2/22/00 DRAFT PROPOSAL FOR KPFA ELECTIONS

- The Folio Yellow Sheet -

2/22/00 DRAFT PROPOSAL FOR KPFA ELECTIONS
KPFA LAB ELECTION PROJECT

[June 2000 note: On May 17, 2000 The KPFA LAB voted to accept this proposal with 2 amendments: 1) those people 20 years old and younger who wish to vote are automatically qualified without regard to station donations or volunteer work and 2) the LAB may not alter the voting rights of LAB members without a vote taken of the public as represented at a well publicized LAB meeting where the vote would be taken.]

The elected KPFA Station Board (hereafter Board ) will replace the current, appointed Local Advisory Board (LAB) on the conclusion of elections. To the extent authorized by the by-laws of the Pacifica Foundation and the policies of the Pacifica Board of Directors, this Board shall be responsible for the Station¹s long-term strategic planning and other station policy creation, review, and implementation functions; for example, review of station personnel and programming policies and procedures. Day-to-day management functions are to remain the province of the KPFA station management. The Board is fully empowered to the same extent as the previous LAB to elect representatives to the Pacifica Board of Directors as authorized by the by-laws of Pacifica Foundation.

Among other functions, the Board shall appoint an Election Coordinator who shall not be a station employee and who may appoint an election committee to assist him or her in the implementation of the following election procedures.

Any natural person (as opposed to organization) who has subscribed to KPFA with $25 or greater donation in the previous year, defined as the period 1-13 months prior to the close of the nomination period ( Sponsors )

Any natural person who has performed 3 hours of volunteer work at the station in the previous year, defined as the period 1-13 months prior to the close of the nomination period ( Volunteer Sponsors )

All current programmers, paid staff and unpaid staff at the station with at least 1 months¹ tenure (Staff )

A candidate must be a qualified voter as defined by the three above-described categories (Sponsor, Volunteer Sponsor, or Staff).

To be nominated, a candidate must present a nomination petition endorsed by 10 other qualified voters to the Election Coordinator by the close of the Nomination period. Only Staff may nominate Staff candidates, only Sponsors and Volunteer Sponsors may nominate listener/community candidates.

Listener/community candidates shall indicate on their petition if they are male or female and "of color" or not for the purposes of the election diversity goals outlined in Section E.

The nomination period shall last 45 days, during which time the Election Coordinator shall arrange regional signature-gathering events in the East Bay , North Bay, South Bay, Peninsula, and San Francisco areas; and over the Internet for on-line listeners. The Election Coordinator should strive to ensure a full slate of diverse candidates.

The Station General Manager and the Union (CWA) Steward will not be allowed to run for the Board because of conflict-of-interest concerns.

For the first Election (to be held in 2000) to replace the existing LAB, current LAB members who desire it will be 'grandfathered¹ in for one-year terms, and the election will fill the remaining seats of the new Board.

Regardless of grandfathering, all past members of the LAB will be allowed to run as candidates after meeting the petition requirement.

The election (official campaign & voting) period should begin one week after the close of nominations (to allow candidate validation and ballot preparation time) and last 30 days until the close of the election.

Any of the supporter or other organizations associated with KPFA & Pacifica may make candidate endorsements. However, KPFA & Pacifica, including the current LAB, as entities, are prohibited from endorsing candidates.

KPFA shall allot a programming slot at least once during the election period to host all of the candidates for an on-air Q/A forum. Questions to be administered by a non-station moderator appointed by the Election Coordinator. Each Candidate or their appointed representative shall participate in at least one of the on-air Q/A forums.

Community groups, if they desire, may host additional public forums, again with ALL of the candidates being invited to attend, although participation in these forums shall not be mandatory.

Any other on-air discussion of the election must be confined to encouraging people to vote for the candidate(s) of their choice. ANY on-air programmer who is running will be immediately disqualified if they discuss their candidacy on-air and ANY candidate will be disqualified immediately if they appear on-air to discuss their candidacy outside of an official Q/A session. The Election Coordinator will be the arbiter of disqualifications with appeal to the non-candidate members of the current LAB meeting as a body.

Candidates shall provide brief answers to a questionnaire prepared by the Election Coordinator, and prepare brief statements of qualifications and vision. These materials shall be used in the on-air forum and/or mailed with the ballots at the discretion of the Election Coordinator.

Use paper ballots. If feasible, web-based voting may be considered in the future. Write-in candidates will be counted. "None of the Above" will not be an option.

The Election Coordinator will compile a list of qualified voters using the station¹s records. If these records are not made available to the Election Coordinator or the task proves otherwise infeasible, then the Election Coordinator will advise Qualified voters throughout the nomination and election period that they must register (by phone, mail, e-mail, on-line, fax, or in person) to receive a ballot by mail. Registration will close one week before the close of the election period. Ballots may also be downloaded from a designated website and then hardcopies marked and returned as paper ballots.

Voters will then mail or hand-deliver completed ballots to the Election Coordinator by the close of the election period for verification and counting.

While ballots themselves will be secret, completed ballots will not be accepted unless delivered with accompanying voter identification: voters shall mail completed ballots in an envelope with return address & voter name(s) clearly indicated, or shall report a name & address for each completed ballot hand-delivered in the presence of an election official.

The Board may consider a minimum voter turnout of 10% of total subscribers for an election to be valid.

The Board shall have 22 members total and consist of 8 Staff representatives and 14 listener/community representatives. Board members shall be elected for 2-year terms staggered in annual elections of 11 members each year, making 4 Staff and 7 listener/community representatives elected annually. (For the first election, see Section F below on staggering.)

Voters will nominate and vote for candidates only within their constituency. Within each constituency, voters will rank the candidates by preference and their votes will be counted according to the Choice Vote (or Single Transferable Vote ) method of proportional representation.

Staff should ensure gender, minority, and union/non-union status diversity in their elected representatives to the Board. This document does not prescribe specific rules to attain this diversity and leaves that task to the staff.

The goal of the election is to have near-equal representation of gender and race/ethnicity among the 14 Listener/community representatives. This means the Board should seat no more than 8 men or 8 women, AND no more than 8 racial/ethnic minorities (or people of color) or 8 non-minority. Accordingly, the resulting Board balance should be 6-8 or 7-7 on each of these two diversity characteristics (gender and race/ethnicity) depending on the results of each year¹s election.

Because seats will be staggered two-year terms, each year¹s election will typically elect half (either 3 or 4) of each diversity cohort.

The Election Coordinator will determine the winning candidates using the Choice Voting method of counting preferential votes, with the added criteria of meeting the diversity goals. This modified system will elect the most-preferred candidates whose addition to the board best meet that year¹s diversity goals, skipping candidates if necessary.

For example, if 2 men and 4 women have already been seated, for the final seat the Election Coordinator shall skip higher-ranked women in order to seat a third man. If no male candidate remains, then the highest-ranked woman shall be seated. If, out of six seats, 4 women and 4 non-minorities have been seated, and no male minority candidate remains for the final seat, then the highest-ranked man or person of color shall be seated. Candidates skipped in this process will have their ballots redistributed among the remaining candidates to ensure that voters¹ preferences are still accurately reflected.

So that future Boards will be elected in two diversity-balanced staggered cohorts of 2-year terms, for this first election only, 4 staff representatives and 7 listener/community representatives will first be seated for 2-year terms according to the processes described in Section E. Any grandfathered current LAB members will be seated for 1-year terms, with as many newly-elected representatives as needed to complete the second 4- or 7-member cohort of staff or listener/community representatives. These newly-elected 1-year term representatives will be selected from among the highest-ranked candidates not seated on the 2-year cohort, and will be selected to balance the diversity of the grandfathered LAB members, again according to the process outlined in Section E.

(Note: The following proposal was made 2/20 and intended for voluntary vacancies only the first sentences might better read as: "A Board member may appoint a temporary proxy or permanent replacement if voluntarily vacating their seat. If the vacancy is not voluntary or no such appointment is made, the Election Coordinator shallŠ" . One member of the LAB Election Project disliked the first option of a member-appointed replacement, and preferred going directly to an appointee taken from the previous year¹s election. It¹s not known yet if this refinement will resolve the concern. This issue will be discussed further)

A Board member may appoint a temporary proxy or permanent replacement. If no such appointment can be made, the Election Coordinator shall consult the most recent election¹s results and fill the vacancy in correspondence with the Board diversity criteria. The appointee shall complete the remainder of the seat¹s term.

A vote to recall the entire Board may be initiated by any qualified voter with supporting signatures totalling 15% of the total votes cast in the previous election. A recall vote would require approval by an amount that is both 50% of the voters voting in the recall election and at least 50% of the total votes cast in the previous annual election. Upon passage of a recall vote, a new election to replace the whole Board will be held within 90 days. Recalled Board members would be eligible for re-election.

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 LAB ELECTIONS -- DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT 
(subheads for each election section of comments are bold face)

The KPFA Local Advisory Board, LAB, has taken another step toward democratization. The board, which is currently self-appointed, accepted an election proposal at their meeting on April 5. This proposal will be the basis for public discussion and comments over the next three weeks.

The election process is being coordinated by David Greene, who also works with the Northern California Citizens for Proportional Representation.

He will compile comments and submit them for review. A final agreement and election dates may be set this May.

The complete proposal is available in full on the Folio Yellow Sheet. Seven points of current controversy are:

1. Special Appointed Members. Some LAB members should be appointed by the LAB, rather than elected, in order to provide special skills (legal, financial, media, etc.).

2. Special Appointed Members. Specifically state LAB's option of appointing non-voting, ex-oficio members who may provide skill base (legal, financial, media, etc.)

3. Recall of Problematic Individuals. The electorate needs to be able to recall individual Board members as well as recall the entire Board. What happens if an individual becomes a problem on the board? Giving the Board sole authority to remove its own members without the agreement of the electorate is asking for trouble. It removes a level of accountability and a necessary check against cliques or power plays. Individual Board members are vulnerable to pressure and less independent in action and expression if they are accountable to the Board rather than the electorate. Perhaps the Board could suspend one of their own, subject to a recall by the members.

4. Campaign Fairness. There is no restriction on the ability of campaign committees to spend money on candidates, no restriction on independent campaign organizations, no campaign spending limits, no restriction on advertising, no restriction on non-station or forum campaigning, and no restriction on the use of Internet based campaigning. We should set a limit on the total amount of money or in-kind donations to candidates. An Internet limit could be established by setting up a Website that is the sole Internet campaign location for all candidates. All other Internet campaigning could be banned or open on an equal basis to all candidates and campaign organizations. We need to limit last-minute hit pieces. We also need a provision for the immediate removal of stealth candidates from the Board. Their removal would be subject to subsequent review.

5. Coordination and Rules of Campaign. Section A Election Coord. (EC) should specifically not be "part of" KPFA (beyond being a listener sponsor). The board should consider someone from an outside organization, like NCCPR, to handle ballot mailing, collection, and counting - perhaps for a fee. Section C: add Central Valley regional event.

Section D: Candidate questionnaire to be "used in an on-air forum, posted on KPFA's website (or whatever site is supporting the election), and mailed with the ballots." Delete "at the discretion of the EC" Also, on-air forum to host all of listener sponsor candidates (not staff); forum to be recorded and rebroadcast twice at different periods, for a total of three airings.

6. Diversity. Consider removing caps on the number of women & people of color, so that set-aside works only to make sure the traditionally underrepresented people get at least 6 of the 14 community/listener seats, but are not limited to 8. The goal is not equal representation of, for example, men and women or whites and minorities.

7. Conflict-of-Interest. This currently says to exclude "Union Rep" probably, but was likely meant to exclude station's four Union stewards and one Union Representative. It should state so explicitly. Your feedback is encouraged and should be sent to David Greene by email dmgreene@igc.org or phone (510-841-6761) or to the KPFA Local Advisory Board mailbox at KPFA (1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Berkeley, CA 94704).