You missed a great public forum

So did I. I had to watch APS' live stream at home.

The video is supposed to be posted on APS award winning website, Friday.

That's how long it takes two guys and $159K worth of really cool digital electronic recording equipment to make the keystrokes that make it happen.

It's fair to reflect for a moment on the reason why APS doesn't post meeting archives immediately. I am going to suggest it is because they are doing everything the law allows and a little as the law requires, to open government to the oversight of the people.

When it is posted, you will see three people stand up at the podium for the purpose of petitioning their government for redress of their grievance.

The last speaker was a high school student. She came to
complain that the administration at her school was inconsistent
in dealing with teachers. If APS was still giving kids the t-shirt
that read; "stand up for what you believe in, even if your standing alone." she would have earned one for her service above and beyond the student minimum standard; "modeling and promoting the Pillars of Character Counts!".

The first speaker was James "Robbie" Robertson. He came to defend a petition that he and more than 100 other citizens had signed and is being denied due process by the school board.

Within his two minutes, he pointed to his standing, his right to be there; his service in three wars defending his country, his Constitution and his right to petition the government.

The contrast between Robertson and the high school student
could not be greater, yet they both have exactly the same
right to assemble there, to speak freely and to petition the board for redress.

In the middle, in the forum and in this photo, a retired Federal Magistrate Judge, David Walker. He came to defend the same petition for standing for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication.

The CACoC seeks to create venues for open and honest two-way communication between the leadership of the APS and the community members they serve, on issues of public interest.

The Judge looked APS Supt Winston Brooks in the eyes when recounted his arrest on Brooks' orders for; "... standing mute and holding a sign" protesting the denial of due process for his petition.

After the Public Forum, you will watch Matters of Importance.
The Supt and Board Members have an opportunity to respond to questions that might have been asked despite their explicitly expressed prohibition against the asking of questions.

Mostly they don't; mostly they didn't last night.

Board member David Robbins did. He suggested that the petition might be unworthy because David Peercy's Policy Committee was rewriting board policy, and the policy the petition cited as one of several justifications for advisory committee standing, K.01, link, might be changed and therefore no longer apply. (They just did the same thing when they rewrote school board policy to deny whistle blower complaints due process and their final review).

K/01 reads in significant part;

Citizens Advisory Councils will exist to provide for greater community involvement in the educational planning process.

Without one word of public discussion of the petition, he's suggesting that the CACoC would not serve an "educational planning" function and was on that basis as well, unworthy of standing.

Kathy Korte spoke to the petition. She was not in a good mood. After the board meeting she was on her way to meet with two community groups who are really upset over the board's redistricting decision. Apparently, Lorenzo Garcia was the only board member willing to accompany her to defend their decision.

She is not a big fan of open and honest two-way discussion between APS leadership and interest holders. She actually said, when she talks about involving the community, she doesn't mean involving them (in open and honest two-way communication), she means petitioners like Robertson should, instead of wasting their time with an advisory council,

get a background check", go to a school classroom and volunteer teaching kids how to read

To Korte and the rest, a citizen standing at a public forum, who may or may not get a response and who must then wait another two weeks for another public forum, to do it all over again, is communication enough.

It's not, and it's not her call.

The terms of public service are the prerogative of the people
and not of public servants.




photo Mark Bralley

Legislative webcasting - three years later

It has been three years almost
to the day, since Rep Janice
Arnold-Jones carried a webcam
into the Roundhouse.

Before Arnold-Jones kicked in the door on legislative webcasting, there was at least some outrage that New Mexico is among the last few states to begin webcasting.

The obstructionists made some concessions to dampen the outrage, rudimentary coverage of parts of the process and no archive; searchable or otherwise, and now, nobody but the Governor seems to be fighting for the robust webcasting the people deserve.

Until the legislature gets around to providing webcasting and an archive, the Governor has taken it upon herself to create an archive of her own on her website.

Obstructionists point to the potential for the Governor to selectively compile and edit the record; a charge denied by the Governor's pio.

The argument would be moot if the legislature created its own webcasting and archiving.

The people who obstructed webcasting then, obstruct webcasting now.

Sen. Linda Lopez, Chairwoman
of the Senate Rules Committee,
says, if they allow themselves to
be recorded doing the peoples'
business, the truth about how
they are doing it "will be used
for campaigning."

The truth is the truth. It doesn't
make any difference who wants
to see it or why they want to see it.
Either the people have a right to the truth about the spending of their power and resources, or they do not. The line between do and do not is the prerogative of the people, not of their servants.

The Journal reports, link;
"During a Senate hearing this
week, Senate President Pro Tem
Tim Jennings noted the coming and going of a Governor’s Office employee filming the committee and alleged the cameras are intended to 'catch us for political purpose'.”

He says that like it's a bad thing.

Because of the obstruction of Jennings, Lopez and others, there is no robust webcasting to searchable archive.

Lopez argued, “To me, if the governor is going to be doing this,
she should be at every hearing.”

No Senator Lopez, the Governor
should be webcasting the
Executive Branch up to the
limits of the law, and you Senator,
you and the legislature should be
webcasting the legislature.

You mind your business Senator,
and the Governor will by held
accountable for minding hers.

The Journal reports;
"Last year, top-ranking Senate Democrats sponsored a largely symbolic bill that would have required webcasting of Martinez’s Cabinet meetings. Also Senate Democratic leader Michael Sanchez of Belen instructed a staffer to shoot video of the employees filming for the Governor’s Office."

Martinez does not emerge from the Journal article unscathed. Her pio is reported to have disputed the claim that the Governor's Office is selectively editing the record by asserting; "... recently archived videos posted on the website do not appear to be edited." emphasis added

Two too many qualifiers for my taste;

1. "recently archived" Can we infer that the ones "not so recently archived" may have been selectively edited to manipulate the truth?
2. "do not appear to be edited" Is it even possible to create more wiggle room than the words "do not appear" allow?

The people of New Mexico are entitled state of the art webcasting and archiving of politicians and public servants within their public service in the Roundhouse.

The likelihood of ever seeing robust webcasting is remote.
The fire for reform has died down to embers.
Point to a single newspaper, broadcaster or blog complaining
about the fact that three years after webcasting was dropped
into the legislative punchbowl, we still don't have any way
to watch our business being done in the legislature except by
tuning in real time, and only then for some meetings and not others.

And, we don't seem to be getting any closer.




photos Mark Bralley

Hypocrisy on the agenda tonight

APS' District and Community Relations Committee is meeting tonight. On the agenda, link, a report on APS' Superintendent's Student Advisory Council (SuperSAC).

There will be the report and then discussion. It wouldn't be surprising to find at least a handful of the super students came to watch.

If they get there early enough they can watch the committee of the whole violate the Open Meetings Act.

Item B on the agenda reads

"... the Approval of the August 23, 2011, November 22, 2011, and December 13, 2011, District and Community Relations Committee meeting minutes.

It would appear that the minutes from the August meeting were not approved at the next meeting, nor at the next, nor at the next.

A quick check of the law, link, reveals (in significant part);

Draft minutes shall be prepared within ten working days after the meeting and shall be approved, amended or disapproved at the next meeting where a quorum is present. emphasis added

If students go to more than a few board meetings,
they will find their senior-most role models
blatantly disregarding the rules, all the time.

That's how a lot of them can rationalize doing the same.

That's not fair!

Among the first words humans speak, and among the first things they learn are;

mommy / daddy

... not fair!

and

life isn't fair ...

It could be argued that the need to be treated "fairly" is instinctual; not unlike the urge to survive and to compete.

What words do children voice with more conviction and honest
outrage than;

It isn't fair!

From birth, humans are looking for fairness in the processes
that decide their interests. Where they can, they create formal processes to guarantee fundamental fairness.
They create due process.

Life isn't fair. People are not fair.
It isn't reasonable to expect people or life to be fair.

It is every bit reasonable to expect government of the people, by the people and for the people to be fair, It is reasonable to expect government processes to be fair.

It is reasonable to expect due process in dealing with government.

By what logic do the arguments in support of the essential
need for due process anywhere, not support the essential
need for due process everywhere?

If the first legitimate use of power is to protect it from abuse,
then the first abusive use of power is to protect the abuse of
power, from accountability and consequences.

Corrupt politicians and public servants protect themselves and
each other, by denying due process to complaints against them.

Cultures of corruption are defined by the lack of due process
for complaints that would expose and curtail them.

The terms of public service are the prerogative of the people.
Essential among those terms are the accountability of politicians
and public servants to the people, by means of due process
for the peoples' complaints against them.

Korte's defense; umbrage

School Board member Kathy Korte fought back against grumblings about APS' redistricting decision making process, expressing her umbrage in a letter his morning in the Journal, link.

Korte points to constituent apathy as the
root of constituent unhappiness; people
who had an opportunity to speak up and
did not, are now complaining that their
interests were ignored.

Her defense rests on the premise that the community had an opportunity to speak up. She argued, there had been four public meetings and that, each board member had nominated two citizens to meet with the community, thereby “involving it”.

That plan obviously didn't work; it didn't "involve the community".

No small part of the reason why community members aren’t lining up to participate in "decision-making" APS style, is the actual role of community advisory groups in the decision-making process;

"... any recommendation made by it could be ... completely disregarded by the seven board members."

Community members are well aware of their lack of actual influence and therefore are disinclined to be part of a photo op and little more; they become disinclined to continue to play the game.

Korte is a long time complainer about the lack of community participation in efforts to involve them in decision making.

She is being disingenuous.

The efforts to “involve the community” are actually efforts to create a show of bodies at meetings, in order to create perception that the process is legitimate. The meetings are not held to actually give interest holders an opportunity to participate meaningfully in decision making about their interests; their power and their resources.

If Korte was really interested in engaging with interest holders, she would be fighting for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication. She would at least be willing to give their petition due process; a public hearing and a roll call vote.

She is not.

Korte's real desire to engage with interest holders is betrayed in her refusal to point to a time, a day, and a place where she will sit still and respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly to legitimate questions about the public interests and about her public service.

She will not entertain questions about her complicity or complacency in;

• efforts to cover up felony public corruption in the APS police force leadership;
• the denial of due process to hundreds of APS whistleblowers' complaints, and
• the abdication of the entire leadership of the APS, including Ms Korte, from their responsibilities and obligations to "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!".
• denying due process for legitimate petitions; including the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication petition.

Instead Korte blows smoke;

The public received adequate notice of the meeting and the agenda as set forth by the Open Meetings Act.

"Adequate notice" to the leadership of the APS, to Korte, means the absolute least notice required by the law, a position she supported personally, link.

According to school board policy, students are taught that their good character is forfeit unless they are willing to defend it by

"... doing more than the law requires and
less than the law allows."

By definition, their role models are held to the same standard,
and were, until the board removed the role modeling clause
from their own standards of conduct;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult,
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

Now they are "legally" free to;

1. do as little as the law absolutely requires and
2. use every technicality, loophole and conceivable legal weaselry
   

to restrict access to records and meetings.

It's hard to hide from the truth;

1. Board meetings begin when interest holders are at work, at only one location.
2. The opportunity to sign up to speak at the public forum, expires before interest holders can get to the meeting.cal reason. There is no good and ethical reason that someone cannot sign up for the last two minutes of the forum, any time up to those last two minutes.
3. Speakers at the public forum find their Constitutionally protected human rights to assemble peacefully, speak freely and to petition one's government over redress of grievances, are abrogated. To the extent your legitimate complaint makes board members or senior administrators feel guilty or incompetent, it is disallowed.
4. If board members authority to disallow the free exercise of those rights is challenged, a publicly funded, private police force; a praetorian guard in the truest sense, will arrest the petitioner, link.

Korte is complicit, complacent or willfully ignorant of an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Neither Korte nor any other member of the senior leadership is willing to point to a time, a day and a place where they will sit still and respond to any legitimate questions, responding candidly, forthrightly and honestly, until the questions have all been asked.

When the question is;

will you tell the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the ethically redacted truth?

Any answer except yes, means no.

The Journal gives her all the space she wants to throw bombs at dissidence and disallows dissidents no counter fire.

Korte;

Our community would do well to remember that APS must always be about our kids. I am ready to continue working with my fellow board members, community groups, teachers, parents and stakeholders to put our children first.

Are you?

If dissidence enjoyed the same Journal space as Korte,
Journal readers would see;

Ms Korte,

Interest holders are willing to hold open and honest public discussions of legitimate issues, for example;
1. administrative and executive standards of conduct and competence, and
2. actually honest accountability to them,
3. student standards of conduct and competence, and
4. the obligations of their role models, and
5. and the legitimacy of due process for complaints against administrators and board members.

Are you?

As for the Journal and the establishment media, their candid, forthright and honest investigation and reporting upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS speaks for itself.




photo Mark Bralley

Aliens abduct Journal editors; write editorial.

Considering the lengths the Journal has been willing to go to,
to help cover up the ethics
and accountability scandal, including felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS, today's editorial, link, comes out of nowhere.

Nevertheless, it is spot on; even Managing Editor Kent Walz' buddy and golden boy, School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel, got reamed.

The Journal "education reporter" Hailey Heinz, in her report on the discussion and vote, link, didn't mention the fact the Esquivel's own seat was on the line.

Had the original and preferred plan been adopted, he would have lost his seat. That fact escaped Heinz' reporting, but not the editors' notice;

"Former Board President Martin Esquivel, who under the adopted plan would have lost his seat until the board altered it to keep him safe, had little to say."

The editorial, here quoted in significant part, is their reaction to a school board vote on redistricting, where interest holders on the west side got hosed so sitting board members could protect their own seats;

• "... the board’s action shows that politics trumped demographics ..."
• "... many members realized the West Side needed more representation. They decided they didn’t care.
• Monday night’s school board redistricting vote was an embarrassing show of just how far some elected officials will go to protect their political backsides.
• "... in the flush of the excitement of potentially being a school board member in perpetuity, (Board President Paula Maes) gushed that the current board is very “harmonious,” its members “get along” and are “making accomplishments.”
• The board’s action sent an unmistakable message that communities of interest and equitable West Side representation going forward doesn’t matter in public education.

The editors wondered;

"... how did this unconscionable decision come about?"

and concluded;

"It would seem to be a classic blend of New Mexico politics and incompetence."

The otherwise spot-on editorial missed the mark in conclusion. They wrote;

West-Siders can no longer trust their school board to
do the right thing for all APS voters, schoolchildren and parents.

News flash, it's not just West-siders who cannot trust this board, or anyone else in APS senior leadership.




photo Mark Bralley

APS coaches; higher standards of conduct?

KOB TV reports, link, the head cheer leading coach at an APS high school has been removed from that position because he knew cheerleaders were drinking alcohol and did not report it to authorities.

The coach will continue teaching at Eldorado HS.

One wonders what expectation applies in coaching that doesn't apply in teaching. What counts in athletics, that doesn't count in academics?

In fairness, there isn't much in the way of leadership in honest accountability to higher standards of conduct. There are no role models to emulate; the leadership of the APS holds themselves accountable only to the law; the lowest standards of all.

I used to write that there are two standards of conduct in the APS; one for adults, and a considerably higher standard for students. I stand corrected.

Apparently there are three, here listed in descending order;

1. the standards that apply to cheerleader coaches,
2. the standards that apply to students and student role models; the Pillars of Character Counts!, and
3. the standards that apply to administrators and board members; the law and everything it's loopholes, technicalities and legal weaselry will allow.

... go team.

Thomas Paine was a blogger

Bloggers are political pamphleteers, just like Thomas Paine,
and they are every bit as deserving of Constitutional protection
of their human right to be the press, as any other member of the "so called" press.

If James Madison did not write; Congress shall make no law
abridging the freedom of the press, to protect pamphleteers
like Thomas Paine, for whom did he write it? corporate news
agencies and darlings of government?

Government has no business granting or requiring credentials more than have been already provided by Madison. And he made no mention of needing some talisman; fetish, juju, phylactery, trinket or bauble, as proof of owning the right to be a member of the press.

And he certainly did not write that the government would decide who gets one.

Paula Maes' broadcasters well represented on NM FOG

The NM Foundation for Open Government, link, has a new Executive Director, Gwyneth Doland, link.

She has inherited a can of worms.

You would think that a gathering of powerful press people and lawyers and an expressed interest in open government, would be making some progress.

Instead, they're mired in some pretty deep shite.

Right out in front of God and everybody, they just gave their highest honor, a Dixon Award, to APS Supt Winston Brooks while all the while, he, the school board, and FOG heavy hitters, were and are, covering up a cover up of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators, link. Moving evidence to petty cash and spending it without authority or record keeping, is a felony. Doing illegal NCIC background checks on whistleblowers, is a felony.

The APS top cop Gil Lovato at the time, and his lawyer Sam Bregman averred,
when the truth comes out in court,
there won't be a single APS senior administrator left standing.

Co-incidentally, Lovato and Bregman never made it to court; instead, Lovato, like every other senior administrator with a story to tell, was put on paid leave until his contract expired.

Investigations were conducted. There is an enormous public record of investigations into who did what, who knew what, and who should have known.

Names are named.

Names of people whose heads never rolled. As is the tradition in the APS, they were showered instead with cash and admiration, and went along their merry way.

The folks who benefit most from keeping these public records secret from public knowledge, have managed to usurp control over the institution that should be their enemy; a foundation for open government.

There are people on the board of the FOG, last year's Board, link, and this, who know about the cover up of the cover up and won't do anything about it. Many of them are members of the fourth estate; they have a responsibility to investigate and report upon credible allegations and evidence of a cover up of a cover up of felony criminal misconduct by politicians and public servants, and don't.

Kent Walz, seen here extolling Brook's transparency at the
Dixon Award banquet, published the story on the public
corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS and will not investigate and report upon credible allegations and evidence of a cover up. He and Marty Esquivel gave Brooks the Dixon Award to bolster his credibility; while he is hiding an ethically redacted public record. Walz remains, the FOG Board Secretary.

School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel, seen here throwing me and

Mark Bralley out of an open meeting, was on the Board of Directors last year, and in line to be FOG President the year before but didn't make it. Bralley and I were trying to investigate and report upon their efforts to deny due process to hundreds of APS whistleblowers' complaints.

Because the FOG website hasn't been updated since a January re-alignment; it is unclear how big a bat he still swings, or even if he's still in their line up.

Iain Munro, News Director, KRQE News sat on the board,
may still, who knows. I am given to believe KRQE filed a
Request for Public Records of the APS PD corruption and
never received it, also that Marty Esquivel works for them
as an "open government" lawyer.

Paula Maes, head of the NM Broadcasters Association is former Director; maybe she's back.

The new President is Terri Cole.
She is the President of the
Chamber of Commerce.

She and I have history, though
she may have long forgotten.

She used to be a huge
Character Counts! supporter.
I tried to get her to speak up
when the leadership of the APS
was stepping down from their
obligations as role models of student standards of conduct;
a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

She did not, and there's no reason to expect her to stand up now.

KOAT 7 President and general manager Mary Lynn Roper, is the new FOG Vice President. I blame her for KOAT's refusal to investigate and report upon the denial of due process to hundreds of APS whistleblower complaints, link.

There is a new FOG Treasurer, Greg Williams, an attorney with Peifer, Hanson & Mullins.

He replaced Pat Rogers.

I mention Rogers only
because he works for
Modrall, and

Modrall makes so much
money litigating against
the IPRA, Open Meetings,
and First Amendment Rights
in order to create exceptions
to the law for APS administrators
and board members, that they
won't even come right out and tell you how much.

I know Gwyneth, I like her, and I wish her all the luck in the world; she'll need it.




photos and frame grab Mark Bralley