Local Station Board Election Policy

Adopted by the PNB, April 25, 2009

In order to ensure fair and equitable elections at all 5 Pacifica radio stations in compliance with the Bylaws of The Pacifica Foundation the following policies were adopted by the Pacifica National Board, April25, 2009, at their meeting in Berkeley California:

The job descriptions of all Program Directors and General Managers shall include: full cooperation with both local and national election supervisors in all aspects of local station board elections.
It is the responsibility of the General Managers of each station to ensure that membership lists for listener-sponsors and paid and unpaid staff lists are created and maintained in general and especially checked for accuracy a minimum of 3 months prior to a local station board election.
1. Unpaid staff organizations shall maintain lists of membership that include a description of the unpaid staff member's contribution to a particular program or other volunteer work for the station and some way of verifying the number of hours they work per month on a volunteer basis to ensure that it conforms to the Bylaws minimum requirement of 30 hours in the preceding 3 months or the requirements of their radio station's "Unpaid Staff Organization" or "Unpaid Staff Collective Bargaining Unit". Full cooperation of the General Manager and station staff shall be expected in maintaining this list and verifying the validity of its membership.
To ensure the greatest amount of listener participation in local station board elections, it is mandatory that Program Directors and General Managers air carts at all 5 stations in the nomination period to adequately inform our listeners about how they can self-nominate, what the duties of an LSB member are, how the LSB interfaces with station management and staff, both paid and unpaid, etc.

Six 60 second carts and Six 30 second carts shall be aired each day in rotation. This is 6 carts, total, aired in rotation each day of the nomination period. For stations with Spanish or other language broadcasting, the carts would be aired in that language during broadcasts in that language, with the number and frequency of the carts corresponding to the amount of said language broadcasting (hours per day) at the station. For example, if there are 3 hours of broadcasting in a language different from English a day on a station, one 60 second cart and one 30 second cart per day in rotation would be adequate.
These carts would be scripted in advance by the NES to conform with the Pacifica Bylaws and the same carts be used at all 5 stations with the addition of local contact information. The carts may be varied, but the intent would be to alert the broad listenership about the election during the ENTIRE nomination period, to explain the election process, etc., and to steer listeners to a phone number and website for further information.

Each programmer or collective with a one hour or more program slot shall be required to produce and air one 15 minute tutorial on the election during the nomination period. This tutorial shall be recorded and repeated once during the nomination period. This responsibility applies to all paid and unpaid programmers, including music programmers.

In addition, one report to the listeners from the national level and one from the local level involving both management and board participation from staff and board members who are not candidates, shall be done during the nomination period. These reports shall be one hour long.

This prescribed programming shall be aired irrespective of fundrives or any other broadcasting. The listenership should be engaged in the election process wherever possible, to encourage membership and volunteer participation. Members should also be encouraged to participate in the election committees established at each station in accordance with the by-laws.

Logs of all programming, including incidental carts, shall be maintained including each time an election cart is aired. Archived programs should include these carts so that the fact that they were aired can be verified if needed.

Promotion needs to be done to explain the election process to potential staff candidates as well. This promotion would be done at staff meetings, on the station bulletin board and using paid and unpaid staff email lists.
When the nomination period is over, the PDs and GMs are responsible for fully cooperating with local and national election supervisors to ensure that a minimum of 3 on-air candidate forums of one hour in length are aired for each 5 candidates.
Sixty second candidate statements shall be recorded at the radio station by each candidate. PDs and GMs are expected to air these statements in rotation right after the nomination period is closed through to the end of the campaign period. In total, each candidate shall have her/his cart aired a minimum of 30 times in a variety of times of the day and week. It is the responsibility of the PDs and GMs to ensure that these carts are played in an equitable manner so that no candidates are advantaged or disadvantaged. Further, General Managers shall cooperate in the planning and coordination of community candidate forums.
Failure to comply with any or all of the above policy shall result in rapid but gradient disciplinary measures including but not limited to:
1. A negative mention in the PD or GM's personnel file,
2. Graduated reduction in pay,
3. Suspension of duties,
4. The assignment of another staff person to ensure compliance with election policies and procedures.
Conversely, compliance with this policy shall be followed by:
1. A positive mention in the PD or GM's personnel file,
2. A bonus or other reward at the discretion of the discretion of the LES, NES in conjunction with senior management.
Disciplinary measures may be invoked by the local or national election supervisor in conjunction with the station management, HR Director and/or the Executive Director. They may also be initiated by any GM or the ED.

Forwarded to all PNB Members by Richard Uzzell, PNB Recording Secretary, May 18, 2009