Peter Phillips on the KPFA Elections

How does being a Gaza Flotilla survivor qualify one for the KPFA LSB??? If so then shouldn't they all be running for the board. Sometimes the "left" seems as shallow as the right.

Janet Kobren has been on several boards, has done financial analysis, knows something about media specifically as a website creator, is a former teacher among other things. She is an excellent negotiator and listener. All these roles make her supremely qualified for the board. The fact that she had the courage to join the flotilla should also mean something to KPFA members.

I encourage you to meet with Janet and ask her questions yourself.

The next KPFA community forum is September 9th in Oakland at the Black Dot Cafe.

On-air forums will be NEXT WEEK: Tuesday Aug 31, Wednesday Sept 1, and Thurs Sept 2 between 2-4 pm on KPFA 94.1 fm.

I would rather see someone on the Board who has shown the courage to fight for justice instead of someone whose qualification seems to be attendance at the monthly meeting of the Wellstone Democractic Renewal Club at the Humanist Hall.

I've been to both KPFA and Wellstone meetings, and Wellstone functions much better than the KPFA board (if you were to say that the KPFA board "functions"). The Wellstone meetings are fun, well attended, productive, interesting, inspiring, and friendly. But the KPFA board meetings are nasty, almost completely unattended, boring, pompous, and unproductive. The KPFA board would do well to adopt some of the Wellstone culture if it wants to be successful.

If what you really want to do is replace Richard Pombo with Jerry Mcnerney - sure, do the Wellstone thing

If you what you really want to do is mislead people about the beneficiaries of a fundraiser - sure, do the Humanist Hall thing

If what you really want to do is grapple with issues of substance about the role of radical, alternative media in the movement for social justice and a future for the planet ...

Don't do the Wellstone thing or the Humanist Hall thing.

It ain't happening there.

There's nothing pleasant or fun about throwing away a million dollars in less than a year. And that is what happened when Save KPFA controlled KPFA's board.

This idea that Humanist Hall "lied" about the beneficiaries of a fundraiser, is a smear. It was an honest mistake that was quickly corrected. Please stop saying this if you have any interest in functional communication.

If you are so concerned "with issues of substance", why do you waste energy on smears and why are you anonymous? Neither of these are very serious. They seem more like the idle acts of a malicious person trying to annoy people who really are serious. What do you do that makes you so serious and relevant that you can sneer at Wellstone and Humanist Hall?

How is it that saveKPFA "threw away a million dollars"? Did they "throw it away" by paying their people? Where exactly did it go? Do you consider that maybe, just maybe, all of this pointless election circus, which has nothing to do with supporting the station, might be a huge waste of time and money? KPFA is not a town where everybody has to weigh in. Listeners can vote with their dial fingers and their donation dollars.

Listeners voting with their dollars only was tried. Remember? The station was *this* close to being sold out right from under you. That is why the members were promoted from donors to owners.

If you have no idea where a million dollars "went" and you guys are so "ignorant" that you can't even tell the difference between a benefit that is for KPFA and a benefit that isn't, then why all the opinionating on behalf of your customers?

Opinions are a little more useful when you have some idea of what you are talking about.

Your friends the Wellstone Club - Concerned Listeners - Save KPFA had the majority on KPFA's board for two years. During those two years, they proposed and approved budgets calling for substantial staff layoffs to balance projected deficits.

Then they sat on their hands when the layoffs were not performed and the budgets were not followed and the projected deficits became very real and in fact, even bigger than anticipated.

So the deficits had to be covered with cold, hard cash. A million dollars of it. KPFA's entire cash reserve, entire bank account, every last dollar of savings. Blown in a year and a half. Out the door with nothing left behind.

Layoffs happened anyhow, as they had to. But now there is no cushion in the bank at all.

Very, very bad.

KPFA spent its surplus to avoid cutting into the functioning of the station, as it should. That's what a surplus is for. You think it is better to lay off staff with a million in the bank?

Yikes, doesn't sound like good nonprofit management to me. If this is what the Independents for Community Radio would do, they are the last people we'd want running KPFA.

Sounds like you want layoffs of paid staff for the sake of layoffs (axe to grind against someone on the staff, perhaps? C'mom Tracy, stop posting anonymously, be brave and just put your name out there! Gosh, it seems like the same 3 people are writing all these posts under different names, the same arguments over and over and over...)

Independents for Community Radio is for a radio station that is fully supported by subscribers who use listener sponsorship as means of supporting values that seem to them of basic and lasting importance.

Independents for Community Radio believe that the listener sponsorship is an answer to the practical problem of getting better radio programs and keeping them.

Independents for Community Radio is for a radio station where station policies and procedures for making programming decisions and for program evaluation are working in a fair, collaborative and respectful manner to provide quality programming.

Just out of curiosity:

How do you intend to keep KPFA operating? Really, I'd like to know. Under Save KPFA - Concerned Listeners, KPFA ran a deficit of $652,000 from October 2008 to October 2009. Under Save KPFA - Concerned Listeners, KPFA ran a deficit of $275,000 from October 2009 to March 2010.

Having run through the million dollar cash reserve, the layoffs then proceeded this spring, as was inevitable once the money ran out.

Now what?

You've got almost nothing in the bank. You're playing Democracy Now twice a day as a result of Amy Goodman's charity. KPFA has not paid the fees to broadcast the program.

And you're running from fund drive to fund drive, ducking creditors all the way.

That is your idea of sound financial management?

Save KPFA - Concerned Listeners has put the license in jeopardy.

Vote indyradio

http://www.voteindyradio.org

Otherwise KPFA might not be here for long.

The only plan Save KPFA - Concerned Listeners seems to have.... is bankruptcy.

They got you halfway there. The other half won't be pretty.

So Tracy,

Given that KPFA's finances went down on saveKPFA's watch, what would Indyradio have done differently?

My opinions are based more on personal experiences with many of the players over a long period of time. SaveKPFA people tend to treat me with respect and patience. You and some of your colleagues tend to treat me like dirt (see prior Tracy Rosenberg posts for good examples). BTW, I'm not sure what kind of political strategy you are employing here. Maybe I will be so impressed by your sadistic manner, that as a masochist I will vote for you and your side because I enjoy degradation? Clue me in because I really don't get what you are trying to achieve.

how do u save kpfa from save kpfa= the concerned listener who are ravaging the station? will u ask a pack of wold to watch over ur goat herd?

David,

Here are a few of my insights and experiences on the KPFA board where I am now serving my fourth year.

Concerned Listeners cum Save KPFA had the board majority for THREE of those years. During that time, they put into place incompetent management, oversaw the budget and allowed deficits that ran through the entire cash reserve, did away with the Unpaid Staff Organization as well as the Program Council. Somehow management "forgot" that there was a $375, 000 check, a donation from an estate that sat undeposited for over a year. It wasn't that forgotten, though, because it was reported to the board as deposited to a very specific bank account.

With the last election, Independents for Community Radio, became the majority voice on the board by one vote. When we wanted to hold the manager accountable for the lack of depositing the check, they -- Concerned Listeners now calling themselves Save KPFA -- protested mightily and loudly.

In the sort period of time that ICR has held a majority (a total of seven board meetings) we have managed to get that $375K check replaced. That took almost eight months of negotiating with the executor of the estate. We have reinstated the Program Council, which, by the way, is a requirement of our bylaws; the unpaid staff organization is once again a recognized unit at KPFA.

In addition, for the first time on the board, with a new treasurer who is a volunteer in the position and the CFO of a Bay Area software company, we are finally getting a clear picture of the true state of the station's finances.

No one on the board from ICR, or any of our candidates as far as I know, are calling for no paid staff. This is a false argument, and one of many, put up by CL/SKPFA. Certainly, some of the cash reserve would have been used by us to pay staff if we were the majority and IF WE HAD KNOWN, which we did not, the true state of the station's finances. However, I know that I would have been in favor of looking at the budget and ways of cutting costs before, rather than after, we totally ran out of money. During that same time frame, staff members of the ruling cabal were given new jobs and new programs with paid programmers were created. One two hour program that had an unpaid host turned into a 22 hour paid job for one of their members as well. I could go on with how costs were added and the selective manner in which that was done.

My problem with your endorsement of CL cum Save is that you did not educate yourself on any of this before making an endorsement. You did not come to us with some of the issues to hear what we had to say. Your endorsement included false advertising of an event that slate was putting on as a fundraiserfor themselves but billing it as for KPFA . It smacks a little of the "oops, silly me" mistake of the undeposited check. In a word, disingenuous.

Now let's get to your favorite slate's ***new*** name. SAVE KPFA was a group that stood for the very opposite of what your slate stands for. I was on the steering committee when it existed before and during the staff lookout of 1999. Changing the name is another disingenuous act and one that is misleading to voters.

Finally let's get to how pleasant you find these charming people. At just one board meeting this year, one of the members from your peaceful Wellstone friends and a KPFA board member as well, advanced on me yelling and shaking his finger during a meeting I was chairing. I thought he was going to hit me. Another of your peace-loving Concerned Listener/Save KPFA board members stood up with a raised hand over an elderly member of the audience. I thought he was going to hit the poor man and called an immediate break. During the break, three of your benign Concerned Listener/Wellstone/Save KPFA board members went over to another member of the public and invited him outside to fight. Another of your Concerned Listener/Wellstone/Save KPFA board members chimed in and she invited him to "be a man." This is all captured on video, by the way.

I'm glad your experience of them when they are at Humanist Hall is that they are pleasant, friendly, and jocular. It has not been mine, however.

Perhaps they are accustomed to being the boss and don't do so well when they aren't.

"In the sort period of time that ICR has held a majority (a total of seven board meetings) we have managed to get that $375K check replaced. That took almost eight months of negotiating with the executor of the estate."
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Unfortunately that $375,000.00 is still not back under KPFA/Pacifica control. The new check was made out to the San Francisco Foundation, not to KPFA like the original. Now we have to ask them for it when we need it. And from what I know the work to get that done was by the National office and mostly La Varn Williams. Not a big surprise.