So I met with Sarah Welch

Sara Welch is the Executive Director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, link.
I met with her to see if I was missing something when I write; the leadership of the FOG is infected with some people who clearly are not for "open government" at all. And to point out to her that, the FOG was about to give a Dixon Award to someone who clearly does not deserve it.

I offered to chat off the record; she expressed no need.

When I suggested that her reputation might be sullied by association with a number of the FOG's leadership, she suggested that she would be satisfied to be held accountable to her own record; (not necessary to anyone else's). Works for me.

She also argued that their "daytime jobs" were distinct from their service to the FOG.

Yeah OK but, how can you be a lawyer by day screwing people out of public records, and then be an able advocate of open government a few hours later for the FOG?

She told me that she has never bowed to, nor even felt, pressure from the board. I accept her at her word.

I pointed out to her that Kent Walz sits on the Executive Committee of the FOG, and appears to be covering up his own story about the scandal in the APS Police Department, link; no alternative explanation has been offered by anybody, ever, except that; it's not "newsworthy".

I pointed out that Pat Rogers sits on the Executive Committee and also works for the Modrall Law Firm which has made so much money litigating exception to the law for APS administrators and board members, that they won't tell you how much it is.

I pointed out that APS School Board President Marty Esquivel sits on the Board of Directors of the FOG and has no problem, apparently, arresting dissidents during Public Forums. Nor, apparently, does he have a problem with his Superintendent covering up the APS PD scandal.

I pointed out that they were about to give their prestigious Dixon Award to APS Supt Winston Brooks despite the fact that he was hiding an entire impartial report on public corruption and incompetence in the APS Police Department by calling it an "opinion" and not subject to disclosure under the law.

I asked if it would be possible to rescind the award they intend to give to Brooks.

Brooks, dba Rigo Chavez, APS' Custodian of Public Records, is a poster child for what the FOG is supposed to loathe. He is using loopholes, technicalities and legal weaselry to delay the surrender to the public record, of evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, which is still being "investigated" by the APS Police Department, three and one half years after the scandal was revealed, and after statutes of limitation have expired on criminal misconduct.

She suggested that I email the "committee" that gave him the award; Marty Esquivel (who I am told recused himself from the vote to reward Brooks for his "transparency"), Kent Walz (see above), Kathy Bearden and Greg Williams (neither of whom, I know).

I think I will, and perhaps copy the entire Board of Directors, lest they go down with the ship, unaware that it is sinking.

I am told, APS Board Member Paula Maes, whose position is;

she will never agree to any audit that individually names corrupt and/or incompetent APS administrators or board members,

no longer sits on the FPGs Board of Directors;
I have no idea why.

She is still the head of the New Mexico Broadcasters Association. Consequently, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the broadcast media to dig very deeply into the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Maes is a named defendant in a lawsuit recently filed in Federal Court.

It is unlikely that the litigation will shed much light on the alleged misconduct. Long before the truth comes out in court, the leadership of the APS will have arrived at a Settlement Agreement, that, though worth boot loads of cash, is still "cheaper than proving their innocence in Court".

The Settlement Agreement will include language that reads, no one in the leadership of the APS admits to having done anything wrong. There will be a clause the moves a lot of tax dollars out of the APS and into the plaintiff's bank accounts. And there will be a clause that reads, the plaintiffs cannot tell the truth to anybody, ever.

Her husband was the President of the Modrall Law Firm while it was making a killing litigating on the behalf of the APS administration and Board. I suspect she still has some juice there too, and they will take good care of her.

Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Teri Cole is the Vice President of the NM FOG. She used to be a supporter of Character Counts! until I asked her to help me hold the leadership of the APS accountable for their abdication as role models of the APS Student Standards of Conduct. Then,

... not so much of a supporter anymore.



photo Mark Bralley