The audit includes requests for documents that encompass many of the organization’s financial and governance records. Pacifica has until Feb. 17 to provide the attorney general with the documents, according to Margy Wilkinson, the network’s national board chair and interim executive director.
The audit comes after a year of controversy, in which Pacifica’s former executive director Summer Reese was fired and occupied the national headquarters for about two months and a coalition of national board members launched unsuccessful legal action against the termination. Although Reese’s supporters alleged that she was fired due to discrimination, some members of the board cited her mismanagement of the organization as reason for the dismissal.
The audit follows a complaint made in March by eight former board members to the California attorney general. The complaint outlines concerns about the organization’s recent hiring and firings, bookkeeping and accountability, including an allegation that Reese was fired at a board meeting without advance notice or all members being present.
However, the attorney general’s office did not disclose why it initiated the audit.