"Pacifica provided documents to FJC in support of the loan application, including its plan on how it will repay the loan by c. 31 March 2021.
Unbelievably, this central text, supposedly regulating what the
Foundation does for the next three years (well, 32 months now, 11%
fundraising time already lost), has not been distributed to the
directors as a whole;
" First she asked A___ if she has two documents: Pacifica's cash-flow forecast thru to 30 September 2019
(the end of the fiscal year); &, more importantly, Pacifica's plan
to pay its debts. Simple, really. So simple that Chair N____
functioning as Praetorian Guard N____, immediately intervened to say
A____ would sent it to Mr Tom who would then send it to the directors
(40:18)."Eventually A____-from-NETA got her chance to speak about
the first document: "yes, Tom sent it to us, so we do have it, &
we're starting to, ah, review it [then she talked about NETA Cash-flowGuy
doing that work ...] so, yes, we do have it"."Then A____ asked
A___, in a confusing way, presumably thinking of the FJC loan in
particular but knowing that Pacifica is going all strategic these days,
whether Anita also has a copy of "the strategic plan to repay our debts"
(41:18). "Yes we do", replied A___, in a definitive, self-assured
voice. Well that seemed all done & dusted; straight questions,
straight answers. All above board.
"But this is Pacifica."A ____got a chance to repeat her request that the PNB, & so all directors,
receive these two documents (46:18). She asked Mr Tom directly: if NETA
can receive documents from you, why can't the PNB? Mr Tom betrayed that
he was a bit rattled here, pinned back into the corner by
Adriana-the-people's-Rottweiler, & wilted under the pressure:
"A__ was, er, er, mistaken about [Mr Tom] having sent that to them:
"I
have not seen it [one document or two?] myself, er, it was, er – we have
access to Sam's computer, um, and, er, yer, we were, the, what the
auditor has said is that this was something that was sent to him, so I'm
looking for it, um, I, er, in his, er, I, I have a, a gotten access to
the email that changed the password & so I'm looking, & I will
be glad to send that to you as soon as I can find it."
"And if you
believe that you'll believe anything. (Sam Agarwal, Pacifica's last
qualified Chief Financial Officer, finished working at Pacifica on Friday 8 June.
"So Mr Tom had the data in front of him for four whole weeks, but lacked
the competence to find them. Some iED & acting CFO.)"Anyway,
A____ just took Mr Tom's floundering as an upfront response, straight
away asking him something else. A___ didn't ask A___ why she said
what she did if it wasn't true, especially as she talked specifically
about CashflowGuy flowing thru the cashflow. (
"Yes, A____ was probably
off the call, but that's beside the point.) And A_____ didn't ask Mr
Tom, the acting Chief Financial Officer (unqualified), how he's managing
without both the fiscal year's cashflow forecast & 'the strategic
plan for paying Pacifica's debts'.
"Such trifling pieces of paper, so why
ring Doug R____ or Sam E____ for a copy? Shucks, no. Maybe he'll find
it on Sam's computer. Maybe he won't.
"But, guys, these are Pacifica
documents, so they're hardly worth anything to anyone, right?
"That's
some acting Chief Financial Officer (unqualified). But it's unfair to
call him Mr Tom. As I said a few weeks ago, he is qualified: he's Tom
L_____ BS.
And it's only because his political opponents at Pacifica
are so ineffective that his BS is able to smother them, it's only in
the dull reflection of this crew that Mr Tom looks qualified. "
###
here's another's words here reposted:
a new comment on the post "Has Reimers called Cosby yet?":
"By ‘housekeeping’ ....referring principally to moving to put financial
affairs in something at least resembling coherent, sane function:"While
the Ch11 v Massive Loan argument had valid points on both sides, so far
as I could see, at least a decision was finally taken, and the massive
loan was used to buy out WBAI’s crushing lease obligations at ESRT, and
to move WBAI, complete with a new transmitter, to 4 Times Square,
slashing unsustainable operating expenses."Similarly, the wildly
overdue FY 2016 audit was completed and submitted, avoiding the immediate
threat of the loss of charitable status for Pacifica."Similarly,
also, steps were taken to hire a new firm to consolidate and carry out
Pacifica’s book keeping functions, and to bring in people to assess and
consider how to deal with Pacifica’s retirement fund short-funding
problems."None of these is fully accomplished, but real,
tangible, substantial steps were taken, and if carried forward, will
begin to put Pacifica in a coherent financial state."That leaves open, however, whether Pacifica’s programming can be revised/improved/resurrected/transformed/whatever
in such a fashion as to make Pacifica relevant to anyone other than
itself, and to actually draw an audience sufficient to repay that
massive loan and to move on to financial sustainability.
"These
questions, those beyond ‘housekeeping’ are the ones that matter most and
will matter most, and the failure to address these issues for decades
is/are what has led Pacifica to its present status as invisible,
inconsequential, irrelevant, and often reliant on scams of various sorts
to attempt to survive – all of which was exhausted long, long, long,
long ago."In a sense, simply to further speculate, much may
depend on what sort of General Manager Livingston is able to recruit,
and what actual authority they will have."Those are the questions
that matter, if Pacifica is ever to matter in any meaningful sense, and
I wouldn’t give odds on that happening."It is, in my
observation, as I said, very highly resistant to any actual change. It
was able, reluctantly, with a great deal of strife, still visible just
beneath the surface, to accept steps desperately needed to avoid
immediate implosion, which I’ve referred to as ‘housekeeping’."Anything more substantive, however, seems to me very doubtful. I’d guess that at best they’ll continue to barely survive, as a fever dream hobby-holiday for their producers.That’s at best, and as I said, I wouldn’t give odds even for that. " ####
more words here reposted:
Anonymous has left a new comment on the post "Has Reimers called Cosby yet?":
"Pacifica, as a product of
its history and the time of its first creation and earliest evolution,
is exceedingly resistant to any assertion or claim of authority in any
and all forms."For that reason, the default position makes it
extremely difficult if not impossible to remove a program, for very
nearly any reason."This has long been the case and is, I would
argue, the central determinant in very nearly all Pacifica decisions –
inertia, one aspect of which is incumbency ". ####
need more words here ? more reposted=
a new comment on the post "Has Reimers called Cosby yet?":
"it is always surprising, tho it should not be, that OTHER PACIFICA radio
stations may replicate the same, similar stories & problems
reported here re NY's WBAI.
" At KPFK in far away LOS ANGLES the latest
returned GM may be adequate [tho loved by staff for his 'sweet
personality' and ways but the effectiveness of management is not
apparent in positive changes in how the station sounds, or probably
operates. no names mentioned, no law suits needed, thanks.
and
KPFK has as racially slanted, biased and prejudiced - not in European
heritaged people against the darker skinned people....but the
applauding, admiring and seeking approval from those who emerged from
further south: like African identified folks, or Latino's who dominate a
whole segment of evening in only Spanish-Spoken-There prgms and another
whole Friday afternoon, + more. "There does not need to be a
1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 of dominant census based populations or their cultural
preferences, leaving out the rest of the real world. But the
disproportion and the sounds of OUTRAGE ! Righteousness as if there is
only "1 Truth" and we know it and shout it. or Anger, attacking, and
diss'ing anyone or profit earning businesses as "they must be evil"
somehow ! etc. "Then: Aligning ONLY with victims, as the old
60's ideals held but couldn't produce the solutions that lasted hardly.
But still demanded as if 2018 had reverted to a time when KPFK or other
Pacifica stations elsewhere were relevant, and anti-war when there was a
war to be anti."So there is going to be way toooo soon another
"fund drive" - money money give give US more more more ! sessions with
special repeated old pgms....
"and in-credible-ly [not
believable, credible] high-priced exaggerated claimed products to
produce those perfect, healthy, happy beings everyone dreams of being
but knows it is imagination and not all that promises imply either. "OK,
so why complain more here about the Other station, [KPFK] whose
property was mortgaged for that loan to help WBAI survive - was that
how it went ? "...because there is little information, revelations
allowed to the stakeholders, donors, public listeners or anyone other
than those rare self-serving 'press releases' by some management chief.
so KPFK is silent, doesn't respond to questions, not at LSB meetings by
public questioners either, and provides no honest, real feedback. Sad.
too bad.
..."as to how to make actual positive changes, [not selling
t-shirts and arguing about which color would sell better... please ! ]is
dis-cussed on Pacifica group emails but the actions needed to ACTIONS
AND CULTURE AND POSITIVE DIFFERENT IMPROVEMENTS are apparently not
risked nor dared nor tried. "Or are they ? where ? what has been Done? Anywhere ? who knows. maybe better, who cares ? by this time."some try to share more publicly, openly, transparently. Like here.
like Pacificainexile.org which seems to have gone silent for last few months. "is the whole shebang gone dulled and the comments, concerns, questions 'just blowing in the (desert ) winds " ####
"not only the breakdown but even something as basic as the
size of the settlement (ending the contract prematurely) has not been
disclosed. And of course the settlement should not be confused with the
judgment, the court judgment, that preceded it.
"The same two things
apply to the judgment: its cost has not been disclosed, nor how it was
make up. But isn't a $1.8m figure bandied around, sufficing for most as
the size of some Empire State problem or other?
"And that's the problem
with casual talk: we all think we know what's being referred to, but the
imprecision allows the nitty-gritty to slip thru the fingers – and that
always lets those in positions of power (& responsibility) off the
hook."And that's the situation here. Pacifica's information
gatekeepers have consistently pursued an approach that Trump often uses:
choose a quite different thing, cite it, cite it again, & keep
citing it. That thing is the judgment, the 4 October 2017 NYC court
judgment, which refers to unpaid rent of c. $1.8m –
..."which seems to be
the amount outstanding when Empire State Realty Trust made its
application to the court on 23 November 2016. The $1.8m actually
excludes the following: the subsequent rent due prior to judgment;
interest & penalties as per the contract; interest at 18% levied by
the court for delayed payment of the judgment sum; court fees; the legal
fees of Pacifica; & the legal fees of ESRT. Plus, no doubt, some
less obvious charges.
"So $1.8m? No, the judgment alone – & this is
apart from the settlement – is a fair bit more than $1.8m."So,
why the hell have the Pacifica administrators & PNB not given the
facts to the members & other listeners? Why are we all in the dark
about the cost of the judgment, & its breakdown, & the cost of
the settlement, & its breakdown?
" Why? The answer is anyone's guess –
is it to help politically those who pushed for the loan, to suppress
bad news, done to help the very people who went on & on about the
process costs of bankruptcy, the alternative course?
"And given this
disclosure deficit, why the hell are there so few directors (i.e. the
PNB) & delegates (i.e. the Local Station Boards) demanding that this
info be released to the members & other listeners? Why? Life, even
that of a zombie radio network, moves on.
"And like Trump, keep leaving
issues in your wake & they sink to the bottom of the ocean,
forgotten by all.
And it seems only a few directors have been
given copies of, or sight of, the FJC & Socal loan documents. Who
decided on this apparent restricted distribution? Using which criteria,
criteria agreed by which PNB meeting?
"The very Finance Cttee of the PNB
has itself complained, without success, to the iED & the PNB that it
hasn't seen these documents (or even received summaries, written by
which privileged employee or fellow director, on whose orders?).
"How can
all this be other than a dereliction of duty? Why does the PNB, &
indeed the members, tolerate this? But worse is to come." ###
another comment here reposted=
new comment on the post "Has Reimers called Cosby yet?":
"Question : Tho this blog is all about only NY's WBAI - Null was a prime
seller / distributor for many years on KPFK in LA.... but is he still on
elsewhere, or at KPFK?"And Null and other 'guests', sales
promoters, workshop promoters, etc. are not listed on the schedule on
website either. Who's to know ? Do you ?"Some of us barely
can tolerate the other false-claim hawking and racially-motivated slants
to listen to anything past old recordings replayed from other
distributors {Soundstrue, Nader, Watts' son's site, etc ] - while Ian
Masters is the most balanced/ exposing various view by academics and
some politicians - at KPFK, that is. "So it is unhelpful and uninteresting to be a 'listener' any more. "How is it elsewhere? Are any/ many programs replayed at the other Pacifica stations that are worth hearing from 1 ? " ###
more words = here reposted:
..... the main difficulty is that the FJC loan contract is not publicly available, & matters are made worse because there’s little documentation to rely on. There seem to be only two relevant written public statements that can help us:
departing CFO Sam Agarwal’s resignation letter, 28 March 2018; & what PNB chair N.... calls a loan summary, distributed by her Saturday, 16 June, in time for the Californian LSB’s that weekend. In addition there’s a sentence – yes, we really are down to scraps – by iED Tom L....in an undated email (seems to be early April this year) .... I asked her for details of the two loans, FJC & SoCal.
(The latter usually has ‘supporters’ added, although this is disingenuous given that the last auditor’s report says they consist in “Board members and other individuals”, directors who to this day remain un-named (FY2016, note 17, page 19) – http://pacifica.org/documents/financial/audit_2016.pdf .)
I consider each document in turn, finishing with an addendum on who FJC are & what this can mean for Pacifica.
1) Sam’s letter was kindly published by.... [WBAI's on his blog:] http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com/2018/03/why-agarwal-cut-out.html . The relevant part is his point (e), cited here in full, & I have emphasised 4 passages, using paired asterisks:
“Recent PNB action in approving a $3.7 million loan has put me in an impossible position. *The loan mandates extensive accounting and financial reporting requirements which cannot be met in any foreseeable period of time.*
We do not produce Balance Sheets monthly, so cannot track/report our liabilities on a current basis. We generate Balance Sheets only at the time of audit which is running about 500 days late. *Under any loans, it is almost mandatory to produce current audit reports in a reasonable time. We cannot comply with this requirement.*
*There are other documented delinquencies like non-compliance and non-payment of Retirement contributions which puts us in direct breach of loan covenants.*
I have repeatedly informed PNB of my serious concerns, but it has had no effect in its decision making. It is unconscionable for me to wait for a few months and then report default *when it is clear that we will not comply at the outset.* Our accounting and reporting is so deficient that, at the present rate of progress, it will take years to come close to meeting the demands.
This is ONLY IF, extraordinary resources are devoted for improving the situation, which I have not seen happening in last two years.” (original caps)
It’s worth noting, especially as he speaks of “reporting requirements which cannot be met in any foreseeable period of time”, that he doesn’t draw attention to another unsatisfiable basic: the need for Pacifica to be solvent.
But perhaps it was so obvious it was better not to rub it in. Even so, it is a contractual requirement according to Nancy’s spurious summary, so I’ll address it there.
The giving of the waiver by FJC is consistent with Sam’s assessment, as without it Pacifica “will not comply at the outset [of the contract]”.
But how patient will FJC remain? Will they keep giving waivers provided the quarterly interest carries on rolling in? As I said last month, & I repeat it below in more detail, FJC doesn’t wait for a borrower to default: they sell on the loan when it is merely “potentially impaired” (see the FJC “delinquent & impaired loans” accounting policy described in any of their auditor’s reports for at least the last 10 years – links below).
So whenever it suits FJC they can declare that Pacifica’s principal, $3.265m, is unlikely to be paid on time, c. 31 March 2021, & sell the debt – & there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, Pacifica can do about it. The loan is FJC’s asset, theirs to dispose of at will.
Yes, putting the vernacular at its most refined, Pacifica is FJC’s female dog.