Today, April 10, 2014, KPFK interviewed Margy Wilkinson, the winner of a mysterious Pacifica National Board election that remains shrouded in mystery. Ms. Wilkinson admits that she has no experience of the kind required for the position she was rushed into, so, as she returned to her Chair position, that has been handed over to Bernard Duncan. Or has it? There is no end to the confusion as this scenario plays out. In the meantime, Pacifica is on shaky ground, and it ain't just generated by the fast spins of Pacifica's late founder, Lewis Hill.
See what you can make of it—here is Ms. Wilkinson:
1) I felt Ms Wilkinson did a fine job here of presenting herself and her positions – credit where due.
ReplyDelete2) In the header for this entry you posed the question: ‘Why has this group not sought legal means to prove their legitimacy?’
This has seemed to me for some time a natural question, and I’d have been interested in hearing Ms Wilkinson’s answer to such a question if an interviewer chose to ask it of her.
If Ms Wilkinson feels that she is clearly and unequivocally the duly elected Chairman of the Pacifica National Board, and if her position and that of her supporters on the Board is that Ms Reese has been legally terminated and that Ms Reese is illegally occupying the Pacifica National Headquarters, with access to files and signatory authority over accounts, why on earth not move legally to have Ms Reese evicted and to have legal authority over Pacifica accounts handed over by the courts to Ms Wilkinson, her CFO, etc?
Perhaps Ms Wilkinson and her supporters intend to take such action, but it’s been rather a while, and at present seems worthy of note that no such action has been taken.
~ ‘indigopirate’
I think that fact is the Reese camp's most convincing argument, being more tangible that described election irregularities.
DeleteIndigopirate, (1) what is the evidence for the idea that "Ms Reese [. . . has] signatory authority over accounts", (2) has anyone ever said she was a signatory (perhaps as being Executive Director), & (3) has anyone said she is currently a signatory?
DeleteOn the possibilities of election irregularities, I had noted that the three plaintiff documents did not mention the election of Tony Norman to either the National Board or its vice-chairpersonship. I also quoted the bylaw that bans public officials or candidates from serving on the Board.
Deletehttp://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.de/2014/04/blog-post.html
Having just done an internet search it seems Mr Norman may still be an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner serving his two-year term:
1) Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANC's) started in 1974 as the lowest tier of DC's local government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advisory_Neighborhood_Commission
http://anc.dc.gov/ (not that informative)
2) Mr Norman was elected 6 November 2012 as sole Commissioner for Ward 1, Subdivision B, District 10; no-one ran against him, & he got 307 votes (in the ward, 11 of the 12 districts were uncontested: competitive electioneering is alive & well in the Land of the Free).
http://www.voteresults.org/Results2012/xml_file_out1112.xml (about an inch down)
3) Mr Norman, at some point (perhaps January 2013), became chair of ANC 1B but lost that position in a vote on 2 January 2014.
http://shortarticlesaboutlongmeetings.blogspot.de/2014/01/james-turner-new-chair-of-anc1b.html
4) The website of his own ANC says Mr Norman is still the Commissioner for 1B10:
http://www.anc1b.org/commissioners (undated)
5) But surprisingly he's not on the list published by the Office of ANC's - it says 1B10 is "vacant":
http://anc.dc.gov/page/advisory-neighborhood-commission-1b-00 (again undated)
Some questions outstanding, which readers might be able to answer:
Q1) when was Mr Norman elected to the Pacifica National Board?
(Pacifica's site, pacifica.org, doesn't carry the election results to the currrent PNB - but then it doesn't even list who's on it. That's par for the course: the last "National Report" in the drop-down menu is the auditor's report for fiscal year-end 30 September 2012; & the section "News" says, believe it or not, "No News!! Check Later"; it's been that way for weeks:
http://pacifica.org/foundation_news.php )
Q2) is he still on ANC 1B?
Q3) if not when did he leave office?
I like Margy's credentials better than I like Summer Reese's. I was right, Reese was promoting Gary Null style marketing over Pacifica. See link to the article on Reese's firing below. It wasn't just her decisions, it was her tenure. Margy has her own agenda, and that is for greater autonomy for KPFA from Pacifica. I like the public affairs programming that KPFA produces and I like Truth Dig, the show that backs Margie Wilkinson better that the show that featured Summer Reese, and Blosdale's tearful vow of loyalty (I will always work for you, Summer, you will always be my boss!) only underscores that if you don't want the money changers in Pacifica, if you don't want it to be the marketing operation run by Reimers and featuring premiums pitched by Null and Blosdale, then you don't want Summer Reese at the helm. Remember - she KEPT Reimers because he promised revenue and axed FSRN, as a cost saving measure. Bernard Duncan has better credentials for running Pacifica than does Reese. And again, I can live better with Bernard Duncan and KPFA content, then I can with Haskins and the BAI fare. See the link below:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.savekpfa.org/pnb-dismisses-interim-ed
BTW - Margy is doing her work at Pacifcia - PRO BONO, that's a big plus and should be used as an example to wave in front of Reese, and Reimers, and Haskins!
Strange goings on that are very dangerous and divided, each side claiming to the only ‘true’ story. One part is that Bernard Duncan was Gen'l Mgr of KPFK - and left a few months early before his contract was completed - - without openly stating his intentions to escalate to top dog position. His contract was till June 2014 [3 years] and then he suddenly left a few months early, acting disloyally to his station - and without any open or public explanations or apologies.
ReplyDeleteWhen asked directly why he was leaving KPFK so suddenly, he claimed he was going to NZ to be with his girlfriend and quipped his departure was for "personal reasons”. His sly secretive moves left KPFK sponsors with great doubts as to what was happening [secretly] at their station, if they even knew he was moving away to higher grounds. With nothing openly explaining or clarifying the turmoil or change of GM's at KPFK in Los Angeles, no explanation has been heard on-air, or it there was a missed 1 quickie announcement that most listeners missed, “oh well, they dont need to know anything as they are only the payers, not the players”.
His trustworthiness is more in doubt by these actions and because of his continually trying to play the PR-cover-up-game when he was asked direct questions repeatedly. Sad. Scary. Will all the Pacifica stations fall, apart or be sold away ? No one tells those who are most concerned – the listener-sponsors / payers.