Accusing Kent Walz

There is a post on Heath Haussamen's website having to do with NM FOG considering whether Pat Rogers should remain on their board, link. I took an opportunity to again accuse Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz of covering up the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS. Haussamen took exception to my accusations, and chose to not publish it. He feels that my allegations lack the substantiation Journalist's Ethics require.

My accusation; Kent Walz is complicit in a conspiracy to cover up an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

The premise; there is in fact, an ethics and accountability scandal.

Yet to be refuted facts;

1. There are two sets of standards of conduct in the APS; one applies to students, the other to administrators and board members. The one, a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts. The other, the law; the lowest standards of acceptable conduct among civilized people, replete with all the loopholes and escape hatches that unmitigated legal weaselry will allow.

That, if true, is newsworthy on its face. That administrators and board members will not hold themselves honestly accountable to the standards they establish and enforce upon students, is newsworthy.

2. There is no place in the APS, where a complaint can be filed against an administrator or board member, and where that complaint will see due process. Every complaint against an administrator or board member is adjudicated by a colleague, or in the case of a complaint against the Superintendent, a subordinate. The manifest appearance of a conflict of interest is unaddressed, since the board reneged on its promise to provide executive "review and approval" of the handling of every single whistleblower complaint.

That allegation, if true, is newsworthy. The allegation is true. An effort was made to hold APS COO Brad Winter accountable for his refusal to provide a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd; the board room in particular. The result; he could not be held accountable for refusing to respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly to a legitimate question about the public interests in the APS, link.

The Journal reported during construction, link, the board room was running way over budget. Today, Walz knows Winter won't tell the truth about how much over budget they finally went, and isn't investigating and reporting on it.

3. While I was running for the school board, then School Board President Marty Esquivel wrote an utterly unlawful restraining order, link. It is co-signed and enforced by the APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez, link. The APS Police Force is a publicly funded, private police force that reports directly to, and only to, the leadership of the APS. The police force is unaccredited, uncertified, and uncertificated by anyone except the leadership of the APS.


The restraining order is still in effect; I am arrested at the door if I try to exercise my Constitutionally protected human right to petition my government at public forum, link.

That an citizen, much less a bonafide school board candidate, can be barred from school board meetings by a Praetorian Guard waving an unlawful restraining order is newsworthy.

4. Public records of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators is being hidden from District Attorney Kari Brandenburg.

Kent Walz and the Journal know about the public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS police force, they first exposed it, link. Walz know that felonies were committed by senior APS administrators; moving money from evidence to petty cash without record keeping, and running federal NCIC criminal background checks on whistleblowers in an effort to harass and intimidate other whistleblowers.

Walz knows that the corruption was never investigated by any agency of law enforcement outside of APS. Walz knows of the existence of public records, the Caswell Report, link, for one, which are being redacted in their entirety, in blatant violation of the law, that name the names of senior APS administrators who have yet to be accountable. Walz knows the evidence of felony criminal misconduct was never turned over to District Attorney Kari Brandenburg for prosecution.

5.  More than 100 citizens signed a petition for standing for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication.  The CACoC seeks to create a venue for the "hard to have" discussions; a place where there is open and honest two-way communication between the leadership of the APS and the community members they serve.

Kent Walz and the Journal and the Journal know about the petition and the board's response, and have reported on neither.

6.  Student discipline problems and their effects on other student being covered up, link,

Walz and the Journal know that a recent audit by the Council of the Great City Schools found APS administrators routinely falsifying crime statistics to protect the reputations of schools.

Walz knows or should know of all these allegations.  If not, his willful ignorance is no excuse.   Walz knows of credible allegations of public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS and will not investigate and report the truth to interest holders.

For what reason except that he is part of the cover up?




frame grab Mark Bralley