Senator Pete Domenici tied to Character Counts Swindle

Senator Pete Domenici steadfastly refuses to use his
considerable influence to shed light on the apparent
Character Counts! swindle involving some of the highest
ranking members of the leadership of the
Albuquerque Public Schools.

The story begins in 1993. Senator Domenici and 49 other
of some of the most respected individuals in the country met
with Michael Josephson in Aspen Colorado.

Together they pounded out the principles of
Character Counts!, which has since emerged as a nationally
recognized, accepted, and respected model of character
education, and a code of ethical conduct.

In 1994, the APS Board of Education unanimously adopted
Character Counts! as the model for character education, and
the Pillars of Character Counts became the student standard
of conduct.

At the time, there was language in the employee code
of conduct which read;

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

That statement iterated the most fundamental premise of
role modeling, and established the requirement for adults,
including senior administrators and board members, and
their lawyers to hold themselves accountable to an ethical
standard of conduct.

During my litigation against the leadership of the APS,
I repeatedly argued that their lawyers from the
Modrall Law were routinely violating their standard of
ethical conduct.

The leadership of the APS responded by striking language
from their own code of conduct which required recognition
of an ethical standard of conduct. The leadership of the APS
is now unaccountable to any standard of conduct that uses
the word "ethical". The truth is that they cannot produce a
record of accountability even to the law; the lowest
standard of acceptable conduct in civilized societies.

side bar;

I have always believed that if stakeholders knew
the truth, if they knew that the leadership of the APS had
struck the language from their own code of conduct that
required them (contractually) to be role models of the
student standard of conduct, that they would be outraged.
And further, that that public outrage would have resulted
in their (contractual) re-assumption of their responsibilities
as role models.

The local media, in particular, the Journal and Tribune,
steadfastly refused to report the situation to stakeholders.
I begged Senator Pete Domenici to stand up and defend his
"founding child", Character Counts!, from the actions of the
leadership of the APS.

He steadfastly refused to do anything to bring public attention
to the problem. In fairness to the Senator, one can never
actually communicate directly with a United States Senator.
Communications are intercepted by subordinates like
Lisa Breeden. It is entirely possible that she kept the
Senator from learning the truth. She happens to be a member
of the Character Counts Leadership Council and had reason
to hide the truth from the Senator for reasons that will be
outlined later in this post.

I expected that as a founding father of Character Counts!,
the Senator would step up to defend it.
He did not, and apparently, he will not.

Now we come to the issue of a federal grant of some $50K.
$50K is a guess, because the leadership of the APS
steadfastly refuses to surrender any public records about
the grant, even in violation of the law;
the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

It would appear that in order to receive the federal grant,
a grant that Domenici was instrumental in securing,
a "leadership council" was created.

The leadership council was headed by Paula Maes.
In addition to being the president of the leadership council,
Maes is also the head honcha on the APS Board of Education.
She is married to the president of the Modrall Law Firm,
which does millions of dollars worth of business with the
APS and which steadfastly refuses to surrender to public
knowledge, the records of their financial relationship with the
Albuquerque Public Schools.

The membership of the Character Counts! Leadership Council has been kept secret for years. APS will not produce any records that they ever met for any purpose. The council is apparently a sham whose purpose was to secure the federal grant. In response to requests for a record of how the money was spent, APS steadfastly refuses to surrender any public records; again in violation of the law, and with the help of the Modrall Law Firm and their large bore pipeline to unwitting taxpayer support of "education".

Senator Domenici (Lisa Breeden) refuses to answer any questions about the grant, or the Senator's role in securing it.

On its face, we have public servants securing and spending public money, while refusing to answer any questions about themselves or their activities, and enjoying the cover of a United States Senator.

There is no good and ethical reason, that I can imagine, that
the Senator would not be acting aggressively in exposing
public corruption involving his name and his "founding child"
despite an overwhelming record of looking like a duck,
walking like a duck, and quacking like a duck;

He has steadfastly refused to intervene in the rape of
his child; Character Counts!.

If the Senator had any other explanation at all,
other than his personal corruption and/or incompetence,

why will he not offer it to stakeholders?

The question is not rhetorical.


cc. Pete Domenici (Lisa Breeden) upon posting.