An Unofficial LAB-Oratoryby
Gregory Wonderwheel
(1300words)
The KPFA Local Advisory Board (LAB) met on Wednesday, August 16, 2000, at 7:00 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center one block north of the station. Present for the meeting were LAB members Max Blanchet, Andrea DuFlon, Sherry Gendelman, Mark Hernandez, Leona Jacobs-White, Louis Sawyer, John Sheridan, and Carol Spooner. Absent were Jay Imani, Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Pele de Lapp, Steve Lustig, and Lavarne Williams.
Sherry chaired the meeting until she left at 9:00 p.m. She began by announcing that Steve Lustig had resigned. She reported that Steve stated not only had it been an honor but complete torture to have served on the LAB. She stated he had a million other obligations.
John presented a report on the LAB Election. We are in the nomination phase and the Elections Committee is holding nominating meetings around the listening area. Planning has begun on how to manage on air presentations of candidates. Money is desperately needed. Leona asked if people of color know how to get nomination signatures?
Many speakers addressed concerns about whether the nomination period would produce enough nominations or enough diversity or both. Since the close of nominations was a week away there was no way to determine what the outcome of the nomination returns would be. The LAB decided that they could hold a special meeting after the close of nominations to decide if nominations needed to be reopened for an extended period if the number or diversity of nominations were insufficient.
Since Jim Bennett was not present Sherry related what Jim had told her for a station report. Bessie Wash is coming to town on August 23 to 25 and has indicated that she may meet with some listeners and community members. No one was sure whether this was a sincere offer or not.
Sherry said Jim said the Arbitron ratings were down, but the rating for the Hard Knock program at 4:00 p.m. was up. This rating monster keeps rearing its ugly head. My sympathies go out to Jim who must deal with this nightmare created by the Pacifica Board who love this corporate radio business model.
Sherry reported that Jim reported no new people were hired, but Leona pointed out that one new person was hired. This led to a discussion of the failure to hire a program director. Leona described how the job announcements went out with a job description but that after the applications were reviewed no one was selected. Leona opined that the job description must have been changed in mid-stream because she thought several people of color who had met the qualifications had applied but none of them were selected.
This writer suggested that Leona make a motion for the LAB to review the hiring of the program director and make a report. Sherry objected that the LAB is not supposed to run the station. I pointed out that reviewing, reporting, and recommending are the LAB's specific duties under the Federal Communications Act.
Leona did make a motion to review the program hiring process and the motion was seconded by Carol. There was discussion and Mark moved to amend the motion to include a recommendation for hiring processes in general along with the review of the program director hiring. Leona accepted this amendment with the understanding that the program director hiring would be the focus of the review. After discussion the motion was adopted 7 to 1 with Sherry casting the dissenting vote.
[I'd like to digress here for those who are not up on this issue. In my opinion this vote by the LAB is the most important vote the LAB has taken for many years.
[The CPB requirements give the LABs their authority to act. Some feel that since we shouldn't take CPB money we shouldn't refer to CPB requirements as authority. However, this view ignores the very simple fact that if it were up to Pacifica the LABs wouldn't exist. See Frank Ferris’ article in this issue about Pacifica’s historical attempts to gut the Station Boards. Until the bylaws of Pacifica Foundation are rewritten to give the station boards real responsibilities, the CPB requirements are the only protection the LABs have to continue to exist.
[The Federal Communications Act requires that the LAB must be distinct from and independent of the governing body. The purpose of the advisory board is to assist public broadcasting in being more responsive to community needs by providing for effective participation in planning and decision making. The law requires that the advisory board "shall be permitted to review the programming goals established by the station, the service provided by the station, and the significant policy decisions rendered by the station." Advisory boards are intended "to assist the stations in developing programs and policies that address the specialized needs of the communities that they endeavor to serve," and the law provides that the LAB "may make such recommendations as it considers appropriate to meet such needs."]
Next was the issue of a "Fresno" or "KFCF" seat on the LAB. After Mark was seated as an interim member some people mistakenly believed that his seat was a "Fresno" seat. This raised the question who from "Fresno" appointed him? In fact there is no "Fresno" seat and no other geographical seats on the current LAB. Mark stated that when he came up to give a report on the KFCF recall election he was somewhat surprized to by asked to be on the LAB.
Mark had brought with him an old KPFA-KFCF contract from 1974 which included a provision that the LAB would be expanded at that time have two seats for KFCF. No one knows how many times that contract has been superseded by subsequent contracts. No one had a copy of the current contract. Mark thought the last time a KFCF person sat on the LAB was around 1990 to 1992.
Mark pointed out that as an interim member his seat will expire upon the LAB election and at the meeting after the election he will not have a seat. Carol and Lewis and Max spoke to waiting until after the election for the newly elected LAB to deal with whether there should be KFCF seats on the LAB. Andrea’s motion to table the discussion until the September meeting which will occur after the KFCF recall election passed.
It was 9:05 p.m. and Sherry and Lewis left. Mark took over as chair of the meeting. Sojeila Silva gave a report on the committee meeting she facilitated to consider the community reps on the Program Council. The report and discussion took 50 minutes. The committee considered the goals of the Program Council and the job description and qualifications for community reps. A lot of time is needed to be an equal member of the program council with staff. Currently there are 1 management staff, 5 paid staff, 4 unpaid staff, and 2 community members on the Program Council.
The committee proposed that there be 2 community reps with 1 alternate and 1 LAB rep. Feedback from the Program Council included concern that an alternate would not be an equal partner in the work. The LAB agreed to have the working group bring their recommendations for community reps to the next meeting.
Sojeila was anxious to be relieved of her duties as the current community rep so Max volunteered to be a rep and Sojeila will go with him for two meetings before bowing out.
As the meeting was breaking at 10:00 p.m., the LAB passed John’s motion to endorse the protests at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in September in San Francisco.
The next meeting of the LAB will be Wednesday, September 13, 2000, at 7:00 p.m. at a location yet to be disclosed.
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