abdicate

to abandon, renounce, disown, cast off or evade; responsibility.

as in;

by refusing to hold themselves honestly accountable to the student standard of conduct, the leadership of the aps abdicated its obligation as the senior role models for 98,000 of our sons and daughters.

and as in;
the incontrovertible proof of that abdication was their removal from their own code of conduct, the following specific language and expectation.

in no case shall the standard of conduct for an adult be lower than the standard of conduct for students.

where will stakeholders find the truth?

if a member the public had an interest in their interests in the aps;
where can they go for the truth?

the leadership of the aps is a poor source of the truth.

as proved when it broadcast dishonestly edited records of board meetings to the community. as proved by their steadfast refusal to tell the truth about how tax dollars were spent on the uptown centre; or about the specific promises about the use of the building that were made to taxpayers; and were then broken.

the media is a poor source of the truth.

as proved by their steadfast refusal to investigate and report upon the leadership of the aps and its abject failure to protect the public interests from corruption and incompetence in the administration of the public schools.

the blogosphere must have its fair share of those who can no longer be relied upon to tell the truth.

as proved by their individual records.

the individual record of this blog(ger) is that it has yet to be challenged by anyone on any statement of fact regarding the ethics and accountability issues, incompetence and the corruption in the leadership of the aps.

another blogger on communication and the aps

Petroglyph Paradox

journal editorial ignores the journalist's code of ethics

journal editorial quoted in significant part

Would-be school reformers shouldn't give up because the Senate Education Committee has tabled bills that would let Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez appoint three of the local school board's seven members.

It will take lots of education to succeed.

The six senators who voted to (table the bill) are from outside the Duke City and perhaps haven't had the same exposure to problems in APS.

...accountability isn't sufficiently addressed when only 6 percent of the voters bother to cast ballots in APS elections.

This dynamic makes elections easily influenced by small interest groups, and significant systemic change next to impossible.

(Senator) Boitano says "the feedback I'm getting is there needs to be change, and we all know change doesn't come from within."

from editorial we can infer;

• school reform rests on a mayoral take over of public schools.
• the bill failed to pass only because senators are "uneducated" about the issues.
• the only people who voted against it did so because they are from not from albuquerque and don't know any better.
• voter participation will never be significantly larger than a 6 percent turnout.
• and, at least one senator will stand on the record avering that aps leadership can not and will not reform itself.

there is a code of ethics for journalists. the code, like most codes that set higher standards of conduct, is unenforceable.

newspaper wo(men) are expected to tell the truth. editorial opinion does not give license to tell half truths.

in large part, the argument for a mayoral takeover is based on the need to compensate for voter disinterest.

the half truth (and whole lie) about voter turnout is the the journal is responsible for the low turnout.

had the journal, or any media outlet, investigated and reported on even one substantive aps leadership issue; the turnout would have been higher. if they had given the board elections one hundredth of the coverage they have given bill richardson for free, the turnout would have been in record numbers.

but they didn't, it wasn't, and the journal needs to own their responsibility for the low voter turnout. instead, they are now are covertly using the results that they created, to pursue a political agenda that they obviously support.

apparently they have not found that
a lack of integrity and credibility hurts their bottom line.

the reformation of the leadership of the aps

will or will not happen, based on the performance of its two new board members.

they have a difficult row to hoe.

the leadership of the aps is rife with corruption and incompetence as the natural result of a system which has demanded of them,
no accountability to any meaningful standard of conduct.

those who benefit from that system, those who have misconduct or incompetence to hide, will vigorously oppose any effort to change the system in a manner which will threaten their interests.

in truth, it will be all that either of the two apprentice board members can do just to resist becoming corrupt themselves.

how will either or both of these new members be able to establish honest accountability in the leadership of the aps; against such formidable opposition?

it will be of enormous advantage to them if their reform efforts can be illuminated by the light of day. public servants cannot be corrupted, nor can they be corrupt, in daylight and transparency.

standing in opposition to transparency and illumination of the issues will be the "old guard"; who will continue to stonewall and suppress the truth in order to dodge accountability.

the new members will be expected to fall in line; and they will feel enormous pressure to do so, off the record. they will find it difficult to marshal support for reform because they will be denied publicity of the need.

the public forum will continue to be off the public record to prevent the tv broadcast of accountability issues to the community.

and the newspapers can be expected to continue their deliberate decision to neither investigate nor report upon any reform issues.


i do not envy the newcomers, that which awaits them.

if the audit isn't revealing; it is not to be trusted

if enough pressure is applied, the leadership of the aps will relent and an audit will be conducted.

but they will insist that the results of the audit, the facts,
the figures and the names will be kept confidential.

and that is how you know that neither the audit
nor their intentions can be trusted.

there is only one reason to hide the truth
and that is to dodge accountability.

three issues are raised, three solutions are proposed

according to the journal; santa fe legislators are concerned about aps’ size, control and accountability, and proportional spending.

aps is large. aps is unresponsive. the proposed solution is to make aps responsive by breaking it into smaller pieces.

the solution will not work because the premise is flawed. while there appears to be a relationship between district size and the lack of responsiveness; it is at most coincidental. it is not a "bureaucracy" that is or isn't responsive, it is individual people who are or are not.

the size of the bureaucracy above or around is irrelevant. therefore changing the size of the bureaucracy does not address the problem.

when individual public servants are held accountable for their responses; the quality of the responses will improve.

on the issue of allowing the mayor to appoint school board members; the premise is that the mayor will be more accountable to the people than the school board is. he is not.

he will not now stand on the record and demand an accountability audit of the aps. if he will not audit now when the need is so obvious; will he ever?

he will not demand an audit; because his administration can not stand an audit.

juggling school system control between the hands of public servants, not one of whom will submit to transparent accountability for their public service, serves no practical purpose. it solves nothing.

accountability can be created only by establishing a transparent system, over which public servants have no control; by which they will be held accountable for their competence; even against their will. there is no equivalent solution.

proportional spending, requiring aps to spend the same proportion on administration as "similar" districts do, is a simplistic solution. The flawed premise is that school districts are spending well if they are spending similarly.

whether or not school districts spend similarly is irrelevant. the question is, is the school district is spending the money well? the solution is to scrutinize spending;

hold the administration transparently accountable for the administration of the public resources and interests.

any solution the does not include transparent accountability to a meaningful standard of conduct for public servants; will not solve the problem. and it is being suggested for some other purpose than addressing accountability issues in the aps; a contrary purpose.

robert lucero; guilty knowledge?

robert lucero would have his constituents believe;

he and the other members of the board had no knowledge of the fact that beth everitt planned to spend a million dollars renovating the bottom floor of uptown centre; including renovation for an unnecessary board room.

he and the board were unaware of the blatant and egregious misallocation of public resources, as daily,
they walked past and through, the construction of a palace.

which begs the question; why not?

he, and the other members of the board are elected
for the exact purpose of guarding our trust and treasure.

how can his failing to do so, be his excuse for failing to do so?

a great deal of money is being spent in locations where there are no students.

in fact, there is no place in the aps further from a classroom;
than the offices on the top floor of uptown centre.


when people pay fifty cents for a journal or trib;
is it not a reasonable expectation to have bought
the truth about the uptown centre?

"but now that the room is done,

board member robert lucero added, there's not much we can do."

"...when i look at the (justifiable) needs of the district,
it's kind of tough..." (to defend the extravagance).

robert lucero, and the other elected members of the school board, have a responsibility to protect the public interests, including public resources that have been allocated to the administration of the public schools. they are content to sit back and blame administrators, dodging their own accountability for the system that allows projects like an unnecessary boardroom to be completed before their need is justified or even subjected to critical review.

aps administrator john dufay, is quoted by the trib as saying, original plans for the boardroom were too pricey, so he scaled back to minimize controversy over the cost. the room would have been more luxurious and extravagant if not for the controversy.

he didn't scale back so the resources could be better used; he scaled back to avoid additional disclosures and public outrage over a project that cannot be justified in the first place.

one doesn't have to squint too hard to read between those lines.

the truth is that there is much that the board can do (to prevent additional squandering of precious resources by administrators whose nest feathering is limited only by avoiding excessive public outrage and) to make sure that resources are spent according to the public interests.

the first thing the board can do is to begin an impartial audit that will expose all of the other extravagances that are currently limited only by the fear of exposure and accountability. he and the board could make the administration of the public interests in the public schools absolutely transparent.

he will not; the board will not; and not one of them will entertain questions about why they will not.

the administration of the public trust and treasure in the leadership of the aps is beyond public influence or control. both have been usurped.

there was a tiff at a city council meeting

i wasn't there and cannot speak to the facts. those who do pretend to so speak, describe something between an unholy inquisition on the one hand, and on the other, simply public servants unwilling to answer unscripted questions on the record.

even legitimate questions surrounding the public interests in the administration of city government.

it is not just the city councilors who's questions will be ignored.

the city council is reportedly considering moving their public forum to the end of their meetings. it would still be on the record, but it would be as inconvenient as it could possibly be made, for any citizen to petition their government by means of the public forum.

the county commission's public forum, like aps', has been moved off the public record entirely.

there is not nearly enough respect being paid to the public's only opportunity to hold their public servants accountable for their conduct and competence, face to face.

i'm sure that their lawyers have told them that they can get away with this "legally".

i have contacted the nmaclu to see if it is legal.
it doesn't seem like it should be legal.

or a matter of privilege, either.

Open letter to Congresswoman Heather Wilson

I write regarding APS Superintendent Beth Everitt's response to your letter regarding the issues of role modeling and the leadership of the APS.

I had submitted that, the leadership of the APS had renounced accountability to any meaningful standard of conduct; including the standard of conduct which they established for students. And therefore had failed to be appropriate role models for APS students.

Further I had alleged that, they have significantly diminished the likelihood that students in the APS will grow to embrace accountability to a higher standard of conduct; such as the Pillars of Character Counts. And that the situation does not serve the best interests of students, or of public schools.

Evidence is a matter of public record; mostly video tapes.
It is absolutely incontrovertible.

Most of the Superintendent’s response dealt not with that issue, but with a personal attack on my conduct. By way of response I will offer the following: the circumstances of every allegation are a matter of public record. I will stand proudly on the evidence, and I will hold myself accountable for my conduct.

In the remainder of the letter, Superintendent Everitt deliberately stonewalled the issue. According to Character Counts doctrine; she lied to avoid having to either deny or admit the truth.

Many of these 98,000 students are your constituents, and their interests are threatened by this conduct. Leading by bad example is every bit as effective in shaping children's behavior; as leading by good example.

I know that you share the belief that we must teach our children about honor and courage and character by our personal example, and

I will appreciate your continued interest and attention to this situation.

Respectfully,

Ched MacQuigg

strong "words" from trib editors

"If legislators refuse to do the public's business in full public view, they should lose their seats at the public table."

the statement accompanied a list of those legislators who voted against the public's right to watch its business being conducted.

strong "action" would be to create a list of those legislators
who have not yet signed their name in support of transparency.

and then publish that list every day until those legislators
either sign or resign.

fulfilling the newspaper's obligation to inform voters and
enabling readers to participate meaningfully in their government by communicating their interests to their representatives.

lest the editors "be exposed as the hypocrites they are."

who is/are the journal and trib?

in some respects dealing with j/t is like dealing with the leadership of the aps.

if you want to file a complaint, it is difficult or impossible to find a person and desk the where buck finally stops.

for example, I would like to file a complaint against the aps leader(s) responsible for the board room debacle. but aps won't give up a name. those responsible will never have to defend their position.

I would like to file a complaint against the people in the j/t who have decided not to report on the accountability crisis in the leadership of the aps. but j/t won't give up a name. those responsible will never have to defend their position.

they are powerful people. powerful people don't defend their position. powerful people self-except themselves from accountability for their conduct; as a matter of privilege.

how does one make a newspaper cough up a name? how does one make this phantom stand up on the record and defend the decision to suppress the truth about the administration of the public interests and resources in the aps?

the best thing about being a member of the privileged class is that one can enjoy all of the privileges without defending, explaining, or even acknowledging their membership.

perhaps j/t owns the power that excepts it from accountability. but the power that is being used to except the leaders of the aps from accountability, is not their own. it belongs to the people.

the power and resources that albuquerque voters have entrusted to the leadership of the aps are being used to dodge accountability for betraying that trust.

aps/escobedo; another spin of the truth

this post is about truth telling. it is set in a context where children are held accountable to a higher standard of conduct than the adults who teach them. their senior adult role models rewrote their own code of conduct deliberately removing the phrase; in no case shall the standard for an adult be lower than the standard of conduct for students.

the student standard of conduct is the pillars of character counts.

it is a widely recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics. holding our sons and daughters honestly accountable to that standard is the absolute best thing that we can do for them.

we teach them what it means to tell the truth. we teach them that it is their intent, and not their words which separate their lies from the truth. Making Ethical Decisions.

we teach them that to "spin" the truth as is done in this press release. is in fact to lie.

1) “The board of education room will be a community room where we invite the entire community to come together not only to discuss the education of students, but also to discuss other important issues that affect the Albuquerque community,” said APS Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Everitt.

2) The total cost of the board room and furnishings is $440,920. That cost includes the improvements done on the north side of the APS building. The project will be funded through the sale of the Stronghurst Complex located at 2nd street and Menaul. The APS Real Estate Department expects to sell that location for about $1,300,000.

3) Every child has a right to a quality public education and APS is committed to providing that education.

re 1) there is no evidence that the leadership has ever done anything to "invite the community to come together". rather, the evidence shows that, it has dissolved the primary parent advisory groups, it conducts board meetings during the workday, it conducts "discreet" mill levy elections, and it no longer conducts a public forum on the record.

re 2) the actual cost of the board room is not $440,920.
whatever it cost; voters will never know the truth. there is no publicly available evidence of the actual cost of the boardroom renovation, nor of the identity of those responsible for the debacle.

the "funding" of the project by selling aps property seems to imply no loss to tax payers. except that tax payers paid for the stronghurst complex as well; it is their own. and if the proceeds were not being squandered on the uptown palace; they could be spent somewhere else more appropriately.

re 3) "every child does have a right to a quality public education" just changes the subject. it has nothing to mitigate the fact that a great deal of taxpayer support for the aps has been squandered unjustifiably.

the intention of the press release is to deliberately deceive voters.

voters will never know the truth about the boardroom or the uptown centre. they will never be shown public records which reveal the truth. the leadership of the aps will continue to use public financial support of education to pay modrall lawyers to "legally" suppress the truth.

you won't read about it in the journal or the trib.
neither intends to print the truth about the uptown centre;
neither will ask to see the public records.

and, the leadership of the aps will continue to dodge accountability for their conduct and competence
as public servants.

did beth everitt lie to rep. heather wilson?

you be the judge.

after months of stonewalling rep wilson, beth everitt has finally "come clean" with congresswoman wilson.

I had written to rep. wilson to ask her to help with the ethics and accountability crisis in the leadership of the aps.

I had told her that the leadership of the aps had repeatedly refused to hold themselves accountable to the student standard of conduct. that they had simply renounced their responsibilities as role models for 98,000 of our sons and daughters.

when ask by rep wilson if it was true that she and the board had repeatedly renounced the student standard of conduct as their own, if they had indeed renounced the pillars of character counts as their own standard of conduct; beth everitt's answer was;

"...it is Mr. MacQuigg's view that individual members of the aps board of education and the aps board as a whole, do not properly serve as good role models of character counts. the individual Board members disagree with Mr.MacQuigg's assessment of their behavior."

it is exactly the same unethical behavior everitt demonstrated when she was asked if she had really spent $80,000 on furniture for the school board.

she replied, "board members currently occupy small offices and are using borrowed furniture."

Were it used in character counts training for students, beth everitt's behavior in these two situations would serve as clear examples of how people can intend to lie even though they are telling the truth.

aps students are taught that this kind of "truth telling', spinning the truth in order to deliberately deceive, is lying.

Robert Fulghum observed that,

we should not worry so much that our children are not listening to us, as we should be worried that they are always watching us.

is beth everitt teaching aps students how to lie?

look in the fine print to find the lie`

there is a picture of the new aps board room in this morning's journal. it was placed where it was easy to miss.

in the fine print; the journal's expose of the boardroom scandal; included the following sentence, (heck, the sentence was the expose)


"It was estimated to cost $500,000, but it ended up costing $750,000 after handicapped-accessible bathrooms and a handicapped-accessible entrance were added."

there in lies the lie. when the trib ran its article on the boardroom's escalating costs, the cost was reported to be $645,000, if memory serves.

it was at least $145,000 over budget at that time because no one budgeted for these obviously necessary elements of any remodeling. these are building flaws which the administration bought with the building; and they knew it.

now they want to use the same excuse again. only this time,

that additional "unbudgeted" cost has "somehow" almost doubled.

but that still isn't the lie.

the lie is in the purpose of the anonymous journal "report"
which is to deliberately direct attention away from the fact that
the whole project is running $750,000 dollars above
any justifiable need.

an impartial audit of the administration of the public interests in the aps, will reveal the identity of those who squandered the public trust and treasure in their new little extravagance.

but if they can prevent the audit,
they will dodge accountability yet again.

yoohoo mayor chavez; where are you? ??

hiding the truth about the new board room

is the only way the leadership of the aps can dodge accountability
for the misconduct and incompetence that it represents.

the refusal of the journal and trib
to investigate and report upon the truth
is just what the leadership of the aps asked for.

"Sometimes circumstances make it necessary to restate the obvious" unk

there is only one thing that will positively end waste in the administration of the public interests in the aps;
an impartial and public audit.

the results of the last audit read;
...administrative evaluations are subjective and unrelated to promotions or step placement...
(read,good ole boy club) and,
...the culture of the aps is one of fear of retribution and retaliation... (read, an administratively corrupt, publicly funded, private police force.)

because the results were not revealed to the public;
nothing was done;
heads did not roll.

if an impartial and public audit is not begun,
who will stand up on the record and repudiate the obvious need?
paula maes? beth everitt? modrall?

no one will stand up and repudiate the need for the audit.
the position is indefensible. they can only stonewall.

the fundamental privilege of the privileged class is that one cannot be compelled to defend, explain, or even acknowledge their privilege. one simply ignores the question.

how can public servants refuse to hold them selves accountable to any meaningful standard of conduct; and then stonewall the question?

how can they simply refuse to tell the truth about the new boardroom?

will there, or will there not, be an immediate and public audit of the administration of the public interests and resources in the aps?

anonymous blogging (in any venue)

anonymity serves only one purpose and that purpose is
inconsistent with the goal of productive discourse.

the problem is not that I don't know your name, our names are utterly irrelevant.

the problem is your unwillingness to stand up and defend your position.

people with sound philosophical arguments do not present them anonymously. the submit them proudly.

anonymity serves only those who have nothing to contribute regarding the message. it serves only those who are served by attacking the messenger.

while it is possible to prevail in a philosophical argument by other than a philosophical argument; the tactic is diametrically opposite to the purpose of philosophical argument.

reading between the lines

in the journal this morning, there was a article about a road rage incident that had been reported to police.

the incident involved a citizen and an aps employee who was then working under gil lovato.

it was a, he said-she said incident, according to the article;
with apparently no way of ever knowing the truth.

except that he called for real police, and she called for gil lovato.


case closed.

gil lovato will be fired. eventually

the investigation which should have taken a very few days will drag on for a couple of months at least. then gil lovato's membership in the leadership of the aps will end. they probably will not use the word fired.

perhaps you have noticed that when a senior administrator leaves aps against their will, they leave with a quarter million tax dollars to console them.

perhaps you have wondered why.

it is because there are secrets to be kept. it is hush money.

in order to join the "good ole boys club" in the aps; one has to have "bent the rules" more than a few times; its the way the game is played. the misconduct is covered up.

one of the best ways to cover up misconduct is to have control of a private police force to contain the truth; a praetorian guard. gil lovato has been running their "security" for a decade and a half. he knows a bunch of secrets.

case on point; when michael vigil was trying to dodge accountability for his aggravated drunk driving, he sought to engage gil lovato's help. it is on the record.

how many similar calls made it through to lovato? how many of the privileged class in the aps (and community) owe gil lovato a favor?

secrets are money, when you leave the aps.

if you are being fired; even for good and just cause; the secrets are still worth money. explain in some other way how michael vigil left aps with a quarter million dollars?

it is taking a long time to fire gil lovato because they can't figure out a way to move that much money to him without getting caught.

but then they are good at hiding what they do with our money.

it's hard to believe it's just a coincidence

The journal,which has yet to print a word about the extravagance, the cost over-runs, and the secrecy surrounding the new "community" boardroom in the APS Uptown Administrative Complex, failed to mention tomorrow night's board meeting when it published the APS weekly calender in this morning's paper.

If it is just a coincidence; it is one that works well for the leadership of the APS, who want as few taxpayers as possible to attend the meeting and see how their trust and treasure have been squandered.

Update: In Wednesday's Journal, there was a lengthy article about Leonard deLayo's last board meeting. They failed to mention anything about the simultaneous "gala" grand opening of the new boardroom, fyi.

gil lovato's paid "vacation"

enters its forty fifth day tomorrow.

the obvious question is; will he ever be held accountable to any meaningful standard of conduct?

a more important question is; will those who are responsible for protecting the public interests in their public schools; the leadership of the aps, ever be held accountable for failing to hold senior administrators accountable for their conduct and competence as public servants?

the answer is most probably no.

in the aps powerful public servants clearly enjoy a privilege; they are excepted from accountability.

the truth about that exception in the leadership of the aps, and about gil lovato's conduct and competence as a public servant, exists on public records.

yet they will not surrender those public records to the public. rigo chavez will tell you that it is none of your business.

which is of course, nonsense.

the new mexico inspection of public records act provides no exception for the leadership of the aps. the only exception that the board, administration and modrall enjoy from the act,
is the exception they provide for themselves by using public funds, legal loopholes, technicalities, and legal weaselry to dodge accountability even to the law.

they are powerful enough, apparently, that they cannot be held accountable for their conduct or competence as public servants.

the power they wield against transparency and accountability in their public service is not even their power. it is ours. they have usurped control over our power and they are using it to dodge accountability.

the public has no control what so ever, over their power and resources in the aps.

i submit as proof:

• the terms of public service are written by the public, and not by the public servant

• and public servants are accountable to the public,

• and they are accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct,

• by an absolutely transparent system over which they have no control,

• and even against their will;

if those were the terms of public service in the aps,
those public records would be public. and they are not.

if those were the terms of beth everitt's public service,
she could be required to justify expenditures on the extravagant new boardroom, or her failure to prevent them. and she can not.

many of modrall's millions

are tax dollars funneled to them by the leadership of the aps. they represent unwitting taxpayer support for the "education" of their children, being used for an entirely different purpose. instead they are being spent enabling administrators and board members to dodge accountability for their non, mis, and malfeasance.

which brings up more than a few questions.

assume a public servant, acting within their public service, breaks the law. should taxpayers then pay for their legal defense; enabling them to dodge accountability for their misconduct and their betrayal of the public trust?

should tax dollars be used to buy immunity for senior administrators from allegations of felony criminal misconduct committed within their public service?

is it appropriate for their lawyers, paid by taxpayers, to defend them at any cost? and even when that defense does not serve the public interests?

is it appropriate for a public servant, for instance school board president paula maes, to see her own household income benefit from these win at any cost defenses, conducted at her board's behest, and which are provided by her husband's law firm?

is there a reason that the amount of money that aps funnels into the modrall law firm is a secret that won't be revealed even in response to a request for public records?

of course there is.

that reason and other relevant details will remain secret as well;
at the insistence of maes and her lawyers from modrall;

and against the public interest.

the agenda for the next board meeting

does not include a public forum. again.

the public forum has been moved off of the public record in order to allow the board and the superintendent to avoid being asked embarrassing questions on the record.

specifically, they need to avoid being asked on the record, why they will not hold themselves honestly accountable to any meaningful standard of conduct.

there is no answer to that question which they can justify. their position is catagorically indefensible. they have no choice but to stonewall the question, and they don't want their stonewalling on the record.

that is why the public record of previous public forums was deliberately falsified before being broadcast to the community.

and with the help of the journal and trib, they will continue to dodge accountability for their misconduct, in plain sight and off the record.

board meeting next wednesday

Regular Meeting; Wednesday,
February 21, 2007, 4:00 PM John Milne Community Board Room, 6400 Uptown Blvd NE

this will be your first look at the john milne community board room. even the name is decietful; exactly when and how will the community ever use this room? the public is not even encouraged to attend school board meetings there.

the first meeting in the room will take place before aps’ rigo chavez, director of "communications", "communicates" the cost of the new board room, or the identity of the person(s) responsible for the decision to squander the public trust and treasure on an unnecessary renovated boardroom.

is it possible, even in the aps, for a million dollars to be spent without being able to be identify those responsible for the decision to spend it?

the community room is a glaring symbol of an administration riddled with incompetence and corruption. the stonewalling that hides the truth from stakeholders is an even more glaring illustration of the willingness of the leadership to withhold the truth in order to dodge accountability for their mis, mal, and non-feasance.

the closest thing the public has been offered by way of a justification of the extravagance, is that "it was expensive to make the board room handicap accessible, and to add bathrooms."

that explanation is a red herring. it is an effort to distract attention from the fact that there was no need for another boardroom in the first place.

every high school in the city has handicap accessible facilities enough to support board meetings. their refusal to even consider rotating evening meetings among high schools betrays their very real disinterest in listening to the concerns of stakeholders.

the building in which the board room sits, is itself a manifestation of deceit. years ago, when taxpayers were “sold” the building, they were assured that the leadership of the aps would occupy only a fraction of the building and other paying tenants would share the burden of paying for the extraordinarily expensive building.

the truth is that every privileged administrator in the aps now occupies a cozy newly renovated office in aps’ “community” office building in the heights. the lesser privileged in the aps continue to make do with 30 year old student desks and “less fancy” bathrooms.

when asked recently, on talk radio, to justify spending eighty thousand dollars on luxurious new furniture for board members, the leadership of the aps lied to the radio audience.

beth everitt sits atop an administration that holds students accountable for ethical misconduct. were everitt and the rest of the leadership accountable to the standard to which they hold students accountable; she would be held accountable for deliberately misleading stakeholders.

but neither she, nor any other administrator or board member, is accountable to the student standard of conduct, because they removed from their own code of conduct the words;

in no case shall the standard of conduct for an adult be lower than the standard for students.

in fact, none of them is honestly accountable to any standard of conduct at all.

none of this has been investigated or reported upon by the journal or the trib.

how can that be explained except by a conspiracy of the journal, the trib, and the leadership of the aps to cover up their ethics and accountability scandal?

socrates argued that power corrupts

in fact power does not corrupt. rather it is
the opportunity to abuse power without consequence
that corrupts. absolutely.

accountability is fatal to the abuse of power; where there is accountability, there is no abuse.

the first intelligent abuse of power is to eliminate accountability for the abuse of power;

for example, preventing an administrative accountability audit.

aps' elizabeth everitt continues to stonewall

congresswoman heather wilson, on the issue of the allegation that the leadership of the aps is itself unacccountable to any meaningful standard of conduct, and is modeling only hypocrisy for 98,000 students in the aps, who are themselves held accountable to a widely recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

i submit that stonewalling a representative to the congress of the united states of america, is proof prima facie, that the allegation is substantiated.

the mayoral takeover of the aps boe

is still on the table in santa fe. ortiz y pino bill

please add albuquerque's state senator ortiz y pino's name to those who will not address the accountability issues in the aps, by standing on the record in favor of an accountability audit of the aps administration;

a more direct and rather instantaneous cure for what ails us.

once vocal; now silent on the issue

mayor martin chavez, who at one point but apparently no longer(?), believed in character counts and, that the accountability crisis in the leadership of the aps warranted his take over of the school board.

teri coles, speaking on behalf of the albuquerque chamber of commerce, who at one point but apparently no longer(?), supported both character counts and the mayor's take over of the board.

neither will stand on the record on the issue of an accountability audit of the leadership of the aps.

apparently, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary,
they believe the issue self corrected somehow. either that, or neither had any real concern over accountability in the aps
in the first place.

aps deliberate deception continues

almost six weeks ago, it became apparent that there is corruption in leadership of the aps police department.

aps leadership immediately announced that an "outside impartial investigation" had begun. it was an effort to deceive stakeholders into believing that impartial and honest accountability was in the works.

there is a huge difference between an impartial investigation and an impartial resolution of the scandal.

aps leadership controls the results of the investigation, impartial or no. it is obvious that they have no intention to use the results appropriately and in the public interests.

the results of the investigation are of course public records. and they would actually be public, were it not for the leadership of the aps, the lawyers of modrall, and the bottomless trough of taxpayer support for education, at which modrall feeds.

the exception from accountability continues,
as does the obvious cover up of public corruption in the leadership of the aps.

things would be different, if either the journal or trib was actually a "news"paper.

role models, role modeling

there is a disconnect in the leadership of the aps.

when they control the conversation, they are quick to point out the obligation that they share with other adults, to model the behavior that they expect students to emulate. they are quick to point out what an outstanding job they are doing in that respect.

in fact there is no evidence what so ever that demonstrates any real commitment to their obligation as role models. when pressed for details, they can only stonewall the question.

why did they remove the following expectation from their own code of conduct?

...in no case shall the standard for adults be lower than the standard for students...

their decision stands in diametric opposition to the concept of leadership by example. how does one simply renounce an inescapable obligation?

anyone who knows anything about leadership and character building, knows that leading by example is the only way to teach children about character.

the standard of conduct for the leadership of the aps is lower than the standard that they enforce upon students. in fact, their record shows that they are not accountable even to the lower standard of conduct.

they are modeling only hypocrisy before 98,000 of our sons and daughters and thousands ofaps employees.

the journal and trib both have reporters that they call "education" reporters. yet neither the journal nor the tribune will investigate and report upon the different standards of conduct for students and adults in the aps. they will not report to the community the truth about role models and role modeling in the aps.

if not at the behest of the leadership of the aps; then why?

your first amendment right to petition your government is threatened

"We The People believes the Right to Petition is, in fact, the "capstone" Right of the Bill of Rights and that its effect is the direct exercise of Popular Sovereignty -- the First Great Right of the Founding documents that declares government is the servant of Men."

Others write, "although a petition is only as meaningful as its response, the petitioning right allows blocs of public interests to form, harnessing voting power in ways that effect change.

The right to petition allows citizens to focus government attention on unresolved ills; provide information to elected leaders about unpopular policies; expose misconduct, waste, corruption, and incompetence; and vent popular frustrations without endangering the public order.

Inflamed by the king's stonewalling of their appeals, the Founders embedded the right to petition into the Constitution by way of the First Amendment.

The U.S. Supreme Court exalted the right as "among the most precious liberties safeguarded by the Bill of Rights" and implicit in "the very idea of government."

The petition clause ensures that our leaders hear, even if they don’t listen to, the electorate. Though public officials may be indifferent, contrary, or silent participants in democratic discourse, at least the First Amendment commands their audience."

The Bernalillo Count Commission, the City Council, and the APS Board of Education have all removed their public forums from the public record. Many members of these groups no longer even attend the public forums that precede their regular meetings.

A public forum represents the only avenue for a citizen of this community to petition their government. Removing that petition from the record renders the petition meaningless.

Whatever their stated reasons for removing the forum from the record; the underlying reason is to dodge accountability for their public service.

the leadership of the aps is out of control

If you still need proof that you have no control over your
public servants in the aps; consider that they will give you
no information on the abuse of your power;
rigo chavez brazenly declares that the public may never know
the details of the corruption in the aps police department (or anywhere else).

Neither will they tell you the truth about their squandering of your resources on the new board room; even in response to public records requests.

a impartial audit of the public interests will reveal the truth. placing the results on the public record will restore public control and confidence.

yet the leadership of the aps will not commission the audit, nor will they defend their refusal to do so.

they are out of control.

sixteen years ago, leonard delayo said,

"what kind of system do we have that lends itself to no accountability?"

he was talking about the system that proved worthless in preventing the then aps top cop from spending afternoons in a mountain retreat with another aps police department employee and lavishing her with $25,000.00 in "overtime" over 30 months. no charges were ever filed of course, because that would have created a public record of the facts surrounding the misconduct and the system that enabled it.

it is apparent that in the intervening sixteen years,
the board has taken no action to change the system.

the very same system is in place today; and it still lends itself to
no accountability for the leadership of the aps.

unless being at home "earning" $350.00 a day for doing nothing except negotiating a huge hush money/severance package represents being held accountable.

aps top cop on "hot seat";

according to the article in journal.

we should all be so lucky. the "hot seat" for this senior aps administrator pays him over $300.00 a day to do nothing.

the audit of his misconduct, and his career, should have been over weeks ago.

is the leadership of the aps stalling, or are they having trouble negotiating his hush money/severence package.

considering the dirt he must have on other senior administrators and board members, it should be good for at least a quarter of a million dollars at least.

the most disturbing reading

in the journal's full page expose of the disgraced aps praetorian guard commander, gil lovato, had to do with information that will remain secret.

colleen heild reported that "school district officials" say "they don't know whether any aspect of the investigation results will ever be made public." she reported that aps' spin doctor rigo chavez wouldn't reveal the outcome of any of the complaints filed against lovato.

rigo chavez is aps' custodian of public records. all of the documents that reveal lovato's corruption are public records. the nmipra lists ten exceptions to the act that limit the public's right to see public records. none of them include aps' need to cover up corruption in the leadership of the aps.

all the journal has to do to see the records is to file a request for public records.

aps/modrall will of course object endlessly, but the journal can afford to press the point in court; they simply choose not to.

so the truth about the corruption in the aps police department, and the truth about the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the aps will remain suppressed.

public funds are being used to pay the exorbitant legal expenses of modrall lawyers to prevent the public from seeing public records of public corruption and betrayal of the public interests.

even in blatant disregard for the law.

nmipra request update day 20

if you have time and nothing better to do, you can read
the entire new mexico inspection of public records act.

or you can take my word for the fact that the leadership of the aps had a legal obligation to actually surrender public records in response to an nmipra request that i have made.

i have requested copies of four board meetings during which the leadership of the aps used a publicly financed private police force illegally to suppress political opposition.

the leaders of the aps have deliberately failed to comply with the law.

suing them is feckless.


FYI

betrayal ?

a editors of the journal and trib were told three weeks ago that, even they could not get anyone in the aps to tell the truth about the cost of the board room renovation.

unless neither thought it was important enough to actually ask the leaders of the aps how many taxdollars they spent, there was a story to investigate and report upon.

neither the journal nor the trib will report the amount; or that
the leadership of the aps refuses to tell them truth.

and if you want to petition your government, your school board, on the issue of the boardroom, you can no longer do so on the public record.

the leadership of the aps has moved the public forum off of the public record.

the journal and trib haven't told local citizens
of the united states of america, about that one either.

beth everitt is responsible

for the decision to divert the better part of a million tax dollars into an unnecessary renovated boardroom instead of
more justifiable student needs;

by the same logic that compelled harry truman
to place a sign on his desk that read, the buck stops here.

beth everitt wrote as a personal goal; aps will be accountable
for …every penny of taxpayers money.

someone spent the public trust and treasure on that renovation irresponsibly. beth everitt will not tell taxpayers who is made the boardroom decisions. nor will she tell taxpayers how much money they paid for the boardroom renovation that
serves no student need what so ever.

what does the word accountable mean if it does not mean that
ms. everitt must justify either the expenditure
or her failure to prevent it;

rather immediately and, on the record

aps administrative corruption and incompetence won't fix itself

you cannot end corruption without exposing corruption.

you cannot expose corruption without exposing the corrupt.

you cannot expose the corrupt except that they will be held accountable for their corruption.

corrupt public servants will never punish themselves for their corruption. it is not human nature.

ergo, corruption will never end

the leadership of the aps will never allow an audit of their corruption.

according to albert einstein, a problem cannot be solved at the level at which it was created. the administration of the aps cannot be expected to solve the problems of administrative corruption and incompetence because they created them.

an independent audit commissioned in the public interests and on the public record will provide accountability for the leadership of the aps.

an honest audit of the administration of the public trust and treasure will be opposed only by those who have already
betrayed the public trust.

they will oppose an audit to dodge accountability for their corruption.

an immediate impartial audit serves the public interest. it is a threat only to the interests of those who do not want their corruption and incompetence exposed. to those who seek to dodge accountability for the choices they made and the consequences that they deserve.

it cannot make any difference that they are powerful. for the most, the power and resources that they are using to dodge accountability for betraying our trust aren't even theirs, they are ours.

it cannot make any difference that they are some one's friend. that is the least excusable excuse of all.

if helping your friends

dodge accountability for their ethical and felony criminal misconduct is your first priority; then corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the aps will continue.

there will never be a time when there will not be people
who want other people to let them "slide"
as proof of their friendship

journal and trib slam the aps admin audit

not really.

they're just going to pretend they never heard of it. and that an audit isn't necessary, and that they have no obligation to inform voters and other stakeholders, and that the public is doesn't want to know anyway because they're apathetic.

neither of the two

new board members elect; will stand on the record and demand an accountability audit of the administration of the aps. despite the crushing need and their subsequent duty to their constituents.

an accountability audit will end corruption and incompetence in the administration of the albuquerque public schools.

it will also end the careers of a number of senior administrators and board members.

the two new members over the next four years; will lead the district into a new age;

or they will continue to stonewall against transparency and administrative accountability to dodge accountability for misconduct which isn't even their own.

quite different legacies.

of the two;
one will be the first to stand up,
and one the last.

politicians always score very low

when the perceived integrity of various professions are ranked
by the public.

it is because when they have to choose whether on not to do an audit which will end both corruption and the careers of many of their friends;

they choose not to do the audit.

the disrespect is earned.

the choice, however painful, is simple

corruption can not be ended except by exposing the corruption. corruption cannot be exposed without exposing the corrupt

the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the aps
will not be exposed unless an independent audit is done.

if you are not willing to to begin the audit,it is only because
you are unwilling to expose "corrupt friends".

you have to choose between your friends and your principles
sometimes.

once an organization is corrupt

it cannot uncorrupt itself;

because you cannot end corruption without exposing corruption.

and the powerful and corrupt will never allow themselves to be exposed. especially if they can still use the corrupt system to protect themselves from exposure.

they will either be audited against their will,
or they will not be audited at all.

it cannot be left up to the indicted,
to decide whether or not there will be an audit.

"beth’s" goals

from the aps website link

(1) APS will provide the best education in the nation…

by any reasonable measure,

not even close.

(2) APS will be accountable and efficient. Accountable … for every penny of taxpayers money. Efficient in the allocation and use of your money; there will be no waste or excuses. APS resources will go to the classroom.

the test here is that she won’t tell you how much the new board room cost. Nor will she tell you who in responsible for assigning a higher priority to the board room than to dilapidated classrooms.

not even close; prima facie


(3) APS will protect every student. When a student comes to school, we will do everything to ensure their safety. Their learning environment will be safe and secure.

in a safe school, the adults are in charge. in any school where prohibited behavior is openly permitted (like "sagging" in blatant violation of board policy); students are in charge; the school is less safe and the learning environment is less secure.

everitt forfeited the moral authority of adults over children when she changed the employee code of conduct. she removed from that code the expectation that

in no case shall the standard of conduct for adults be lower than the standard of conduct for students.

everitt and the leadership of the aps have on the record repeatedly refused honest accountability to the student standard of conduct. she, and the leadership of the aps, hold students accountable to higher standard of conduct than their own.

she simply abdicated her responsibility as the senior administrative role model for 98,000 of our sons and daughters.

not even close.

despite three obvious strikes, she will not be called out by an independent impartial aps administrative accountability audit.

because she, with the help of the privileged class, will thwart
any audit of the record of the administrative leadership of the aps;

in order to protect herself, board members and the
many senior administrators who will fail the audit.


if the leadership of the aps had any intention of being audited, the audit would have begun. annual audits would be a long standing tradition, a source of pride, and an assurance for tax payers that their interests are protected.

not even close

it is a "community" room

it is not an indefensible squandering of the public trust and treasure.

there will be a grand opening celebration. it will be attended largely by two kinds of folks.

one is what i call the privileged class. they will be there to celebrate their little extravagance; and to congratulate themselves with having been able, with their lawyers, police, and media, to put one over on the poor dumb taxpayers.

the other group attending the celebration will be more than a few of those poor dumb taxpayers.

they will be there to ask how much taxpayers really paid for their "community" room.

there will undoubtedly be parents from Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary School. and parents from other schools who will be there to see what the money that was supposed to have maintained their children's classrooms, was used for instead.

the winner takes all (control over public power and resources)

i swear that i once read an announcement of the celebration on aps' website. now i can't find it any more. maybe it will be a "discreet" celebration, in character with their "discreet" mill levy election and their "discreet" media coverage of substantive election issues before the elections

and the feeding of voter apathy.

in which case, the press will not be attending.

despite a NMIPRA request

the leadership of the aps has yet to disclose the amount of money that flows from aps to the people doing business as the tribune and journal. if there is nothing to hide, why is it being hidden?

i suspect that they are buying biased coverage.

why else would they not just tell the truth about the allocation of public funds?

and why else would the journal and trib "cover up" the two election opportunities where the leadership of the aps would have been held accountable by voters?

how much are taxpayers paying the journal and tribune to keep the cost of the Susie Rayos Marmon Boardroom a secret from readers?

the leadership wants us to believe that their public service is transparent.

this secret arrangement between aps leadership and the folks who print the "news" is proof that aps leadership is not transparent;

that it is not even translucent.

educationally efficient administration

The object is to move power and resouces from the public to the educational interface; the place where the student and the system meet.

the board passes resources and decision making power to the administration.

the board retains enough power and resources to make district wide policies and to protect public interests in schools.

the board is accountable to the public at election for protecting public interests. they are accountable for their selection of the administrative superintendent.

the administrative superintendent is accountable for moving decision making power and resources between the board and the interface; wasting as little of each as is possible at each level of administration. power and resources will move by the shortest path.

district administrators are accountable to the superintendent. evaluations will include the results of an impartial annual administrative accountability audit.

school site administrators are accountable to site stakeholders as well.

decision making is site based. any stakeholder may sit at the table where decisions are made. stakeholders will examine all options and resources, and they will make decisions.

the administration will provide dedicated facilitators to the process. expert in compliance issues and current best practices; they will support site based decision making as needed.

educators will be encouraged to innovate. they will be directly supported in that endeavour by the administration.

the administration is most responsible for enforcing district and school site discipline policies.

teachers are better used as educators than enforcers.

chronically disruptive students are the responsibility of the administration. the administration will provide the appropriate educational interface for chronically disruptive students, just as they will provide the interface for students who are not chronically disruptive.

adults will have meaningful authority over children at school.

the entire process will be entirely transparent.

everyone will be held honestly accountable to the same meaningful standard of conduct.

the leadership in the aps will be by personal example.


the rest takes care of itself.

more sleight of hand

i was distracted from election results by the surrounding story about the new aps accountability dodge.

there was also an editorial cartoon, made to order for the needs of the trib and mayor chavez, deliberately misleading readers about the real cause of the low turnout.

the excessively low turnout was due not to voter apathy. but do to a deliberate effort to disengage voters.

you will remember that chavez cites voter apathy as one of the reasons that justify his plan to usurp control over the school board.

likewise, voter apathy is a convenient cover for the trib's efforts to disengage voters.

the truth is ; the tribune is a poor source of the truth
about the leadership of the aps,
and by extension a poor source of the truth on any issue.

finally, there will be "cute" accountability in aps

according to tonight's tribune, the proper use of the mill levy will be overseen by student goverments at many schools.

because of liability issues, students will not actually be allowed up on the roof to inspect repairs.

i feel better already.

i can't wait to hear what they say when a student asks them how they ended up with extraordinarily expensive and unwarranted roofs that wash away in rain, in the first place.

mayor martin chavez

has repeatedly expressed his concerns about accountability issues in the leadership of the aps.

yet the mayor is on the record repeatedly
not supporting the aps audit on the record.

how do you explain that?

how does he?

the same holds true for bill richardson.

loyalty above all else except honor

Sometimes, when your friend is in a fight,
you pick a side in the fight out of loyalty
before you know what the fight is about.

Maybe later you find yourself fighting on the wrong side of an important principle?

How can you possibly argue that public service should not be transparent.

How can you possibly defend letting public servants self except themselves from accountability as public servants?

You will not betray your principles
and you can not betray your friends.

You can only stonewall, forever.

Perhaps if they were really friends, they would not ask.

That's what I used to tell students when they asked me what to say when a "friend" says,

if you were really my friend you would shoplift with me, lie for me, have sex with me, commit vandalism with me, cheat for me, smoke dope with me, steal for me ...

I told kids to tell their "friends", if you were my friend, you wouldn't ask me to do something I think is wrong; simply to prove my friendship;

and I told them, they would find some new and better friends.

there are two kinds of administrators in the aps

those who look forward to an accountability audit

and those who don't.

i wouldn't be suprised find most of the former working in schools

and most of the latter hanging around the brand new boardroom
in the heights.

setting the example.

what do you suppose will happen to

the first political rising star who says the heck with it; new rules

is it really impossible to build a career in politics
based on transparent accountability.

can one really not be a good public servant
if they are willing to renounce corruption and incompetence?

in transparency there is no way to hide corruption,
so there is no corruption, it no longer plays.
the same with incompetence.


and taxpayers would be very grateful that you saved them a bootload of cash

tell me again please

why it is that, legislators in santa fe are making the decision about whether or not committee meetings will continue to be secreted from the public?

from a public corruption and competence perspective, it is hard to defend letting that decision be made by those who have the most to gain from secrecy;


secrecy in public service and government is never in the public interest.

they have diametrically opposite functions.

more importantly, in a can't see the forest for the trees kind of way;

who writes the terms of public service in the first place,
the public or the public servants?

there is no greater proof that you have lost control over your power and resources than the fact that;

you can not order your servant to stand on the record and answer your questions about their stewardship of your power and resources.

election statistics without the spin

The total number of eligible voters on the levy question was 357,125.
total votes cast 20,865
for the mill levy 12,505 (60%)
against the mill levy 8,360 (40%)
all according to bernco.gov

according to my handheld

% of voters who voted 6% (.0584249)

% of voters who voted for the mill levy 4% (.0350157)

% of voters who voted against the mill levy 2% (.0234091)

% of voters who did not vote on the mill levy because they
do not care or because the elections were "discreet" 94%

it was reported by aps/media that the issue passed by 60%...

which statistic do you think, if you had to pick just one,
most represents the truth?

explain it to me, like you would explain it to a child

there is a deadly autonomous administrative accountability robot
that you have just unpacked and assembled.

you are deciding whether or not to turn it on.

your child comes in and asks, whatcha doing daddy?




what are you going to do?

its not that it is a hard question

whether or not public service should be transparent and accountable.

it's a no brainer.

the problem is, when all of the public servants
get together to vote on it;

the ones that have to hide their record
out number the ones who don't.


you could grandfather everyone in i suppose,

while someone else distracts the children.

aps supt elizabeth everitt

on the issues of absolute transparency and accountability
in the stewardship of the public trust and treasure.

we think we are transparent.

we have an advisory committee in place.

does the advisory committee have a full time forensic accountant, overwhich they have no control? will he hold them accountable for their ethical and criminal misconduct; even against their will?

i hope that everyone appreciates that we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars and countless opportunities for waste from corruption and incompetence.

any meaningful reform in the terms of public service and government, includes transparency and accountability.

they are fundamental. they are essential.

there is no equivalent gesture.

everything else means that we have to take their word.
we have to trust them, which hasn't worked so far.

trustworthiness in public servants is no substitute for transparency and accountability in public service.

there is no reason to fight against transparency and accountability except to hide something for which you do not want to be held accountable.

the public forum at tonight's board meeting

will be off of the public record by order of paula maes/modrall
et al.

you may not petition your goverment on the record.

submitted as further evidence of public corruption
and the crushing need for an immediate and impartial audit.

the leadership of the aps

will not survive an accountability audit. any competent impartial audit will reveal their criminal negligence and misconduct as stewards of the public trust and treasure.

in order to survive; they must prevent an audit.

they can not defeat an audit with any reasonable argument.

they can't argue that

>it is too expensive;
>it is unwarranted or unnecessary, or
>it would not serve the public interests


the only argument against an audit is the protection of the self interests of those whose conduct and competence as public servants, can not stand examination by an impartial auditor.

they cannot admit the truth,nor can they agree to an audit.
their only recourse is to stonewall.


public attention destroys stonewalls,

kind of like sunlight does vampires.

in a perfect world

the issue of whether or not there will be an impartial
aps administrative accountability audit, ever,
would be settled by;

> a roll call vote of public representatives to the public school board, and

> the vote would take place on the record, and

> an honest record of the vote would be broadcast to the community, and

> the media would have engaged the public in the discussion and vote; as is their unmitigated obligation anyway, and

> the vote would have been preceded by an adequate public forum in which any member of the public could speak to their representative to the board, on the record


alas, it is not a perfect world; and the truth is that it is likely that not even one of the aforementioned will actually take place.

the issue of an aps administrative accountability audit will be stonewalled by the leadership of the aps and by the media

stonewalling is the privileged class exercising their privilege of self exception from accountability.

they are public servants, engorged on usurped public power and resources, and
they are dodging accountability for their conduct and competence as public servants.

so far

despite the elections

you still don't know how much money the newly re-elected leadership of the aps squandered on an unnecessary board room renovation. and you don't know which aps administrator(s) made the renovation such an indefensible priority in a cash strapped district.

voter turnout may have hit all time low

less than six percent.

at the risk of beating a dead horse; the low turnout is directly attributable to the leadership of the aps and the media.

they should be truly ashamed of what they have done.

one man's opinion.

my thanks

to those who came out to vote for the agenda

site based management, transparency, and accountability
in the aps

i am grateful

ethics reform in government /public service

begins with transparency and accountability.
ethics reform that does not include them both is not ethics reform;
it is at most a baby step in that direction.

the aps school calendar

is driven by winter break. high school students must take their final tests before the break. if they take them after the two week break, they will flunk them.

the issue is not the school calendar, so much as it is
that, students are not really learning long term.

perhaps we should be worrying more that their learning
has a two week shelf life, and less about what day school starts.

any way you look at it

eight people and your lawyers have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend. and not one of them ever had to swear on the record;

as a public servant; I do solemnly swear that within my public service; I will be absolutely transparent; and honestly accountable to the public.

the first step in institutionalizing an

annual aps administrativie accountability audit
is get anyone to admit on the record,
that they have heard of it.

the next step is to get a vote on it, on the record

the first roll call vote of the new school board

will be a thumbs up or down on the first
annual aps administrative accountability audit.

right, and a pint of haagen dazs serves four.


although it would be a fitting first vote in the
Susie Rayos Marmon Boardroom.

at each of our moments of truth

we can do the right thing, the wrong thing, or we can do no thing,
which always counts the same as doing the wrong thing.

it is by far the more beaten path;
not by the feet of those who will do the wrong thing ,
but by the feet of those, who at their moments of truth,
will do do nothing at all.

there are few real leaders in life.

to find one, you have to follow the right path.

speaking of, on the record;

if public servants used public funds to dodge accountability for their own mis, mal, and non-feasance as public servants; then there is substantiating evidence on the public record.

the question of whether or not the public can compel their public servant to surrender those records; is the subject of both of tomorrow's elections.


except that very few people know about it.

Phill Casaus and Marty Esquivel

are exceptional in that they are both on the record as having heard the question.

when a question is asked on the record, it can't be ignored.

you are compelled to respond by telling the truth, by lying, or by stonewalling.

if you can not tell the truth, you must either lie or stonewall;
which are essentially and functionally the same thing.

mayor chavez, teri cole, city councilors, aps
administrators, board members,
and the other candidates for the board, still enjoy plausible deniability. they can pretend that they haven't heard the question; it cannot be proved that they have. they are still off of the record.


will there be transparency and accountability in the leadership of the aps? and should that transparency and accountability begin now?

if not now, then when?

our aps citizens advisory council

was dissolved by Board President Paula Maes/Modrall and the leadership of the aps

in order to prevent their active involvement in a discussion surrounding the lack of accountability in the leadership of the aps.


the former activists don't know that only because they haven't stumbled onto this blog.

they could not have heard about it on the record at their school board meeting's public forum.


because Paula Maes, Elizabeth Everitt, Modrall,and armed members of a publicly funded private police force;certified and accredited by no one except Paula Maes, Elizabeth Everitt,and Modrall, moved your public forum off of the public record of meetings of your board of education.


the "news"papers were there.

all of the tv "news" reporters have videotape of all of it.

they even have irrefutable proof that the leadership of the aps broadcast dishonestly edited tapes to the community deliberately and repeatedly.

KKOB, KOAT, and KRQE, did not recover these tapes from the leadership of the aps.

even if aps leaders did not want to surrender them, the public records could have been easily recovered under the new mexico inspection of public records act.


subject of course to the endlessly lucrative objections of the lawyers from Modrall.


who are you going to believe, the leadership of the aps, the lawyers from Modrall, the media?

or your lyin eyes

the governor himself has complained

about aps' well earned state wide reputation for dodging financial accountability

even now they are dodging financial accountability for wasting scant resources on fancy furniture for their luxurious new board room; and keeping secrets from voters about the boardroom's actual costs.

yet the governor will not say a word on the record about the real need for an accountability audit of the leadership of the aps.

the real cost of the Susie Rayos Marmon Boardroom

is yet to be revealed.

the suggestion that the real cost may approach a million dollars,

is yet to be denied.

teachers union leadership

is yet to stand on the record with respect to their position regarding holding teachers honestly accountable to any meaningful standard of conduct during their work day at the educational interface.

confucius say;

to know the right thing and then not do it; is (moral) cowardice.


There is no such thing as leadership in cowardice.

they are in fact diametrically opposite personal attributes.

the bull elephant in the room

is now humping us dogstyle.

I, for one, am finding it more than a little uncomfortable.


It is time to acknowledge him,
(the aps accountability crisis and the media cover up)
and do something about it; lest the humping continue unabated.

stonewalling: a coward's rebuttal

When an allegation is made and it is rebutted; you can trust in the allegation or the rebuttal.

In the absence of a rebuttal; you can trust only in the allegation.

The leadership of the aps is accused of covering up an ethics and accountability scandal in the aps.

The leadership of the media is accused of the same thing.

Local politicians are accused of lacking the leadership to stand up in a crisis and lead by their example.

The response from all of the accused so far, is to stonewall.

your servants in the leadership of the aps

have been caught with your pants down around their ankles. if you ask them on the record, if your pants are down; they can't say no because well..., they're standing there with your pants down.

Yet they can't admit on the record, that your pants are really down. so they move the question off of the record; in plain sight. or they stonewall. or falsify public records and broadcast them to stakeholders.

Paula Maes Modrall, school board president and president of the nm broadcasters association

lead the school board in pushing the public forum off of the public record to dodge honest accountability to any meaningful standard of conduct.

the district's lawyers; your lawyers, from her husband's law firm, and a few members of her publicly funded, private police force were there to help.

a dozen or so falsified records were then broadcast to stakeholders.

You still haven't read about it in the Journal or the Tribune,
and you haven't seen it on the news.

self exception from accountability

is the bedrock privilege of the privileged class.

It is the privilege that enables all privileges.

they will fight against transparency and accountability in public service

they do not want to undergo the paradigm shift. our power and resources will no longer be at their personal disposal.

they will become public servants again.

an honest audit of anyone

will be opposed by everyone,
who will not be audited themselves.

aps tax would go for repairs

aps argued through its media friends at the Journal.

the public trust and treasure will not be squandered as usual.
aps' Brad Winter says that public interests are protected by an advisory committee that can actually suggest ways in which the District can (some day) be transparent.

Not included in the article was whether or not that committee advised the leadership of the aps to squander a million (?) dollars on the Susie Rayos Marmon Throne Room.

character counts

if we really believe that;

if we want students to embrace character and honor and courage;

we have to show them what they look like.
we need to lead by our personal example.

the flow of power and resources

Power and resources flow from the public to the board, from the board to the administration, and from the administration to the educational interface; the place where the student and the service meet face to face.

In a model where there is no administrative accountability; the eventual result is that each layer of administration will gorge itself at the flow of power and resources.

By the time the river reaches the classroom it has diminished to a trickle.

In a model with accountability, each layer of administration consumes as little power and resources as necessary to do their job, and to protect the power and resources from waste; corruption, incompetence, and the practices that enable them.

Leaving a river of power and resources to nourish
the delta at the educational interface.

kids need something to do after school

it really doesn't matter what
as long as it's good for them.

why not have the best history teachers

teaching the history students
who most want to learn history?

When Phill Casaus endorsed Marty Esquivel;

did he tell us the truth?

Do he and Esquivel have an undisclosed personal relationship? Is there a reason Phill's paper has given Marty's campaign extraordinarily good coverage on two occasions; while the other candidates' campaigns have yet to see the light of day?

Both Casaus and Esquivel knew that their relationship should have been disclosed before Casaus endorsed him.

yet it was not disclosed at all.

This throws a shadow of doubt on every endorsement the trib editors hav ever made, and upon every endorsement that they will ever make.

I cc'd this post to Casaus and Esquivel

Causus's response was

Mr. MacQuigg
As a matter of fact, I recused myself in our editorial board vote on District 4. In fact, your presentation was the only one I attended of the many candidates in the race. The reason: I just wanted to hear what you had to say about the race and the issues
-- which,I've got to believe, is the point of the whole thing.
You also managed to misidentify me in a previous posting.
My name is Phill,not Paul. Paul would be my brother.
Thanks you.
Phill Casaus

"...the point of the whole thing."

I had told him and two other editors; was that the leadership of the aps is corrupt and incompetent; that they would fail an administrative accountability audit; miserably.

I told them that there was a cover up of an ethics and accountability scandal in the aps. And that their paper is part of the coverup.

Which is pretty much proved by Casaus' response to this post, but not to the post where I asked him to take a stand publicly, on the record about the interests of the public and about whether they would or would not be served by an aps administrative accountability audit.

He should take a stand as well; on the right of voters to know the truth before the election; and upon his obligation as a journalist to see that they get it.

He chose not address the issues of disparate coverage, or the fact the others candidates are being denied any meaningful exposure at all.

it is worth noting:

It is proved that Phill Casaus heard the question and did not answer it.

Are the public interests served by an administrative accountability audit?


And if the public interests are served, are you not obligated to inform them that they have the right and the opportunity to hold aps leadership accountable at the polls?



I regret my error in your name. It was an honest mistake and totally inadvertent;

I apologize, sir.

if mayor chavez usurps control of the schools

will he embrace the role of senior role model for 98,000 of our sons and daughters?

will he hold himself honestly accountable to the student standard of conduct?

or will he, like the leadership of the aps did, simply self-except himself from that obligation?

and if he does, will the "news" people cover that up as well?

the privileged class cannot be beaten

in their courts, in their media, or at their polls.
it takes a vast sea of the unwashed;
armed with pitchforks and torches.
it has before, apparently it will again.

I am not saying that these people are evil

but when burke wrote, all that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world is for good men to do nothing;

this is exactly what he was writing about

think of it as a bold experiment

in walking our talk

how do you expose a conspiracy

without sounding like a conspiracy nut?

The conspiracy involves the leadership of the APS and the media.

I will offer what I represent to be "evidence" of a conspiracy,

you will either find it credible or that

I am a conspiracy nut.

There has been no substantive coverage of:

*the school board race, or of the mill levy election.

Despite a need that requires neither explanation or defense.

*the publicly financed, private police force that has been used to

create a "culture" of fear of retribution and retaliation

among employees in the APS

*the fact that the school board removed the public forum

from the public record.

*the fact that public now has no forum at all in which to

petition their government.

on the record.

*the actual cost of the Susie Rayos Marmon Boardroom,

a major Achilles blown off leg for the leadership of the APS

*the fact that the leadership of the APS

will not answer any questions

about the actual cost

of anything.

*the fact that when the leadership answered questions

about their real accountability;

on live radio

they did not respond

to those questions

by telling the "truth".

*the fact that the leadership of the APS has refused on the record

to hold themselves honestly accountable

to any standard of conduct at all.

more than a dozen times

on the record.


*the fact no board supported candidate

has spoken on the record about an

APS Administrative Accountability Audit.

much less demanded one



sometimes you seem like a nut

sometimes you're not.