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Important Fundraising Request 7-14-01 |
From: "Carol Spooner" Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 21:34:08 -0700 Subject: UPDATE -- Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board July 14, 2001 July 14, 2001 IMPORTANT FUNDRAISING REQUEST Dear Friends, Many of you have been supporting our ("listeners') lawsuit to remove the illegally seated directors from the Pacifica board of directors for the past two years, and many of you only learned of our legal action recently. For those who are new to these legal reports, please visit our web page at http://home.pon.net/wildrose/remove.htm to learn something of the history of this legal battle. Briefly, we went through a lengthy petition process (11/99-9/00) to the California Attorney General to get standing to sue, then a lengthy removal to federal court before the court determined it had no juridiction and returned the case to the California court (10/00-2/01). Since then there have been numerous motions filed by both sides, we have been engaged in "discovery" -- demands for production of documents, depostions are scheduled, etc. -- and a trial date has been set for January 2001. Before January, however, we intend to bring a motion for partial summary judgment that, if we prevail, will resolve the central crucial issues of the legality of the Pacifica bylaws and who is a legally elected director and who is not. We plan to bring that motion in September. We strongly believe that the Pacifica Board majority's latest gambit -- proposing to "elect" (illegally appoint) five more directors next Tuesday (7/17) -- is a sign of desperation on their part. They have said that some of their directors want to resign as soon as possible, and they may be about to lose majority control of the board of directors. We have papers before the judge asking him to enjoin this election, and all elections, until the legality of such elections and the bylaws can be ultimately determined at trial or on partial summary judgment. We are optimistic that the judge will rule in our favor. If he does not, we are studying another option that could bring the issue of the legality of this election and the bylaws to a final determination even faster than a partial summary judgment motion. Either way, I am becoming more and more optimistic that we are in a very strong legal position as a result of their desperate move to elect more directors. As a result of their weakness and our growing strength, we may be able to force the board majority to negotiate a transfer of control of the board very soon. Needless to say, all this legal work is expensive. Your contributions have kept us going thus far. Over the past month our lawyers and paralegals put in more than 180 hours of work. I won't translate that into dollars for you -- our finances are "tactical" information we don't want Pacifica to know. But, even though our lawyers are billing at a generously reduced rate, we need your generous financial support to keep us going strong. I expect the same amount of lawyers time (or more) will be necessary in the next month or two. There are over 7,000 supporters receiving our email bulletins now -- and we have received contributions from more than 1,500 of you. Some of you have contributed regularly for two years now. We are so grateful. I have never stopped being awed by the dedication of the listeners to saving our radio stations and restoring Pacifica to its mission.
We ask each of you to send whatever you can afford today -- large or
small -- and to consider making a monthly commitment (a good way to do that
is by arranging automatic payments from your bank, as some people have
done). If everyone receiving this email bulletin sent $10, that would cover
our legal expenses for the next two months. If everyone who can afford it
sent $100 (or more) that would make up for those who are with us in spirit
but cannot afford to send anything. Please look in your heart and your
checkbook
--Carol Spooner
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