborgstrom.com
Anthony Fest - KPFA newscaster, staff rep to LSB -endorsing all People's Radio candidates individually
Henry Norr - KPFA LSB* -endorsing all People's Radio candidates individually
Joe Wanzala - vice chair of the PNB* -endorsing all People's Radio candidates individually

HENRY NORR is also a candidate and his statement, along with all other candidate statements may be found at
http://pacificafoundation.org/cand_list.php

Recap: Good candidates are STEVE ZELTZER, JAIME CADER, GERALD SANDERS, STAN WOODS, RICHARD PHELPS, JIM CURTIS, HENRY NORR.
If you allow Concerned Listeners to prevail as they do now on the Local Station Board, THERE WILL BE NO KPFA. We do not need another NPR, better known as National Petroleum Radio. Concerned Listeners have caused KPFA to be almost destroyed, with the following occurring:
1. $300,000 debt;
2. Police being allowed on the premises to viciously beat up, hot-tie and falsely arrest an outstanding African-American volunteer programmer of many years, Nadra Foster, for no good reason whatsoever;
3. No labor programming on Labor Day and the only labor programming otherwise is 20 minutes on Wednesday morning, grossly insufficient in this Great Depression;
4. Refusing to allow the excellent 9/11 Truth/capitalist crisis expose Guns & Butter alternate with Taking Aim, a similar program broadcast on WBAI although produced locally, as Guns & Butter wishes to have this arrangement;
5. Practically no local programming, the only way the station can have grassroots support.
6. Refusal to comply with the Voices for Justice 11 point program at
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/program.htm
and the 10 point program of Peoples Radio at
http://peoplesradio.net/index.htm

Now is the time to get off the dime. The only reason Concerned Listeners won a majority last time is because not enough supporters of Voices for Justice and People's Radio voted. In these elections, there is always barely enough to constitute a quorum. If you are a subscriber, you obviously care, and voting is very easy. You have to act to get anything done; you cannot just sit there and do nothing. Here are the good candidates again:
STEVE ZELTZER, JAIME CADER, GERALD SANDERS, STAN WOODS, RICHARD PHELPS, JIM CURTIS, HENRY NORR

THE PACIFICA FINANCIAL CRISIS!
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Former WBAI management did not pay their rent for four months and received a Three Day Notice to pay or be subject to eviction in March of 2009. This was not promptly communicated to the financial or executive management of Pacifica. WBAI has been losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for several years and currently owes Pacifica over $1,100,000.00 in back central services contributions. Each station contributes 20% of its listener-generated revenue to run the Foundation. When one station isn’t making its contribution the results are that the Foundation is short on money or the other stations have to pay more. This several year problem at WBAI and the current economic downturn has caused serious financial problems for Pacifica. The current Pacifica National Board (PNB), elected in January, gives hope for the survival of Pacifica.

Why didn’t Pacifica correct this problem early on? There was collusion among some PNB members from various stations to allow WBAI to do what they wanted to do with no oversight or accountability to the Bylaws or the listener/subscribers. The major players in this collusion were from KPFA, WBAI and WPFW, with a vote or two from KPFK and KPFT and the affiliate Reps on the PNB.

The Local Station Board (LSB) majorities at KPFA and WBAI generally elected three PNB members that supported this collusion and WPFW, until recently, often sent four. There are 22 members of the PNB, four from each station and two Affiliate Representatives. An LSB majority can elect three of the four PNB members for their station. With ten votes from KPFA, WBAI and WPFW it only takes three votes from the ten from the other two stations and affiliate reps to have a majority to control the PNB and continue this collusion. Until this last January the Colluders had the majority for several years.

Who are the Colluders and why did they do this? Local tyrannical majorities wanted to run their stations without regard to the Bylaws and with no oversight from the Foundation. At KPFA the “KPFAForward” (2004) and “Concerned Listener” (CL) (2006 & 2007) slates represented the same management/staff faction and generally endorsed majorities that sent three PNB members who consistently voted to protect and continue the collusion. This group included William Walker, Sarv Randhawa, Rosalinda Palacios, Mary Berg, Sherry Gendelman, Bonnie Simmons and Andrea Turner. They consistently vote/voted with the Justice & Unity majority from WBAI and the WPFW majority. They generally sit together at the PNB meetings and are regularly seen privately caucusing together at lunch and before and after meetings sometimes, with GM Lemlem Rijio when in Berkeley.

Prior to this year’s PNB, Bob Lederer was the Justice & Unity leader on the PNB. I have attended many PNB meetings and listened to most of the others on line. During those meetings if KPFA Colluder PNB members were not sure how to vote they often passed if Bob Lederer hadn’t voted or passed. When he voted they would follow. If you don’t believe me go to the archives of the meetings and listen. Rosalinda Palacios (2006) was especially consistent with following Lederer’s votes.

Whenever there was a move to correct the problems at WBAI the KPFA Colluders always voted with the others to protect the LSB majority at WBAI. Patty Heffley, the minority PNB Rep from WBAI, made a motion to have the PNB order the WBAI LSB to do a performance review of the general manager (GM) and the program director. The Bylaws require these to be done annually. At WBAI they had never been done, despite complaints from the LSB minority. The PNB Colluder majority refused to order the WBAI LSB to follow the Bylaws. Many others complained about WBAI being out of control and losing money and the Colluder PNB majority did NOTHING as the red ink continued to flow.

At KPFA the CL slate and the Rijio/Lilley management work together to make sure they maintain a majority on the LSB to elect three PNB members from their group. One of their methods was to have no election information on the air when the ballots went out and at the same time the CL sent a slate mailer. After the first time this happened I wrote a motion on the PNB Election Committee requiring election information to be on the air during the election. It passed out of the election committee by a 10-2 vote. The Colluder majority on the PNB voted it down. When they finally ran some candidate information they ran 22 candidate statements in a row, always with Sherry Gendelman first! At the April 2009 PNB meeting in Berkeley the new non-Colluder PNB majority passed a motion requiring broad election coverage on the air. Bonnie Simmons, CL endorser, made a motion to rescind the required election coverage. It didn’t pass. And we will have a more inclusive election this year. No thanks to CL and its allies.

The Colluder majority was consistently against transparency. The Bylaws and California law allow Directors, PNB members, the “absolute right” to inspect all documents and facilities at any reasonable time. For years the Colluders fought to stop or hinder Directors’ Inspections. When inspections were finally allowed due to potential lawsuits it was discovered that $65,000 worth of equipment had been sent to a WBAI former GM’s father’s house and was not accounted for. As recently as 2008 a Director was ordered out of WBAI in the middle of a lawful inspection without any justification. Who gave the order? Dan Siegel, interim Executive Director, hired by the Colluder majority.

So when you hear Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Sherry Gendelman, Bonnie Simmons, Conn or Matthew Hallinan, Warren Mar or any of the CL allies complain about KPFA money going to shore up WBAI, they and their allies are responsible for this crisis for trading fiscal responsibility for their power to ignore the Bylaws, transparency and accountability.

To save Pacifica we must vote out the CL Colluders in the next election so they will not be able to send three Colluders to the PNB to ignore the Bylaws and progressive principles in favor of uncontrolled tyranny of the local majorities. KPFA is a Commons that belongs to all of us, and it must be protected and preserved above the CL/Rijio group’s desire for unrestrained and unaccountable power.

Vote http://www.peoplesradio.net candidates, Richard Phelps, Stan Woods, Gerald Sanders, and Jim Curtis. The people that have always brought you the truth about what is going on behind the microphone.

Richard Phelps, former Chair, KPFA LSB

KPFA: TEN YEARS AFTER THE 1999 HIJACK ATTEMPT

After mass listener support rescued KPFA and the Pacifica Foundation from a self appointed Pacifica National Board (PNB) that was planning to sell KPFA or one of the other stations and take the “community” out of the network, new democratic Bylaws were written and adopted. The Bylaws process was long and difficult and like all new progressive ideas on governance they aren’t perfect. Neither is the U.S. Constitution, which has 27 amendments and still needs some major work. You can read the Bylaws at http://www.pacifica.org/governance/PacificaBylaws-new.html . Pacifica’s Bylaws state a commitment for peace and social justice, Article One, Section 3. It seems inconceivable that peace and social justice can even be approached with out a democratic process with transparency and accountability. As Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

What has become clear, as Pacifica embarked on a new democratic path, is that everyone that fought the Hijackers didn’t do so for the same reason! Most listener activists and some staff supported the new democratic process and welcomed the involvement and input of the listener/subscribers who are the regular audience and the financial supporters of the station and Pacifica.

At KPFA some staff and their listener supporters sought to defeat the Hijackers so that they could control KPFA and make the decisions about who gets air time and jobs. This latter group has used the power of the stations progressive reputation and the power of the microphone to maintain control and frustrate the new Bylaws in many ways. The staff/ listener group I am referring to was identified by an e-mail from Brian Edwards-Tiekert to the other “insiders” that became public in 2005. You can read the e-mail at http://peoplesradio.net/Dismantle.htm. The author acknowledged its authenticity and the group now claims that it never met to discuss “dismantling the Local Station Board (LSB)”, aka the democratic process, or “how do we make our enemies own the problems that are to come?” The other members of this group were a mix of listeners, paid staff, unpaid staff and management in 2005, when the e-mail was written. Most have moved up in the power hierarchy: Lemlem Rijio, then Development Director, now General Manager; Sasha Lilley, then paid staff, now Interim Program Director appointed by Lemlem Rijio; Bonnie Simmons, then LSB staff representative, now PNB; Amelia Gonzalez-Garcia, then unpaid staff, now paid Director of Arts and Public Affairs; Sherry Gendelman, then Listener LSB, now PNB; Lisa Rothman, paid executive producer of the Morning Show, she had a beautiful baby and in 2006 left KPFA. This group has been supported by their electoral counter part, first called KPFAForward in the 2004 election and now Concerned Listeners (CL).

Let’s see what these folks have done to “dismantle the LSB”*. In 2003 the KPFA Program Council, made up of paid and unpaid staff and listeners, voted to move Democracy Now! (DN!) to Prime time, 7-8am and move the morning show to 8-10am. There had been significant listener demand/support for this time change and having worked several years in radio, AM & FM, I know the following, it is common practice and common sense to put your most popular/dynamic program in prime time. Lisa Rothman didn’t want “her” program moved from “its” prime time position and her allies in the control group made sure it didn’t happen.

In May 2004 the LSB voted to move DN! to prime time as per the Program Council’s prior vote and set up a protocol on how to deal with program changes with management and the Program Council. The new interim GM, Jim Bennett, refused to make the time change and ignored the LSB Resolution*. Dan Coughlin, the Executive Director (ED) of Pacifica, appointed Jim Bennett. Coughlin was an ally of the KPFA control group and worked closely with them to stifle transparency and Director’s Inspections of the financial records. Director’s Inspections are an “absolute right” given to Corporate Directors to facilitate their fiduciary responsibilities, California Corporations Code Section 6334 and Article 12, Section 3 of the Pacifica Bylaws. For more information on why the PNB allowed this to happen see my May 14, 2009 article http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-05-14/article/32873?headline=The-Pacifica-Financial-Crisis-Who-is-Responsible- .

In 2007 GM Lemlem Rijio and her appointed Interim Program Director, Sasha Lilley, quietly ended the Program Council after some months of describing it as “advisory.”* The LSB under CL majority control ignored the previous Resolution codifying the Program Council and did nothing to save the Program Council. The CL majority didn’t vote to overturn the prior resolution since that would have exposed their undemocratic nature. They just looked the other way.

In 2007 GM Rijio took away the official status of the Unpaid Staff Organization (UPSO)*. UPSO existed to represent the unpaid staff at KPFA, more than 200 people. These are the people who do the majority of the work that goes on the air. After a two-year struggle UPSO is now being recognized after a change in Pacifica leadership and a directive to GM Rijio to do so. See the May 14, 2009 BDP article for more details on the change in leadership.

The vote on UPSO recognition at the LSB in 2007 was one of the very few times the CL didn’t vote in lock step to support Rijio’s consolidation of power. However the few defections didn’t change anything since at that time they controlled the PNB in collusion with some others local tyrannical majorities. This collusion elected Sherry Gendelman Chair of the PNB in 2008 and she did nothing to change the UPSO denial by the KPFA GM. Only after a change in the PNB majority, with the CL collusion losing control did the new PNB Chair and Interim ED, Grace Aaron lean on the KPFA GM to reinstate the UPSO.

The CL slate literature for the 2006 and 2007 LSB elections was silent on the issues of the Program Council and the DN! move to prime time. http://www.PeoplesRadio.net and most listener activists have consistently supported a Program Council with listener participation and the DN! move to prime time.

In January of 2009 the CL LSB majority voted to meet only once every other month.* This despite the backlog of work to be done and how it effected the selection of LSB members to important PNB committees. All the stations elect the committee members in February. This year KPFA didn’t elect their committee representatives until March, despite my bringing this up to them during the January meeting before the vote to meet half as often and not in February.*

How has the CL maintained its slim majority on the LSB. Here are some of the dirty tricks they have used to dominate the elections. In 2006 and 2007 GM Rijio refused to allow any election information to be broadcast when the ballots were sent out. Rijio’s justification was that there was, coincidently, a fund drive in progress. Election information was broadcast during fund drives at other stations. Each year CL spent thousands of dollars and sent out a slate mailer to arrive with the ballots during the election black out imposed by their ally Rijio. To top that off, in 2007 when they finally did run some candidate carts, they ran all 22 at once and Sherry Gendelman was first. After the election there was only one news story on KPFA about the election. Interviewed were Sherry Gendelman, a CL candidate, Matthew Lasar, a CL endorser, and Dan Siegel and Larry Bensky both CL allies and supporters and both guilty of using station or Foundation resources to support CL or attack their opponents in violation of election ethics. No listener activist candidates were interviewed.

In the upcoming election there will be ample airtime for the election since the new PNB majority has resolved that it will be so. Bonnie Simmons a CL/Rijio group PNB member recently made a motion to rescind the Resolution to require ample airtime for the election. As of this writing her motion hasn’t been up for debate and vote. However it comes out, the CL/Rijio group’s desire to limit information about the election and the candidates is clear and stands in stark contrast of the Mission of Pacifica.

Over a year ago Rijio took the visible link to the LSB page off the front page of the KPFA web site and hid it under “ABOUT”*. They don’t announce the LSB meetings on the front page of the web site and often don’t announce them on the air as required by the Bylaws.


When they did the 60th anniversary celebration for KPFA and Pacifica this year they held a $300 dinner. I support having fundraisers and there also should have been a celebration open to the majority of our listeners. There was nothing official about the 10th anniversary of the struggle against the Hijackers, that brought 15,000 people to a rally and ended with new democratic Bylaws.

What is clear from the actions described above is that the CL/Rijio/Lilley regime has sought to eliminate democratic centers of power at the station and reduce listener input and concentrate power and control in their hands contrary to the Bylaws. At a LSB meeting in 2007 Rijio referred to the Bylaws when addressing the LSB as “your” Bylaws. Sasha Lilley has also made comments attacking the Bylaws.

“Our leadership elite may still want to believe in democratic principles-they certainly profess that they do-but in practice they have shown themselves all too willing to violate those principles in order to gain or retain power”, Cornel West from his book Democracy Matters. And if democracy matters for you, it is time for a new majority on the KPFA LSB.

Vote for people with a consistent history of support for democratic process, transparency and accountability. Do not vote for any Concerned Listener candidates or anyone they endorse. Vote for http://www.PeoplesRadio.net candidates.

Richard Phelps, former Chair, KPFA LSB, 35 year listener/subscriber, former AM & FM radio announcer.

HAVING DAN SIEGEL AS THEIR PRIME NEW CANDIDIATE DEMONSTRATES EXACTLY WHERE CONCERNED LISTENERS ARE COMING FROM!

CL praises Dan Siegel on their web site for having served “… briefly as interim executive director in 2007 and 2008.” Let’s look at some of the things Siegel did while in this position to see if he is being praised by CL for the kind of work you want in democratic governance, or for factional bias in favor of CL.

It is a long-standing principle in Pacifica that Foundation and station management and staff may not use Foundation resources to campaign for or against candidates for listener delegate. This makes sense if you want fair elections and it is codified at Article Four, Section 6 of Pacifica’s Bylaws. It is also made clear in the Bylaws that the elections are to run by a National Election Supervisor who is independent of Foundation and station management, Article Four, Section 4 A.

In the 2007 election Peoplesradio wrote a political criticism of the Concerned Listener Management Group with their seven candidate statements in a serial fashion in an attempt to educate the voters as to what was going on behind the microphone at the station. Trying to stop this exposure of CL’s folks’ dirty laundry, Siegel, as Interim Executive Director, and close friend and ally of CL and now a candidate on their slate, took the PeoplesRadio statements off the web site and posted a letter condemning their criticism without quoting any specific statement that was defamatory or a personal attack. Siegel’s statement is attached along with his original Candidate Statement for 2009.

The CL major campaign statement on their web site this year is partly a reply to much of what PeoplesRadio criticized CL for with their 2007 candidate statements. Previously CL had taken NO position in writing on the Program Council issue, which we pointed out. Now they are for an advisory one. We criticized the closing down of the of the Unpaid Staff Organization by CL friend's in station management. They responded to our "calls for action" analysis and many other issues we raised in 2007. Their response then was to have their ally, Dan Siegel, take down our statements from the web site and write the fact less attack letter below.

Gregory Wonderwheel, an attorney with a long history of Pacifica involvement and knowledge of the Bylaws, wrote a condemnation of Siegel’s action. Some of it is quoted here:

Frankly by criticizing campaign statements and removing them form the website, I'm truly amazed that you would take a position so diametrically opposed to the First Amendment. As the Interim Executive Director (IED) of Pacifica Foundation with the grandest tradition of free speech in the United States, your anti-free speech attitude is shameful and demeaning to the Pacifica community and a stain on the Pacifica tradition.

You ask, "Is this type of rhetoric acceptable?" but you don't give even a single example of the rhetoric you are condemning. Thus you are not engaging in debate. You are attempting to stifle debate by presenting your opinion alone.

You allege that the KPFA candidate statements "contain little more than personal attacks on their opponents." By offering your personal conclusion and by not offering a single example, you are unduly attempting to influence the election…

Now, you allege that campaigning against opponents by pointing out the opponents words and deeds is a "personal attack." This Orwellian definition of personal attack is simply a Republican tactic at preventing debate. Nothing in the campaign statements that you object to contained personal attack.

Providing information to listeners that they would not be able to get otherwise is not a personal attack. Providing the electors with the text of an email that advocates, "dismantling the LSB" is not a personal attack. If anything is a personal attack it is your false characterization of political debate, which falsely attacks the character of the candidates.

Criticizing Sasha Lilly, the Interim Program Director, for telling programmers they couldn't encourage people to attend peace marches is not a personal attack. Criticizing Sherry Gendleman, an LSB member and candidate for reelection, for being against elected boards and against program council empowerment is not a personal attack. These are all fair political issues.

Additionally, your actions are a blatant example of prejudice and favoritism since you are attempting to support and defend particular candidates against political criticism. Your duty was and is to remain
neutral and to keep the appearance of impartiality in the election. You have violated this duty.

As a community and progressive organization that supports free speech we must ask ourselves whether your type of unilateral dictatorial censorship is acceptable. Pacifica has important challengers and it can only meet this challenge if robust political debate is allowed within the organization.

Free speech is established in our nation exactly to prevent petty tyrants from applying their personal definitions. What you label "toxic" debate is actually the first real debate in the new democratic structure of Pacifica. You may call the light of debate "toxic", but in this case it is only toxic to the infection that hides in the dark. (Emphasis added.)


In February 2008 Carolyn Birden, a Pacifica Director, made arrangements with WBAI staff to do a Director’s Inspection on a regular business day during regular hours. She was exercising her fiduciary responsibility as a Director to try to understand and remedy the huge financial losses at WBAI. Her Inspection went along fine for the first 45 minutes until a Justice and Unity ally called Dan Siegel to tell him about the inspection. Siegel, as IED, called the station and ordered the staff to stop the inspection and escort Director Birden out of the station and not to allow her to keep copies of any documents. Siegel’s interfering with a Director’s Inspection was in direct violation of Pacifica’s Bylaws: Article 12, Section 3:

“Every Director, or his or her assigned agent, shall have the absolute right at any reasonable time to inspect and copy all of the Foundation’s books, records and documents of every kind and to inspect the physical properties of the Foundation.” (Emphasis added.)

This is also stated in the California Corporation Code, Section 6334. Siegel knew the law and the Bylaws. Siegel did just as he did with the 2007 election issues above, he intentional used and abused the power he had to protect and support his faction despite having a duty to protect and serve the Pacifica Foundation and to follow and enforce the Bylaws and the laws of California.

Do you want a person who has demonstrated that he will abuse his power and authority and put his faction above Pacifica and fair elections, to be making policy on the KPFA Local Station Board? Concerned Listeners claim to be for transparency and yet they didn’t condemn Siegel’s unlawful interference with a fundamental part of Foundation transparency, Director’s Inspections. Concerned Listeners claim to be for fair and inclusive elections and yet they actually defended Siegel’s 2007 attack on free political debate.

As a candidate this year, Siegel defamed the current Pacifica management in his initial Candidate Statement by accusing them of “ethnic cleansing” when in fact all the people of color that were replaced for failing to stop the red ink at WBAI and around the Foundation, were replaced by people of color. Why do Siegel and CL forget to mention this most important fact? Siegel was ordered to delete his defamatory, raced card comment by the National Election Supervisor.

Since it is proper to conclude that CL endorses Siegel’s unprincipled and unlawful conduct described above, by putting Siegel on their slate, in the upper left position on their mailer, thus ranking him first, I ask you not to vote for any CL candidates regardless of what they promise and who endorses them. Did they tell their endorses what Siegel did? It is most important to judge people by what they have done not what they say they will do. Talk is cheap and past actions are the true test of what people actually believe and are likely to do in the future.

PeoplesRadio has always fought for transparency, fair elections and real democratic process for KPFA/Pacifica governance. Check out our website, http://www.peopleradio.net , to see what we stand for and have worked for and why you should vote for me, Stan Woods, Gerald Sanders and Jim Curtis.

Richard Phelps, former Chair KPFA LSB. 9-12-09
_____________________________________________

Here is Siegel's 2007 letter referred to above with NO specific examples of any wrong doing by candidates that opposed Concerned Listeners. I am sorry that I don't have an electronic copy of his first candidate statement which was changed by order of the National Election Supervisor, deleting "ethnic cleansing".



An Open Letter to the Pacifica Community From Dan Siegel, Interim Executive Director October 24, 2007

Dear Friends, Pacifica’s local station board elections have taken a particularly nasty turn. A group of candidates running for the KPFA local board have issued statements that contain little more than personal attacks on their opponents and station staff. A candidate at WBAI engages in blatant race-baiting.

As a community and a progressive organization we must ask ourselves whether this type of rhetoric is acceptable. Pacifica has important challenges. We live in a nation whose leaders wage unjust and unpopular wars around the globe, attack our civil rights and liberties, oppose efforts to achieve racial justice and equality for all people, and pursue policies that widen the gap between rich and poor.

The often toxic debate within Pacifica restricts our ability to respond to these issues, saps the morale of our hard-working and underpaid staff, and discourages people of good will from participating in our organization.

Many people are now calling for administrative and legal responses to abusive candidate speech. We are reviewing our options, but libel laws, difficulties in distinguishing between reasonable criticism and “personal attacks” (as well as deciding who should be empowered to make such judgments), and Pacifica’s tradition of support for free speech make such measures problematic.

In the end, Pacifica’s members will decide whether hate speech and hateful speech will be tolerated in our community. We need leaders who will work to improve our programming, broaden our listener base, and attract needed financial support.

I urge all of you to carefully review the candidate statements and to cast your ballots for candidates who reflect both your views on how this organization should be run and your values on how democratic debate should occur in a progressive organization that reflects the diversity of our society.

Dan Siegel
Interim Executive Director Pacifica Foundation

The $300,000 was the cost of Dennis Bernstein's alleged harrasment of Noelle Hanrahan.
Let's be clear as progressives to lay the blame where it rightly belongs.
Dan Siegel did not harass Noelle Hanrahan.
Jim Bennett did not harass Noelle Hanrahan.
Those attacking Dan Siegel now also attacked the women who alleged Roy Campanella harassed them.
Apparently Campanella has more honor the Dennis Bernstein who calls out the yappy dogs to fight his battles for him every time he causes trouble for himself. At least Campanella left and spared those around him any more indignity.

I only wish Seigel hadn't been forced to actually DEFEND La Dennis. Now I hear Dennis is suing to be PAID by Pacifica for his harassment troubles.