To all WBAI listeners and supporters
We, the undersigned, were elected as Listener and Staff Delegates to serve on the WBAI Local Station Board (LSB) in January 2016. Unfortunately, due to the unprincipled maneuvering of the Justice and Unity Campaign (JUC), we have been denied proper participation both locally at LSB meetings and nationally at Pacifica National Board (PNB) meetings.
The JUC associates on the PNB have refused to recognize our properly elected Directors, Bob Young, Alex Steinberg, Frank LeFever and Shawn Rhodes and have not allowed them to participate in any PNB meetings since January of this year.
Locally, the JUC manipulated the PNB to deny board membership to the properly elected Staff Delegate, Kathryn Davis and to instead recognize a candidate that the Staff rejected in both 2012 and 2015, Vajra Kilgour. This act both rejects the vote of the Staff and deprives Ms. Davis' constituents of their representation on the LSB.
We all take our elected duties seriously and we would like to attend LSB meetings to carry out our responsibilities, but we cannot in good conscience attend any meetings where an illegitimate person is permitted to participate in the proceedings while someone who was properly elected is denied participation.
Many of the JUC are well aware of our position on this matter, but instead of telling the truth to the public whenever they discuss this issue, they intentionally mis-characterize us as irresponsible and unconcerned about the well being of WBAI. Both are patently false!
Further, they've chosen to violate many Pacifica Bylaws and Robert's Rules of Order (RONR) in pursuit of their own self-serving agenda. Witness this so-called LSB meeting and Executive Session that's slated for Thursday, May 19: 1) It was called without a majority vote nor the unanimous consent of the Officers (violation of Bylaws Article 7, Section 6B). 2) It was called for a date outside of the board's regular meeting date of the second Wednesday of the month (violation of RONR (11th ed.) p. 244). 3) It doesn't qualify as a Special Meeting (violation of RONR (11th ed.) p. 91 and 93). 4) They've stated their intention to conduct business without having a quorum (violation of RONR (11th ed.) p. 348 and Bylaw Article 7, Section 7), and 5) In the Executive Session, they want to rescind a vote that took place at a 2015 Executive Session pertaining to something that's already been enacted (violation of RONR (11th ed.) p. 308). See below for a narrative of all the appropriate citations.
Again, we all take our elected duties seriously and we would like to attend LSB meetings to carry out our responsibilities, but we cannot in good conscience attend any meetings where an illegitimate person is permitted to participate in the proceedings while someone who was properly elected is denied participation. Once this injustice is rectified, we'll happily attend all LSB meetings.
Properly elected Delegates waiting to serve on the LSB:
Thomas F. Barton
Kathryn Davis
Jim Dingeman
Reggie Johnson
Ken Laufer
Frank LeFever
Pat Logan
R. Paul Martin
Eve Moser
Shawn Rhodes
Alex Steinberg
Jeremy Taylor
Bob Young
Pacifica Bylaw-Article Seven, Local Station Boards, Section 6: Meetings
B. TIME AND PLACE
The LSB shall establish, by majority vote, the time and place of each meeting, provided, however that no meeting shall occur sooner than ten (10) days from the date of the vote scheduling said meeting without the unanimous agreement of all the LSB officers that a shorter period is required to address urgent matters and, in the event of less than 10-days notice, notice shall be given by telephone message to all LSB members at least 24 hours before the meeting.
[RONR (11th ed.) p. 244, ll. 3-9]
PROVISIONS AS TO TIME AND PLACE.
In an organized society, the adjourned meeting scheduled by adoption of this motion (privileged or main) must be set for a time before that of the next regular meeting. When the assembly has no fixed place for its meetings, the motion should include the place as well as the time of the adjourned meeting.
[RONR (11th ed.) p. 91, ll. 26-35]
Special Meeting
A special meeting (or called meeting) is a separate session of a society held at a time different from that of any regular meeting and convened only to consider one or more items of business specified in the call of the meeting. Notice of the time, place and purpose of the meeting, clearly and specifically describing the subject matter of the motions or items of business to be brought up, must be sent to all members a reasonable number of days in advance.
[RONR (11th ed.) p. 93, ll. 3-4]
The only business which can be transacted at a special meeting is that which has been specified in the call of the meeting.
[RONR (11th ed.) p. 348, ll. 14-23]
The prohibition against transacting business in the absence of a quorum cannot be waived even by unanimous consent, and a notice (pp. 21-24) cannot be validly given. If there is important business that should not be delayed until the next regular meeting, the assembly should fix the time for an adjourned meeting and then adjourn. If, instead, the members present take action informally in the absence of a quorum, they do so at their own risk. Although the assembly can later ratify their action (pp. 124-25), it is under no obligation to do so.
Pacifica Bylaw-Article 7, Local Station Boards, Section 7: Quorum and Approval
A quorum at any meeting of an LSB shall be a majority of the then currently serving LSB members, not including the Station Manager. Associate station representatives shall not be counted for purposes of establishing a quorum for matters on which they are not entitled to vote. If after a quorum has been established at a meeting of the LSB some of the LSB members leave the meeting and there is no longer a quorum present, those LSB members remaining may continue to take action so long as a resolution receives at least that number of affirmative votes as would constitute a majority of a quorum. (E.g., if the quorum is 13 LSB members, and a majority of a quorum is 7, then so long as 7 LSB members remain present and vote in the affirmative the resolution shall be adopted.) Except as otherwise expressly provided in these Bylaws, the approval of a majority of the LSB members present and voting shall be required for any action of said LSB. In the event that the vote on any motion results in a tie, the motion shall not pass.
In the event quorum is not achieved, roll shall be taken to establish quorum or lack thereof and minutes shall be produced to reflect the roll call vote, the failure to achieve quorum and the next meeting if those present set one.
[RONR (11th ed.) p. 308, ll. 12-23]
ACTIONS THAT CANNOT BE RESCINDED OR AMENDED.
The motions to Rescind and to Amend Something Previously Adopted are not in order under the following circumstances: .... b) When something has been done, as a result of the vote, on the main motion, that is impossible to undo. (The unexecuted part of an order, however, can be rescinded or amended.)
Narrative:
The JUC are in violation of so many Bylaws and RONR rules that it would be quite the act of bad faith for them to try and hold these meetings. 1) They probably just came up with this idea to call a special meeting AFTER ending the April 13 gathering which did not achieve a quorum. So it's in violation of Bylaw Article Seven, Local Station Boards, Section 6B. 2) If they did make a motion to hold a special meeting at the April 13 gathering and are now claiming that they scheduled it for May 19, that is invalid because any special meeting "must be set for a time before that of the next regular meeting", according to RONR. 3) We KNOW that they never made a motion to hold this meeting on a set date because Cerene Roberts sent out an email on 5/6/2016 12:16 saying that, "At the last LSB meeting, we agreed to conduct an availability poll for a date to hold the May meeting...." That is not the description of a motion to hold a meeting at all; it's a motion to take a poll, that was possibly passed at a non-meeting due to lack of quorum. 4) They did not specify the business to be conducted at any special meeting, as is required by RONR. 5) The Brinkley email of 5/12/2016 06:55 never said it was a special meeting and never stated any specific business to be done at it. 6) The kpftx.org notice for May 19, does not specify any business, it only says, "Foundation business." 7) For the Executive Session, it states a specific piece of business, but that business is out of order. They can't rescind something that has already happened. 8) The JUC may try to take action and say they want it ratified at a later date, but without quorum at that later date, that ratification cannot possibly take place, and 9) Bylaw Article Seven, Local Station Boards, Section 6B says, ".... no meeting shall occur
sooner than ten (10) days from the date of the vote scheduling said meeting without the unanimous agreement of all the LSB officers that a shorter period is required to address urgent matters...." And they have not gotten the unanimous consent of the officers for any meetings on May 19, 2016. So neither meeting is valid on this point as well.
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