Journal stance on public records litigation confusing

The Journal has won a court battle with the government over the surrender of some public records the Journal wanted to lay eyes on, link.

The "fight" according to a Journal staff writer, will cost "the state" $250K. "The state" will pay both ends of the costs of litigation.

Perhaps the Journal staff writer does not understand that
the litigation cost taxpayers, $250K.

The lawyer who earned a substantial portion of the $250K said; "In their (DOT's) unsuccessful effort to keep these documents from the public, they have spent an estimated quarter of a million dollars that never should have been spent, at a time when the money could have been better spent elsewhere."

Journal Editor Kent Walz weighed in;

"... the cost of the litigation is unfortunate."

APS and Modrall will spend a quarter million dollars in a heartbeat, to keep the Caswell Report from surrender under the NM Inspection of Public Records Act. Modrall will do it because most of the money will end up in their pockets and because, they have no apparent scruples.

APS will do it because it's not their money.

The money they will use comes from operational funds; funds that if not spent somewhere else instead, would end up in a classroom.

Their litigation budget is literally unlimited. APS' insurance premiums were raised recently (more operational funds) as the direct consequence of the amount of money flowing through the leadership of the APS to law firms like Modrall, for win at the greatest cost litigation.

Where is Walz' outrage at the leadership of the APS for their willingness to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the Caswell Report secret from public knowledge?

His apparent outrage is limited to getting together with APS School Board President Marty Esquivel, and finagling a transparency award to the guy most responsible for hiding the Caswell Report, APS Supt Winston Brooks, while he was sitting on the results an independent investigation into felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, link.

In other places the newspaper of record would be investigating and reporting upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the public school system. In other cities the newspaper would be suing to see an ethically redacted version of the Caswell Report.

School Board Member Paula Maes, speaking for the board,
said (we)... will never agree to any audit that individually identifies any corrupt or incompetent senior administrator or board member.

Nor, will they ever agree to releasing the results of an independent investigation that individually identifies senior administrators (and board members) involved in felony criminal misconduct.

Most newspaper editors would be all over a story like this.
But not the Journal, and not Kent Walz.

You have to wonder, why not?




frame grab and photo Mark Bralley