Click for Update on New Day Pacifica Bylaws Referendum
Endorsements for Delegates – Local Station Board Elections
Pacifica has sent out ballots to all Pacifica members for the 2021 Delegate/LSB elections. Look for your e-ballot, sent Aug. 16, from “Pacifica Foundation <vote@simplyvoting.com>”, or look in your spam folder if you can’t find it in your inbox.
VERY IMPORTANT: We urge you to vote today, ranking ALL of the candidates listed below for your station, for your membership category (listener or staff), not just your top 1 or 2 or 3 choices.
Jump to endorsements for KPFA KPFK KPFT
(no endorsements for WBAI or WPFW)
Click if you Did Not Get a Ballot
KPFA Candidates
For KPFA Listener Members, please vote for:
- Donald Goldmacher, Documentary Filmmaker, KPFA Board Member
- Catherine Tactaquin, Migrant Rights Advocate
- Jake Varghese, Board Member, Our Revolution East Bay, software engineer
- Fred Dodsworth, Journalist, Editor, Housing Activist
- Zack Kaldveer, Media Specialist, Environmental Advocate
- Brian Crowell, Teacher Union Organizer
- Leslie Howard, Yoga Educator, Fundraiser, Activist
- Carlos Kohan, Physicist, Engineer, Latin America Analyst
(no endorsements for KPFA Staff members)
KPFK Candidates
For KPFK Listener Members, please vote for:
- Robert Payne – Writer, video director, university instructor
- Christina Avalos – Therapist, community organizer, Latina activist, artist/writer
- Will Ryan – Radio/TV host and writer, cineloquist, union volunteer
- Adam Wolman – Television creative exec, Disney-ABC diversity programs mentor, WGA member, documentary producer, Human Rights Watch activist
- Carlos Zavala – Mechanical engineer, Global Environmentalist & energy conservationist, economics, global issues
- Oye Oyeyipo – STEM teaching fellow, Advocate and docent Allensworth Park (Black historical park)
- Nancy Pearlman – Environmentalist, radio broadcaster, producer of documentaries, Community College Board Member (ret.)
For KPFK Staff Members, please vote for:
- Myla Reson, Anti-Nuclear and anti-war activist, environmentalist, volunteer on Solartopia
KPFT Candidates
For KPFT Listener Members, please vote for:
- Teresa Allen – experienced community & non-profit organizer
- Susan Young – experienced community & non-profit organizer
- Sean Kelly McPherson – problem solver, attorney, KPFT supporter since high school
- Frank Henry Pratka – political union organizer, American Federation of Teachers
- Bill Stone – experienced nonprofit board member, mediator & attorney
- Ron Stubbers – engineer, writer, proficient board member
- Todd Walker – governance & finance experience, entrepreneur
- Bob Locander –professor, union officer, author, experienced board member
- Jane Scheidler – mediator, coalition-builder, former KPFT programmer
Endorsers — See some of the many KPFT program hosts who are endorsing these candidates here.
For KPFT Staff Members, please vote for:
- David Britton, Spare Change
- Lilian Care, Progressive Forum
- Dalton Harris, Bluegrass Depot
- Jerry Fowler, Church of the Infinite
- Tom Harper, The Prison Show and Veterans of War Show
- Egberto Willies, Politics Done Right
Didn’t get a ballot?
Look in your e-mail for a message from Pacifica Foundation, vote@simplyvoting.com, with instructions on voting online. E-mail reminders may be sent regularly, if your station has your correct e-mail address. Otherwise, you should receive a paper ballot during the last half of August. If you did not get either a paper or electronic ballot by now, please fill out the official ballot request form right away and provide all needed information – and be sure to click on the Submit button at the bottom. You should immediately get an e-mail confirmation of your request, but it may take up to two weeks to get your membership verified and for you to get a ballot.
If you donated at least $25 to your station during the period July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, then you are a member eligible to vote in these Delegate/LSB elections, and should receive a ballot. If two people in your family jointly donated at least $50 during that year, then each of you should receive a ballots. So fill out the above form if you did not get your ballot (or both ballots if there are two of you). If only one of you got a ballot, the second family member should fill out the form with their name and contact information, but indicate in the “other information” box at the end of the form the name and contact information of your first family member, so that both of you are listed on the form. That may help to locate your member information. If you remember when you donated, that may help, too.
Our National Election Supervisor has asked that we be patient on replacement ballot requests, especially if they have to look up donation records. She also asked not to submit two requests. But don’t wait until the last minute to request a ballot, as your ballot must be received by October 15 to be counted!
Big Changes Needed – So Pacifica Can Survive for Future Generations
New Day Pacifica is a group of Pacifica listeners and staff who want to save Pacifica and keep it from crashing out of existence in the next year. We include current and former Board members, staff and lots of long-term listeners concerned about the existential crisis at Pacifica.
The need for Pacifica is as great as ever, but the current reality of Pacifica is a mix of good and very troubling bad.
Overall Pacifica’s governance and resulting finances are poor and getting worse. We need new bylaws and a new Board structure to be able to address these issues.
UPDATE – July 13 – 56% Vote Yes to Save Pacifica in Democratic Vote for Change, but Pacifica wrongly declares bylaws lost
Thanks to the 6820 members (both listeners and staff) who voted Yes to save Pacifica.
Pacifica management and board majority, however, declared that the New Day bylaws referendum lost, contending that a staff veto trumps the will of the Pacifica Majority. New Day is contesting that decision and will use all available political and legal means to get the Vote Yes-NDP bylaws changes recognized and implemented.
We won this referendum by a solid and democratic majority of listeners and staff—despite Pacifica management’s announcement to the contrary.
Vote Yes-New Day Pacifica will work through the various legal and political channels available to us with your support to appeal and reverse this wrong-headed decision which allows those individuals responsible for Pacifica’s financial and organizational crisis to stay in charge at Pacifica. Pacifica needs to immediately recognize the membership’s decision to approve and implement the New Day Pacifica bylaws proposals so we can save Pacifica and all five radio stations, archives and affiliates.
NDP Bylaws Referendum Results
Pacifica is using a “staff veto” theory to justify declaring that Vote Yes lost. Pacifica posits that since the New Day proposals affect the staff, if the staff reject the proposals the vote of the overall membership is irrelevant and the proposals fail. The irony of Pacifica’s management professing concern for the opinion of Pacifica’s staff while overseeing the gutting of Pacifica staff’s benefits should not be lost on anyone. (Pacifica recently eliminated employer-paid family health insurance at KPFK and is planning to gut existing severance language protections to facilitate laying off long-term staff at KPFK.)
Question: so how will New Day appeal/overturn the bylaws decision? Answer: New Day yesterday requested arbitration as per our December 4 agreement with Pacifica to use arbitration to resolve election issues to “avoid litigation and expense to the Pacifica Foundation.” Even given this agreement, Pacifica has already hired another expensive law firm to prepare for a court fight, clearly hoping to bankrupt New Day Pacifica due to court costs.
Donations still essential
Please donate $5 to $500 (or more) for legal costs to ensure the membership’s Vote Yes decision to save Pacifica is respected. We have $10,000 remaining in donations from you, but estimate we need to raise another $40,000 to win in court. Thanks to the more than 800 members who have donated so far to support New Day Pacifica’s efforts to save Pacifica.
Read more about how the faction controlling Pacifica is ignoring the members’ vote to approve the New Day Bylaws, and how New Day Pacifica plans to fight for members’ rights.
Please check back here regularly for updates.
Click to ENDORSE THE NEW DAY PACIFICA BYLAWS
See the STAFF ENDORSEMENTS and urgent message from Staff
Here are some of the disasters resulting from the chronic dysfunction of Pacifica’s National Board.
- Pacifica has failed every audit since 2015.
- Pacifica was just kicked out of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Before that, Pacifica’s Board had forfeited nearly $7 million dollars in CPB grants since 2013.
- Pacifica has no money to pay a $3.2 million loan payment due September 2022; we could lose Pacifica’s last three buildings as a result.
- Pacifica has no financial reserves and is close to financial collapse.
We are proposing New Day Pacifica bylaws to ensure accountability by Pacifica’s leadership to the listeners and members so that Pacifica’s mission is always front and center. The New Day bylaws ensure a national rather than parochial perspective, encouraging solidarity between the five stations, affiliates, and archives, so we can learn from each other and move forward together.
We are proud to announce that Sharon Kyle, co-editor of social justice magazine LA Progressive will serve as Transition Chair (if Pacifica members vote in favor of the New Day Bylaws), along with Jan Goodman of KPFK as Vice-Chair, Lynden Foley of KPFT as Treasurer, and Akio Tanaka of KPFA as Secretary.
Some highlights of the New Day bylaws:
- The size of the New Day National Board is significantly smaller (15 rather than 22), allowing the Board to function in a well-organized and more democratic manner.
- For the first time ever, Pacifica listeners and staff will elect the most important policy-makers in Pacifica, the National Officers and National Board. This will ensure accountability to the membership.
- The Local Station Boards will refocus on fundraising, community outreach and local oversight of the station, not unproductive management duties.
- Most of the current bylaws are unchanged, such as $25/year dues, 3 hours volunteer time in lieu of dues, 10% quorum in a membership election, Pacifica’s diversity commitment. Pacifica staff and affiliates will continue to be represented on the Board.
New Day Pacifica National Officers and Board will hit the ground running.
Top priorities of a New Day Board (if Pacifica members vote in favor of the New Day bylaws): avoiding the financial disaster that would come with a missed loan payment, strengthening programming nationally and a vigorous fundraising and membership program.
See the updated and expanded list of Frequently Asked Questions
Please join us in working for a New Day for Pacifica.
Click to ENDORSE THE NEW DAY BYLAWS
Sincerely,
Sharon, Jan, Lynden, and Akio
(left to right): Sharon Kyle, Jan Goodman, Lynden Foley, and Akio Tanaka