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Summary of Illegal Acts

The Board of Trustees and their supporters play fast and loose with the law, and with KOOP's bylaws. Here's a summary of their more obvious violations:

Making a false police report against the station engineer.
When station engineer Jerry Chamkis repossessed equipment for which KOOP had defaulted on its payments, board president Teresa Taylor directed station manager Marcelo Tafoya to file a false police report against Chamkis, claiming that Chamkis stole the equipment. (Tafoya dutifully and illegally filed the false report.) [more on this issue]
 
Illegally forwarding our postal mail to the station.
While we can't prove who exactly did this, somebody filled out a Change of Address card to have all our postal mail forwarded to KOOP, about two weeks before the Special Membership Meeting we called, meaning that we didn't receive any petitions or proxies mailed to us by members during that time. Around the same time, Eduardo Vera (who is married to the board president) started picking up the mail for KOOP. Eduardo never presented us with any misdirected mail.
 
Raiding the equipment fund.
Because crucial studio equipment (like tape & CD players) are constantly breaking down, KOOP held a special Studio Equipment mini-pledge drive in May 1998 to raise money specifically for new studio equipment. However, the trustees spent the bulk of the money on operating expenses instead. This violates FCC rules, which require that money solicited on the air must be used for the announced purposes. Furthermore, radio fraud is prohibited by the Criminal Code (18 U.S.C. Section 1343). [more on this issue]
 
Hiding corporate records.
The trustees have hid corporate records offsite, such as the membership database, and records of the fall 1998 Community Board election. This violates State Law, which requires that KOOP keep such records at its office. (Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes,Title 32, Art. 1396-2.23 A., Books and Records) [more on this issue]
 
Failing to provide information requested by members.
Beyond hiding corporate records, the trustees have also failed to provide these records (including minutes of board meetings) when requested to do so by members. This is a separate violation of State Law. (Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes,Title 32, Art. 1396-2.23 B., Books and Records) [more on this issue]
 
Failing to hold an annual membership meeting.
The trustees failed to call and hold a general membership meeting in 1998. This violates KOOP's bylaws, and State Law. (Vernon's Civil Statutes, Art. 1396-2.10, Meetings of Members) [more on this issue]
 
Violating the Bylaws in the Community Board election.
To ensure their side's victory on the 1998 Community Board election, the trustees broke KOOP's bylaws by lumping all five categories of community organizations together into one category, rather than counting their votes separately. Violating KOOP's bylaws is also a violation of State Law. [more on this issue]
 
Voting without quorum.
On at least one occasion and probably more, KOOP bodies have taken votes without having quorum. This violates KOOP's bylaws, which is also a violation of State Law. [more on this issue]
 
Passing motions with fewer than the number of votes required by the bylaws.
Due to sheer incompetence, the trustees rewrote the bylaws to require all actions of the board of trustees to pass only by a unanimous vote by all the trustees. Needless to say, very few (if any) decisions "passed" by the board received the approval of all six trustees. [more on this issue]
 
Libeling & slandering the General Manager, and others.
Board member Mac McKaskle and then-Community Board chair Eduardo Vera used KOOP's airwaves to make a number of libelous and false statements against Friends of KOOP and individual KOOP members. For example, Mac falsely stated that former KOOP station manager J. Bala Wong had committed tax fraud while employed by KOOP. [more on this issue]
 
Using the airwaves for self-promotion.
At least one of Eduardo Vera's programs aired a request for contributions to his own legal defense fund. This violates FCC rules against using public airwaves for self-promotion.
 

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