Judge Halts Ballot Count
For Immediate Release / Independents for Community Radio (ICR)
Judge Halts Ballot Count in KPFA Recall Election
Sets September 10 hearing
contact: Anthony Fest 415-563-5658 adf55 [at] yahoo.com www.voteindyradio.org
August 2, 2012: State Superior Court Judge Evelio M. Grillo signed a temporary restraining order Wednesday blocking the counting of ballots in the current KPFA recall election, based on an application made by Local Board member Tracy Rosenberg, the target of the attempted recall.
An affidavit was also filed on behalf of a current KPFA subscriber who was denied the right to vote in the recall election, and who represents a large class of people who became members over the last eight months but were not provided with ballots.
The Plaintiffs said they were forced to seek to enjoin the recall election after they learned that the Elections Supervisor had set the member eligibility "date of record" for November 1, 2011, resulting in persons who are no longer KPFA members being sent ballots, even while many current members were not.
The Pacifica bylaws, as well as the California Corporation Code, require that the "date of record" must be no more than 45 to 60 days prior to the first ballots being sent out.
"We didn't want to sue, but when we learned this week that the eligibility to vote on the recall was being based on an outdated membership list in violation of the Pacifica bylaws, we felt we had no choice," said Tracy Rosenberg, who asks people to visit the websites Support KPFA.org and Stop the KPFA Recall.org for the latest information.
Under Judge Grillo's order, Pacifica is required to sequester the ballots until the Judge has had the opportunity to hear all the arguments, which will occur on September 10th.
Rosenberg was elected to the Local Station Board by KPFA subscribers in 2007. She was reelected in 2010, when she ran on the Independents for Community Radio (ICR) ticket.
"Three dozen KPFA staff members and scores of community allies opposed the wasteful and destructive recall attempt against Tracy, so the Court's ruling is welcome," said long-time KPFA newscaster Anthony Fest, "Tracy has the qualities we need in a Local Station Board member -- independent thinking, and a great work ethic."
Also issuing a statement praising the Judge's order was Mitchel Cohen, chair of the local board at KPFA's New York sister station, WBAI, who termed the recall "a pointless and costly vendetta against a long time Board member who took difficult but necessary steps along with other Pacifica directors to save the station and network from bankruptcy."
"The Pacifica network is one of the few remaining media bulwarks against this country's foreign wars and attacks on civil liberties," Cohen continued. "We need KPFA and Pacifica more than ever to provide accurate reporting and radical commentary on the Occupy movement and other ecology and social justice movements which the mainstream corporate media refuse to cover. That's what we should focus on, not on tearing apart our brothers and sisters."
INDEPENDENTS FOR COMMUNITY RADIO (ICR)
August 2, 2012
For information on the particulars of the recall charges, and their rebuttals, see:
Stop the KPFA Recall.org
Support KPFA.org
Judge Halts Ballot Count in KPFA Recall Election
Sets September 10 hearing
contact: Anthony Fest 415-563-5658 adf55 [at] yahoo.com www.voteindyradio.org
August 2, 2012: State Superior Court Judge Evelio M. Grillo signed a temporary restraining order Wednesday blocking the counting of ballots in the current KPFA recall election, based on an application made by Local Board member Tracy Rosenberg, the target of the attempted recall.
An affidavit was also filed on behalf of a current KPFA subscriber who was denied the right to vote in the recall election, and who represents a large class of people who became members over the last eight months but were not provided with ballots.
The Plaintiffs said they were forced to seek to enjoin the recall election after they learned that the Elections Supervisor had set the member eligibility "date of record" for November 1, 2011, resulting in persons who are no longer KPFA members being sent ballots, even while many current members were not.
The Pacifica bylaws, as well as the California Corporation Code, require that the "date of record" must be no more than 45 to 60 days prior to the first ballots being sent out.
"We didn't want to sue, but when we learned this week that the eligibility to vote on the recall was being based on an outdated membership list in violation of the Pacifica bylaws, we felt we had no choice," said Tracy Rosenberg, who asks people to visit the websites Support KPFA.org and Stop the KPFA Recall.org for the latest information.
Under Judge Grillo's order, Pacifica is required to sequester the ballots until the Judge has had the opportunity to hear all the arguments, which will occur on September 10th.
Rosenberg was elected to the Local Station Board by KPFA subscribers in 2007. She was reelected in 2010, when she ran on the Independents for Community Radio (ICR) ticket.
"Three dozen KPFA staff members and scores of community allies opposed the wasteful and destructive recall attempt against Tracy, so the Court's ruling is welcome," said long-time KPFA newscaster Anthony Fest, "Tracy has the qualities we need in a Local Station Board member -- independent thinking, and a great work ethic."
Also issuing a statement praising the Judge's order was Mitchel Cohen, chair of the local board at KPFA's New York sister station, WBAI, who termed the recall "a pointless and costly vendetta against a long time Board member who took difficult but necessary steps along with other Pacifica directors to save the station and network from bankruptcy."
"The Pacifica network is one of the few remaining media bulwarks against this country's foreign wars and attacks on civil liberties," Cohen continued. "We need KPFA and Pacifica more than ever to provide accurate reporting and radical commentary on the Occupy movement and other ecology and social justice movements which the mainstream corporate media refuse to cover. That's what we should focus on, not on tearing apart our brothers and sisters."
INDEPENDENTS FOR COMMUNITY RADIO (ICR)
August 2, 2012
For information on the particulars of the recall charges, and their rebuttals, see:
Stop the KPFA Recall.org
Support KPFA.org
Labels: 94.1 FM, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation, Pacifica National Board, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org
