Waiting on Melendrez

The leadership of the APS is trying to suppress the results of investigations into public corruption and incompetence in their police department. In response to a request for public records, APS' Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez informed me that, on the advice of their attorney, every word of every investigation is a "matter of opinion" and exempt from surrender under the NM Inspection of Public Records Act. They are not of course; at most some, a very few of them, might be. The law clearly requires the respondent to redact only the words excepted by the Act, and then to surrender the rest, rather immediately.

Such a redaction would not protect the leadership of the APS from the exposure of their incompetence and corruption. So they will pretend they don't understand the law and that, they really can hide entire documents.

It has been nearly a month since NMFOG's Executive Director Sarah Welsh wrote a letter to Chavez asking him to reconsider their denial. She contacted him by phone yesterday, about the fact that APS has not responded to her email, or to my follow up request.

Welsh was informed that APS/Modrall lawyer Art Melendres is "reviewing" the FOG objections.

APS is not very candid, forthright or honest about anything, so it would be very difficult to determine how much taxpayers are paying Modrall and Melendres to "review" the letter and then to comply with law that is abundantly clear on its face.

The law will not prevent Melendres and the leadership of the APS from drawing this out for ever; certainly past the upcoming school board elections. It is important to them to keep the truth from voters until after the election.

In my first complaint about NM FOG's handling of this request so far, I take exception to the fact that Welsh indicated she will give them another 10 days/two weeks to resolve their boggle over simple and straightforward law before taking the next step, whatever that might be.

In so far as; "Justice delayed is justice denied." Gladstone
I would rather that she and NM FOG be more insistent.

This is but one more example of the shameless conduct of the leadership of the APS and their lawyers in mockery of the law. They and their legal weaselry will keep public corruption, incompetence, and involvement in felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators secret from voters until after their cronies, like School Board President (and open government lawyer) Marty Esquivel have been re-elected to positions from which they can cover administrative asses for another four years.

The Journal will aide and abet them in their effort to cover up the scandal that they, themselves, first reported, link.

Mark my words, the election will come and go without a single investigation or report by the Journal on

• the corruption in the APS Police Department,
• the abdication of senior APS leadership as role models of the Student Standards of Conduct,
• the need for independent standards and accountability audits, or
• the ongoing denial of due process rights to whistleblowers.

photo Mark Bralley