Issues In The 2009 KPFA Election-Transparency and A Plan To Rebuild Listenership

Issues In The 2009 KPFA Election-Transparency and A Plan To Rebuild Listenership

The Voices For Justice Radio slate has raised some key issues in the election such as a listener controlled Program Council to decide on new programming, collaborative regional programming between KPFA and KPFK and the establishment of a network of Pacifica and affiliate producers to develop national and regional programming on issues such as war, healthcare, labor, housing and the many communities in the US including Black, Latino, Asian, American Indian, Middle Eastern. We also support more programming for Labor community, Black community and LBGT at KPFA. Simply making structural changes such as re-establishing the program council without having a vision and perspective on how to rebuild our audience and connecting with the tens of millions of people in the United States who are looking for a voice is not a real solution to the crisis.

We believe that we need regular national days of programming on these issues that ties the network together and also develops a real national and international network. Part of this also requires transparency. Although the foundation has a budget of over $14 million dollars which actually is not a large amount for a national network of stations there are major costs that have harmed the Foundation. Large financial settlements for suits due to incompetent management and the lack of staff policies is critical. At KFPA despite the expenditure of thousands of dollars by the station management, they still have not produced a manual for the staff paid and unpaid.
While the paid staff are represented by a union, the unpaid staff which produces the majority of programming do not have a fair and just procedure to adjudicate grievances and other issues.

The VFJR slate also believes that there is an increasing use of larger and larger amounts of money in Pacifica elections without transparency and control. Slates particularly in New York, Los Angeles and the Bay Area have spent many thousands of dollars sending out mailers and even offering free "gifts" in an obviously blatant effort to buy votes.
VFJR believes that there need to be real controls and transparency on who and how much money is being contributed in election campaigns in Pacifica regardless of which slate or faction is spending these large amounts of money. Our own view is that there needs to be equal and fair election rules for all candidates and there should be the equal rights to reach out to all the members of the Pacifica Foundation.
We call on all other candidates and slates to support transparency in the election process and support the growing role of large funders in all Pacifica elections.
Voices For Justice Radio http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org
info(at)voicesforjusticeradio.org