To: The Directors of the KBOO Radio Foundation
From: Lyn Gerry, former staff member and UE steward at KPFK-FM, Los Angeles

RE: Your resolution on the Pacifica situation

Dear People of KBOO,

Your July resolution has recently been posted to the Internet discussion group where those of us in the movement against the "New Pacifica Order" meet and organize. I would like to express my thanks to you for addressing and acknowledging the problem, and also provide a perspective which you, as an outside organization, may not have.

I understand, that as a group not a direct party to the conflict, you wished to be somewhat circumspect. The issues are much broader than the agreement on a suitable contract; community control of media is what is at stake.

Your resolution speaks of the a dispute between the union and Pacifica. Prior to Pat Scott becoming the Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation in 1994, there was no dispute between "the union" and "Pacifica." This current dispute arises in the context of the goals of the Scott regime: to transform Pacifica from a loose confederation of 5 community stations to a top-down, centrally controlled network poised to be a player inside the Beltway.

To achieve this end, Scott and her allies on the Pacifica National Board, and her compliant local management surrogates (all local management opposed to this have been purged), have moved aggressively to silence dissent to these policies through firings, intimidation, harassment, secret meetings and the hiring of union busting consultants. The current union contracts are considered impediments by the Scott regime because they allow workers some say in the governance of the Foundation and prohibit their disposition like pawns in a chess game.

Unlike the KBOO Foundation, whose democratic by-laws are being studied by those of us engaged in drafting new by-laws for Pacifica, Pacifica currently has no democratic mechanisms for governance.

There are no democratic means for removing malfeasant officials, or Scott would already be gone. The National Board is self-selecting, and selects the top management. Some of the members of this Board come from the Local Advisory Boards. Though each of these Boards "elects" 2 delegates, these Boards are also self-selecting.

Futhermore, in an August 1995 memo, Local Boards were informed dissent from The Pacifica National Board's policies would not be tolerated.

In spite of the Scott regime's best efforts to portray the opposition as a "small group" of questionable sanity, our movement is growing and gaining allies both within Pacifica and from other organizations and individuals concerned with the issues of grassroots access to media. We will soon be opening a Homepage on the World Wide Web which will contain, among other things, documents supporting the allegations made in the preceding paragraph. We are planning to link our site to others of similar concern. We will also have a calendar of events relating to community media and free speech.

In closing, I would address the portrayal of our movement by the Scott regime as "elitists" who object to reaching a large audience. My response is, it is the Scott regime who are elitist. In various public fora, Scott has referred to the "big transmitters" of the Pacifica stations. Clearly, she and her supporters believe that communities of people do not deserve "big transmitters," a view already held by the mainstream media and the corporate elite who runs it.

I have posted this letter to our discussion group. Others in our group may also wish to address you. T hank you for your consideration.

Lyn Gerry