PCA crisis raises disturbing questions

Petaluma Community Access, the non-profit organization charged with spending the public's money on locally produced community television programming, is once again in crisis. As in the past, strong leadership will again be needed to help it survive not only severe fiscal problems, but also a crisis in public confidence brought about by the actions of its own board of directors and recently departed executive director.

Unlike the previous fiscal problems which arose shortly after AT&T and the City of Petaluma went to war over the issue of cable TV subscriber fees, the source of PCA's current woes can be traced directly to basic mismanagement by the former executive director and a board of directors which failed to provide sufficient oversight to identify and correct the problems before they brought the organization to its knees.

PCA directors' first mistake was in hiring Marc Smolowitz as its executive director last June to manage the organization, especially since it was apparent Smolowitz had no experience managing a public access station.

Touting himself as a skilled fundraiser and grant writer, the fast-talking Smolowitz came into the job with grandiose plans for massive expansions in programming and even the launching of a public radio station, though it was questionable whether Petaluma ever needed its own public radio station.

Allowed to move freely with the blind trust of his board of directors, Smolowitz was quickly able to hijack PCA, authorizing excessive and unnecessary expenditures and failing to make good on promises of grants and other new revenues. Only after PCA checks started bouncing earlier this year did the board recognize it had a problem, finally demanding monthly financial reports and calling their executive director on the carpet for his failure to properly manage the organization. But by then the damage had been done and Smolowitz quietly departed, leaving a precious community resource to twist in the wind with only $1,900 in the bank and $26,000 in unpaid bills.

Making matters worse, the board and its president has tried to keep information about the unfolding scandal a secret by failing to notify the public or its membership about the departure of its executive director or the dire financial quandary he left behind. For an organization charged with maximizing Petaluma's knowledge of civic affairs, the board's lack of candor with the public and its membership is a huge disservice to the community.

In keeping with the PCA board's surreptitiousness, a request for a city bailout was quietly slipped onto the Petaluma City Council's consent calendar Monday night by city finance director Bill Thomas who, oddly, also serves as treasurer of the PCA board of directors. With no other PCA board member in attendance to present PCA's case for the request, Thomas was put in the awkward position of both requesting (as PCA treasurer) and recommending (as Petaluma finance director) a $45,000 loan to bail PCA out. Despite the apparent conflict of interest and the mysterious absence of any other PCA board members, a majority of council members voted to loan PCA the money to keep it from closing its doors.

With the new public funding available to keep this non-profit from going belly-up, the PCA board of directors owes its membership and the Petaluma community an apology and an explanation of specific steps it will take to restore public confidence and begin rebuilding an organization whose mission is a vital one to the entire Petaluma community.

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