Interestingly and not surprising, there’s also a related investigation by law enforcement per the article.
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CapRadio cuts 12% staff and cancels shows
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
Yeah...this is all kinds of big and bad.
Here's a link to the report itself:
And CapRadio has done its usual thorough, excellent job of covering the story within its walls, in a piece written by Vicki Gonzalez and edited by Claire Morgan:
www.capradio.org
Here's a link to the report itself:
And CapRadio has done its usual thorough, excellent job of covering the story within its walls, in a piece written by Vicki Gonzalez and edited by Claire Morgan:
‘Absolutely unacceptable’: Forensic examination finds misuse of funds, possible conflicts of interest and $700,000 in mysterious reimbursements at CapRadio
A summary of the highly anticipated report, released Monday, answers questions that have dogged the financially troubled station for a year. A criminal investigation by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is expected to follow.
And I'll just say it because at some point it will need to be said---
NONE of the people involved in the activities alleged by the report are still at CapRadio, and most have been gone a year or more.
The folks there now didn't know, couldn't know, and are doing their level best to build back from mismanagement that boggles the mind.
NONE of the people involved in the activities alleged by the report are still at CapRadio, and most have been gone a year or more.
The folks there now didn't know, couldn't know, and are doing their level best to build back from mismanagement that boggles the mind.
Will the IRS be auditing their Form 990s for the time frame when this mismanagement was going on? There's a question on the Form 990 that asks about if "the organization became aware of a significant diversion of the organization's assets".
Who knows? I haven't seen anything to that effect. It's always good to avoid speculation, and this incident doesn't have a lack of juicy stories that there's evidence for.
The hardest thing in journalism is reporting a story from within your own walls. CapRadio deserves respect and admiration for its work on this story. The latest---reporting that the heavily redacted forensic audit, in unredacted form, names the former GM of CapRadio as "Subject #1":
www.capradio.org
Former CapRadio GM Jun Reina suspected of receiving nearly $500,000 in mysterious payments, according to unredacted report
The document, reviewed by a CapRadio reporter, names Reina – who ran CapRadio from 2021-2023 – as the recipient of at least $460,000 in “unsupported” payments or reimbursements from the station.
The hardest thing in journalism is reporting a story from within your own walls. CapRadio deserves respect and admiration for its work on this story. The latest---reporting that the heavily redacted forensic audit, in unredacted form, names the former GM of CapRadio as "Subject #1":
Former CapRadio GM Jun Reina suspected of receiving nearly $500,000 in mysterious payments, according to unredacted report
The document, reviewed by a CapRadio reporter, names Reina – who ran CapRadio from 2021-2023 – as the recipient of at least $460,000 in “unsupported” payments or reimbursements from the station.
Public radio is good with that.. honest forthright reporting.... back when i was at KIYU in Galena, AK we had a story involving community members wanting to recall the school board for some semi serious accusations.
One of those leading the charge was my news directors wife.... the news director never told us what his position was and we didnt need to know.. but we had a meeting amongst me(pd), the ND and GM on how we cover it, hwo we report in and apepar impartial and not appear to play favorites.
It's astonishing to me that CapRadio's former director of finance didn't know that Sac State had ultimate responsibility for the station.
That stunned me, too. And when I went to work there a year before Rocio arrived, I expected a lot more involvement on the University's part.
But, going back to the creation of the CapRadio Endowment and the deal to give the KXJZ transmitter tower to the Endowment in 2013 (which would have been under the GM before Reina, Rick Eyetcheson), a wall had kind of been erected around CapRadio. The University didn't get directly involved until it was clear that there was something seriously wrong.
I read the entire forensic audit a week ago -- it's still open on one of my browser tabs -- and it was not difficult to discern who the "Subject #1" was, even if I couldn't recall the then-GM's name. You need only know about the internal workings of not-for-profit organizations to know it could only have been one of two people, the CEO/GM or the CFO/Finance Director, nobody else there would have the authority level to succeed. And I cannot believe there wasn't some level of collusion (or incompetence) from the CFO, because an honest, competent finance chief could and should have stopped the scheme dead in its tracks. And don't forget the board, which seems more self-interested than acting in the organization's fiduciary interest. And last but not least, where was Sac State? They seem to have been completely M.I.A.The hardest thing in journalism is reporting a story from within your own walls. CapRadio deserves respect and admiration for its work on this story. The latest---reporting that the heavily redacted forensic audit, in unredacted form, names the former GM of CapRadio as "Subject #1":
Former CapRadio GM Jun Reina suspected of receiving nearly $500,000 in mysterious payments, according to unredacted report
The document, reviewed by a CapRadio reporter, names Reina – who ran CapRadio from 2021-2023 – as the recipient of at least $460,000 in “unsupported” payments or reimbursements from the station.
Here's the twist:
Jun Reina didn't relinquish the duties of CFO when he became CEO/GM. And a few years before, under the prior CEO/GM, when the COO left, he and Jun divided up those duties and eliminated the position.
Once Rick Eytcheson retired, Jun was the only one in the cockpit.
Rocio De Valk (quoted in the article) may have been given the title "Director of Finance", but Reina treated her like a bookkeeper. Her job was to make payroll and get bills paid. Period.
From the timeline in the forensic, the shenanigans were already well underway before she was hired (her two years were roughly in the middle of my three and a half years there).
As she says, she eventually realized something had to be said, summoned up the courage and went to the University in the spring of 2023.
Knowing the timeline, she's the one who actually sounded the alarm, however belatedly.
The former board comes off looking completely incompetent in these two audits. And Sac State's involvement until they smelled smoke was minimal at best. There was a perfunctory annual audit, and the two reports make it clear Reina was treating them like mushrooms.
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Speaking of Jun Reina. He’s the CEO of this Bay Area non-profit.
fssba.org
LEADERSHIP TEAM - Family Support Services
With 32 years of service, Family Support Services has been serving the Bay Area for 32 years. Meet the Senior Staff; our executives and program directors.
fssba.org
The article @michael hagerty posted mentioned that alreadySpeaking of Jun Reina. He’s the CEO of this Bay Area non-profit.
LEADERSHIP TEAM - Family Support Services
With 32 years of service, Family Support Services has been serving the Bay Area for 32 years. Meet the Senior Staff; our executives and program directors.
The CapRadio forensic audit was pulled offline on Friday and a corrected version released yesterday (Tuesday 8/20). The corrections reduce the amount of unsupported expenses by $6,400 and adjust some of the timelines for key players:
Hope everyone currently at CapRadio and California State University, Sacramento can recover from this situation.
Someone must've just found a receipt for the station's Christmas dinner in their jacket pocket.
Seriously, $6400 is not material as compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the audit implied were diverted into Subject #1's pocket, and the sweetheart deals that involved director conflict-of-interest.
Here's an interesting story: Vermont Public Radio announced that it has hired Vijay Singh as it's new CEO. When I saw that name, it sounded familiar. Turns out there's a pro golfer by that name. Also turns out this particular Singh was most recently at CapRadio:
www.vermontpublic.org
Former CapRadio executive Vijay Singh to lead Vermont Public
Vijay Singh will be Vermont Public’s new CEO, the organization’s Board of Directors announced Friday. Most recently, Singh was chief operating and content officer at CapRadio, a California NPR affiliate that serves Sacramento and much of the surrounding area. He acknowledged his tenure...
www.vermontpublic.org
Here's an interesting story: Vermont Public Radio announced that it has hired Vijay Singh as it's new CEO. When I saw that name, it sounded familiar. Turns out there's a pro golfer by that name. Also turns out this particular Singh was most recently at CapRadio:
Former CapRadio executive Vijay Singh to lead Vermont Public
Vijay Singh will be Vermont Public’s new CEO, the organization’s Board of Directors announced Friday. Most recently, Singh was chief operating and content officer at CapRadio, a California NPR affiliate that serves Sacramento and much of the surrounding area. He acknowledged his tenure...
Vijay is a good guy---one of three department heads who stepped into the void when Reina bolted suddenly shortly after the auditors left in spring of '23 and began the work of untangling the lies and telling staff where we really stood.
Admittedly, I don't listen to Cap Pub Rad because the politics there and mine are opposite. Part of me is pleased that some trimming of what seems like a bloated budget with an unnecessarily large number of upper managers is finally taking place. As a Sac State alum, I always wondered why the college would support such an operation instead of using broadcast assets for student ran programming. But the broadcaster side of me is truly saddened by what has transpired at the almighty NPR affiliates across town. My heart really goes out to the staff that is affected by this. I hope that Singh can turn that sinking ship around and get it to where it should be.
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