2011 - great time to address unresolved election issues

[Casey Peters]

This week I received the alarming news that the lawsuit
Cohen v. Pacifica Foundation et. al. is still ongoing.
It hopefully will be dismissed shortly will all parties covering
their own legal expenses. But that news prompted me to
look back at my final report as National Elections Supervisor.
You can find it at www.pacificaelections.net

Here is a brief excerpt from the appendices, summarizing some
of the recommendations I made at the end of my service.
As the last two election cycles have shown, most are still not resolved.
Please note that 2011, being a non-election year for the foundation,
is the perfect time to address some of these issues.
Feel free to contact me if you have any comments.
Thank you, and good luck.
-- Casey Peters

Pacifica Election Priorities
Recommendations from former National Elections Supervisor Casey Peters
(1) Publish a schedule of the 2009 election cycle based on the Bylaws Amendment passed
in 2007.
(2) Membership Lists are the major problem in the election process.
(a) Listener Sponsor lists require accurate entries and inquiries in MEMSYS and complete
volunteer contact information and records of hours worked. Issuance of membership cards
with expiration dates would help to clarify voting status.
(b) Staff lists require an accurate list of paid staff (as of the qualifying date) which is
surprising hard to get at some stations, minus the list of management (the definition of
whom differs station by station). The difficult part which is the main topic of dispute
throughout the election process is compilation of a list of unpaid staff. Accurate records do
not exist at any station. It is incumbent upon the PNB to find a way to correct this problem
before the 2009 election cycle. Do not overlook the fact that the Bylaws require ALL
volunteers (not just those involved in producing shows) to have their hours counted
toward status as Unpaid Staff.
(3) Replacement Ballots requests have been an ongoing problem from 2003. Many who
request them are not issued them because they are not on the Membership Lists.
Logistically, it can be difficult to fulfill requests in a timely manner due to lack of direct
access to MEMSYS by election supervisors and the physical turnaround time to mail ballots
and have them mailed back before the voting deadline. The best approach may be to have
ballots accessible to members online in a secure manner to print out and mail in for the
vote count. Pacifica should study the way some unions and other nonprofit groups use the
internet to conduct their elections.
(4) Election Expenses are a burden on the Foundation. The major cost is the printing and
distribution of ballot pamphlets and the ballots themselves. Making all pertinent candidate
information available online as well as making printout of ballots possible in a secure
manner could save tens of thousands of dollars and reduce wasted paper by not mailing
election materials to members who do not want to vote. Of course, paper ballots and
candidate statements must be made available upon request for members who do not have
internet access. Note that moving much of the ballot distribution process to the internet
will require the hiring of a full time web person devoted to the process during the election
cycle. This will be far less expensive than the current dependence on mass mailings.
(5) Lawsuits can add a great deal of expense, stress and delay to the election process.
These are caused primarily by the inaccurate Membership Lists and by unfulfilled
Replacement Ballot requests. Another problem is corporate counsel inviting legal action by
folding to demands of anyone threatening a lawsuit or even, as in the Aaron case, agreeing
to the demands even after the plaintiffs have lost their suit. As one safeguard, Pacifica
could require candidates to sign a document agreeing that their candidacies (or if elected,
their membership on the boards) would be terminated if they become party to a lawsuit
against the Foundation or stations, its staff or election supervisors. Some sort of dispute
resolution panel should be established to help resolve problems that might otherwise go to
the courts.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
We have an obvious need to analyze and improve our foundation&#8217s approach to electing
Local Station Boards. In 2008, we have no internal elections so this is a good time to
set up an Elections Task Force. The PNB would be best served to choose outsiders
who are willing to make a close study of the Final Election Reports from 2003 through
2007, and to have a look at what other democratically-run nonprofit organizations are
doing. Use of online capabilities to securely deliver digital ballots could save a hundred
thousand dollars per election cycle, plus address the lingering problem of replacement
ballots. Perhaps it will be possible to develop less confrontational, more productive
methods of achieving democratic input of the membership for Pacifica&#8217s governance.

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