"Shut up! "KPFA public comment

From the KPFA board meeting of September 18, 2021


A very articulate two minute discourse that left opponents screaming and raging:

"Shut up!"


Elizabeth Milos spoke for two minutes during Public Comments, and at the end of those 2 minutes, the time keeper screamed "Time. SHUT UP!" and accused the speaker of lying. This is unusual, even at KPFA. So what is this all about? First, let's look at a transcript, where the secretary opens the Public Comment session and the first speaker is Elizabeth.



PUBLIC COMMENTS at 1:30 p.m.

Secretary Carol Wolfley --
Okay, so we have eight people. . . We want to give priority to KPFA members. And this is our budget meeting today. So we are talking a lot about finances and we especially appreciate people who would like to contribute about issues about finances and KPFA . . .. And Sharon, are you there? Can you time people for two minutes? Okay, thank you and Jose. Jose will call on people. . .


Elizabeth Milos is first.

Elizabeth Milos --
Yes, thank you. Thank you so much. Yes, this goes directly towards money.
Given that the last removed promotion was to follow the bylaws and give members the right to vote over the dispensation of assets.

Would this LSB be willing to censure the members on this LSB board for repeatedly trying to put Pacifica in receivership via lawsuits and appeals, circumventing the same bylaws that you are talking about?

That's one question. The next is in the realm of reimbursement to KPFA by the PNB. Who will reimburse WBAI for the last lost revenue from being illegally closed down during the fund drive? and the legal fees to get them reopened?

Number three is: Business manager beforehand, berated LSB members for asking for budget in advance. The LSB has a right to this. Also, she should have notified the LSB on the property tax issue. During these past six years she didn't. And the tax office had no file from KPFA regarding any kind of filing. And the name change actually happened after the actual taxes were due. So we were still late in filing the taxes at the time of the actual name change as well. So that is very, very typical argument on the part of Maria, excuse me, the business manager.

I would also like to state that I'm very offended by the comments on the chat against a fellow LSB member James McFadden, he has a right to write a truthful article. And, in fact, what you are proposing, with some members on the chat, were proposing, was censorship. And I am very offended by the comments on the chat that you have. They're calling him a liar. The article was truthful, the one on Counter Punch, it has not been removed. The article is there and it was in response to an article written by Gendelman and which was red baiting and Green baiting and it was very offensive. That article. So he had every right to write it as well.

And I'd also like for to commend Tom Voorhees for, and I would . . .


Treasurer Sharon Adams (timekeeper) screams:

Time! Shut up!

A moment later, Sharon adds:

More lies being perpetrated is actually really annoying!


Chair Christina Huggins:

I know. I know. I'm just. Let's keep order here. Okay. You want to call on the next person Jose?


* * * End of Transcript * * *
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Etiquette & Protocol at the KPFA LSB

KPFA's Local Station Board (LSB) meetings have been getting increasingly nasty. As mentioned by Elizabeth in the above transcript, this board had recently censured James McFadden for writing a rebuttal to an article by allies of the board majority. Nevertheless, yelling "Shut up!" at a public speaker is a new level. And it's quite outside the set of rules of protocol and etiquette which are posted with the agenda and also read by the chair at the beginning of each meeting. Here are four items from that protocol which specifically spell out the rules:

* Speak with each other respectfully using comfortable volumes,

* Focus on facts, issues and proposals, (no name calling or personal insults),

* Use attribution of sources and documentation when making statements or assumptions about other people or groups,

* Listen to each other with care.

There's also a rule that LSB members do not respond to comments made during Public Comments. Nevertheless, board member Sharon Adams, whose task it was to say "Time," not only screamed "Shut up!", she also called the speaker a liar.

And the chair Christina Huggins, whose duty it is to enforce the meeting's etiquette, rather nonchalantly says "I know." mildly chides Sharon ("Let's keep order here."), and calls for the next speaker.

This is an elected board, and this incident took place during a intensely contested election for the KPFA board. So it may surprise nobody hear learn that both Treasurer Sharon Adams and Chair Christina Huggins are members of the "KPFA Protector" faction which has the board majority. And that Elizabeth Milos is a candidate from the opposition, Rescue Pacifica.

The KPFA LSB consists of 24 board members, of whom 15 were of the "Protector" slate, 8 from Rescue Pacifica, and one independent. So this is an example of a board majority taking advantage of their majority to act abusively towards their opponents, the board minority and its supporters.

But the attack on candidate Elizabeth Milos didn't end with that incident. Several weeks later one of the "Protector" slate's candidates, Zack Kaldveer, sent out an email blast, attacking both Elizabeth Milos and James McFadden of Rescue Pacifica

In his email, which he sent out to a large number of KPFA listeners, probably 10,000 or more, Zack Kaldveer doesn't just say Elizabeth is "wrong" or that he disagrees with her, Zack calls her comments: "Two Minutes of Hate Myth." He also used phrases such as "disinformation and hateful tactics. "Hate" and "hateful" are buzzwords have a power of their own in the current social environment, and can have a negative impact on people's careers and employment, as well as on their access to social media.

Zack Kaldveer is a public relations professional with degrees in Telecommunications Policy and Mass Media. He runs The Next Generation a political consulting firm. Some of his business consists of campaigns against GMOs, environmental matters, and other worthy causes. And his LSB candidate statement reads impressively.

So what brings this environmental campaigner to be writing slanderous stuff like that? We don't know. But it does turn out that he's also done PR work for "Safety Net", the group which in December 2020 asked a court in Los Angeles to put Pacifica into receivership. (Plaintiffs in that suit included 3 KPFA board members, Christina Huggins, Donald Goldmacher, and Andrea Turner. The president of "Safety Net" is former Pacifica iED Sherry Gendelman, who was also a candidate for the LSB.)

TO BE CONTINUED