When it comes to push and shove... call the YUKs

Another WBAI LSB meeting gets physical as Cerene and her Gang of Yuks hit the low road again.

The following was posted by WBAI LSB Treasurer R. Paul Martin on another board. It should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the WBAI JUC faction through the alley of ignorance. These people have no interest in the station that could possibly benefit it or its listeners. They are unprincipled manipulators who have no business in the broadcasting field, least of all at a Pacifica station. Of course, this is no longer Lew Hill's Pacifica—not even close. These thugs would not have been allowed beyond the front door when WBAI lived up to Mr. Hill's concept of an intelligent alternative to dial dross.

Here is R. Paul's account of the January 13, 2016 LSB meeting: 

"So there was a WBAI Local Station Board (LSB) meeting set for January 13. When I showed up there I was told that the National Elections Supervisor had posted the WBAI election results right before the meeting. The meeting was set for 7:00 PM, and the date/time stamp on the E-mail was 5:44 PM. Great timing.

This meant that some of the people showing up for the meeting were no longer on the LSB, and most of the people who had just been elected didn't know it yet and weren't there. Most of us were of the opinion that the LSB meeting couldn't be valid under these circumstances.

The faction was making all sorts of assertions about who was a member, including saying that Vajra Kilgour, who had come in last in this election, as well as having come in last in the previous election, was now a member. In fact Kathryn Davis was the first runner-up and should take the seat of Janet Coleman who had termed out after six years on the LSB.

So this was a bit of a surprise. And I went into the meeting room and had my camera on and took video of what I saw, and I asked John Brinkley, the LSB Chair and a faction operative, what the story was. He was not pleasant. And then he got up, walked around the table and he started shoving me out of the room! I didn't move so easily. And then he hit the camera I was using, and the hand that was holding it.

After the assault Brinkley sat back down, comforted by serial assailant Cerene Roberts. The faction had once again caused violence at a WBAI LSB meeting."

And here is Tracy Rosenberg's West Coast caveat, distributed Tuesday:

Hi all,I know there's a lot going on with the transitions to new boards, but there is one situation that needs your immediate attention due to a large discrepancy.

It is my understanding that a claim is being made that the termed out seat of WBAI local station staff member (and PNB member) Janet Coleman can or should be given to the last remaining runner up from the 2012 election.

The justification provided for this appears to be a PNB motion passed in June of 2015.

Here's the problem. On December 9th, 2015, KPFA local station board member Andrea Prichett termed out at six years as an LSB member. The next runner up from the 2012 election, Beth Seligman, was NOT seated in her stead at the KPFA local station board meeting which occurred on December 12th. The seat was held open to be filled by the 1st runner up from the NEW 2015 election results, which were not released until December 16th - four days AFTER the meeting.

Now it may be that the former PNB chair, the PNB treasurer, and the PNB secretary, all of whom sit on the KPFA LSB, all violated the PNB's dictate as Cerene Roberts would apparently have it, but if that is the case the mistake needs to be corrected as Seligman has already lost more than a month of her term.

Or it may be that Cerene is not correct and all vacancies on local station boards as of December 2015 should be filled using the runner up lists from the elections conducted in 2015. Which is what I would personally suggest is correct.

But under all conditions, the same practice must be followed at all stations. It cannot be one set of rules for KPFA and quite another for WBAI. In the case of KPFA, there are no factional implications either way as Seligman, the next runner up from 2012, and T.M. Scruggs, the first runner up from the 2015 results provided by Simply Voting belong to the same faction. 

I know that is not the case at WBAI, but regardless the same procedure must be followed at both local station boards.

This needs to be resolved asap so that boards can be seated in the next week. 

So please establish the consistent rule that all stations need to follow with regards to delegates who termed out in December 2015.

Best, Tracy