Is School Board President Marty Esquivel being disingenuous?

Setting the piece; an appearance of impropriety was created.
An APS vendor bought drinks and dinner for public servants who at some point would be asked for their opinion of the vendor, their products, or their services.

Typically, APS released a misleading statement.

"APS spokesman Rigo Chavez said the Garduño's party
did not include any employees who make purchasing decisions."

They imply that because APS senior administrator Tom Ryan wasn't there, there was no one there whose opinion affected the APS vendor relationship. If Tom Ryan was not asking the 250 people who were invited, their opinions on the vendor, he was not doing his job. How could someone who buys $7M worth of product and service not gather and study carefully, the input from people who are actually using the product or service?

If you really want to fully understand the situation, read Mark Bralley's take, link.

For the Cliff's Notes version, watch Larry Barkers report, link.

For the APS spin, read their Albuquerque Journal, link.

At the time of the party, APS senior administrator, Brad Winter, was made aware of the problems that were being created. If he did not read Bralley's post, it was because he made a deliberate decision to ignore the issue.

So in the time between the party and Larry Barker's report, were any changes made that addressed the issues.

If there were, why are they not part of the Journal report?

An outside auditor who looked into the scandal in the APS Police Department, wrote that the leadership of the APS had a history of ignoring audit findings; that they never changed or wrote policies that addressed the issues outlined in the audit findings.

Now comes School Board President Marty Esquivel.
From the Journal;

"Albuquerque school board president Marty Esquivel said he is calling for a change in board policy to prohibit such practices, in light of a recent party."

In truth, he is calling for a policy change in light of being exposed by Larry Barker; who is kidding whom?


The "policy change" that Esquivel is talking about, is the creation of a new standard of conduct.

Which means that the existing standard was inadequate to the need, and/or there was no actual, honest accountability to that standard. In truth it is both; inadequate standards and inadequate accountability. The Meyners auditors said it exactly the same way; inadequate standards and inadequate accountability.

Esquivel will push for a policy statement as limited in scope as it can be. He is on record in opposition to widespread policy reform; opposed in fact, even to an open and honest discussion of the issues.

I asked Marty Esquivel and Jon Barela, to put standards and accountability on the table for an honest and open public discussion. They refused, link.

The leadership of the APS is an oligarchy. It is infected with the usual contagions; cronyism, nepotism, corruption and incompetence.

They can show stakeholders no plan to address them with honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

If they could, they would.

Marty Esquivel is stonewalling legitimate questions about standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS.

Esquivel in the senior most role model, in the entire APS, of a standard of conduct that prohibits stonewalling, because it is unethical, because it is not honest.




photos Mark Bralley