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Under the aegis of a court-supervised settlement conference, plaintiffs and defendants approved a resolution to the lawsuits over governance issues at Pacifica today (12/12/01). The detailed settlement was signed by all parties today.The deal forms an interim national governing board composed of 5 members selected by the board minority ("dissidents"), five members selected by the current board majority and one member each selected by the local advisory boards (LABs) in each of the five signal areas. Local LABs from each of the 5 stations have previously selected members for the national board (Miguel Maldonado from WBAI/NYC, Jabari Zakiya from WPFW/DC, Carol Spooner from KPFA/Berkeley, Dave Fertig from KPFK/LA and Teresa Allen from KPFT/Houston I-LAB and LAB). It is not yet clear which of these local LAB representatives will be recognized.
Decisions by the board will apparently require a "balanced" majority (a majority with one vote from each of the "factions").
Many of the outstanding issues around censorship, programmer firings and malfeasance by Pacifica management were also addressed.
More details here.