April 2011 LSB Meeting Records

[APPROVED]
KPFA 2011 Local Station Board
Regular in-person meeting, April 16, 2011, 11am-4pm
Humanist Hall, 390 27^th St., Oakland

Note: An audio archive of this meeting is available at www.kpftx.org/archive.php

Present:

Shahram Aghamir*, Mal Burnstein, Pamela Drake, Anthony Fest, Sasha Futran*, David Gans, Suzi Goldmacher, Conn Hallinan, Matthew Hallinan, Cynthia Johnson*, Jack Kurzweil*, Henry Norr*, Andrea Prichett, Laura Prives, Tracy Rosenberg, Tanya Russell, Lewis Sawyer, Dan Siegel, Frank Sterling, Akio Tanaka, Andrea Turner, Margy Wilkinson, Rych Withers; Barbara Whipperman (treasurer), Craig Alderson (secretary)

*Arrived after roll call.

1.         Call to order
Meeting called to order by chair M. Wilkinson at 11:06 am.

2.         Roll call and excusing of members
Wilkinson announced Renee Geesler’s resignation from the board and that, pursuant to the bylaws, Franklin Sterling was eligible to take her seat. Sterling was welcomed to the board. Hyun-Mi Kim and Richard Phelps were excused without objection.

A. Prichett moved to postpone public comments until after the KFCF report. Approved: Y 12, N 2.

3.         Announcements
a.         A. Turner announced a Vukani Mawethu 25^th anniversary performance, May 1, at Freight and Salvage.

b.         F. Sterling introduced himself to the board.

c.         L. Prives announced that a fund drive will begin May 2 and appealed for    volunteers to help.

4.         Approve agenda
Adopted as previously amended. Approved: Y (many), N 1.

5.         Approve minutes
T. Russell moved to accept minutes of March 19, 2011, meeting as corrected. Approved without objection.

6.         General manager report (Andrew Phillips)
A. Phillips spoke about the upcoming membership drive. He believes it’s not the way to raise money for public radio, it’s outdated, and wants to find other ways. He has begun to explore ways to use the internet, such as a web portal project, and thanked board member Henry Norr for a paper he submitted on Pacifica and the internet. Phillips is interested in a catalog of information available online, including premiums available 24/7.

He said they are moving forward but it will take a long time to turn around. Staff is working hard. Six-month financials show a small surplus but staff salaries are well over budget. He doesn’t know why yet but is investigating and will report back. He is waiting for more information and is trying to analyze departmental expenditures. General account lines exist for the station but are not broken down by departments. With another break-in at the transmitter, he is considering security cameras there. Equipment has also disappeared from the station, and he is looking at how to improve security for that, including security cameras.

We have $40,000 in a development fund, $10,000 of which he’s planning to allocate to a development consultant to explore development options. He’s working on ways to better represent Pacifica in more positive light and encourage people to underwrite us. He’s suggested $10,000 be allocated for camera security at transmission site and in station.

Regarding a development director, he wants to make small, exploratory decisions first and see what has been done in the past before moving ahead. He has interviewed one person so far. One way is to spend part of the allocated money and hire two people part-time for pilot projects. He agreed that a development director could raise funds for security, but before making hiring a director a priority, he wants to have a development plan.

He agreed that it would be good to develop an organizational chart and job descriptions of staff so areas of responsibility are clear. He has been looking into this.

7.         Treasurer report (B. Whipperman)
Work has begun on the budget process for FY2011-12. M. Burnstein, A. Turner, T. Rosenberg, A. Fest are on the budget committee. Whipperman will give them a document of budgeting assumptions. Anyone interested in this document should contact B. Whipperman.

Timeline: End of April to identify and rank priorities. End of May to draft station budgets and send to Pacifica CFO. This will be done with station general managers’ and business managers’ collaboration. End of June, draft should be distributed to PNB and LSBs for review. July, more review. National finance committee wants final budgets by Aug. 2. Aug. 11 for final review and action. Final budgets will be distributed to the PNB by Sept. 7, with review and adoption by Sept. 30 in time for the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Whipperman presented updated spreadsheets. TR1 is up-to-date, but figures in p.1, cells I33 through I37 are not accurate. This will be fixed. This accounts for discrepancies between this report and T. Rosenberg’s report from the national finance committee. Cash in bank as of Mar. 31 was $263,194. We are not behind in any invoices, but $9,740 was due shortly. Whipperman’s report shows a larger surplus than national report, but this is due to differences between the station and the national office. The actuals are correct but the budgeted amounts are different.

Whipperman reviewed the spreadsheet with the board and noted several items where the station was under budget.

TR2 is a table updated from March’s meeting. Leftmost column is year-to-date. These figures appear in column V of TR1. Costs for buying out employees have not yet appeared in these documents. Regarding FSRN, we don’t know exactly when Pacifica distributes the money to FSRN. CPB money coming in is credited to KPFA and FSRN, but isn’t actually distributed to KPFA; it’s paid by Pacifica to FSRN.

Discussion about involving public, community advisory board, and LSB in developing budget goals and priorities for the station.

A. Prichett moved that Saturday, Apr. 30, 1-5pm, be reserved for a special budget workshop to invite all concerned parties. Place is to be determined. Approved: Y (many), N 2.

8.         Committee reports

A.         Pacifica National Board (D. Siegel)
Siegel reported that the issue of whether to have one or two in-person PNB meetings consumed the entire agenda of the last PNB meeting. He complained that it was valuable time wasted. The board has voted to appeal the preliminary injunction on the issue of Siegel’s eligibility to serve as an member of the local station and national boards. T. Rosenberg reported a surplus of $950,000.

B.         Fundraising (M. Wilkinson)
Met March 30. Continuing to work to fundraising event for significant donors and to draft satisfactory confidentiality statement. Next meeting is April 27. An email list is being set up for interested board members. D. Gans reported on plans for a joint event between KPFA and Freight and Salvage, possibly in November.

C.         Personnel (C. Hallinan)
Last meeting poorly attended. He will move ahead with Pacifica to identify places to advertise for new general manager. Will have a fuller report next month.

D.         Outreach (A. Prichett)
Met April 6. Program director Carrie Core attended. Committee wants to have a showing of “On the Air” documentary in the station performance studio on Apr. 27, with discussion session. Committee also discussed a party for outreach volunteers to build committee. Issue of coordinating calendars discussed, and of looking ahead to community events such as Juneteenth. Committee asked for a year’s calendar to aid planning. Next meeting is April 27 at KPFA.

9.         KFCF report (R. Wythers)
Sasha Lilley will be doing a book signing for KFCF. Mitch Jeserich will take part in a “Take Mitch out to the ball game” event. Looking for additional news stringers; contact R. Withers with leads. Planning for equipment replacement.

10.        Public comments (in order of speakers)
Daniel Borgstrom, Virginia Browning

11.        Staff reports
A.         CWA representative (Antonio Ortiz)
Ortiz is a steward at KPFA. Brian Edwards-Tiekert was returned to work; Aimee Allison arbitration happens at end of April. John Hamilton was retained due to voluntary salary cuts by Aileen Alfanderry, Philip Maldari, Kris Welch, Mitch Jeserich. Still having difficulty with Pacifica acting in good faith; in particular, management was supposed to meet to discuss layoff proposals, but Pacifica did not. Ortiz thanks Andrew Phillips for his role in resolving Hamilton’s proposed layoff. Sixteen grievances are pending regarding a hostile work environment, which includes comments made by staff about staff on air or the internet. Monterey Labor Council passed a resolution in support of CWA 9415 and KPFA on April 6.

B.         UPSO representative (A. Fest)
UPSO met Mar. 31. Discussion about program council and Gary Null, but no decisions made. D. Gans noted that UPSO meetings are always poorly attended. S. Aghamir noted conditions that make it difficult for staff to attend.

12.        Old business
A.         Report on apparent misuse of email list (S. Futran, C. Alderson, M. Burnstein)
Following the March LSB meeting, the chair asked three board members to investigate the Media Alliance email about Morning Mix. Members presented their report to the board, and proposed resolutions.

M. Burnstein moved to accept the report and transmit it to the Pacifica National Board and executive director. A. Turner moved to end debate. Failed: Y 14, N 8 (2/3 required). A. Prichett moved to revise report to remove objectionable language. Failed: Y 8, N 14. Motion to accept report approved: Y 14, N 8.

M. Burnstein moved three-part resolutions: 1) censure of Pacifica executive director Arlene Englehardt; 2) censure of board member Tracy Rosenberg; 3) request to Media Alliance to destroy email lists.

1) D. Siegel moved to table to allow Englehardt to respond; approved without objection

2) A. Prichett moved to strike “falsely purporting to come from KPFA.” Failed: Y 4, N 13. L. Prives moved substitute motion for alternative wording. Failed: Y 3, N (many). Censure Resolution approved without amendment: Y 13: Burnstein, Drake, Futran, Gans, Goldmacher, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, Kurzweil, Prives, Russell, Sawyer, Siegel, Turner, Wilkinson, Withers. N 6: Aghamir, Fest, Johnson, Prichett, Sterling, Tanaka.

3) Approved as submitted: Y 13, N 1, A 2.

S. Futran moved resolution urging station management to question Morning Mix staff regarding email lists. Approved: Y 11, N 5.

B.         Mediation retreat (S. Futran)
Committee met. Has done some research and has identified one mediator named Eileen Palmer. She has promised to work pro bono, which would be a huge savings. She and possibly an associate would interview each of 25 board members to determine issues before any mediated retreat. The committee is discussing other ideas for the retreat as well. The committee wants to find two or three mediator candidates and interview them before bringing a motion to the board.

13.        New business

A.         Policy on LSB shows
M. Burnstein moved resolution. Amended without objection to delete “attempt to” and strike final sentence. Approved without objection.

Meeting adjourned 3:30.

Respectfully submitted,

Craig Alderson
LSB Secretary