KPFK struggles: Membership falls, Audits neglected, Archives plundered...more ?

The KPFK relevant information below has been edited and reposted quotes from  dated Sept 7 2016.  http://pacificainexile.org/archives/2164  

See that blog for other Pacifica updates. Information cannot be elsewhere confirmed or corroborated but the author there has dedicated revealing updates and has access to most of the information provided -- and no one website or blog apparently has any more specific or revealed updates of what is occurring WITHIN OUR RADIO STATION : KPFK -which is  paid & thus 'owned' by all KPFK donors/ stakeholders/   ~ shareholders / members.

This means it is Us, the donors that keep KPFK funded and viable = and it is Not : 
the paid staff -
nor  the paid management, 
nor the self-serving LSB,  
and certainly not  the dominating volunteer Programers 
[who  all refuse to admit or reveal their own rewards & benefits -- their  having on-air access, as media influence...and their promotions/ events/ guests  ... and all the PR they constantly do for the PROMOTIONAL benefits of others, too.]  

And :  the slants, biases, prejudices and opinions of these inside Our Station's are left-side-political-view-only Programmers who do Not present a balanced, nor fair, nor just views. Nor are they honest about their outside alliances either. Nor do they ever reveal what trades, payments, favors or exchanges are given and taken for their on-air programming either.




                   

the hollow hand that only seems to still hold all the On Air Radio power -- but now is just a broken part of what it was when KPFK was whole, vital, valuable, and  the station kept loyal members wanting to give more and stay tuned... but....now,it has become a broken piece of... 
 
                            Pacifica Archives:

 At the September 29 PNB Crosier asks to have iED Brazon  answer the following questions:

“1) What’s being done about the selling of Archives material on eBay due to non-payment of rent for storage units?...” [plus other concerns too]

“…Crosier’s information request was ruled “out of order” and no information was provided to the board of directors on any of the …inquiries by Brazon….


                                   Membership Slide: 

“National supervisor. Lynne Serpe, provided tentative membership numbers that indicated Pacifica’s nationwide membership had slid dramatically from 55,000 members nationwide in 2015 --  to 48,000 in 2016 -- a one-year decline of 15% “ !!!

After the Pacifica’s archives have become “ 19 Pacifica reel-to-reel archival master tapes appeared for sale on Ebay.com in the last 2 weeks. 

An anonymous source told the NY-based blog “WBAI Now and Then” the materials came from a 20-year-old storage locker in Rosemead, CA, that had been maintained by the national office and was auctioned off in the last year -2015-  due to non-payment of the storage fee.”   


                   PACIFICA'S CFO ? or what is he now ?

“…Friday September 30, former Pacifica CFO, Raul Salvador, showed up for work at KPFK in Los Angeles. “

KPFK’s Staff were not notified  in advance  nor were Pacifica’s board of directors.  No information has been provided about what the job Salvado hired to do, or is doing. Nor was it defined what his responsibilities are, to whom he reports  or what amount of money /salary  he is being paid... tho iED Brazon of Nat’l Board is said to have indicated …at a PNB meeting that Salvador is  now a “ consultant”.

Raul Salvador first worked for Pacifica in May of 2013 as the CFO, then was terminated in January of 2014. Again, he was rehired as the CFO after the 2014 political coup [ and then at behest of the …PNB]  -  he  had resigned in May of 2015. Salavador then worked for a few following months as an undefined or vague dutied  “consultant”.

Notes of importance during Salvador’s employment: 
“The severely past due audits that have cost $2.5 million in CPB public media funding began during Salvador’s period as CFO, as well as misappropriation of parts of the Material World Foundation grant  (in 2014), an Indiegogo campaign (in 2014), a bequest to the Pacifica Foundation (in 2015) and a credit card fraud incident where a Pacifica company credit card account Salvador replaced was not closed, and then used for $4,000 in purchases at Ralph Lauren and Walmart in Southern California…”

And  when Sam Agarwal resigned as Pacifica’s chief financial officer - in September after 9 months on the job.  Meanwhile, KPFK’s business manager position has been officially vacant since January 2016 and has not been occupied by any permanent employee for over 3 years.


                                Audits:             

“ Pacifica has lost $2.5 million in public media community service grants (CSG) since 2014 - due to 3 consecutive missed deadlines for the submission of audited financial statements : (in June of 2014, 2015 and 2016).

"In addition to the financial audits, the CPB requires a quarterly open meetings compliance report. Pacifica has been on open meetings probation for several years. A blatant flouting of the open meeting regulations,”  as happened just recently, would likely elicit yet another year of probation . 

"This would further delay any restoration of funding - even if the backlogged audits could be produced, as required."

It seems unlikely that the audit backlog is getting caught up, even now. Audit chair, William Heerwagon, reports that the FY 2014 audit is not finished or even “close to finished” and there are still several open items  - more than 2 years after the end of the fiscal year.

Prior “Auditor Armanino is still owed money” - fees that must to be paid prior to any audit  reports or data release….Pacifica’s FY 2014 audit, which iED Brazon has been claiming repeatedly for months that this was “finished” – but it was due to the State of California Registry of Charitable Trusts and to the CPB on June 30, 2015 – 16 months ago.  It is the latest audit in Pacifica’s history. …”


                         ARBITRATION RESULTS:
                              

Pacifica’s  own income statements corroborate this stop payment.  KPFK owes Arbitration results: 

  ….”KPFK recently lost a large multi-grievance union arbitration with the station’s SAG-AFTRA bargaining unit-“  because of the newly-appointed Gen’l manager, Leslie Radford, imposing sudden unilateral work hour reductions … & this GM fired two employees… and she then denied  their contracted severance benefits. 

“The settlement amount is at least $200,000  -which will include back pay to approximately 20 employees whose hours were cut,  plus the re-hire of 2 fired employees - and the payment of at least 4 previously denied severance packages.  Surprisingly, iED Brazon has not shown the final settlement agreement to the PNB [board of directors].

The  KPFK GM has accused her KPFK staff of “deliberately jamming the toilets with paper towels. She gave employees a “snow day” while the bathrooms were repaired and then locked.”  Her memo can be seen at Pacificainexile’s original post/ site.

Such antics, if true, reveal some juvenile pranks or anger acted out by either/both sides to their ongoing conflicts – GM and KPFK staff that has been diminished and eliminated, after years of dedicated work there.

(C) 2016  MJ