Character Counts Leadership Council has been betrayed

(This is a repost of a September post. I have since found out that members of the council have not been informed about the APS ethics scandal.)

By way of background; Character Counts represents a widely recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics. It is the standard to which students in APS are held accountable. In my opinion, it is by far the most promising approach to children who we hope will come to embrace character and courage and honor.

It is also a network of organizations from locals to a national site. It is worth a google.

• The Character Counts Leadership Council is the local.
• There is also a Character Counts Office in APS; headed by one Carole Smith.
• Paula Maes, the School Board President, is also the President of the Leadership Council.
• As it pertains to (the lack of) attention by the media, Paula Maes is the President of the New Mexico Broadcasters Association.
• Paula Maes husband is the President of APS’s legal arm; the Modrall Law Firm.

As part of my strategy to address the APS Ethics Scandal, I have been trying to get people of gravitas to stand up and be counted in opposition to the efforts of the Leaders of APS.


I have tried to approach the Character Counts Leadership Council. It is difficult because the APS site where their contact information would be proudly displayed; displays only a bankrupt excuse for its absence.

I believe that APS Leaders have violated the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, in their failure to provide contact information for the members of the Council. They have also failed to provide information to contact administrators; and teachers, and students, and their parents.

There are several people who know that I want to tell the Council the truth. And they sit on the Council. What have they shared with the Council? Do Council members know that their President, Paula Maes, refuses to be held honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts? Do they know that APS Leaders have all excepted themselves from accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts?

That they know; is important. Character Counts recognizes the stakeholder right to autonomous decision making. They have a right to the truth. They have a right to decide for themselves whether they will ignore the APS Ethics Scandal, or will they stand up and be counted? They are being denied the right to make that decision by those who are suppressing the truth.

According to Character Counts doctrine:

In relationships involving legitimate expectations of trust, honesty may also require candor, forthrightness and frankness, imposing the obligation to volunteer information that another person needs to know.

It would seem that council members, who know the truth, have some obligation to tell it.

Unless of course, there is no legitimate expectation of trust.

Sincerity: if you can fake that, you've got it made. Daniel Schorr

There is something especially obnoxious about betraying trust among people who place such high value upon it.

Their names are Paula Maes, Carole Smith, Toby Herrera, Dee Dee Stoud, and Lisa Breeden. In an odd irony, Lisa Breeden works for one of the founding fathers of Character Counts, Senator Pete Domenici.