The Pacifica National Board Strategic Planning Committee met yet again, to no effect, rambling incoherently, with the occasional moment of pointless semi-near-coherence, with a number of members sounding as if they were literally on their death beds, unable to summon focus or thought, yet strongly feeling the need for their ‘thoughts’ to be heard – a pretty fair model of Pacifica itself, I suppose:
The group, as Pacificans, is incapable of thought or function.
The following is an ‘Executive Summary’ of the accomplishments of the session. Those of considerable patience and even greater fortitude may prefer to listen to the archived audio. I wish them good luck :)
Finance Recovery Workgroup
Recap of previously long-known (scant/sparse) information
Most actual/meaningful information still ‘confidential’
No fresh information
No actual financial plans of any sort discussed or presented
We are however told that there were very pretty charts of the above lack of any meaningful information.
Here is Tom Livingston's report, followed by a Q & A session.
Here is Tom Livingston's report, followed by a Q & A session.
Governance & Mission
Lengthy rambling discussion of plans for a survey re plans for plans re Governance & Mission
Proposed survey content clearly lacking any focus or coherence
Hope is expressed that this first survey may lead to further surveys
No discussion as to any plans re Governance and Mission
No discussion of any plans to create actual plans or proposals re Governance & Mission
Programming Working Group
Chair re-presented his fervent hope for a National Mission Program Director
To be unfunded, with a trivial ‘honorarium’
This position to lead the charge to leftist political relevance… somehow.
All assumptions are that Pacifica’s ‘Mission’ is one of left/progressive advocacy as it has been for roughly the last four decades, to no effect
No consideration of any other options
If I’ve missed anything of earth-shaking or Pacifica-Shaking Consequence, please pardon. For much of this I was deep in My Eyes Glaze Over mode.
Unavoidable.
Sorries 😁
Anyone who cares to sample the archived audio and can do better is more than welcome, and I’ll be more than willing to present a tip of my virtual pirate hat (or bandanna, as you prefer) 😉
Anyone who cares to sample the archived audio and can do better is more than welcome, and I’ll be more than willing to present a tip of my virtual pirate hat (or bandanna, as you prefer) 😉
Pirate Special SuperDuper Summary:
Very much the usual. A group of very dim people, incapable of focus, thought, coherence, or prioritization.
Tellingly, I suppose, it continues to be clear that Pacificans’ one true desire, their one true ‘purpose’, de facto, is to continue to continue to continue as they have been for lo these past few decades, obscure and irrelevant, with no actual interest in radio or media, their only differences amongst themselves having to do with ‘power’ within this irrelevant and powerless organization.
Though they hope, of course, that by continuing to fail at what they’ve failed at for so long they may acquire a larger audience and greater influence.
I’d say they were Failure Artists, but I can’t honestly say they rise to that level.Too challenging, I suppose.
Fortunately, from an external perspective, whether they ‘succeed’ or fail, for anyone with any interest in anything other than mindless advocacy of the same old same old left wing variety, particularly for anyone mindful of the actual original foundational goals and ideals, they simply don’t matter to anyone other than themselves – which is to say, to no one at all.
Speaking simply for one random pirate, I may say that I have a deeper appreciation than ever for Pilate’s line within the Christian Mythos:
‘I wash my hands of this.’
Good advice, huh?
~ ‘indigopirate’
No one really believes any change will come from this group so there isnt much motivation. Some really
ReplyDeletebelieve things are just fine. They patted themselves on the back for saving Pacifica with new loans and
are now taking a break. This group is just a cover for whatever plan is being cooked up to handle the loan payments when they start to come due.
My best guess is that a swap of WBAI's signal will be used to raise cash when the loan principal is due (if not before).
ReplyDeletea continual quest here for repeated or clarifying info as to who, how, why it was colluded-allowed to happen that some people at WBAI created the latest, maybe 'last one' $$$ catastrophe that all 5 radio stations now Must Pay For ..... huh?
ReplyDeleteHow did that burden – created and set-up by so few then hobble the whole organization [all claimed to be “in” even if not involved together in any decision making or non-payment decisions ] to be a Pacifica-Problem ?
all for 1 and none for all ? when benefits at 1 station are not shared with others or gifts / 'win'-falls to 1 is not given equitably to the entire whole who are “Pacifica” ?
When only indebtedness is what is shared ?
Is that how it is obligated and written ? and intended ?
Why are all the stakeholders required to repair and repay the ‘errors’ and attempts-to-be-cunning of the few in NY or 1 far away distant site – 1 that was already FAILING and unable to pay it’s own maintenance or bills or rent – be the source of a the whole shebang--
thus breaking open all coffers – to repay that tiny part’s doings? However it occurred .
How can 1 GM’s,, or some PNB directors' decisions and dumb acts - then BRING DOWN and rain-dangerously-to-flood-in-debt then- on every other station
- and all their stakeholders, donors, staff, et al & property too
– be the tiny virus that almost-killls off all the rest ?
Was that really the way Pacifica was set up ?
with by laws that entitled so few to ruin and destroy all the rest that was developed in long & hard-won time, with that example [just 1?] mis-placing members’ / donors’ trust and lying to them when asking for monies ?
If you are referring to the Empire State Building lease, that lease was negotiated and signed by Pacifica, and not WBAI. WBAI is guilty of many other sins (financial and otherwise), but not that particular one.
Delete[part 1 of 2 ] As was read elsewhere, tho those details not memorized, but that msg said that the GM @ WBAI did not pay full rent for a few months, assuming he had made a verbal agreement to reduce rent, but had nothing actually to confirm that in writing. Did that occur ?
ReplyDeleteWas that not so ? Who was that acting-as-'authority' by name ? Why was there no record, as msgs. have indicated, of those agreements or assumptions made ? Or was there no such events ? as was described/ written elsewhere ? WHAT DID HAPPEN? Plse repeat the reality, in maybe a few words, to reveal what was incorrectly hinted, that occurred at the pertinent events, and exactly when ?
What are approximate dates when "anyone at Pacifica" did anything, or lapsed in their duties -if not WBAI w/person[s] still unnamed ? - Who Else also had agreed to allow WBAI to get to not pay some debts -- or are the monies owed only for rents at that 1 radio station ? Then to be re-paid by 'the central Office' - located in Berkeley, not NY - who is no-one but a bunch of 5 entities called radio stations ?
Who did that and when and why ???---and HOW could it have been let go, unnoticed, for a long period - long before most stakeholders ever even heard that a NY court case was involved ???
[Note: "stakeholders" ="investors" without certificates of ownership, to be identifying more accurately of what "donors" actually are. ]
[more in 2nd post - here ]
[Part 2 of 2 ]
ReplyDeleteIf the Pacifica as an organization - a nebulous name of a non-profit group - then as legal entity - assumes that any of the individuals therein have NO RESPONSIBILITY at all ? in any way ???
OR have NO ACCOUNTABILITY ? for who-ever then SIGNS or lapses in documentary verifications?
No one at Pacifica - a "corporation" - is then the only 1 named as having done-those-deeds ??... those acts then may have made the rest of their future business matters recognized as NO longer ethical, or maybe also illegal, according to how contracts are done - without any good-business-practices either???? Everyone else involved in any Pacifica station are humans, liable, responsible to repair, replace, resurrect the corporate entity – to do another similar act like this again maybe ?
Pacifica is who, what, where? ...or is that legal-entity then the paper-only liable central paper-legalized-group ?
and with NO ONE at all held accountable ? huh ?
How easy is that ? wow !!!!
Is that the same legal "Games Corporations Play" done everywhere else too?
And that ploy also being so very unfair to everyone else associated with the corp.[ human or not] forever thereafter too ? huh?
as in "....duh ....whatever ....no one cares anyhow ...especially if they barely know anything..."
[thanks to Pacificainexile for exposing lots, so well, so often, but then has become silent...last posting on now is April 5, 2018.
And nothing remains in any actual evidences of how/ what caused that enormous $$$ debt ? = convenient .
Or if no one can see any paperwork, or recordings [like Cohen's emerging story] is never available, is that acceptable ?
Since whatever was written, to confirm that the debt was owed to Empire State rentals as sued, is secret or just uninteresting anyhow ? “No one cares about the details” is the excuse for secrecy and non-transparency, is that it ?
Then..this CORPORATION is also a name-less, blame-less vague entity where, conveniently ,it is has no humans that need to be ethically accountable - nor name-able - nor responsible - even if being a corp. legally-only means NOT even 1 person is legally sue-able ? Nor are any humans ETHICALLY accountable either?
Can this be the case? And with the 'anonymous' responding comment – is just again confirming - & with the usual vagueness of just saying the mess has not anything to do with anyone at WBAI - but it is the zombied corporate entity to be blamed or named instead ? huh?
Please be specific. [Sorry - obviously I am not an atty - with all the maneuvers known mostly by that profession.]
And try to make sense of any information that has Not been openly stated nor noticed to all ['the rest of us'] , who are then now asked to pay up the high cost of those machinations – with the resulting destructive nationwide $$$ debt, then paid by all stakeholders.
["stakeholders" =most are humans - giving $$$ & have been paid up for years & years =-these also are: donors, gift-givers, & volunteers giving free work time and efforts, et al ...]
... tho Not the various programmers who always have un-admitted gains - but w/o ever admitting all their own accrued benefits.
once again, the word-games of easily-repeated, nebulous, generalized statements - claiming that only huge corporations are 'at fault' - & thus are claiming, “w/o admitting any 'wrong-doing” - the usual denying catch phrase found elsewhere too.
And then everyone actually - then or now - involved is thus absolved of all human recognition, or responsibility for their past acts - as humans signing.....et al.
Can this is the same replay of non-human, only corporations, acting in behalf of dumb humans ? As at every other hated-criticized-demeaned other corporation, as decried at every single Pacifica radio station, repeatedly ?
as read elsewhere written by a WABI person there:
ReplyDelete"“….There is also lurking behind the surface in all this hoopla the simple fact that WBAI has not in its current form been able to sustain itself financially for years.
Its inability to pay the onerous rents at 120 Wall Street and the transmitter at the Empire State Building nearly caused all of Pacifica to be pushed into bankruptcy. That objective was the clear goal of some in Pacifica who wanted and still desire WBAI to be sold for at least $20 million dollars. …."
so where is it known by WBAI's LSB that their station as not responsible or involved as the prior above "anonymous" person Wants To Claim as Fact ? huh?
Can this blog site be more factual, real, and honest vs. denying and defending and avoiding?
Also it is interesting how many comments [that has been made here & other Pacifica sites ]contain QUESTIONS that just remain there as in limbo, purgatory, no-where-known-land...and remain unanswered or ignored....
that becomes fascinating to notice: how many questions remain as if they were irrelevant... or dismissed....or perhaps just ignored ....or the way to thus deny what the question's answer may reveal ? this is not a rhetorical question, again, but again, which may also be ignored....
as the commenting anon speak to each other a lot -maybe knowing their identities too - and very few are willing to communicate with someone "Else" they don't know will agree with them?
what/ why is this happening so often, elsewhere re Pacifica/ WBAI matters too. Not just here. But also noticeable obviously here too.
WBBAI Manager Berthold Reimers consistently lied about the actual amount owed to the ESRT people (and others), embroidering the facts to cover up for his own inept management. Had he done the right thing and laid the facts on the table, rescue efforts would have been set in motion long before they did.
Deletemuch time was wasted because of this and Reimers became untouchable when the majority faction (Cerene, et al) saw a possibility for a takeover. To accomplish that, they needed to crash the station. One way to facilitate that was to make it virtually unlistenable, so the programming became deplorable and the content tainted by black street-level racism.
There is, of course, much more to this, but what I describe forms the essence of this latest assault from within.
Much money is unaccounted for, virtually nothing has been spent on improving WBAI in any way If one were to seriously scrutinize the pledge situation, I would be very surprised if criminality charges didn't surface.
DeleteThanks Chris- for the blog and for your often more openly admitting whatever is needed to be said vs. denying, or shutting down someone else's words - here or elsewhere too.
someone else here wrote that it was Not WBAI but Pacifica's problem re huge debt.My prior response to that was then left, unanswered, perhaps easily unread, and no further attempts at defenses, denials or dismissals came thru...so far.
But that person's obviously attempt to clear WBAI as being only so…innocent & maybe even a victim-only....which then becomes thus another mischaracterization =
LIE about what did happen - to create the financial chaos that ensued...
and tho just a bit has been found / written elsewhere about how that difficult-to-repay $$$$$$$$ debt occurred,we are still left with questions, & wondering - but left with little actual historical details or 'facts' [evidences? ]
of Who and When and How all that bad-maneuvering came to be....
it would be helpful to many others too for such details to be investigated/ & clearly STATED PUBLICLY - for all stakeholders to read – should they still listen & want to become more informed about their radio station's fragility and it's causes...
do you know? will you say ? or Where else has it been written to refer us to ? thanks for your work here & elsewhere.
Being a careful reader and critical thinker, 'some of us' have been amazed - and then documenting how much word-play and lies plus false implications are repeated & stated -but not actually so-said everywhere else too, it’s not just Pacifica people...
But you should know as you are so involved.
As Is obvious in all politics of course [before too, only now it’s more loudly, persistently,& audibly re-played …plus heard in fake apologies.... and also as claimed - "without any wrong doing' –those ever repeated frequent claims by any attorney mantras said continually, as those “litigators” cleverly use sly word-games to LIE easier too. Of course, lawyers & such claim that” is their job”, but then 'sharks.....[good joke not repeated here ] ….don't act that badly.
of course, it takes careful attention and plenty of time to notice, document, & realize how we - The People - are being mis-played and mis-treated with such faked stories/ defenses/ images/words, et al.
thanks for this space to dis-cuss all this, too.
Lets follow the equipment trail. The story that the equipment went into storage and was lost due to non-payment of storage fees. Where is the paper work Mr. Reimers? Having the studio's equipment returned would improve the sound of inept on-air talent, not the content, its a place to start. BTW does Pacifica still have a D&0 policy? How will Mr. Reimers look in orange? Working on answers.
ReplyDeleteAs of my last enquiry, some months ago, they have no D&O per R.Paul Martin. I suppose that fact alone, is yet another reflection of their fine judgement.
Delete~ 'indigo'
I mentioned in another thread here that pacifica.org's homepage was no longer headed by the Lopate hiring. I also added that the website's URL is new, https://new.pacifica.org/ – although the old one still works.
ReplyDeleteNow another removal: on Thursday or Friday the Pacifica Webmaster (one of the duties of the National Office's FridayCleanerGuy), binned the announcement that the FY2016 auditor's report was on the site. This leaves as the latest news something from February 2015 ('Notices & News'). The iED & Acting CFO (unqualified) is certainly leading Pacifica into the future. I'm sure the FJC Loan Cttee are impressed.
Miscellanea (coincidently the name of the sis-in-law of The Trumpanzee – is she in the Cohen tapes?):
1) surprisingly, except for those on the inside, on Thursday, 26 July, the PNB met secretly (euphemistically, the 'closed' or 'executive' session). The official calendar labelled it a "Special Meeting". Its purpose? "[To d]iscuss possible conflict of interest of a board member – special meeting called by Grace Aaron, Carole Travis, Alex Steinberg, and Bill Crosier." Who are they after? https://kpftx.org/archive.php ;
2) PNB meets on Thursday, 2 August. Wonder if Alex Steinberg's motion, known as 'lifting the veil of secrecy', first debated at the 10 May public session but not voted on, & not heard as unfinished business at the June & July regular meetings, will this motion see the light of day? In this, & many other matters, we do not see at work the persuasive powers of the iED/Acting CFO (unqualified), him taking the lead in the interest of the members, the staff, other listeners, & the principles of transparency & accountability. In this refusal he continues to effectively undermine the credibility of Pacifica, not least in boosting both morale & its ability to fundraise, especially for the $3.657m needed to pay the FJC variable interest loan by c. 30 September 2021 ($3.265m principal + at least $0.392m for the second 18-months' interest (re the current 8%); note that every one percentage point rise in the Fed prime rate costs Pacifica $32 650 pa; the cttee effectively choosing that rate, the FOMC, is due to meet another 26 times during the life of the loan, so let's hope Our Very Stable Genius doesn't wreck anything) – please see my report of the absurd stymying of Alex's plea, given as a five-part comment to http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com/2018/05/indigo-and-seek.html ;
3) Tuesday the PNB Personnel Cttee interviewed the ED candidates. Note, the iED/Acting CFO (unqualified) had told the 5 July PNB (30:58) that if the current ED search isn't successful then his company will continue the search but, as relayed to the PNB a month before, Mr Tom himself will stop working as iED (& Acting CFO) "hopefully by the end of August, but no later than the end of September" – after a Pacifica sojourn (nod to Margaret, a friend of some commenters here) we all need to get it back real & go to Acapulco. So no application of pressure there, then. So only when his own mental health is at stake, not when the Pacifica values of transparency & accountability are being paved in before our very eyes, paved in deeper than Joanna Doe for upsetting the Mafia – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/pnb180705/pnb180705a.mp3 ;
4) Thursday's PNB Coordinating Cttee was cancelled – won't make the obvious 'joke'. (It's scheduled for Wednesday next week, 1 August); &
5) the 'Contact' section from the Pacifica homepage has no live links: all 10 are broken. For the 'Pacifica Foundation' section it means listeners can't email the Foundation itself, or the PNB, or the iED, or, as the page has it, the CFO (as you might have gathered, there is no CFO, only one in an acting capacity – apposite in its precision). Incidently, anyone know the email address for the PNB (presumably that of Chair Nancy)?
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DeleteThe website now carries a statement by First Secretary Kobren – not Koba – telling the faithful, "[t]he PNB met in closed session on July 26, 2018 to carry out Pacifica’s Conflict of Interest policy (Pacifica Bylaw Article 13) regarding a contract with a Director and voted to deem that it is in the best interest to [sic] of the Foundation nonetheless to enter into the contract" (all links below). Which begs the questions, which director? what contract? and how did people vote? (The First Secretary's report does not say whether section 3 of that article had been complied with, that "[t]he minutes of the Board or committee meeting shall reflect: (D) that the Conflict of Interest was disclosed; (E) the Board or committee's decision regarding the Conflict of Interest, including a statement that the Interested Person was not present during the final discussion and vote; and (F) that the Interested Person abstained from voting".)
It is worth noting, re the Socal loan, that Doug & his associates disclosed in their FY2016 auditor's report that "the Foundation obtained a loan in the amount of $500,000 ('Supporters Loan') from various benefactors of the Foundation (Board members and other individuals). The purpose of this loan is to cover restoration and moving expenses related to the relocation of the WBAI transmitter from the Empire State Building to 4 Times Square" (note 17, page 19). So "Board members", even in the plural – something NEVER disclosed by Pacifica. Pacifica's publicly available statements, even in speeches by directors & delegates, have been CAREFUL to never speak of a director being a provider of the money (& recipient of the interest from Pacifica members), let alone directors in the plural. All that has ever been said is that director Jan Goodman is to be congratulated for helping arrange the loan. (Smiley face, for those who appreciate such things.) So possible conflict of interest? I have not seen mention of this impertinence in either the calendar or closed session reports. Incidently, director Grace Aaron, in an email to me Friday (Pacific Time, a discrete quantity, unlike Pacifica Time, with its quantum indeterminateness), spoke of "[t]he 'Supporters' Loan' of about $530,000" – this is the first time I've seen a figure other than '$500k' or 'c. $500k', & that includes the latest auditor's report.
Regarding this loan, directors Chris Cory & Carole Travis declared at the KPFA LSB, Saturday 16 June (1:28:31), there is NO confidentiality clause in this contract. So why not clear the air by publishing it? No-brainer, yes? And for the Pacifica info gatekeepers it is indeed a no-brainer: without irresistible pressure why would it even cross their minds to adhere to the Pacifica principles of transparency & accountability? Are you crazy? So in a double sense the gatekeepers are part of The Resistance: that against Trump, & that against their fellow Pacifica office-holders, the other members, the other listeners, Pacifica staff, & all those Pacifica does business with, both now & in the future.
http://pacifica.org/documents/pnb_exec_180726.pdf
http://pacifica.org/indexed_bylaws/art13.html
http://pacifica.org/documents/financial/audit_2016.pdf
https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/kpfa/180616/kpfa180616a.mp3
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DeleteAnd, as I have said before, note that this loan, contrary to directors' statements to the PNB & the Californian LSB's, had nothing to do with ESRT, either the October 2017 court judgment or the March 2018 settlement to get out of the contract. It was required because of Pacifica's chronic cashflow, its inability to cough up $340k for removals from the Empire State Building (director Grace's figure). That piled on top of currently having net liabilities of c. $10m (one would be surprised if it was anything else); that for a c. $10.5m a year operation (income, with expenses $2m higher – as per FY2016); operating without station budgets or any financial control other than what's in the bank that day – all that countered by a sole force, the alert gaze of the Acting Chief Financial Officer (unqualified), Major Tom, who in a month's time hopes to be on a real Pacific beach, in Acapulco, despite floating in a most peculiar way since leaving Pacifica.
And pause for one moment . . . into this tornado FJC agreed to throw its clients' money, $3.265m (revised down from $3.7m), repayable in full in 32 months' time, c. 31 March 2021. Not in 2022. Not in 2023. Not in 2024. Drilled into our heads has to be this reality: FJC bears a fiduciary duty towards its clients – it has none towards Pacifica. "An individual in whom another has placed the utmost trust and confidence to manage and protect property or money [...] The relationship wherein one person has an obligation to act for another's benefit." (But, hey, it's just a word, right? In Pacificaland words have a different worth.)
Pacifica's secrecy culture is alive & well. Pacifica just keeps on digging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo (more visually interesting than the original, & a nod to the First Secretary with the altered lyrics)
Whoops: in point (2), 'damaging' should replace 'boosting'; & the date of the maturation of the FJC variable interest loan is 'c. 31 March 2021', not September (I obviously had in mind the month in which the half-way point of the loan falls, when Pacifica needs to find new money to pay the interest). The only correction this entails is that before the loan matures, the effective setter of the Fed prime rate, the Federal Open Market Cttee, is scheduled to meet another 22 times, not 26. I mention this because since Pacifica started negotiating with FJC the rate has risen at each FOMC meeting (21 March, 13 June, both by a quarter of a percentage point). Where's Alan Watts – can Gary help us find him?
ReplyDeleteWhoops again: there was a third meeting, 2 May this year, when the rate didn't change.
DeleteWe are meetings e more careful
ReplyDeletePre-LSB meeting mix up as per PD LPB
Sorry for any misunderstanding. I know I mentioned I was thinking of tonight but hadn't confirmed it. I will call a meeting in the near future. Tonight I will be attending our LSB meeting. It's 7pm at the Actors Fund Arts Center
160 Schermerhorn St. in Sunny Brookyn
But, I will be here at 6:30 if anyone wants to meet.
Again, apologies for any confusion. I will e more careful in the future.
Regards,
Linda