Why don't we just let bygones be bygones?

If you want to participate in a
"conversation" with
Winston Brooks,
there are some rules
that you must obey.

One reads;

Learn from the past,
let go of it and move forward.

If I obey Winston Brooks' rule, I am not allowed to ask any
questions about the scandal in the APS Police Department;
a scandal involving senior APS administrators and felony
criminal misconduct. Felony criminal misconduct for which
no APS administrator has ever been, or will ever be,
held accountable.

This is good ol' boy accountability.

I don't think that it is a very good idea to "learn from felony
criminal misconduct, let go of it, and move forward".

Why not?

My dog in this fight, is that telling the truth about the past
will vindicate me personally, and serve the interests of justice.

Neither of which amounts to a hill of beans in the over all
picture of the APS. So why bother?

It is, the missing element; honest accountability for felony
criminal misconduct.

It is not so much that we need to hold the last good ol' boy
who squandered the public trust and treasure, accountable,
as it is that, we need to hold the next good ol' boy who
squanders the public trust and treasure, honestly accountable
for their corruption and/or incompetence.

For as long as the number one priority of the leadership of the
APS is to escape the consequences of incompetence and
corruption, then no worthwhile goal can be the top priority,
not even providing a solid education for APS students.

For as long as the plan for dealing with administrative or
executive incompetence or corruption includes hiding the
truth, waiting for statutes of limitation to expire, and then
"learning from it and moving forward", without ever providing
honest accountability, even for felony criminal misconduct,

there is no reason to expect that administrative and executive
corruption and incompetence will ever end.

And there is no reason to expect that educating 90, 000 of
this community's sons and daughters, will ever be the top
priority of the leadership of the APS.

For a more contemporary illustration, consider APS' website.
Winston Brooks says it is one of the worst he has ever seen.

Learning from the past, letting go of it, and moving forward,
APS is going to have one of the best websites that money can
buy. It is a shame that very talented students could not have
been folded in, but that's a whole other story. link

Letting go of the past means, the administrator most
responsible for the current state of the APS website,
may or may not be held accountable for their incompetence.

My money is on; "not held accountable".

It is a long standing tradition in the APS to move administrators
laterally if they really screw up.

Is this same administrator now in charge of another
department that they can run into the ground?

Paula Maes said she would never allow any audit that named
the names of incompetent or corrupt APS administrators or
board members.

And she hasn't.

There is a desperate need for an independent audit of the
leadership of the APS.

There is a desperate need to name the names of the corrupt
and the incompetent in the leadership of the APS.

How can Winston Brooks sell a $650M bond issue while
refusing an impartial standards and accountability audit?

He will argue that the cash strapped APS cannot afford an audit.

If they can afford to mount a campaign to sell the bond issue,
they can afford to do an audit which would make any additional
campaign completely unnecessary.

Assuming the audit will come back clean. It won't.

Because all the leadership of the APS has done for more than a
hundred years is let bygones be bygones,
at least among the good ol' boys.




photo Mark Bralley