BUDGET from the Cold

The BUDGET
that came in from the Cold

KPFA's board meeting on Sept 23, 2023


The Saturday, September 23rd meeting of the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) was scheduled to be short, just 2 hours -- 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Christina Huggins was chairing and the "Protectors" have a super majority on this board.

Two significant things happened.

First, this was the yearly BUDGET meeting, the one where Business Manager Maria Negret presents her budget and the board approves it. However, this time there would be no budget -- that's what Maria Negret told us a few days earlier, at the budget workshop of Monday, Sept 18th.

Well, bizarre things do happen -- or don't happen at KPFA. There was the time property taxes weren't paid for 6 years. Audits get delayed. A couple years ago a court was petitioned to put KPFA/Pacifica into receivership. And more, the list is long. This time a budget was not happening. No budget, Maria said.

Nevertheless, five days later, at the Saturday, September 23rd LSB meeting Maria Negret presented a budget, which was approved, as budgets always are, by the "Protectors" board majority.

This unexpected budget included $$$ for a lawsuit, and as soon it was mentioned, discussion on it immediately got cut off. It was supposedly confidential information, though possibly a matter of public record described in an article atPacificainexile.org.

CAROL WOLFLEY'S MOTION

The other significant item was a motion presented by Secretary Carol Wolfley at the very end of the meeting; I think it was at about 2 minutes to 1:00 p.m. Although this meeting was scheduled to adjourn "time certain" at 1:00 p.m., this meeting (Carol's motion, that is) continued on till 1:09 p.m. This is not the normal protocol, not even at this LSB.

Normally, when more time is needed, someone makes a motion to extend the meeting. Not this time though.

Nor was the motion on the agenda. It was sprung on us in these last two minutes.

Carol Wolfley's motion was to revive an "ethics" committee to look into possible libel and defamation.

Last year the "Protectors" created an "ethics" committee and used it to kick Elizabeth Milos off the LSB. A couple months later the Pacifica National Board (PNB) overruled the KPFA LSB, so with that, Elizabeth was returned to her seat.

So given their recent history, it looks like the "Protectors" may be planning to kick more Rescue Pacifica people off the board. It's possible that what they call "libel" and "defamation" might be a reaction to criticisms of the "Protectors" and the station's management expressed during the current LSB election campaign.

An indication of what they mean by "defamation" may be seen in LSB Chair Christina Huggins' commentary on my article "Is KPFA Transitioning from Antiwar to Peacewashing?"

Huggins accuses me of making "false statements" and says my article is "defamatory- not only to Ian Masters, but [to] the KPFA secretary and Chair."

(The chair and secretary are Christina Huggins and Carol Wolfley, respectively.)

In her email, Huggins went on to compare me to "Joseph Goebbels."

I would say this suggests that the "Protectors" faction does not take kindly to fact-based criticism.

Hopefully, in this current election, now in its last week to vote, the "Protectors" will lose their super majority.


Daniel Borgström
Member of KPFA's Local Station Board (at least for the time being).



RELATED ARTICLES

"How the Seizure of a Radio Station in New York led to the Seizure of $305,000 from KPFA"

Why didn't KPFA defend its journalist?

The impending pro-war Democratic Party takeover of Pacifica Radio


FOR MORE INFO Please visit these websites:

RESCUE PACIFICA rescuepacifica.net

PACIFICA IN EXILE pacificainexile.org

Pacifica Fightback for Democracy

KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington, DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. There are also about 250 affiliate stations.