Dear All,
On Friday August 10th the Pacifica board sent notice of a meeting on September 12th for the purpose of electing new directors. No names were given, and we have heard that some of the people proposed last month (when the court prohibited elections on 7 days notice) have withdrawn their names from nomination. However, the rumor is that Executive Director Bessie Wash wants the board to elect Marion Berry Chair of the board. (Yes, THAT Marion Berry.)

We will be filing a new motion to prohibit any elections of directors until after trial or summary judgment to determine whether or not such elections are legal under the Pacifica bylaws. We believe we have a good chance of success in preventing the election -- but, if not, then we will be amending our lawsuit to add any new directors as defendants and to get them removed as directors at trial or on motion for summary judgment. Trial is set for January 7th. We hope to be able to bring a motion for summary judgment soon.

Since we received a settlement "feeler" in June from Pacifica's lawyers, there has been widespread speculation that the defendants were getting ready to negotiate an end to the lawsuits. We were disappointed to receive a letter recently from Daly Temchine (one of the board defendants' former lawyers) stating that his clients are not interested in entering into negotiations at this time. This was shortly after Bessie Wash fired Epstein Becker & Green and Wendel Rosen Black & Dean as attorneys for the Pacifica Foundation and some of the past and current directors. There is some indication that Wash may have fired the lawyers because they were pushing settlement talks and not taking enough of a "hard line" to suit her.

Since Bessie Wash fired the two former law firms, two new firms have substituted in -- Williams & Connolly and Fullbright & Jaworsky -- but only for the Foundation and three of the current directors (Murdock, Johns & Chambers). But it does look like the former "majority" of the board had broken up into at least two groups: those represented by the new attorneys and those who are not represented by the new attorneys (Farrell, Ford & Lee). It remains to be seen who will be representing the remainder of the past and current director-defendants (Mary Frances Berry, June Makela, David Acosta, Michael Palmer, Frank Millspaugh, Ken Ford, Robert Farrell, Karolyn van Putten, and Bertram Lee).

Next week we will be filing motions challenging the substitution of attorneys for the Pacifica Foundation and three of its directors (Murdock, Johns and Chambers) on several grounds including conflicts of interest between the Foundation and the directors accused of injuring the Foundation as well as the impropriety of the legal counsel for the Foundation being controlled by a small faction of the board. We will also again seek a prohibition against using Foundation money to defend any of the individual directors.

Your continued financial support is essential to our efforts. Please see information below on how to contribute.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED If you have some time in the next couple of weeks to do some telephone fundraising in Marin County (CA) please contact Linda Remy at mhf1982@pacbell.com to volunteer.

Thanks, Carol Spooner

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