From: Gary Evans gde@w...
Date: Tue Oct 30, 2001 4:39 pm
Subject: Report: KPFA LAB ELECTION - Meet the Candidates Night 10-28-01

BRIEF REPORT:
First of an eventual three "KPFA LAB ELECTION - MEET THE CANDIDATES" NIGHTS

The meeting was held Sunday night, October 28th, at the Peace and Justice Center in Santa Rosa, and was MC'ed by Gregory Wonderwheel. Each of the attending candidates (see below) were asked a series of nine questions - each to be answered with a "Yes", "No", or "Can't-Answer as Stated."

Immediately after all the questions were asked and answered the attending audience broke into several small groups, and sets of two candidates sat with each group for a number of minutes. The sets of candidates were then rotated to the next group, and so on. In this way, each candidate met individually with each of those attending and the questions answered earlier could be discussed in detail along with other questions and topics within the small groups. This format proved really effective and satisfying.

I've collated the questions and answers given, and have included them along with my recall / interpretation of the more detailed answers given to the small group I sat with. If there are errors here - please forgive in advance. I hope others who were present will offer corrections and / or further discussion.

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There are twenty candidates for the seven listener/community seats:

Candidates Attending: Gail Blasie, Constance Buck, Ted Friedman, Curt Gray, Chandra Hauptman, Bud Hopkins, Adrienne Lauby, Rudy Posch, Robin Reynolds, Susan Da Silva.

Candidates Not Attending: Patricia Cooper, Jim Ferrigno, Sherry Gendelman, Shiu Hung, Christine Lee, Keith Nickolaus, Willie Ratcliffe, Fadi Saba, Irwin Silber, Kay Wallis.

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NINE QUESTIONS:

1Q. Do you favor continuing CPB funding?

A. The only candidates stating either "Yes to CPB funding" or "Not Able to Answer as Stated" were Constance Buck and Adrienne Lauby. Our small group asked each of these two candidates to enlarge on their answers. Constance had not been fully aware of the history of how CPB funding lead to governmental intrusion in Pacifica's governance and felt she needed to study the issue more fully. Adrienne felt that CPB funding was currently necessary to meet obligations to paid staff members, but hoped reliance on CPB money might be lessened or eliminated through long range planning.

2Q. Do you support LABs with listener elected majorities at all stations?

A. The only candidate to answer "Not Able to Answer as Stated" was Gail Blasie. In small session she related that several stations within the network have currently had their audiences re-selected (e.g. WPFW, KFPT) and that she would favor elected LABs at all the stations only if air-time was given to candidates where detailed concerns could be discussed in the open.

3Q. Do you favor giving the LAB a direct role in station manager hiring (such as creating the short hiring list or having a veto or choice)?

A. Constance Buck answered "No", all others answered "Yes." To be honest, I don't recall Constance's detailed answer to this question so I'll leave it to others who were there to fill this in.

4Q. The station board rules have called for the LAB to declare a seat vacant if the member misses 3 meetings in a row without being excused, do you favor strict enforcement of this rule?

A. Curt Gray answered "Not Able to Answer as Stated", all others answered "Yes." I don't think we got to this question in our small group (oops).

5Q. Would you be personally active in the resistance if there is another lockout or a direct interference by current national board?

A. All answered "Yes"

6Q. Are you concerned about the classist or elitist implications of relying on Internet communications?

A. Constance Buck, Rudy Posch, and Robin Reynolds answered "No", all others answered "Yes." In our small discussion group, Constance, Rudy and Robin upon reflection agreed that as not everyone has access to Internet communications, multiple methods of communications are needed to keep everyone informed. (Their "No" answers appeared to reflect a misunderstanding of the earlier posed question.)

7Q. Do you favor the LAB taking an active role (such as fundraising or production) in bringing back a KPFA folio for all listeners?

A. Chandra Hauptman and Adrienne Lauby stated "No", all the others stated "Yes." Both Chandra and Adrienne pointed to the time constraints of LAB members, and that the board would do better to delegate this task to others. Both stated emphatically that a having a regularly published Folio is very important.

8Q. Do you feel Pacifica mission includes broadcasting other political opinions than the so-called "progressive-left" views?

A. Gail Blasie and Robin Reynolds answered "No." Curt Gray, Rudy Posch and Susan Da Silva answered "Not Able to Answer as Stated." The varied answers to this question seemed to relate to the question's format - re: what is meant by "progressive-left?", etc. Our small group discussion found uniformity that all felt it was important to have views debated on air with several sides represented. I don't recall anyone wishing to have air-time dedicated to people espousing right-wing or non-progressive views unopposed (in a non-debating format).

9Q. Will you personally participate in the LAB committees that do the core work of the LAB such as creating policy reports or community needs assessment reports?

A. All answered "Yes."