Esquivel Continues to Disappoint.

APS Board Member Marty Esquivel was the subject of an article in the Journal this morning.

There was an opportunity for Zsombor Peter to write about the single most effective step that can be taken to cure the ills that affect the APS; an administrative accountability audit.

Instead, according to Zsombor Peter,
Esquivel would like APS to set some more goals.

Great, more goal setting. Why even bother?

First,
not reported in the paper, was Esquivel's suggestion that
the goals be determined by holding, you guessed it,
more meetings with stakeholders.

When a public servant is stuck betwixt a rock and a hard place,
they do one of two things; they form a task force to study
the issue, or they hold meetings to "gather stakeholder input".

Second,
the leadership of the APS does not set goals in the first place;
not real ones anyway. It smacks too much of accountability.

I defy anyone to name a single goal that APS has ever set,
where the failure to reach that goal, cost anyone their job.

In the APS, goal setting is an exercise in diverting attention.

Don't you suppose that one of Tom Savage's goals was
to prevent public corruption in the APS Police Department?

Don't you suppose that one of Tom Savage's goals was to
at least keep records on the spending of a billion tax dollars
a year?

He failed to meet either goal, and he still has a job.

Paula Maes said she will never allow an audit that will allow
Tom Savage to be held individually accountable for either
his conduct or competence as a senior public servant.

Marty Esquivel needs to stand up to Paula Maes/Modrall
and for an immediate administrative accountability audit
of the leadership of the APS.

There is no equivalent gesture.

If he is not willing to take out incompetent and corrupt
administrators and board members,

all the stakeholder meetings and goal setting in the world
will not make a wits worth of difference in graduation rates,

or in any other meaningful measure of progress in the APS.