See below for (and click on any of these to jump directly there):
- a Legal Update and Response to the Oct. 26 Email From Pacifica Foundation General Counsel Arthur Schwartz
- a strange development in the recent Delegate/LSB elections
- brief KPFT update
- brief update on loans
- how to help us keep going!
The following are just a few examples of misleading and/or false statements made by General Counsel Arthur Schwartz:
Arthur Schwartz claims: In the Oct. 26 email, General Counsel Arthur Schwartz says “The bylaw proposal was defeated because the staff voted no.”
New Day’s response:
Whether the proposal won or lost depends on how one interprets the California law governing non-profits like the Pacifica Foundation. New Day is simply asking the appropriate court to make that determination. Thus, any claims by Schwartz et al that “they won” or “New Day lost” are at best misleading and premature. (Note: The Listener-Members voted YES by a margin of 56% to 44%. The much smaller group of station staff collectively voted no, with the opposition heavily concentrated in the 2 eastern stations, which overcame the YES vote from western station staff at KPFA, KPFK and KPFT. Overall, if the votes of the two classes are taken together, the YES vote won by a margin of 55% to 45%. So the question before the court is whether California law will hold that the overall majority YES vote will prevail or not.)
Arthur Schwartz claims:
New Day solicited funds to “sue Pacifica.”
New Day’s response: New Day is soliciting funds to seek a legal ruling by the court on how the applicable California law should be interpreted and therefore who won the June Bylaws Referendum. Note that New Day has not suing anyone; the current Pacifica Management is suing New Day…and using Listener-Member donations to do it. These lawsuits seem to us to be designed to bully, intimidate and discourage New Day’s legal efforts. With your help, they will not succeed.
Arthur Schwartz claims: “New Day Pacifica has only one or two members … and no bylaws.”
New Day’s response: 6800 People voted for the New Day Bylaws, and New Day Pacifica (NDP) has at least a dozen people active on its leadership team and thousands of supporters! NDP is essentially a group of devoted Pacifica Foundation supporters working to reform the Foundation’s dysfunctional governing structure in order to preserve and sustain the Foundation in its crucial role as a progressive independent media voice speaking truth to power. The fact that current Pacifica management is using Listener-Member donations to sue New Day (as well as the 4 individuals named in the new Bylaws as “transition officers” and eight individuals who ran for LSB positions in the recent elections) has made many others associated with New Day reluctant to list their names publicly. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It just means that to the extent bullying and intimidation are current management’s goals, they have at least in part achieved that end.
As to bylaws, NDP has been focused on drafting, passing and implementing the Pacifica Bylaws Reforms, not on establishing itself as an independent organization.
Arthur Schwartz claims: NDP is “using the … names it got from Pacifica to raise money….” And has not yet filed to declare the election results improper.
New Day’s response: Yes. Raising money from and communicating with the Pacifica Listener-Member list is within our rights under both the old Pacifica Bylaws and California corporate code. Otherwise we could not continue our fight on behalf of the majority who voted YES for reform. That money is now being used to get the bylaws that the majority of Pacifica voting members support. In order to do that we have had to defend against Pacifica’s allegations, and to try to make sure that we were in the appropriate court. In the meanwhile, our cross-complaint dealing with the key remaining election question of “who won” has not yet been filed, but will be soon.
Arthur Schwartz claims: “Money [NDP] has attempted to collect … is being paid to Jan Goodman’s lawyer husband.
New Day’s response: New Day is extremely fortunate that one of its leaders, Jan Goodman, is an attorney who’s been working pro bono on behalf of New Day. Gaining court validation of our hard won victory last June is arduous and time-consuming. Jan is doing it because she loves Pacifica and wants to preserve and revive the network. She cannot do it alone. NDP has been trying to find more lawyers willing to work for free or at a reduced rate, but that’s not easy to pull off. It’s no surprise that most attorneys want and need to be paid for their efforts. So it’s doubly fortunate that Jan is herself married to a man who’s also an attorney, Jerry Manpearl, and one who’s willing to work unpaid unless or until current Pacifica management is ordered by the court to pay damages to NDP. Most lawyers in cases like ours insist on being paid up front; it’s rare to find one who’ll work on a contingency basis. If that money comes in, the New Day leadership team is in agreement that it would be only fair for him to be compensated. If not, he will have worked pro bono. Jerry has taken the case because he too cares deeply about and wants to reform and rescue Pacifica from the dire straits it’s in. That said, even the two of them together cannot handle this case by themselves due to commitments they have to many other clients. That’s the reason we turn to our supporters for financial assistance to fill-out our legal team.
Another Strange Development – Disappearing Candidates
Four candidates in the Delegates/LSB election that just ended, who were endorsed by NDP, mysteriously disappeared from the election results posted online on elections.pacifica.org. It’s as if they were never candidates at all, which of course is not correct. They are Robert Payne, Nancy Pearlman, Will Ryan, and Adam Wolman, all from KPFK. We hope this removal of four NDP-endorsed candidates is a simple mistake that will be corrected promptly. Despite demands, so far Pacifica has failed to correct this disappearance, which is forcing New Day to ask the court to do so. Except for this peculiar but significant exclusion, candidates endorsed by NDP did very well in the elections. Thanks for voting for them!
KPFT update:
Although the PNB majority voted many weeks ago to approve sale of KPFT’s building, the sale has still not been finalized. No details have been made public.
Loan Update:
We have also learned that Pacifica’s request for a $2 million EIDL loan from the Small Business Adminstration was turned down, but Pacifica will be getting (or perhaps already received) a $500K EIDL loan from SBA. We remain concerned that Pacifica still has not provided any repayment plan for either that or the $3+ million FJC loan that uses Pacifica’s buildings as collateral