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Pacifica National Board and Local Station Board meetings, as well as those of their committees can be found here:

Pacifica Foundation Info can be found on the foundation's website at www.pacifica.org.

The Pacifica National Board (PNB) can be reached by email at PNB@pacifica.org.

The Local Station Board (LSB) can be reached by email at LSB@kpfk.org.

Director's Report 

to the KPFK LSB and Listeners

Director Beth von Gunten

January 7, 2024

The authority of the KPFK Local Station Boards and all Pacifica LSBs is limited to the one binding decision it makes at the beginning of each year: the choice of four Directors to represent KPFK on the Pacifica National Board. All other decisions of Local Station Board are merely advisory in nature and are not binding. 

Any Delegate who has served for at least a year on the LSB is eligible to serve as a Director. 

This year, KPFK's options are limited by the fact that seven of the more experienced members of last year's LSB who would have carried over to this year's LSB were among the nine - more than a third of last year's Local Board - improperly purged in one blow and replaced by less experienced runners up. That reduces the pool of those eligible to serve on the National Board. That favors the handful of Delegates who engineered last year's purge and now control KPFK's LSB. 

To limit discussion of who should represent KPFK on the National Board to a mere minute per candidate is unreasonable, unrealistic, and irresponsible.  A Delegate's duty of due diligence requires that sufficient time is allowed to put substantive questions to each candidate and to compare their responses. 

What is their vision for KPFK and Pacifica? Where do they stand on the array of problems facing the station and the Foundation? What changes do they propose? What is the position of each regarding Pacifica's current legal disputes - the pending New Day case for instance? *Is any candidate a party to any of these disputes?* If so, how much has their legal actions against Pacifica cost the Foundation so far? 

Is it not a conflict of interest, running for a place on the Board of an organization against which a candidate is taking legal action? Should that not disqualify a candidate at least until such outstanding legal disputes are resolved? Such a conflict of interest must at least be brought out into the light of day.

Are there other outstanding conflicts of interest? Has any candidate benefited financially or otherwise from previous transactions with other Delegates, candidates, or Directors? Does that in any way pose ongoing entanglements? If so, should that not be fully documented and disclosed? Does that pose liability for Pacifica?

Organizational ability, leadership, and integrity should also be considered, especially in light of the highly irregular conduct of last year's LSB Officers throughout last year and into this.

Notice of the December 3, 2023 LSB and Delegates Assembly special meetings were improperly altered by the Secretary Pro Tem, who then benefitted personally from that meeting, gaining seats for herself and an ally on the National Board. The Chair proceeded to convene and conduct a Delegates Assembly, an LSB special meeting, and a second Delegates Assembly all in one day, all with highly inadequate and improper notice. This ongoing cascade of improper procedure, month by month and meeting after meeting, undermines the functionality, credibility, and stability of Pacifica governance at every level, and carries legal liability for Delegates, Directors, and the Foundation as a whole. 

Each KPFK Delegate should carefully consider the implications and the LSB's full range of options before electing any candidate as a Director and elevating them to the National Board where all other binding decisions are made. Have they earned your trust? Your confidence? Your mandate? Is Pacifica safe in their hands? --Beth von Gunten

2022-2026 KPFK CAB MEMBER ROSTER 

Marcus Avila, Male Latino, realtor

 Joe Ayala, Male Latino/Iranian, labor leader, co-host Working Voices

John Donner   Male, Caucasian  Retired, former reporter,

Kelly Flores    Female, Latina  K-12 Educator, UTLA member      

Tsukuru Fors, Trans, Japanese political activist

Melvin Ishmael Johnson         Male, African American, Playwright

Stephan Klein Male, Latin, Caucasian, General contractor, Realtor

Chancee Martorell      Female, Thai, Executive Director non-profit

Dan McCrory  (chair) Male, Caucasian; former labor leader, retired telecom worker, PBS CAB member,

Sylvester Rivers      Male, African American, musician, radio producer (co-host Cut to the Chase)

Ruth Sanchez   Female, Latina      Educator

Dr. Ruth Strauss         LSB liaison physician

David Tokofsky  Male, Caucasian     Teacher, Former LAUSD board member

Analisa Venolia (Vice Chair)  Female, Latina      Graduate student

Pacifica National Board Motions on Terms for Those Elected in 2023 Elections 

Whereas there were insufficient funds to hold elections in 2022, which was year 2 of Pacifica’s 3-year election cycle in which half of the delegates would be elected;

Whereas the PNB passed a motion on October 20, 2022 providing that delegates whose terms would have ended in 2022 would continue to serve in 2023 if Pacifica failed to hold elections;

Whereas delegates whose terms would have ended in 2022 were either in their first term and therefore eligible to run again, or in their second term and therefore ineligible to run again, according to the Pacifica bylaws, and the delay from 2022 to 2023 in holding elections does not change that eligibility status;

Whereas Pacifica is in the midst of the election cycle for 2023, with the record period having passed, the period for candidate nomination having closed, the ballots not yet sent to members, and ballots slated to be sent to voters in the second half of August; and

Whereas it is important for voters to understand before they cast their votes the length of terms to which successful candidates would be elected and serve;

Therefore be it resolved that all candidates running in the 2023 delegate elections are running for two-year terms, and that the elections.pacifica.org website and the ballot shall reflect this information. Pacifica elections would return to the Article Four, Section 3 schedule of holding elections in years one and two and no elections in year three (i.e., elections in 2024 and 2025 but not in 2026).

To find your email with access to the web-based ballot, look and approve emails from this address: <invitations@mail.electionbuddy.com>

More information at https://elections.pacifica.org/wordpress  If you did not receive a ballot or don't have email and want a paper ballot, please call the National Elections Supervisor's message line: 213-635-9363.