KPFA 2011 Local Station Board
Regular in-person meeting, February 12, 2011, 11am-4pm
North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Avenue
Note: An audio archive of this meeting is available at www.kpftx.org/archive.php
Present:
Mal Burnstein, Pamela Drake, David Gans, Conn Hallinan, Matthew Hallinan, Jack Kurzweil, Laura Prives, Tanya Russell, Lewis Sawyer, Dan Siegel, Andrea Turner, Margy Wilkinson, Rych Withers
1. Call to order
Meeting called to order by chair M. Wilkinson at 11:08 am. Lewis Sawyer welcomed to board. M. Wilkinson addressed board and audience with preliminary remarks about procedure and status of board member Siegel (attached).
2. Roll call and excusing of members
S. Futran and S. Goldmacher excused without objection.
Moved (P. Drake) to suspend rules for discussion on actions by Pacifica national board challenging D. Siegel’s position on local station board. Approved without objection. D. Siegel made initial remarks, followed by general discussion by board.
3. Public comments (in order of speakers)
Barrie Mason, Kate Gowen, Bonnie Bell, Carol Badran, Marc Pilisuk, Jerry Bernhaut, Edith Hallberg, Virginia Browning, Daniel Borgstrom, Debra Stretch, Stan Woods, Vivian Warkentin (sp?), Gene Herman, Steve Zeltzer, Lena Gomes
4. Approval of agenda
Approved without amendment.
5. Approval of minutes.
Minutes of January 13, 2011, regular meeting approved without amendment.
6. General Manager’s report
General Manager Amit Pendyal absent on personal leave. Interim program director Carrie Core attended in his place and introduced herself to board. She has been affiliated with community radio since the early 1990s, when she worked as a volunteer at KPFA. Went through the apprenticeship program. Left KPFA prior to the struggles of 1999 and moved east, where she found a job with radio station WMNF in Tampa, Florida. She has been here four weeks and is anguished over divisions she has found upon returning to KPFA. She reports to Arlene Englehardt and has a 6-month contract. She assured the board that she has authority to make final decisions. Appealed for everyone to help strengthen station and welcomed concerns and suggestions from everyone. Email: carrie<at>kpfa.org. She is still hearing from all sides and hasn’t made any decisions yet. She wants to survey community and community organizations for their needs, and figure out how KPFA can help. Community stations must bring in new listeners and outreach is very important. As she is only interim director, she can’t make major changes but does want to lay strong foundation for her successor. She said she does not know whether Pacifica management has changed its stance against mediation, following Berkeley city council resolution calling for mediation. Board members expressed concern over conflicting reports that A. Pendyal had resigned, was on medical leave, etc. Core said he is “sick as to what’s going on” and will be making a decision soon as to how he can benefit organization. M. Wilkinson asked Core to convey to Pendyal that the local station board stands ready to support him in reinstating local control over programming, funding and the budget.
7. Treasurer’s report (B. Whipperman)
B. Whipperman distributed reports. TR1 is a consolidated balance sheet. KPFA averages about $60,000 for each payroll, and there are two payrolls per month. There was a shortfall of $12,500 for the first payroll in September, and KPFA borrowed $12,500 from KPFT in September to meet that payroll. It then loaned $18,000 to WPFW for the second payroll in September. KPFA repaid KPFT in October, but WPFW has not repaid KPFA yet. Whipperman said there is no date for the repayment and no expectation that it will be repaid soon, if ever. Whipperman noted the long-standing accounts receivable of $1.3 million owed by Pacifica to KPFA. Whipperman highlighted these loans to put in context claims in recent months that KPFA was so broke it couldn’t meet payroll.
TR2 is account statement from San Francisco Foundation. Heath Fund gave both KPFA and Pacifica checks for $375,000 each in 2009, with the restriction that these funds were to be invested as endowments, not spent. Pacifica spent its amount and is now charging stations to replenish the fund. It is not clear whether those replenishments are being treated in accordance with the donor’s restrictions. KPFA’s check was not immediately deposited. The Heath Fund reissued the check but, for safe-keeping, deposited it with the San Francisco Foundation in June 2010. SFF is an investment group for nonprofits. Whipperman contacted the foundation at request of the LSB chair. SFF said the Pacifica CFO had already asked them about withdrawing some of the funds. Whipperman noted the interest earned in the last quarter ($575) and a $28,000 increase in valuation of the investment. With projected increases, the endowment would be worth about $430,000 by the end of 2010. There should be $13,000 to $16,000 available for grants or other allocations by June 2011. Principal advisors (Pacifica executive director, CFO, LSB chair, LSB treasurer) will develop proposals on how this is to be spent.
WBAI is in great financial difficulty and is reducing payment of central services fees from 19.5% to 5%. Whipperman recommended a 1% reduction in our central services payments as offset for housing Pacifica office. Pacifica says it is non-rentable space because of code issues, but Whipperman noted that KPFK receives a 1% offset for housing the Pacifica archives, which are not ADA-compliant. Hard to tell whether KPFA is running a $400,000 deficit. KPFA has set aside a $150,000 certificate of deposit in reserve, but Pacifica has been using it for years to secure a line of credit. KPFA pays interest on that credit. Whipperman will follow up.
TR3 shows budgeted versus actual amounts in FY 2011. Income exceeded projections. Whipperman has not completed budget redraft as per the 1/13/11 LSB resolution, but it follows closely the “sustainable budget” adopted last year by the LSB. Changes include Morning Show pledges ($60,000), Heath Fund income, and 1% offset for Pacifica office space.
Moved (M. Burnstein): LSB again pass the sustainable budget, updated with the figures provided by the treasurer, including the pledges collected by listeners to restore the Morning Show; that the board send this budget to the national finance committee and Pacifica national board; and that the budget be accepted by those bodies.
Y 12 (Burnstein, Drake, Gans, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, Kurzweil, Prives, Russell, Sawyer, Turner, Wilkinson, Withers); N 0; A 1 (Siegel).
Moved (A. Turner): We, the local station board, request that the executive director and chief financial officer of the Pacifica Foundation take a salary reduction of 10% each to assist in the staff reductions and help balance the budget, for the last six months of the current fiscal year and the first six months of the next fiscal year. These salary reductions will be reviewed at the end of the 12-month period.
Y 12 (Burnstein, Drake, Gans, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, Kurzweil, Prives, Russell, Sawyer, Turner, Wilkinson, Withers); N 0; A 1 (Siegel).
8. Committee reports
Pacifica National Board (A. Turner)
PNB meets end of February in Houston. Board has been meeting in closed sessions regarding personnel issues and lawsuits, which Turner could not discuss.
Fundraising (M. Wilkinson)
Committee met Jan. 20 with Chris Stehlik (KPFA data manager) and Phil Osegueda (membership coordinator). Very helpful. They are discussing ways of using membership database for targeted fundraising; for instance, having members of the LSB contact donors and ask them to extend or increase their donations. The committee will meet March 2 to develop the proposals further and all are invited to participate.
Personnel (M. Wilkinson)
Committee is working on job description for development director. Met with Carrie Core and Amit Pendyal.
Outreach (Perrine Kelley)
P. Kelley is committee member and spoke from audience in absence of committee chair. The committee is trying to attend as many events as it has people to do it. They need more people to come to meetings and she welcomed interested individuals to contact the committee. She will forward the email address to the LSB chair. D. Gans reported that there will be a Grateful Dead fundraising program February 16, 9am to 1am. He has received donations, including a $10,000 matching donation, t-shirts, permission to use Grateful Dead compilations from their archives as a premium. He expects a very successful fundraiser. There are many Grateful Dead fans in the UK.
9. KFCF report (R. Withers)
Quiet month at KFCF devoted to cleaning up, catching up and maintenance. They will be part of a float in the March 6 Mardi Gras parade and will hand out KFCF program schedules along with beads.
10. Old business
No old business.
11. New business
Moved (Kurzweil): Resolutions submitted by member Norr, Phelps, Rosenberg and Tanaka be postponed to next meeting to allow them to present and explain their resolutions. Resolutions will appear as old business.
Y 10 (Gans, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, Kurzweil, Prives, Russell, Sawyer, Turner, Wilkinson, Withers); N 2 (Burnstein, Drake); A 1 (Siegel).
Moved (Burnstein) to adopt resolution on programming decisions.
Y 12 (Burnstein, Drake, Gans, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, Kurzweil, Prives, Russell, Sawyer, Turner, Wilkinson, Withers); N 0; A 1 (Siegel).
Moved (Burnstein) to adopt resolution on programming policy.
Y 12 (Burnstein, Drake, Gans, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, Kurzweil, Prives, Russell, Sawyer, Turner, Wilkinson, Withers); N 0; A 1 (Siegel).
Meeting adjourned 2:00 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Craig Alderson, Secretary
Preliminary remarks by chair Margy Wilkinson
Before I ask the secretary to call the roll, I want to say a few things. This meeting is going to take place under unusual and difficult circumstances and I think it will help if I, as your elected chair, am clear from the beginning about what my position is on some issues and how I plan to chair the meeting.
First, I do not believe that Dan Siegel “resigned” from this board as a result of his relationship with the Mayor of Oakland. And therefore I do not agree that the election for PNB delegates that took place at our last meeting was tainted in any way. I view the request from the PNB for this board to hold new PNB elections to be inappropriate for a number of reasons — both procedural and political. Because the majority of the PNB apparently is unconvinced of the errors of their ways, the issue of whether Dan Siegel is appropriately a member of this body and therefore one of our representatives on the PNB, will, unfortunately, be decided in the courts. In the meantime it is my position that Dan was elected to this body and will remain a member of this body with full voting rights until this issue is resolved in whatever forum. I do not want my position to be interpreted as hostility to Kate Tanaka. I like Kate. She and I agreed in the run up to the LSB elections that we could work together. I still believe that and when there is a vacancy on this board created by the resignation or removal through an appropriate procedure of any listener representative, I will gladly welcome Kate to the board.
Having said this, let me say that I will rule out of order any motions which seek to unseat Dan Siegel or to deny him full member rights on this board.
Finally, because I recognize the possibility that the Courts may rule that Dan is in fact appointed to a political office, I will ask that every vote going forward be a roll call vote. If it turns out that Dan’s vote on any particular issue was a deciding vote, the board will in the future be able to review those votes and decide what to do about those issues.
We are at a critical juncture. We must work hard to protect KPFA, to restore local control both in management and programming, to bring in new listeners, to raise money and to create a healthy relationship between this board which represents our listeners and the management of KPFA and Pacifica. We do not need to spend more time on governance issues.
I hope we can have a productive and collegial meeting today.