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LaForest brief against Spooner motion 9-12-03 |
9-12-03 Court documents index ------------------------------
The following as posted at:
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DECLARATION OF LESLIE RADFORD I, LESLIE RADFORD, declare as follows: 1. I am a member of the KPFK Local Advisory Board (hereinafter referred to as "LAB"), which is constituted as a committee of the Interim Pacifica Foundation Board of Directors (hereinafter referred to as "IPNB"). 2. The following matters contained in this declaration are personally known to me and are true of my own personal knowledge, except those facts stated upon information and belief. If called upon as a witness, I could and would testify competently thereto. 3. Attached hereto as Exhibit 1 is a true and correct copy of an excerpt from the audio recording of the June 26, 2003, IPNB meeting, which I personally transcribed, which is incorporated herein as if fully set forth. 4. At the June 24, 2003, meeting, an informal straw poll was taken on the three drafts of the Pacifica bylaws. No official minutes of that meeting exist at this time. The email sent by KPFK LAB Secretary Marty Oaklander (Exhibit G to Movant’s Supplemental Declaration) is clearly marked as "Draft Minutes-Still to Be Corrected/Approved." These draft minutes are being corrected, as they do not properly reflect that the vote was a straw poll. 5. On July 21, 2003 at meeting called for that purpose, and after hours of discussion among the LAB and from subscribers, the KPFK Local Advisory Board (LAB) voted 12-11 to reject the bylaws draft known as Draft B. A true and correct copy of the official minutes of this meeting are attached hereto as Exhibit 6 and incorporated herein as if fully set forth. 6. On July 27, 2003, in light of the failure of Draft B, the IPNB Chair Leslie Cagan issued a memo calling for mediation to deal with diversity issues only. Importantly, issues pertaining to accountability, transparency, informed advice and consent, the amendment process, and fair campaign provisions that had been of great concern to the KPFK LAB—and which had swayed its vote against Draft B—were kept off the mediation table. Cagan unilaterally later changed the meeting to a facilitation with psychologists instead of the planned mediation. 7. Supporters of Draft B hastily called a KPFK LAB meeting for August 4, 2003 to renew the motion on Draft B. They failed to renew the motion at that meeting but succeeded in getting a vote scheduled for August 23rd. The maker of the renewed motion, Thom Irwin, was explicit that he was staking his continued opposition to Draft B on the success of the announced facilitated meeting. No official minutes of the meeting exist, but I was present and have listened to the audio tape of the August 4, 2003, KPFK LAB Meeting recently to refresh my memory. 8. Meanwhile, the KPFK LAB duly elected representatives to the August 16-17, 2003, facilitated meeting in accord with the iPNB Chair’s instructions and sent its representatives to the meeting in Chicago. Their reports back to the LAB were mixed: Those supporting Plan B declared the facilitated process a failure, while those who opposed Plan B, including Lydia Brazon, the LAB Chair and member of a committee to summarize the work of the facilitation, were hopeful of an imminent resolution. 9. Two of the participants in the Chicago meeting, who were also involved with following up on the facilitation, iPNB Chair Leslie Cagan and KPFA LAB Director Joe Wanzala, // // demonstrated bad faith in the facilitation process and sought to influence KPFK board members’ August 23rd votes by claiming to us that the facilitation was faltering. On August 23rd, the KPFK LAB approved Draft B by the same single-vote margin by which it had earlier rejected it, which vote was changed by only one LAB member, Thom Irwin. Since Thom Irwin, the maker of the motion to renew the motion on Draft B, announced at the August 4, 2003, meeting that his opposition to Draft B was contingent on the success of the facilitation, it was in the interests of those supporting Draft B to ensure the failure of the facilitation. In spite of their best efforts, it took the extraordinary intervention of two of those most intimately involved in the ongoing process to sway the KPFK LAB vote on August 23, 2003. No official minutes of the meeting exist, but I have transcribed a part of the minutes of the August 23, 2003, KPFK LAB Meeting from the audio tape recording of it, my transcription is a true and correct transcription of the audio tape and is attached hereto as Exhibit 8 and incorporated herein as if fully set forth. 10. Within days, three of the national board members, Leslie Cagan, Carol Spooner, and David Fertig, publicly asserted that the bylaws had been resolved in favor of Draft B, and Cagan abruptly ended the facilitation process. 11. The IPNB has made extraordinary progress in reducing its debt, as noted by its Executive Director in The Los Angeles Business Journal of July 14, 2003: "Under the interim board, Coughlin said Pacifica fundraising has been on a roll and that the network has reduced its debt to about $400,000." A true and correct copy of the article from the Los Angeles Business Journal is attached hereto as Exhibit 9 and incorporated herein as if fully set forth. 12. If the order of the court that the votes of the LABs must have been rendered not later than July 23, 2003, is not a final date, then Pacifica's bylaws process has no finality. The second vote of the KPFK LAB opens the possibility of endless re-votes around Draft B by the LABs and the IPNB, such KPFT LAB’s agenda item for its September 10, 2003, meeting to revote on Draft B. By all standards, Draft B has only succeeded in dividing Pacifica and should be withdrawn from further consideration, except to the extent that parts of it can be incorporated into bylaws with broad and substantial support. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct. DATED: September 10, 2003 ---------------------------------- |
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