Friday, July 13, 2007

Robert Lucero schools Mr. Esquivel on the "rules" of Public Forum

It was during the public forum. A parent, concerned enough about the well being of her child to travel to a board meeting to express her concern, was addressing the board.

Mr. Esquivel had asked her some questions in order to understand her position more thoroughly. Robert Lucero interrupted the discussion to ask the chair to end it; reminding Mr. Esquivel that the public forum was not for dialogue, but only for listening.

There is no such rule.

The decision whether or not to engage in a dialogue with speakers at the public forum is entirely up to individual board members. It is only by custom that questions are not answered, and only because they do not want to be asked specific questions on the record; like "Why will you not hold yourselves honestly accountable to a meaningful standard of conduct?"

To underscore Robert Lucero's utter hypocrisy, later in the meeting he pontificated at great length about the need to hold a formal board meeting at the new high school; in order the board and administration could answer questions.

The truth is that Lucero's real need is to have a big formal meeting at the new high school with lots of attention and press coverage so he can claim credit for, and bask in the glory of, its construction.

In his dreams, the building is called the
Robert Lucero High School.


Later in the meeting, Robert Lucero voted in favor of adopting the meaningless and unenforceable "code of ethics" as the standard to which he is willing to be held accountable; as a public servant and as a senior role model for almost 90,000 of our sons and daughters.

2 comments:

NB said...

So, wait a minute... Esquivel was asking the parent questions to be more clear about the issue she was presenting and then Lucero interrupted it and asked Maes to stop the public forum because Esquivel was only supposed to listen and not ask questions for clarity? I understand that the board cannot respond or comment on the public forum but it is something completely different if a board member asks a question for clarity.

Hmmmm... I've seen Lucero engage with public forum people (if it so pleases him) but he's calling out Esquivel for asking a question?

WTF?

ched macquigg said...

There is no rule, or requirement of any kind that prohibits a board member from engaging with a speaker. Those who don't do it by their own personal choice.

The only rule I ever read suggested that "board members are not "required" to respond...