Linda Sink is the Chief Administrative Officer of the APS. It is she who will decide what APS' Custodian of Public Records will do with a request for public records.
The request is for records of the litigation that the Modrall Law Firm has done on behalf of APS board members and senior administrators; a multi-million dollar arrangement between the APS and the law firm run by the school board president's husband. An arrangement that so far has been kept secret by ignoring the requirements of New Mexico's Inspection of Public Records Act.
Paula Maes can be expected to continue resist the request. She and Modrall do not what the public to be privy to any details of their little arrangement.
But it isn't her call; not really. The board is not supposed to interfere in the daily operation of the district.
So it falls upon Linda Sink to make the official decision for the district; will the district surrender the public records of complaints , counter complaints by the district, the determination of the court, the settlement, and the amount of money the Modrall law firm has made off taxpayers and the APS;
or not?
If Sink is a person of character, she will order the surrender of public records as required by the spirit of the law.
More likely, she and Modrall will find some way to use the law to keep their record secret.
In a community where the newspapers are on the side of the public, the truth would come out anyway.
Here in River City though, they aren't,
and it won't.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
APS' Superintendent Linda Sink to be Tested by NMIPRA Request
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2 comments:
I asked for the following in writing of APS Community Relations in 2006, no reply as of yet:
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1) Lawsuit statistics that have as least the following pieces of information for the time period January 1, 1995 to December 31, 2005:
A) Reason APS was sued (I.E. - FLSA/Overtime, Wrongful Death or Injury, etc)
B) Result of Suit
C) Amount of money paid to settle or other wise pay damages in suit
D) Legal Fees paid in relation to suits
E) Discipline, if any, given to subjects of suits
F) Measures taken to prevent recurrence
2) Total Cost of lawyer services /Attorney Services (not including extra costs as detailed above) on a yearly basis for the last ten years, broken down by year and which firm got the money.
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These are questions that remain unanswered. Even after I submitted a written request that plainly details it is a public records request per NMSA 1978 -14-2-1 through 12.
APS must have some plan to continuously improve upon district losses in these areas or they are not being true to Continuous Improvement or the Character traits that they are supposed to have.
If they won't admit to losses and vast non-educational expenditures, how will similar losses and misuses of funds be prevented in the future?
I have a copy of the request that I personally hand delivered to Community Relations at this particular post on my blog:
http://thoughtholder.blogspot.com/2007/12/albuquerque-public-schools-ipra-request.html
Your request was delivered to the wrong person.
Rigo Chavez is the custodian of public records. Although the Community Relations Dept. had the absolute obligation to forward your request to Chavez, you will not be able to prove in court that it did.
Joseph,
Your request is almost identical to mine; although you have the gift for the finer points and subtleties.
This is exactly why the good ole boys don't want to see "disgruntled former employees" forming a club
I suspect the names of the plaintiffs/victims would be a good start on a club roster.
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