The Eighth WBAI LSB

The Eighth WBAI LSB never legally met.

A WBAI LSB meeting had been scheduled for Wednesday, January 13, 2016. The National Elections Supervisor released the results of the WBAI election 76 minutes before the meeting was to have started. As a result there was disagreement about who was actually on the LSB and who would be a member for this meeting. When asked whom he was going to count as a member at that meeting LSB Chair John Brinkley of the so-called Justice & Unity Campaign (JUC) assaulted LSB Treasurer R. Paul Martin. The independent LSB members left the building where the meeting was to have taken place and refused to participate due to the violence. Thus there was no quorum and so no legal LSB meeting. Any motions supposedly passed at the non-meeting which was populated only by those who approved of the violence were null and void.

The groundwork for the violation of the rights of Staff to elect their own representatives to the LSB was laid in the Spring of 2015, when Bob Lederer, Chair of the Pacifica National Board (PNB) elections Committee, got a motion passed by the corrupt PNB that extended the expiration of all LSB seats by one year. This had been calculated by Lederer and the other JUC operatives to be to their advantage because they knew that WBAI LSB Staff representative Janet Coleman would term out on December 23, 2015.

In the Summer of 2015, the corrupt PNB had voted to delay the 2015, elections. This set the entire timetable for the elections back by two months.

The WBAI Local Election Supervisor, who had previously admitted that he was biased toward one group in the election, had announced at the December 9, 2015, WBAI LSB meeting that the WBAI elections had met their quota. The WBAI LSB ballots could therefore have been counted at any time after that.

The ballots for WBAI were not counted until January 13, 2016.

The JUC operatives claimed that as a result of their delaying actions Vajra Kilgour who had come in dead last among the Staff candidates in the 2012, election would take the seat vacated by Janet Coleman. Kilgour also came in at the bottom of the 2015, Staff election. The first runner-up in the 2015, election had been Kathryn Davis. Logically this would mean that Kathryn Davis, as the first runner-up, would take the seat vacated by Janet Coleman. The JUC and their allies on the corrupt PNB claimed that since Janet Coleman had termed out on December 23, 2015, and the ballots had not been counted until January 13, 2016, that Kilgour would take Coleman's seat for all of 2016.

The independent LSB members maintained that Kathryn Davis, as first runner-up in the 2015, election, should take the seat vacated by Janet Coleman. This would give the independent LSB members a 13-11 majority on the LSB. The JUC maintained that repeated last place finisher Vajra Kilgour would take that seat, which would mean a 12 to 12 ratio on the WBAI LSB.

A similar situation with regard to the succession of a LSB seat had arisen at KPFA where a member had termed out and the seat was vacant before the ballots were counted. In that case the corrupt PNB was all right with the KPFA LSB seating the first runner-up from the 2015, election instead of anyone from the 2012, election. So the exact same situation was treated differently depending on which would help and not hurt the majority on the corrupt PNB. In the past such situations had always been resolved by seating the runner-up in the most recent election. The corrupt PNB was afraid that they would lose their majority and so voted to violate all precedents.

Because of the violence that occurred on January 13, 2016, and the attempt by the corrupt PNB majority, and their allies in New York from the JUC, to deny a WBAI Staff delegate her rightful place on the WBAI LSB, and substitute instead someone who had come in last for two elections in a row, the independent WBAI LSB members did not attend the meetings of the disputed LSB.

A lawsuit was filed regarding the illegal filling of the seat, but for some reason the lawsuit was filed locally, while it had needed to be filed either in California or in a federal court. After many months the judge in the case ruled that he didn't have jurisdiction in the matter because Pacifica is incorporated in California, not in New York.

A Delegates Assembly was called for January 26, 2016. This was the annual Delegates Assembly called to elect Directors to the PNB for 2016. The independent WBAI delegates counted Kathryn Davis as a member. The JUC operatives boycotted that meeting. That Delegates Assembly elected Frank LeFever, Alex Steinberg and Robert Young as listener Directors, and Shawn Rhodes as Staff Director. The PNB refused to recognize the results of that election. By so doing the JUC and the corrupt PNB maintained their PNB majority.

The shenanigans of the JUC and the corrupt PNB continued when the PNB ruled that the previous WBAI LSB Directors could not remain seated for 2016. Previously, even termed out Directors were allowed to function and vote on the PNB until they were replaced. At the same time as they were denying the right of old or new Directors from WBAI to serve on the PNB the corrupt PNB majority allowed JUC operative Cerene Roberts to sit on the PNB and vote.

This situation went on for almost all of 2016, but 2016, was also an election year at Pacifica. In the 2016, elections the JUC indisputably lost the election. The Pacifica election results were announced on October 16, 2016. A WBAI Delegates Assembly was called for December 7, 2016. There was no dispute regarding who was a member for the Delegates Assembly, although some Justice & Unity Campaign operatives demanded that they be allowed to vote even though they had termed out some days earlier. No sense of irony with these people. At this meeting Frank LeFever, Cerene Roberts and Alex Steinberg were elected as listener Directors and Kathryn Davis was elected as Staff Director.

Since the Eighth WBAI LSB never legally met there are no attendance statistics for that LSB.

At its December 15, 2016, meeting the PNB again refused to recognize the election of Directors from WBAI because they said they did not recognize Delegates Assemblies, although the PNB was at the same time recognizing Delegates Assemblies at other stations.

There was a WBAI LSB meeting on December 14, 2016, and the WBAI LSB, conforming to the demands of the PNB that Directors be elected by the LSB and not a Delegates Assembly held yet another election for Directors. Once again Frank LeFever, Cerene Roberts and Alex Steinberg were elected as listener Directors and Kathryn Davis was elected as Staff Director.

At the December 15, 2016, PNB meeting the still corrupt PNB voted to not only not accept the latest election for WBAI Directors, but to decertify the entire 2016, elections for all of Pacifica. It should be noted that this election cost Pacifica about $150,000.

So after doing exactly what the PNB had demanded to elect Directors that same corrupt PNB refused to accept the results. The independent WBAI LSB members had tried every possible combination of formats to elect Directors for 2016, but the corrupt PNB continued to refuse to seat those delegates, except for JUC operative Cerene Roberts who voted with them.

Having gone into 2017, with their illicit majority the corrupt PNB would violate the Pacifica bylaws and illegally elect two affiliate Directors, nominated by none other than Cerene Roberts, in an effort to maintain their majority.

The corrupt PNB would eventually lose their majority and the WBAI Directors would be seated, but not until January 2017, when the corrupt PNB majority was swept from office by Directors elected from other Pacifica stations who saw the gross injustice of treating WBAI differently in terms of filling vacant seats on the LSB and the obviously factional refusal to seat duly elected WBAI Directors on the PNB.

On September 30, 2016, John Brinkley resigned from the WBAI LSB. His seat was taken by Dacio Quintana.

At the March 15, 2016, National finance Committee meeting the CFO brought up the idea of liquidating WBAI. More about what he said and links to the audio are here.

On August 3, 2016, the FCC approved the renewal of WBAI's license to broadcast. That's good news, and maybe some bad news, too.


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