May 21, 2001
Miguel Maldonado
Chairman
WBAI Local Advisory Board
299 East, 8th Street Apt # 12
New York, New York 12209

To the members of the WBAI Local Advisory Board:

The Elections Committee of Concerned Friends of WBAI recognizes your stance in support of Leslie Cagan, WBAI LAB nominee to the Pacifica National Board, in her struggle against the controlling interests on the Board. We further acknowledge your valiant efforts and the enormous amount of time you dedicate to steering WBAI to fulfill its original mission, as laid out in the Pacifica Foundation’s Articles of Incorporation.

The anti-democratic behavior of the PNB together with John Murdock’s proposed bylaw changes, clearly demonstrate intent to disenfranchise Pacifica stations and "fire" their LABs and listeners. The need for corrective action is urgent. Concrete action taken to conduct democratic elections of the WBAI LAB would legitimize and empower your stance in opposing the PNB’s autocratic course.

A WBAI LAB democratized through its own initiative would dramatically support and validate the goals of all three lawsuits currently pending against the PNB. We believe that it was in this spirit you endorsed a democratized WBAI LAB by signing the Concerned Friends’ position statement, adopted January 11, 2001, which includes a call for listeners and staff to support the "establishment of local election procedures for the ongoing selection of Local Advisory Board members" (section 5c.)

The Elections Committee urges you to join our ongoing discussion on the implementation of electoral procedures at this time and to help us make critical decisions in designing an election model to best suit the needs and circumstances of the WBAI signal area. We thank you for allowing us to make a presentation at the March 15, 2001 LAB public meeting, and are pleased to note you have appointed a sub-committee to look into the question of elections and democratization. The Elections Committee has been researching possible democratic election models for the WBAI LAB for the past four months and has gathered a substantial amount of pertinent information on the subject. Many of the concerns about elections recently raised by individual LAB members and by the LAB as a body are on our minds as well. With this in mind, we seek to establish liaisons with your sub-committee, schedule public presentations on the importance of democratic process, and participate in your next sub-committee meeting. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
Berthold Reimers
Co-Chairman
The Elections Committee of Concerned Friends of WBAI

cc: M. Borenstein, A. Emerman, R. Laforest, A. Mackall, M. Rosenberg

Miguel, we do not have an address for eleven members of the LAB. Please forward a copy of the eleven attached letters addressed to: V. Alba, B. Austin, C. Caruso, J. Cohen, G. Golden, M. Hoffman, C. Hogarth, V. Hunter, L. Kronick, E. Maitland, A. Norris