Pacifica National Board
Elections Review Committee Meeting
Friday, May 14, 2004

Participants: Carolyn Birden, Bill Gallegos, Kalonji, Michael Lubin, Grace
Aarons, Ray Whitfield, Theresa, Melinda, Cerene Roberts

Facilitator: Carolyn Birden
Notetaker: Bill Gallegos

Agenda:

1. Approval of agenda
Proposal to add an agenda item on "waivers".

By 5-4 vote, it was decided not to add this topic to the agenda.

Agenda approved as originally proposed by unanimous vote.


2. Approval of Minutes from previous meeting - Cerene moves to accept,
second by Grace, approved by unanimous vote

3. Report on Requests to Supervisors from Carolyn Birden and anyone else who
has contacted a former elections supervisor or any other principal in the
station
. WPFW - Ray spoke with Interim General mgr. who said he had not received a
report from the two election supervisors. Carolyn spoke with Rashad, one
of the election supervisors, who said he did not have time to do a full
report. He will look at what is there and provide items that were
specific to WPFW. He said he would do it as soon as possible. Rashad
replaced the first election supervisor.
. KPFT - Carolyn found out that reports were not part of the job description
of the election supervisor. She found that Dennis Fetters did not do a
report. Jessica Mays who worked closely with the national election
supervisor and will write a report by Monday from May 17th. Robin Lewis
who was chair of the elections committee has done a report. Melinda will
upload the report for review by this committee.
. KPFA - Carolyn spoke with Les Radke who is working on his report. Will
have draft by May 16th and final version by May 18th
. KPFK - Carolyn spoke with Casey Peters and he did not have time to do a
report. Art Stasney, was a volunteer who helped to tally the votes. He
posted a report that has a lot of technical detail.
. WBAI - The station has three workgroups - ballots and balloting, rules for
candidates, education of voters and candidates. All three will do reports
which should be done by Thursday May 20th. They will then be worked into
final report. Phil Botwinnick was election supervisor and Joy Williams was
the other. Joy said she would send some notes. Botwinnick is working on
a report, but would like to be paid. Carolyn forwarded this request to Dan
Coughlin.

4. Report on request to Dan Coughlin for report(s) from the National
Supervisor. Carolyn has phoned and emailed Dan Coughlin but hasn't heard back.
She then addressed a request for the 13 page report to National Coordinating
Committee (NCC). The report is still in hand of Pacifica lawyer. Terry is
working on a second report, but requires $300 to complete.

Discussion: Terry said lawyer wanted report sent to them directly to protect
attorney-client privilege. The second report is a list of recommendations.
Carolyn emphasized to Terry that the Elections Committee would respect
confidentiality of the report, but that we need it to fulfill our obligations
to PNB. Carolyn will follow up with National Coordinating Committee and Dan
Coughlin to try and get this report for the Elections Committee. NCC meets on
Tuesday, May 18th. Carolyn will let us know by Wednesday whether they approved
our request for the report. Theresa is on the Coordinating Committee and will
speak with Marty to try and expedite this committee getting the report.

5. Proposed plan for drafting the report: refer to proposed resolution
below.

Proposed Resolution (from Michael Lubin): By May 20th (Thursday) each local
election supervisor, or other expert party, shall write a report, preferably
approximately 1000 words, outlining the problems encountered at the station in
the elections just past, and where possible offering solutions. If this has
not been adequately done at a particular station by the 20th, the committee
will make use of whatever materials it has available.

[Name of committee member] will write, or supervise the writing of, a summary,
preferably not more than 1200 words, of overlapping concerns and problems as
well as proposed remedies in all the stations, and distribute it to all
committee members by May 22nd for review and editing.

[Names of committee members for each station] will write, or supervise the
writing of, a summary of problems unique to each station, with any proposed
remedies, preferably not more than 600 words, and distribute it to all local
committee members by May 24th. After review and editing by the local committee
members, these local reports must be distributed to all committee members by
May 26th to guarantee their inclusion in the committee's final submission.

The edited version of all six reports will be considered by the full committee
no later than May 28th, and the final versions shall be mailed to the Board
Secretary as soon as possible thereafter.

Motion by Michael Lubin to approve resolution, Second by Ray Whitfield

Discussion: The national report might not cover all the particular problems at
each station, but could include local reports that detail local problems that
do not overlap. Local Station Boards should be involved in process to approve
the recommendations from local area. Reports should be factual, not
speculative. The tight deadline makes it very difficult to investigate the
problems. We may be able to state the problems without in-depth analysis. One
person from each local committee should do the writing with input from other
committee members. These reports should be distributed to the Local Station
Board.
Michael pointed out that this is a national committee and local boards do not
have to approve them. We should notify the LSBs before, during, and after and
do the best we can to get the report out.
Cerene suggests that local boards schedule a meeting to discuss. Each station
will have to deal with this station independently.
Michael suggests that by May 21st, local election committee forward all
materials that are going to be used, as a way to secure their input. Kalonji
thinks that we let local boards know short timeframe and why we have to proceed
in the way we are. The reports from this committee will not be the end of the
process. It is very likely that the National Board will refer some issues back
to this committee for further discussion, at which time we could try and get
local boards involved.
Cerene suggests we announce our timeline to local station board and have it put
on local station website so that anyone who wants to contact someone on the
local election committee can give their input or recommendations. If we tell
everyone the timeline now, people can't complain about not getting sufficient
notice.
Bill suggests that PNB send report from our committee to local station boards
for comment and input. This would ensure local input while allowing this
committee to do its work.
Kalonji agrees with giving local boards opportunity to review election report
before the next National Board meeting.
Ray agrees with idea of local boards having chance to make input into document
after final report is submitted to PNB.
Carolyn thinks that some of the things we will recommend will be very
immediate, and some will take longer. But we are a national committee with a
tight deadline. Notify LSBs and get what input we can, but work to meet our
deadline.
Melinda - local election committee members will ensure that the resolution is
posted on website with our contact numbers for feedback and suggestions. We
should also make some form of on-air announcements for those that don't have
access to web.
Michael suggests that all Local Station Board members will be emailed on this.