KPFA Staff exposes anti-democratic options

for posting this.

If not, he should be kicked off ! Impeachment is a proper response . You can't be on a democractic elected body and plot to destroy that body .He may be Larry Bensky's protege and he might have done some competent reporting from Houston but that's irrevelant to this issue . It's time for Bensky Jr. to be ousted, legally and fully within Pacifica's bylaws . Bye Bye Brian ! See you at your (hopefully) last board meeting on October 22 !

It's time to dissolve the LSB. The current one is way too dysfunctional to ever be of any good. A large faction of them, (usually sitting to the left as you come into the meetings), are incapable of communicating anything at a tone below the top of their lungs. They appear to hate practically everything about the station, and most of the people that work there.

They contribute practically nothing. Who has ever heard of a non-profit board that doesn't raise funds? That's completely unprofessional and downright irresponsible. They are a financial as well as a morale drain on the station. They are charged with the well being of that station, yet seem to do everything they can to run it down. They allow they're petty political pet issues to over-ride their responsibilities for ensuring that the station is operating at its peak. They have a responsibility to help the station, as kind of an auxiliary group of boosters. They do not have the right to grind their political axes and settle their old scores at the expense of the thousands and thousands of listeners who support and love KPFA. They are selfish and child-like. They don't believe in decorum, or respect for fellow board members. They really are quite a spectacle of how not to run a non-profit board. I agree with Mr. Tiekert, let's scrap it and start over.

I don't see mr. phelps as a recipient of this email, and emails between union members amd other members are not necessarily for public consumption. This is most likely a fake, but even if it isn't what it really shows is that workers at kpfa are being laid off, attacked, loosing moral, and trying to organize to overcome a controling and unresponsive board. Who has ever heard of a non profit board that is unresponsive to the plight of the workers, oh yeah that is most of the boards in the non profit world.
Support workers' rights in all workplaces.

i felt that the email addresses were posted out of mean-spiritedness.

I don't think the intention was mean, I think it was just an attempt to show the whole thing 'as is,' and being naiive about what happens to emails posted on forums like this.

So yes, they should be removed.

[ i took out the email addresses
by an editor Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2005 at 1:32 PM

i felt that the email addresses were posted out of mean-spiritedness. ]


First of all, copies of this email correspondence have been widely distributed.

Second, email addresses of board members (and most KPFA staff +/or programs are *PUBLICLY* available, either through the KPFA website or through numerous lists associated with KPFA. The email addresses of the parties above can be found by anyone sufficiently interested to find them. I, of course, am not on the board, but I have the email addresses of most, if not all, of the KPFA board members (local and national) and KPFA hosts/programmers. The email is an attempt to show the 'conspirators' and the entrenched anti-democracy board members and staffers for what they are.

Anyone who runs for a board on which he secretly hopes to *undermine* and *abolish* -- with whatever secret conspirators -- and who's most fundamental principle he wishes to overthrow -- *democracy* --should RESIGN. Brian Edwards-Tiekert -- who I'm sure didn't run on the platform of undermining and abolishing the board, let alone overthrowing its democratic raison d'etre -- should resign. How Brian Edwards-Tiekert can take his seat on the board at the next board meeting shows nothing but *CONTEMPT* for the board itself, for democracy and, indeed, for the listeners.

If the email is real, why is Sherry Gendelman's name misspelled? Sounds like a set up by the very pompous and self-important rich lawyer Richard Phelps -- ally of KGO business manager Marnie Tattersall. Now who's he working for really?

Whether the email is real, or fake, is not important. The fact remains that its call for the dissolution of a corrupt and dsyfunctional board remains valid. This board has become the play ground for a band is dissaffected listeners, (who probably number no more than 20), to spitefully undermine staffers, who don't pass their narrow litmus test of what's politically acceptable. This group's representatives on the board reflexively oppose anything that could be seen as beneficial to the majority of people who work at the station everyday. In the name of "democracy" they decry those who have dedicated their professional lives to the cause of public radio. They are reminiscent of the intelligentsia in the old, failed tyrannies that collapsed at the end of the last century. They too claimed to have spoken for the "people", until the whole house of cards collapsed under the weight of its own corruption. The LSB system has been tainted beyond the point of no return by the antics of the anti-staff fringe. The time is right to srap it and come up with something better. Very few of our thousands and thousands of listeners will miss it, if they ever cared about it to begin with.

Sherry's name must have been mispelled when the e-mail addresses were removed. That is why when I posted the original I posted it as it was, complete, to avoid such claims. The printed copy we received has her name right. Please note: this has been out for some weeks now and Brian Edwards-Tiekert has not said it is not real. He has refused to discuss it and didn't question its authenticity when it came out. Neither did any of the other LSB members, all of which have refused to disavow the "dismantle" tactic when asked.

I challenge any and all of you anonymous cowards to come forward and publicly take a stand and openly debate the issues. My gut tells me these anonymous defamatorty attacks are from Brian and his allies. Of course we will never know since they don't have the courage to crawl out from under their rocks and engage in debate and discussion. For the record, I am not "rich" accept that that is part of my name. I ally with people on issues and do so with anyone who I think is on the right track. Marnie was one of 15 people that rejected a campaign to fire the GM. By the way my voting and speaking/written record is consistent. We will never know about those that take shots with a mask on, will we.

By the way, what do you want in place of democratic process? Shall we go back to the PATRONAGE AND CRONYISM OF THE VERY RECENT PAST? How strange it is to have some staff put on programs and speakers that demand more open, inclusive democracy at home and abroad while fighting against it at the station and network???

It is the left overs of that past that are fighting so hard against democratic process and transparency and accountability. They want to continue the behind closed doors control. They want listeners to just send in their hard earned $$$ and "trust them". WE just had the first publicly discussed budget in KPFA history. And unless the LSB is "dismantled" there will continue to be even greater transparency, which allows for accountability. Why don't people want transparency and accountability?????

I think that 95% of kpfa listeners, trust the workers of the station to run their business. To provide quality independent media. What should the LSB do? Re structure KPFA as a worker run and owned Cooperative, with no bosses. There are tons of different models that can be applied, including governing boards that come from the workers.
Why does KPFA have to run itself as if it is a capitalist business?

Does gehrig believe it somewhow alright to suppress information about NoBAWC to fulfill the editors' personal agenda?

What democracy is Phelps talking about? When only a tiny fraction of listener supporters vote, or are interested enough to vote, in LSB elections, how can that be called a democracy? The fact of the matter is KPFA is the most wide-open, diverse media outlet in the Bay Area. Our listeners, by and large, know this. They know there are avenues for their input, for example: letters, phone calls, emails, faxes, or making an appointment and dropping by to discuss things.

The majority of people contributing to non-profit organizations do so because they believe in the mission. They trust that the people working at the organization have good intentions, why else would they subject themselves to voluntary poverty. If they have questions , or want information, they contact the organization, they don't attack it, or run it down. Budget information at non-profits is public information by law. Most listeners know that.

That Phelps and his allies are only interested in selfishly re-making the station in their own image is evidenced by the punitive budget they attempted to ram through. They proposed cuts, when the station is in the black, most of those cuts were aimed at progammers and their programs. Note, the LSB budget wasn't touched. Note the LSB didn't budget itself to even raise funds. There isn't even a fund raising committee. How utterly ridiculous for a non-profit board charged with the well being of a station.

Listeners have a right to have their voices heard at KPFA. The LSB system is not the way however. Its absurd time committments and poorly defined and bureaucratically structured bylaws, sets up a system in which only those with the time, or inclination to participate will have a voice, and those who are casually interested will be left out. Although, in a democracy, their voices are equally important.

Phelps and his ilk are not interested in democracy, they want a KPFA that suits them and their interests and to hell with everyone else.