RadioPoetics.org

by Tracy Rosenberg

It's nice to hear Matthew Hallinan, who like me, was just elected to the KPFA Local Station Board this past month, admit there's still a few things for him to learn about the KPFA situation. It's been 9 years of involvement for me, and I'm still learning things.

Matthew says a near-record number of people voted in this last election. Actually 500 less people voted in 2007 than in 2006, partially because KPFA has 2,000 less subscribers this year than it did the last.

I'm not in favor of nullifying the election either. Too expensive and too aggravating for everyone involved. As I received (per the uncertified results), the second highest number of 1st place votes of 22 candidates, I hope I can talk about this without being characterized as a loser.

Matthew's case is that things got screwed up and he had a sense of humor. I know what he means. My candidate statement (the very last one in the book due to some odd decision to start with the letter "S") was printed in two different fonts. And a candidate blurb I recorded the 1st week of October aired for the first time on November 9th - a week before the ballots were due.

But some things happened that aren't just funny and exasperating. I was the elections supervisor for KPFA in 2006 (when Matthew's brother Conn was elected), and there are some problems that fall into the category of "egregious".

One of them is when the executive director of a foundation tries to tell subscribers who to vote for and who not to vote for. You don't have to like what every candidate has to say. But you do need to let voters make up their own minds.

Another is when a broadcaster uses station resources (lists on KPFA servers), and not just personal ones, to advocate for one or another candidate.

The point of an elected board was not to replace a self-selecting board of directors with a staff and management-selected board of directors. It was to place the selection of directors in the hands of the people who pay for the station and own it.

Matthew insists on calling people affiliated to slates other than his own as "angry, destructive, sectarian attack dogs". Is this the language of partnership he desires?

No, don't nullify the election results. But make it clear that board members are not to be hand-picked from an anointed group that agrees with management on all things, and this sort of interference from bosses and long-term insiders isn't going to be tolerated in the future, as it wouldn't be in any non-profit or union election.

Tracy Rosenberg

2007 Uncertified LSB Member
2006 Local Election Supervisor