Kill KPFA Strikes Again

At yesterday's board meeting, Dan Siegel proposed and the new board majority upheld by a one-vote margin, (created by lawsuit) a threat to file an 11th lawsuit against the Pacifica Foundation if it does not approve the KPFA worker budget and rescind all layoffs by December 13th.

The resolution stated the executive director of the foundation does not, in the estimation of Concerned Listeners/Save KPFA group, have the authority to make decisions about the headcount the foundation can afford to maintain and the board of directors of the 501c3 foundation does not have the authority to approve operating budgets.

This proposed lawsuit joins 10 others filed in the past 2 weeks by members of Save KPFA - Concerned Listeners, more than tripling the total amount of lawsuits filed in 1999 over the pending sale of the station.

The motion followed a financial report which noted KPFA's operating deficit of $575,000 in 2008-2009 and $579,000 in the 2009-2010 fiscal year ending on September 30th. On September 15th, KPFA demanded that Pacifica help them with payroll which they could not afford and funds were loaned by Pacifica's Houston station.

The financial report stated that KPFA's current cash-in-bank totals $79,000 as of 12-4 with $78,000 in account payables, and a monthly payroll obligation of over $140,000. $150,000 is also owed to the parent foundation and has been for more than 6 months.

Save KPFA - Concerned Listeners, which earlier this year ran a fundraiser for their campaign postcard described as a "benefit for KPFA" is engaging in a desperate and malevolent series of legal maneuvers to assert control over the operations of a national foundation for a small clique of Berkeley's "Old Left" which has driven KPFA to the a financial precipice.

Foiled by last year's victory by Independents for Community Radio in the 2009 election and the selection of an ED from outside their narrow circle, the Save KPFA/Concerned Listeners group is resorting to death by lawsuit after the executive director of Pacifica and the Pacifica National Board refused to support a 3rd consecutive cooked budget from former treasurer Brian Edwards-Tiekert.