Aura Bogado Speaks Out Against Staff Purges at KPFA

The paid staff at KPFA all belong to the CWA.
If the station needs to make cuts because of shortfall in the projected revenue, any procedure for layoffs are specified in the union contract between CWA and KPFA.
The layoffs are mainly based on seniority, so staff with lower seniority are going to be cut before staff with higher seniority.
It might be the case that the level of budget cuts that is being discussed includes some of the staff that are being mentioned.
It is unfortunate that some people spread this rumor of 'purging the staff' and board members with 'hit list' in the last days of the election.
It is reminiscent of last year's Berkeley Daily Planet article "KPFA Charges Pacifica With Raid on Station’s Funds" which also came during the election.

It's all well and good to try and describe these cuts as just ordinary budget necessities, but that does not seem to be the case.

The Union contract provides only for cutting positions not people and according to the Union contract, people in those positions can shift to other positions, so the act of naming actual people is simply unproductive at best.
Cutting shows that produce the most revenue is a very bad way to reduce expenses, since it reduces income as well.
There is no context for the cuts.
The cuts mentioned seem out of proportion of the amount needed.

At least a half million dollars needs to be cut for the current fiscal year just started.

The Morning Show does not make an astonishing amount of money. The Morning Show does not make money because it is so good.

The Morning Show makes money because it is in morning drive time.

The drive was doing terribly until the histrionics started on the air on Wednesday. After the first of of this nonsense about a "purge" had good fund raising results, the numbers settled back down to their usual rate.

What was the cost, however, to KPFA of the misinformation, because that is what it was, that was spread?

Once the Hallinan Brothers' friends money is exhausted – the fund raising set up that was in place in terms of this strategy that Concerned LIsteners/Save KPFA pulled on the air starting Wednesday – then what? What about all the people thoroughly turned off?

Of course, CL/SAVE, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Mitch Jesserich don't care. They were in control spending KPFA into a million dollar deficit for the year that ended in September 2009 and a half million deficit for the year that just ended. They gave themselves new jobs. So KPFA is broke and in trouble. They aren't stupid so this was no accident. Their brain cells are the only credit I will give them. They are snakes.

We don't know what these cuts will be - they may not even have been decided on yet, it seems.
It seems that cuts must be made, and that a meeting of the PNB or one of their committees was discussing the cuts in a closed session, that someone released "information" from a closed session, which consisted of a list of paid staff and their seniority statuses.
Then, it seems, this list may have been declared a "hit list".
See Tracy's article at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/09/29/18660209.php?show_comments=1#18660446
and some of the informative comments below it such as Phelp's.
The real information is confidential; no plan has been announced, possibly not even made yet.
The focus on Tracy, Joe, and Shahram is because they brought a proposal to follow through with the staff cuts directed 2 years ago by Pacifica, ignored by KPFA station management and their enablers the Concerned Listeners LSB bloc, leading to a financial meltdown for KPFA.
This meltdown can't continue without jeopardizing KPFA and the Pacifica network.
Yet the CL/SaveKPFA/KPFAforward/core staff clique are putting paid staff hours above the existence of the station and network.
This after they helped almost bring down WBAI, KPFA and Pacifica by protecting the thuggish Bernard White/JUC administration which was mismanaging finances (and other things like programming) at WBAI.

Many believe this to be a redherring last minute election ploy, which it may be.
As we know, US intelligence and other ruling entities' policies usually have more than one nefarious objective in any action they push forward, so maybe that's the case here as well.

Their characterization of this hypothetical action of the PNB members as a political move against the status quo at KPFA, could also be a projection of their own aims in the round of cuts made by their former GM Rijio, in disproportionately cutting Flashpoints and other programs which did not support their regime, by using a skewed criteria of whether the program raised enough money to cover its own expenses, instead of the value of the program to the program mix - and ignoring seniority such as that of Nora Barrows-Friedman. (To the commenter above: Barrows-Friedman felt that as a single mom
she could not support her family with the 50% cut in her hours, and necessity to take on the job of the fired technician.)

Produce the Staff Seniority list.

Read it. Then decide who shall be served, and who shall weep.

Democracy is Coming, to K.P.F.A....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: KPFA Staff Announcements
Date: Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: [KPFA Staff] KPFA BUDGET & LAYOFFS
To: Glenn Reeder, staff-list-admin
Cc: KPFA-Paid, Max Pringle, George Reiter, Mitch Jeserich, Christopher Martinez, Rose Ketabchi, John Hamilton, Aileen Alfandary, KPFA-Staff


Program changes are not under consideration at this time. The only issue
under consideration is cuts due to income shortfall.

Arlene Engelhardt, Executive Director
Pacifica Foundation
1925 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Berkeley, CA 94704-1037
510-849-2590, ext. 208


-----Original Message-----
From: Glenn Reeder
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 3:53 PM
To: staff-list-admin
Cc: KPFA-Paid; KPFA-Staff; Arlene Engelhardt;
George Reiter; Brian Edwards-Tiekert; Aileen Alfandary; John Hamilton; KPFA
NEWS; Rose Ketabchi; Mitch Jeserich; Max Pringle; Christopher Martinez
Subject: Re: [KPFA Staff] KPFA BUDGET & LAYOFFS

FYI-your reminder that “KPFA staff & unpaid staff please maintain your
integrity, dignity, & professionalism at all times” is wise advice.
However, know this—that I and many of my on-air colleagues were
dismayed and offended that our names were not included in the list of
those producers of what most of us consider to be the best and, not
coincidentally most supported programs KPFA is airing—which the LSB
recommended be laid-off, and that our continued participation should
also be considered in whatever decision is reached.
Best,
Glenn Reeder, co-anchor
KPFA EVENING NEWS


On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 12:01 PM, KPFA Staff Announcements
> Greetings All,
> I am very concerned about the recent events that have taken place both in
> the station ,with the LSB /PNB ,and across the KPFA airwaves ! Let me be
> very clear about my position about the layoffs and budget matters:
>
> All KPFA personnel decisions will be made by the ED,iGM,Asst. iGM & HRD.
> No final decisions have been made about the KPFA budget or layoffs
> KPFA staff & unpaid staff please maintain your integrity, dignity, &
> professionalism at all times
> It is inappropriate to defame, denigrate, or slander staff, volunteers
and
> or LSB / PNB members ON AIR OR OFF THE AIR (KPFA candidate forums).
> ****IF THIS CONTINUES THERE WILL BE CORRECTIVE ACTION
>
> IT IS IMPERATIVE TO STOP THE KPFA CIVIL WAR TODAY!
>
>
> --
> Regards,
> Ahmad J. Anderson
> Pacifica Foundation
> Director,Human Resources / iGM KPFA
> Martin Luther King Jr. Way
> Berkeley,Ca 94704
> (O) 510-849-2590 ext 204

In a recent e-mail message "CL trick in last day of election?" a KPFA listener wrote:

"If you were listening to KPFA during the 10 am to 11 am or 12 noon to 1pm hours, you would have heard Mitch Jeserich and C.S. Soong saying they had been told by their union that KPFA's representatives on the Pacifica National Board have proposed "firing" staff from the Morning Show, Against the Grain and the Evening News, that there could be a vote to do this as early as this evening, and urging listeners to go to kpfaworker.org for more information. Neither Jeserich nor Soong, at least not to my awareness, mentioned the names of the PNB members they were complaining about on the air, but the text at kpfaworker.org (which was also sent out this afternoon as an email to Mike Eisenscher's Bay Area News list) does mention the names, one of whom (Tracy Rosenberg) is a candidate up for election.
Does this constitute an attempt by on-air staff to inappropriately interfere in the LSB listener elections? Has the question been raised yet with the Local Election Supervisor or others responsible for insuring that the election rules are followed?"

The timing of the Jeserich, Soong, Edwards-Tiekert pitches with the end of the LSB campaign doesn't seem like a coincidence; the core staff/CL regime may be desperate, afraid their "Save KPFA" fraud isn't working.

To be clear, this practice is not only inappropriate and unprofessional but also a dishonest, self-serving use of the air; and the info source, supposedly "a misdirected email," is more likely a PNB member who violated meeting confidentiality. PNB members should be accountable for their actions and record, but insider News and Public Affairs staff spinning the story on air and directing listeners to an offshore website that implicates their opposition slate and a candidate by name is another matter, not transparency. As the listener notes, whether it's an interference in the LSB election and Fair Campaign Practice violation is a question for the election supervisors. 

Its important to put the current core staff misuse of the air in the long term history and context of the struggle for democratic representative governance, policy and decision making vs. insider power, privilege and control without transparency and accountability.

This is not the first time the core staff clique has conspired to refer listeners to their slanted door website, KPFA Worker. A similar tactic was used against former GM Roy Campanella (son the great Brooklyn Dodgers catcher, one of the first black MLB players after Jackie Robinson) as part of an open, all out fraternity campaign to not just terminate him as GM but also to ruin Roy's reputation and run him out of town - for the sins of being hired under the new Pacifica bylaws process, not being one of them or completely controlled by them. The coordinated action, including unsubstantiated charges of sexual harassment and demonizing posters, was concurrently directed against Flashpoints programmers (pieces of toast in their mail slots, a torn picture of Nora and her child.)

From my article written after the forced resignation of GM Lemlem Rijio earlier this year, "KPFA Workers and Community Step Up, GM Resigns" http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/09/25/18659813.php (reposted):

"....The senior union "core staff" think they are KPFA and are used to running the station as they please. A GM must be selected from their ranks or the station becomes a "management free zone:" outsiders selected through the by-laws process, Campanella and former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport, were rejected, sabotaged and forced out. Inclusion and interests of volunteer staff do not matter. Historically, both paid and unpaid staff were represented by one union (UEW); but thanks to the Healthy Station project, paid staff breaking solidarity and dumping co-workers to join the CWA (1996-97) and Rijio's non-recognition of UPSO (recently rescinded under new Pacifica management), volunteer staff have had no effective labor representation, benefits or budget funding for personal and production costs. However, all staff now have voting power and LSB representation, and in recent elections voted for a majority of independent representatives, clearly indicating a split with the management regime; also, staff will have a special election on the proposed recall of Edwards-Tiekert.

Clearly, there was widespread staff and community disaffection with Rijio's management and a renewed commitment to new leadership and direction for KPFA, in the spirit of the 1999 beginning of "a new era of democratic decision-making and station Transformation." Black/people of color programmers, staff and community members led a campaign protesting the Nadra Foster arrest/beating and supporting her legal defense (see above and #6). In Sept-Oct 2008 eighty unpaid and union staff signed an "Open Letter on New KPFA Leadership Attributes/Priorities" http://www.physicszone.org/letter2008/letter.html with an 8 point program for changes to be initiated and supported by new management; 74 signed a "Statement Of No Confidence," calling for a new GM appointment http://mediajusticekpfa.blogspot.com/2008/10/74-kpfa-staffers-no-confidence-rijio.html; a letter from 21 listeners demanded rescission of her permanent appointment.…

….However, in the interim management period and resulting "management free zone" at the station, the old guard "core staff" cabal remains in control, and the damages and consequences of former management's policies, decisions and actions are ongoing."

Interim GM Ahmad Anderson could hardy be surprised by the latest hoodlum, spoiled brat pack, manic acting out behavior. He had intervened to contain the core clique excesses following Rijio's resignation and now has issued an admonition and warning to staff. We'll see what happens.

However, like preceding managers Anderson partly tends to the path of least resistance, relying on and catering to the insider staff power clique for their acquiescence and limited cooperation, as evidenced by a) declining to review and modify the last round of budget cuts that disregarded equity and union contract seniority, particularly as impacting Flashpoints staff; and b) his sickening apology to Sasha Lilley (for a programer's commentary implicating her involvement in the arrest and beating of long term volunteer staff Nadra Foster's at the station). While KPFA management has never apologized to Nadra Foster, Anderson felt obliged to record a cart and use KPFA air to kiss Lilley's ring and clear her name, even though she had been a senior KPFA manager (iPD) and present during the police intrusion and violence (see SF BayView Newspaper June 17 KPFA apologizes to Sasha Lilley but not to Nadra Foster).

But Anderson is an interim GM, temporarily reassigned from Pacifica HR management, primarily to execute the overdue paid staffing reductions and other budget cuts. From the last LSB program report we hear that a new GM appointment is imminent. Will we finally have the strong, decent permanent management and leadership envisioned in the staff Open Letter (see article excerpt above) and with the integrity and guts to stand up to the insider gang, put a stop to their crap and clean house?

Maybe it's a not such a terrible thing if the PNB is actually discussing the core program staffing cuts as alleged, although as another KPFA listener says in a posting to the archive page of the Sept 29 Letters to Washington (aka Letters to the DNC):

"I am not sure why this information was leaked from a confidential meeting and then repeated on the air. nevertheless i agree that we need good programming. but not sure what the solution is to the huge budget problems at KPFA . Do you have an answer for that ? cause seems like this is about some people upset about their jobs and just wanting other people at KPFA to get cut. Maybe everyone needs to be cut to part time if that is what it takes to SAVE KPFA."

----Original message----
From: George Reiter
Date: Mon, Oct 4, 2010
Subject: KPFA LAYOFFS

The PNB passed this motion unanimously in executive session on Sunday, Oct 3

The PNB fully supports the Pacifica Executive Director in the difficult task of balancing the KPFA budget utilizing the staff cuts recommended by the executive director in accordance with principles she has enunciated, of respect for seniority, recognition of skill sets and maintaining the programming grid to the extent possible.
George Reiter
Chair, Pacifica National Board

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ICR has been the majority slate on the KPFA LSB for a year. They have done absolutely ZERO to try to raise money and turn around the budget crisis at the station. No. They weren't the cause of the crisis. They claim CL was the cause. Whether or not this is true ICR was obligated to try to rectify the budget crisis. They fall back on the canard that only "rich" people raise money on boards. Almost everything ICR does on the board are actions that will maintain their majority at the dire expense of the station. Program Council?? What good is it if there is no station?
No current ICR board member should be allowed back on the board. If they are elected, they should be recalled. They are incompetent and are in the process of harming KPFA.

Watch them, read about them: the Save KPFA/CL'ers in action

YOUTUBE -- March 7th
Video of Conn Hallinan, Dan Siegel & Sherry Gendelman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjBqU7F_m9s

ARTICLE -- March 7th
Conn Hallinan advances on the chair
http://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com/2010/03/intimidation-between-minutes.html

ARTICLE -- March 7th
Dan Siegel, Sherry Gendelman, Conn & Matt Hallinan
http://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com/2010/08/siegel-youre-suing-me.html