Ken Laufer Candidate Statement
I'm Ken Laufer, WBAI listener since the 60s, member in 1996 of the SaveOurStation coalition. My job as a teacher of developmentally disabled High School students indicates that I have a lot of patience and am very tactful. If elected to the LSB, I'll use this diplomacy in seeing that meetings are conducted in a civil and respectful manner.
The current LSB majority, calling themselves the Justice and Unity Coalition, has had a destructive effect on WBAI and the local Board. Under their leadership for the past 3 years, WBAI faces the most serious financial woes in its history, with losses of listeners and financial support, due, in part, to the failure of JUC members to carry out their Board responsibilities. The LSBs committees do not function; some have not had a quorum in months. Budget discussions are rushed through. Programming is not evaluated. After stalling for 3 years, the LSB railroaded through an evaluation of the Program Director when the committee doing the evaluation was chaired by the PD's assistant!
I think that the firing without due process of Gary Null was one of the worst mistakes in Pacifica history, resulting in huge loss of revenue and listeners: an example of not seeing the forest for the trees..the trees being Gary's sometimes outrageous statements, the forest his vast audience and anti-establishment activism which fit WBAI like a glove! The messy firing of Robert Knight was another costly mistake.
The JUC Board majority has consistently stood against openness and transparency. When Pacifica Director Patty Heffley tried to see where our money was going, the JUC and their allies opposed her every step of the way with one roadblock after another. She should not have had to jump through hoops to look at the financial books. What were they hiding?
My LSB attendance record will be 100% (less acts of God.) I already attend every meeting in the audience. Votes have been lost by members not being there. To address our financial emergency I would vote to put the burden of the crisis on management, where it belongs, instead of the hard and long working underpaid staff. The JUC folks, while claiming to be workers' friends, actually voted to have staff bear the brunt of budget cuts, just as corporate CEOs do.
Let's bring back the Free Music Store, especially for contemporary classical music. (A voluntary admission would raise funds.) Full disclosure: I have a Masters degree from Juilliard,but perhaps a lot of you, like me, delight in the jazzed-up version of Bach's "Italian Concerto" as the theme-song of Janet Coleman's arts program. We could use a bit more classical music in between programs when there is time to fill. Please vote for me and/or other independent listener-candidates for LSB.
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Show/Hide commentsIn fact, a few people actually conspired on a public discussion board to bring the number up over 100,000 hits. A bit of fraud is a small cost (even if hours of work) to get one's candidates elected.
Heck, maybe it was Albert Solomon and his pals, the candidate who was removed due to racially inflammatory comments in his statement, and is defended by Steve Brown's posse.
Spooner made sure, in a nasty offensive, that bylaws at Pacifica would not include affirmative action remedies in election results, which opened the foundation to control by whites majorities.
Spooner is angry that WBAI is not controlled by whites yet, so she is sticking her nose in at WBAI.
Her husband, Gregory Wonderwheel, regularly attacked many African Americans at WBAI in various attempts to force them out using lies, hyperbole and standard Republican-style put-downs. Make no mistake about it, Carol Spooner and her California cohorts want to control WBAI.
I'm endorsing --
#1 - James Ross
#2 - Seth Goldberg
and, in alphabetical order,
Carla Cubit, Robert Gold, Jennifer Jager, Ken Laufer, Pat Logan, Don Mathiesen,
Lee McClure, Stefan Neustatder, Bernardo Palombo.
I hope you will rank James #1 and Seth #2 on your ballot, and then go on to rank the others listed above in order of your preference. James Ross is the only encumbent who deserves re-election this year. He has worked diligently to uncover and understand the station finances and to make recommendations to deal with the problems. Unfortunately, his efforts have been blocked by the current majority on the LSB (the "Justice & Unity" faction). Seth Goldberg has the financial and business skills that WBAI so desperately needs at this time. All of the above-named candidates are sincerely committed to helping to right the station by hiring station management that will strengthen & revitalize programming, restore the listener-base and rebuild financial stability. They can be the seeds of sanity at a very troubled institution if you elect them to serve this very important community resource.
This is a critical election for WBAI. I believe it is absolutely essential that NON "Justice & Unity" slate candidates take a majority of the seats on the Local Board if WBAI is to survive, and perhaps even Pacifica itself. As I wrote to you a few weeks ago, WBAI is bankrupt. It is paying its bills by borrowing money from the Pacifica National Office which is borrowing the money from other Pacifica stations. This whole house of cards could come down if the problems at WBAI are not solved quickly. There have been very serious financial irregularities at WBAI, including use of "restricted" grant monies for unauthorized purposes. In addition, when WBAI terminated Gary Null's program it also terminated a major source of listener-support for the station. Regardless of what you think of Gary Null's program, the station needed a realistic plan to replace that income or to reduce its expenses to live within its reduced income. It did neither, and that is one of the causes of the current bankruptcy. Other causes are overall mis-management, waste, poor staff morale, not enough good programming, and competition from other alternative media sources, both on the radio and on the internet.
The "Justice & Unity" faction has held the majority on the LSB for the past three years and has been blocking necessary management changes and other changes at the station. In addition, the LSB majority elects 3 of the 4 WBAI seats on the Pacifica National Board and they have been blocking necessary action by the Pacifica Executive Director and National Board. For this to change, at least 5 of the 9 listener seats , and 2 of the 3 staff seats on the LSB must be won by independents who are not part of the "Justice & Unity" slate. I honestly don't know why the "Justice & Unity" slate has been so destructive to WBAI, they have good "political" credentials and you would think they would want the station to grow and thrive. However, they have not acted that way, and if they are permitted to continue to control the Local board and to confuse and mislead the national board, then I am very very pessimistic about the future of WBAI and Pacifica. This is tragic in a time of national crisis where EVERY form of alternative media
Again, please vote -- Every vote matters. With "ranked choice" voting just one vote can determine who wins the last seat on the board.
Thanks, and best regards,
Carol Spooner
Pacifica National Board Member - Jan 2002-Jan 2005
Lead Plaintiff - Listeners' Lawsuit to remove the old Pacifica Board - 1999-Dec 2001
Really great statement. Yeah!
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