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Will the KPFA Building Be Up For Auction?
As a result of the failure of the management of KPFA to pay the property tax bill their building may be up for auction. The same management is supporting new bylaws to corporatize the foundation and eliminate staff representation and democratic governance. There will be a press conference in front of the station on Wednesday Feb 12 at 12:00 noon.
Will the KPFA Building Be Up For Auction?
The Berkeley Daily Planet
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2020-02-07/article/48168?headline=SMITHEREENS-Reflections-on-Bits-Pieces--Gar-Smith
Gar Smith
Saturday February 08, 2020
Bookmark and Share
Will the KPFA Building Be Up For Auction?
It is both ironic and tragic that an historic, anti-war media institution like the Pacifica Foundation should find itself repeatedly engaged in a war for survival. And, once again, Berkeley's own KPFA finds itself at ground zero on the media battlescape.
Dedicated KPFA members will soon be asked to respond to a ballot that would fundamentally alter the station's operational bylaws. Members of a listener group called Rescue KPFA are warning that the new bylaw changes will be "anti-democratic and dangerous"—the work of a "rogue KPFA management" seeking to overturn Pacifica founder Lew Hill’s vision of an independent, anti-war, community based operation. According to the RKPFA partisans, the new rules threaten to turn "KPFA into NPR."
Rescue KPFA believes the current face-off involves an "engineered financial meltdown" brought about through "deliberate fiscal mismanagement" to set the stage for "an imminent auction of the Berkeley building."
Adding to the growing concern: a violent seizure of the WBAI studio in New York during a successful fund drive and "repeated failure to submit timely audits, causing a loss of Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants." A statement from Rescue KPFA references "secret KPFA Foundation incorporation papers in 2013" intended to "enable a bankruptcy judge to order the WBAI license and other station assets to be sold for tens of millions of dollars, allowing KPFA to use the proceeds to pay down debts and operate KPFA under new anti-democratic bylaws."
"This is exactly what we successfully defeated in 1999," Rescue KPFA notes. "Are we moving backwards?"
The reference is to a long factional battle between Pacific Foundation officials and local KPFA staff that culminated in a July 1, 1999 police siege of the KPFA building and the physical removal of station staff—including Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein—while hundreds of station supporters gathered outside and blocked traffic from Martin Luther King Jr. Way. (In April of that year, KPFA broadcast icon Larry Bensky also was fired for daring to discuss the struggle on the air.)
The Pacifica Foundation's violent take-over of the station followed the accidental release of an internal email from a Houston real estate broker who served on the Foundation's board. In the email, Michael Palmer wrote: "I was under the impression there was support in the proper quarters, and a definite majority, for shutting down that unit and reprogramming immediately." Palmer was among a faction of Pacifica boardmembers who was considering (in his words) "the possibility of selling one of the stations to put the national network in a better financial position."
According to Rescue KPFA, all five of Pacifica’s Local Station Boards have overwhelmingly voted NO on the substitute by-laws.
What Is at Issue?
The concern is that the new bylaws would:
Enable a self-selected board to accept corporate or major donor contributions, instead of listener support
Eliminate community-elected Local Station Boards and oversight
Eliminate staff representatives on the Pacifica National Board
Disenfranchise more than 200 affiliate stations.
Disaffected staff and listeners are also concerned that Pacifica’s anti-war mission is "under threat by continually airing the fake opposition politics practiced by mainstream media and both major parties."
The Rescue KPFA activists charge that management "has canceled popular programs without explanation: Guns and Butter, Twit Wit Radio, Discreet Music, Work Week." Instead, it chose to fill precious air-time with repetitive "gavel to gavel coverage of what every other media outlet is covering."
The closing sentence of the appeal reads: "Vote NO on the substitute bylaws and prevent the NPR model of corporate control so KPFA can once again become the leading voice in opposition to endless wars."
Meanwhile, the situation is growing dire. Because the station's management has failed to pay $486,000 in property taxes on the Berkeley studio for the last six years, the Alameda County Tax Collector’s office has announced its intention to seize the property for public auction.
For more information, you can click on Rescue KPFA. Media Alliance executive director Tracy Rosenberg also recommends checking out the Pacific Radio in Exile webpage.
A public press conference is planned at noon on February 12 at the KPFA studio (1929 MLKJ Way)
The Berkeley Daily Planet
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2020-02-07/article/48168?headline=SMITHEREENS-Reflections-on-Bits-Pieces--Gar-Smith
Gar Smith
Saturday February 08, 2020
Bookmark and Share
Will the KPFA Building Be Up For Auction?
It is both ironic and tragic that an historic, anti-war media institution like the Pacifica Foundation should find itself repeatedly engaged in a war for survival. And, once again, Berkeley's own KPFA finds itself at ground zero on the media battlescape.
Dedicated KPFA members will soon be asked to respond to a ballot that would fundamentally alter the station's operational bylaws. Members of a listener group called Rescue KPFA are warning that the new bylaw changes will be "anti-democratic and dangerous"—the work of a "rogue KPFA management" seeking to overturn Pacifica founder Lew Hill’s vision of an independent, anti-war, community based operation. According to the RKPFA partisans, the new rules threaten to turn "KPFA into NPR."
Rescue KPFA believes the current face-off involves an "engineered financial meltdown" brought about through "deliberate fiscal mismanagement" to set the stage for "an imminent auction of the Berkeley building."
Adding to the growing concern: a violent seizure of the WBAI studio in New York during a successful fund drive and "repeated failure to submit timely audits, causing a loss of Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants." A statement from Rescue KPFA references "secret KPFA Foundation incorporation papers in 2013" intended to "enable a bankruptcy judge to order the WBAI license and other station assets to be sold for tens of millions of dollars, allowing KPFA to use the proceeds to pay down debts and operate KPFA under new anti-democratic bylaws."
"This is exactly what we successfully defeated in 1999," Rescue KPFA notes. "Are we moving backwards?"
The reference is to a long factional battle between Pacific Foundation officials and local KPFA staff that culminated in a July 1, 1999 police siege of the KPFA building and the physical removal of station staff—including Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein—while hundreds of station supporters gathered outside and blocked traffic from Martin Luther King Jr. Way. (In April of that year, KPFA broadcast icon Larry Bensky also was fired for daring to discuss the struggle on the air.)
The Pacifica Foundation's violent take-over of the station followed the accidental release of an internal email from a Houston real estate broker who served on the Foundation's board. In the email, Michael Palmer wrote: "I was under the impression there was support in the proper quarters, and a definite majority, for shutting down that unit and reprogramming immediately." Palmer was among a faction of Pacifica boardmembers who was considering (in his words) "the possibility of selling one of the stations to put the national network in a better financial position."
According to Rescue KPFA, all five of Pacifica’s Local Station Boards have overwhelmingly voted NO on the substitute by-laws.
What Is at Issue?
The concern is that the new bylaws would:
Enable a self-selected board to accept corporate or major donor contributions, instead of listener support
Eliminate community-elected Local Station Boards and oversight
Eliminate staff representatives on the Pacifica National Board
Disenfranchise more than 200 affiliate stations.
Disaffected staff and listeners are also concerned that Pacifica’s anti-war mission is "under threat by continually airing the fake opposition politics practiced by mainstream media and both major parties."
The Rescue KPFA activists charge that management "has canceled popular programs without explanation: Guns and Butter, Twit Wit Radio, Discreet Music, Work Week." Instead, it chose to fill precious air-time with repetitive "gavel to gavel coverage of what every other media outlet is covering."
The closing sentence of the appeal reads: "Vote NO on the substitute bylaws and prevent the NPR model of corporate control so KPFA can once again become the leading voice in opposition to endless wars."
Meanwhile, the situation is growing dire. Because the station's management has failed to pay $486,000 in property taxes on the Berkeley studio for the last six years, the Alameda County Tax Collector’s office has announced its intention to seize the property for public auction.
For more information, you can click on Rescue KPFA. Media Alliance executive director Tracy Rosenberg also recommends checking out the Pacific Radio in Exile webpage.
A public press conference is planned at noon on February 12 at the KPFA studio (1929 MLKJ Way)
For more information:
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2...
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
Who Is Your Supervisor?
From: Daniel Borgstrom
Date: February 9, 2020 at 8:07:27 AM PST
Brian,
Maybe it's a good thing you wrote that email, it really does illustrate a huge misconception that some people seem to have about the nature of KPFA/Pacifica. Our KPFA belongs to the community and is set up to be run as a democracy by and for the listener/subscribers.
Radio democracy means that management must answer to us, the listener subscriber-members of this radio station. And when we see management not doing its jobs properly, then we the listeners step up, investigate, and speak out.
The current matter of unpaid property taxes is a case in point. It was the job of our station's management to handle that, to pay the taxes each year just as it's management's job to keep the roof leak-proof and see to it that the floors are swept. But for 6 years, those taxes weren't paid. And on Jan 17th a tax office notice arrived at the station, warning that if not paid by March 19th, KPFA's studios would be up for auction on March 20th. But nobody in KPFA management seems to have taken note of that notice, so there again, management was not doing it's job.
Finally it was Tracy Rosenberg who stepped up and blew the whistle, writing reports to let us listener/members know what was happening, and visiting the tax office to obtain valid information.
This is exactly the way democracy is supposed to work. And if our station's building and antenna tower are at the end of the day preserved, it will be thanks to the tireless and courageous efforts of Tracy Rosenberg, and also thanks to our listener democracy.
Daniel Borgström
Member of KPFA's Local Station Board
On Wed, Feb 5, 2020 at 3:57 PM Brian David wrote:
Hi Tracy,
I don't believe we've met. Are you a Pacifica employee? If so, in what capacity and who is your supervisor?
Large cc lists are disruptive to our workflow and take away staff focus. Please reply directly to me if you are an employee who has authority to be handling Pacifica / KPFA business matters.
Best,
Brian
On Wed, Feb 5, 2020 at 9:19 AM Tracy Rosenberg wrote:
You're welcome. Welfare tax exemption records and property tax assessments are public records covered under the California Public Records Act (as the applications note).
Now that the parcel number for the tower site at 5170 Grizzly Peak Boulevard is available, we can add that the assessment for those unpaid taxes is also unfiled and unpaid for the last seven years (the 8th will
begin on February 15 2020) and that property is also subject to public auction and sale this year without corrective action. The unpaid taxes currently total $7,261 a year times 7 years or an additional $50,827 plus penalties and interest probably totaling about 35%, so the total unpaid property tax assessment for KPFA's properties looks to be about $552,000, with another $60,000 set to be assessed next week.
This is worrisome because the funds in the SF Foundation may be less then the total tax due and requested on bond, but the office indicated that it may be possible to negotiate a bond payment for somewhat
less than the full assessments in order to halt the public auctions.
There is no time to waste, however.
The response to my message from gm [at] kpfa.org is that KPFA's general manager is on an extended vacation through next week, so it is important that whoever was left in charge take immediate action and demonstrate that they have done so. I have provided the instructions from Alameda County to enable the necessary corrective actions to be taken quickly and without confusion.
On Tue, Feb 4, 2020 at 6:03 PM Mitchel Cohen mitchelcohen [at] mindspring.com [kpfa-watch] wrote:
Thank you, Tracy.
So will the Treasurer (Sharon Adams, I guess) be doing this, or will the Business Manager (Maria Negret)?
Or are there others who are supposed to do something here, apart from the attorneys to negotiate.
Otherwise, KPFA will have its building sold out from under them shortly.
It's really hard to imagine how KPFA could accidentally forget to request exemptions and pay its property taxes. (I think of the old Steve Martin series of excuses: "I forgot that robbing a bank is against the law.") Is the General Manager at KPFA really ignorant of all of this? I guess the buck stops with him.
I have to note that some of the people involved here supported the coup in October at WBAI. KPFA's GM was in charge of piping in that awful programming and not raising a cent for WBAI, while supplanting our fundraising drive causing the network to lose around $300,000. Could this really be just incompetence?
Or, are some of the individuals involved looking to utilize the machinations here in order to argue in their propaganda campaign, "See, that's why we need to vote YES on the replacement bylaws, because no one knows what they're doing"?
Thank you, Tracy, so much for finding out about all of this. I'm still shocked (seriously) that the auditors couldn't find out about this for 6 years. Could money have been pocketed that should have gone to paying taxes?
Mitchel Cohen
Listener delegate, WBAI Local Station Board
At 08:38 PM 2/4/2020, Tracy Rosenberg tracyrose [at] gmail.com [kpfa-watch] wrote:
If the attachments prove troublesome (some of the list-servs don't seem to want them), they are also available here.Â
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5uzdnofbc1g5lr4/Most_recent_nonprofit_filing_-_studio_site.pdf/fileÂ
https://www.mediafire.com/file/h1tm2gvg4kx4ub2/Most_recent_nonprofit_filing_-_transmitter_site.pdf/fileÂ
On Tue, Feb 4, 2020 at 5:20 PM Tracy Rosenberg wrote:
Hi all,
Since facts are helpful, I made an information-gathering trip today to the Alameda County Administration Building to clarify what is going on with the public auction and sale of KPFA's building. Very pleasant, professional and informative offices.. Here is the information they provided, along with the actions we need to take to prevent the public auction of the studio (followed by the public auction of the transmitter site for unpaid property taxes, which would be coming next.Â
1. The Alameda County Assessor's Office
They provided me with copies of the most recent filings of the not for profit property tax exemption tax filings they received for 1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way and 5170 Grizzly Peak Boulevard where KPFA's tower sits. They were filed February 15, 2012. They have no filings after 2012 in their office. I asked them to do a search and they will, but he said it was not likely they had misplaced 14 different filings from 2013 to 2019 on two different parcels.Â
They have no record of denying a property tax discount filing from KPFA. They have no record of any correspondence with KPFA regarding a denial.
I asked him about the name issue. He pointed out to me the instructions on the form that state if the organization revised their founding documents (ie the articles of incorporation) then the revised articles of incorporation should be sent to the BOE. He said for a name change, nothing is required but mailing the new articles document and some evidence of the nonprofit use of the space to the BOE and it would be processed in a month or less. He said a name change, even multiple name changes, would not take five or six years to resolve. In our case, he said the change to Pacifica Foundation Radio is irrelevant since it is 7 years ago. He doubted Pacifica Foundation vs. Pacifica Foundation Inc. would make the slightest difference, but that the organization's name on the certificate "Pacifica Foundation" is the one that should be used on the exemption forms to avoid any confusion from a processing clerk.Â
Copies of the most recent filings in their file from February of 2012 for both KPFA parcels are attached to this message.
He noted that the 2020 filing is due in one week on Feb 15th and if it is not filed, another year of taxes at $50,000 for the building and another amount for the tower parcel will be assessed, along with more penalties and interest for the preceding unpaid years of 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.Â
Actions needed: We need to file 16 nonprofit exemption forms, one for each parcel for each year from 2013 to 2020. 14 retroactive and 2 timely. The exemptions should be filed citing BOE nonprofit certificate # 9513.Â
In 6-9 months, assuming the properties are not auctioned off, they may be able to refund the difference between the commercial assessments and the nonprofit discount rate on both parcels. Any name issue can be taken care of in that process.. However filing all 16 delinquent filings will not stop the auctions of the properties as the offices operate independently.Â
2. Alameda Tax Collector
The Tax Collector's office confirmed that they sent a certified return request letter to 1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way on January 17 announcing the public sale and auction of the property. They will not have the green card with the signature available for a another week or two. (There is a great big box of them sitting by a clerk's desk waiting to be entered).
The studio property is definitely up for public sale and auction. They will need to receive full payment or possibly partial payment (the lawyers can negotiate that, but it will be at least 50% of the amount demanded) in order to avoid public auction. That money will be held if the 16 missing filings are submitted timely while the assessor goes through their process and if completed, the bond money will be used to pay the now 8 years of taxes due at the nonprofit rate. All the penalties and interest due for 7 years of delinquency on two parcels will be retained and any balance refunded.Â
Actions Needed: Pacifica's tax attorneys should immediately begin negotiating a bond amount that is as much reduced from $486,000 as possible. KPFA should access the SF Foundation monies to pay the bond, with a pledge to return any eventually refunded monies to the trust account upon receipt. I don't think KPFA can put up even a $250K bond and still make payroll, so it would be wise to request those funds now. As mentioned, they must be remitted by cashier's check no later than March 19, 2020, but it would also be wise not to wait until the last moment.Â
Gratitude is in order that at least we found out before the online auction and not after the property was sold out from under us, but it is essential to take the corrective actions above and do so sooner rather then later. The first order of business is to file 16 nonprofit property tax filings asap and no later than February 15. The second order of business is to secure funds for the cash bond to prevent the sale of the building from the SF Foundation.Â
- Tracy
Tracy Rosenberg
Executive Director
Media Alliance
2830 20th Street, Suite 102
San Francisco CA 94110
http://www.media-alliance.org
(415) 746-9475
510-684-6853Â Cell
tracy [at] media-alliance.org
--
Tracy Rosenberg
Executive Director
Media Alliance
2830 20th Street, Suite 102
San Francisco CA 94110
http://www.media-alliance.org
(415) 746-9475
510-684-6853Â Cell
tracy [at] media-alliance.org
From: Daniel Borgstrom
Date: February 9, 2020 at 8:07:27 AM PST
Brian,
Maybe it's a good thing you wrote that email, it really does illustrate a huge misconception that some people seem to have about the nature of KPFA/Pacifica. Our KPFA belongs to the community and is set up to be run as a democracy by and for the listener/subscribers.
Radio democracy means that management must answer to us, the listener subscriber-members of this radio station. And when we see management not doing its jobs properly, then we the listeners step up, investigate, and speak out.
The current matter of unpaid property taxes is a case in point. It was the job of our station's management to handle that, to pay the taxes each year just as it's management's job to keep the roof leak-proof and see to it that the floors are swept. But for 6 years, those taxes weren't paid. And on Jan 17th a tax office notice arrived at the station, warning that if not paid by March 19th, KPFA's studios would be up for auction on March 20th. But nobody in KPFA management seems to have taken note of that notice, so there again, management was not doing it's job.
Finally it was Tracy Rosenberg who stepped up and blew the whistle, writing reports to let us listener/members know what was happening, and visiting the tax office to obtain valid information.
This is exactly the way democracy is supposed to work. And if our station's building and antenna tower are at the end of the day preserved, it will be thanks to the tireless and courageous efforts of Tracy Rosenberg, and also thanks to our listener democracy.
Daniel Borgström
Member of KPFA's Local Station Board
On Wed, Feb 5, 2020 at 3:57 PM Brian David wrote:
Hi Tracy,
I don't believe we've met. Are you a Pacifica employee? If so, in what capacity and who is your supervisor?
Large cc lists are disruptive to our workflow and take away staff focus. Please reply directly to me if you are an employee who has authority to be handling Pacifica / KPFA business matters.
Best,
Brian
On Wed, Feb 5, 2020 at 9:19 AM Tracy Rosenberg wrote:
You're welcome. Welfare tax exemption records and property tax assessments are public records covered under the California Public Records Act (as the applications note).
Now that the parcel number for the tower site at 5170 Grizzly Peak Boulevard is available, we can add that the assessment for those unpaid taxes is also unfiled and unpaid for the last seven years (the 8th will
begin on February 15 2020) and that property is also subject to public auction and sale this year without corrective action. The unpaid taxes currently total $7,261 a year times 7 years or an additional $50,827 plus penalties and interest probably totaling about 35%, so the total unpaid property tax assessment for KPFA's properties looks to be about $552,000, with another $60,000 set to be assessed next week.
This is worrisome because the funds in the SF Foundation may be less then the total tax due and requested on bond, but the office indicated that it may be possible to negotiate a bond payment for somewhat
less than the full assessments in order to halt the public auctions.
There is no time to waste, however.
The response to my message from gm [at] kpfa.org is that KPFA's general manager is on an extended vacation through next week, so it is important that whoever was left in charge take immediate action and demonstrate that they have done so. I have provided the instructions from Alameda County to enable the necessary corrective actions to be taken quickly and without confusion.
On Tue, Feb 4, 2020 at 6:03 PM Mitchel Cohen mitchelcohen [at] mindspring.com [kpfa-watch] wrote:
Thank you, Tracy.
So will the Treasurer (Sharon Adams, I guess) be doing this, or will the Business Manager (Maria Negret)?
Or are there others who are supposed to do something here, apart from the attorneys to negotiate.
Otherwise, KPFA will have its building sold out from under them shortly.
It's really hard to imagine how KPFA could accidentally forget to request exemptions and pay its property taxes. (I think of the old Steve Martin series of excuses: "I forgot that robbing a bank is against the law.") Is the General Manager at KPFA really ignorant of all of this? I guess the buck stops with him.
I have to note that some of the people involved here supported the coup in October at WBAI. KPFA's GM was in charge of piping in that awful programming and not raising a cent for WBAI, while supplanting our fundraising drive causing the network to lose around $300,000. Could this really be just incompetence?
Or, are some of the individuals involved looking to utilize the machinations here in order to argue in their propaganda campaign, "See, that's why we need to vote YES on the replacement bylaws, because no one knows what they're doing"?
Thank you, Tracy, so much for finding out about all of this. I'm still shocked (seriously) that the auditors couldn't find out about this for 6 years. Could money have been pocketed that should have gone to paying taxes?
Mitchel Cohen
Listener delegate, WBAI Local Station Board
At 08:38 PM 2/4/2020, Tracy Rosenberg tracyrose [at] gmail.com [kpfa-watch] wrote:
If the attachments prove troublesome (some of the list-servs don't seem to want them), they are also available here.Â
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5uzdnofbc1g5lr4/Most_recent_nonprofit_filing_-_studio_site.pdf/fileÂ
https://www.mediafire.com/file/h1tm2gvg4kx4ub2/Most_recent_nonprofit_filing_-_transmitter_site.pdf/fileÂ
On Tue, Feb 4, 2020 at 5:20 PM Tracy Rosenberg wrote:
Hi all,
Since facts are helpful, I made an information-gathering trip today to the Alameda County Administration Building to clarify what is going on with the public auction and sale of KPFA's building. Very pleasant, professional and informative offices.. Here is the information they provided, along with the actions we need to take to prevent the public auction of the studio (followed by the public auction of the transmitter site for unpaid property taxes, which would be coming next.Â
1. The Alameda County Assessor's Office
They provided me with copies of the most recent filings of the not for profit property tax exemption tax filings they received for 1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way and 5170 Grizzly Peak Boulevard where KPFA's tower sits. They were filed February 15, 2012. They have no filings after 2012 in their office. I asked them to do a search and they will, but he said it was not likely they had misplaced 14 different filings from 2013 to 2019 on two different parcels.Â
They have no record of denying a property tax discount filing from KPFA. They have no record of any correspondence with KPFA regarding a denial.
I asked him about the name issue. He pointed out to me the instructions on the form that state if the organization revised their founding documents (ie the articles of incorporation) then the revised articles of incorporation should be sent to the BOE. He said for a name change, nothing is required but mailing the new articles document and some evidence of the nonprofit use of the space to the BOE and it would be processed in a month or less. He said a name change, even multiple name changes, would not take five or six years to resolve. In our case, he said the change to Pacifica Foundation Radio is irrelevant since it is 7 years ago. He doubted Pacifica Foundation vs. Pacifica Foundation Inc. would make the slightest difference, but that the organization's name on the certificate "Pacifica Foundation" is the one that should be used on the exemption forms to avoid any confusion from a processing clerk.Â
Copies of the most recent filings in their file from February of 2012 for both KPFA parcels are attached to this message.
He noted that the 2020 filing is due in one week on Feb 15th and if it is not filed, another year of taxes at $50,000 for the building and another amount for the tower parcel will be assessed, along with more penalties and interest for the preceding unpaid years of 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.Â
Actions needed: We need to file 16 nonprofit exemption forms, one for each parcel for each year from 2013 to 2020. 14 retroactive and 2 timely. The exemptions should be filed citing BOE nonprofit certificate # 9513.Â
In 6-9 months, assuming the properties are not auctioned off, they may be able to refund the difference between the commercial assessments and the nonprofit discount rate on both parcels. Any name issue can be taken care of in that process.. However filing all 16 delinquent filings will not stop the auctions of the properties as the offices operate independently.Â
2. Alameda Tax Collector
The Tax Collector's office confirmed that they sent a certified return request letter to 1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way on January 17 announcing the public sale and auction of the property. They will not have the green card with the signature available for a another week or two. (There is a great big box of them sitting by a clerk's desk waiting to be entered).
The studio property is definitely up for public sale and auction. They will need to receive full payment or possibly partial payment (the lawyers can negotiate that, but it will be at least 50% of the amount demanded) in order to avoid public auction. That money will be held if the 16 missing filings are submitted timely while the assessor goes through their process and if completed, the bond money will be used to pay the now 8 years of taxes due at the nonprofit rate. All the penalties and interest due for 7 years of delinquency on two parcels will be retained and any balance refunded.Â
Actions Needed: Pacifica's tax attorneys should immediately begin negotiating a bond amount that is as much reduced from $486,000 as possible. KPFA should access the SF Foundation monies to pay the bond, with a pledge to return any eventually refunded monies to the trust account upon receipt. I don't think KPFA can put up even a $250K bond and still make payroll, so it would be wise to request those funds now. As mentioned, they must be remitted by cashier's check no later than March 19, 2020, but it would also be wise not to wait until the last moment.Â
Gratitude is in order that at least we found out before the online auction and not after the property was sold out from under us, but it is essential to take the corrective actions above and do so sooner rather then later. The first order of business is to file 16 nonprofit property tax filings asap and no later than February 15. The second order of business is to secure funds for the cash bond to prevent the sale of the building from the SF Foundation.Â
- Tracy
Tracy Rosenberg
Executive Director
Media Alliance
2830 20th Street, Suite 102
San Francisco CA 94110
http://www.media-alliance.org
(415) 746-9475
510-684-6853Â Cell
tracy [at] media-alliance.org
--
Tracy Rosenberg
Executive Director
Media Alliance
2830 20th Street, Suite 102
San Francisco CA 94110
http://www.media-alliance.org
(415) 746-9475
510-684-6853Â Cell
tracy [at] media-alliance.org
rescue pacifica.net Also see: http://pacificainexile.org
For more information:
http://rescue pacifica.net
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