JUNE MAKELA is the Pacifica National Board (PNB) Treasurer. As a member of the powerful Executive Committee of the PNB, and as the Chair of the Finance Committee of the PNB, she has played a major role in decision-making. Under her stewardship, money donated by listener sponsors has been disbursed to union-busting consultants and lawyers, salaries for PR personnel whose role had been to lie and obscure how subscriber’s contributions are being spent, and she has presided over a decision to prevent oversight of Pacifica financial decisions by closing Finance meetings to the public, and demanding that any worker who handles financial information be barred from union membership. Below is an excerpt from the June 1995 minutes of the Finance Commitee.
“That it become Pacifica policy that confidential employees shallWhy are these people “of particular concern?” Because the Board subsequently began, and is still, spending tens and perhaps by now hundreds of thousands of the subscribers’ dollars on anti-union consultants and union-busting legal efforts while the tapes in the Pacifica Archive disintegrate. Because Pacifica National now siphons off 17 percent of each station’s donations from the subscribers to hire useless personnel such as the “Communications Director” whose job is to lie and “spin” and otherwise conceal what appears to be malfeasant and unethical behavior by Pacifica’s Board and Management.
not be members of unions. This will include business managers,
bookkeepers, assistants to both, program directors, General
Managers and management team members in general. Of
particular concern are people dealing with confidential Information. Any
future negotiation on union contracts must be in line with this new
Pacifica policy”
Ms. Makela presided over increased salaries
for Pacifica managers, while local producers were told there was no money
for such journalistic necessities as fax and other telecommunications equipment.
KPFT in Houston has no local news department, and KPFK’s transmitter is
reportedly on its last legs, yet Pacifica’s
budget and revenues have increased from
8 to 10 million since 1995. Where is the money going? We don’t know, because
in spite of repeated calls to open the books to an independent audit, there
has been no response.
We believe Ms. Makela has demonstrated her lack of fitness as a custodian of the public funds entrusted to her. We believe she must resign.
Her actual paying job is as the Executive Director of the Boehm Foundation in New York City. This is the family foundation of Bob Boehm, now in his 80’s, and a lifetime supporter of peace and justice causes and the rights of working people. Boehm is one of the original members of the National Lawyers Guild, and the Boehm Foundation is a major supporter of The Center for Constitutional Rights, a public interest litigation organization founded by Arthur Kinnoy and William Kunstler.
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We are asking you to contact Mr. Boehm and ask him why his foundation’s Executive Director, in her spare time has:
Ask Mr. Boehm to suggest Ms. Makela
desist from these activities as inappropriate to the top administrator
of his foundation, and to show her good faith by resigning from the
Pacifica Board of directors.
Write to Mr. Boehm: Sorry, we have no e-mailRobert Boehm
Boehm Foundation
500 Fifth Avenue
NY, NY 10110And, of course, you can contact Ms. Makela herself and demand her resignation.
June Makela,
Executive Director
Boehm Foundation
500 Fifth Avenue NY, NY 10110
fax 212.768.1831.
junemakela@aol.com
SAMPLE LETTER
| Robert Boehm
Boehm Foundation 500 Fifth Avenue NY, NY 10110 Dear Mr. Boehm: As a listener-supporter of radio station KPFA, flagship station of the precious Pacifica network, I am writing to call your attention to a few facts that are in desperate need of your attention. I would not be surprised if you were unaware of the following facts, since I only learned of them very recently: that your Executive Director, June Makela, has in her capacity as Treasurer of the Pacifica Foundation 1) approved funding for union-busting activities; 2) tried, for obvious reasons, to keep this secret from Pacifica's listener-sponsors; and 3) helped to remove any vestige of democratic process from Pacifica's bylaws. The result has been the at-will firing of essential staff who dare question these activities, complete lack of financial accountability to listener-sponsors of Pacifica on the part of the Pacifica Board, and a centralized, self-selecting bureaucracy that is completely unresponsive to the community it was founded to serve. These sorts of activities and results are completely antithetical to Pacifica's original mission and to your own and your foundation's commitment to fighting for the public interest. I am asking you to suggest as much to Ms. Makela and that she show her good faith by resigning from Pacifica's National Board. I am sorry to have to be writing such a letter to you. I and literally thousands of others have contacted Ms Makela and the other Pacifica Board members repeatedly and have received either no response or, as in the case of Ms. Makela, a response of the most dismissive kind. I am therefore asking your help in what is a desperate situation, for it is clear that the Pacifica Board needs to be completely reconstituted if Pacifica radio is to survive in any meaningful form. Sincerely, Steve Gilmartin |