A window closed today, on school board election coverage

There are a relatively few people in River City who care enough about government to actually do anything about it.

Tomorrow, their attention will be redirected from the school board election and the hiring of another superintendent to whatever shenanigans the state legislature has in store for us.  Whatever coverage the election could or should have had, was not delivered.

I am going to point to Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz, though he isn't the only member of "the press" who have deliberately left the democracy mis and uninformed about APS' spending of its power and resources.

When the founding fathers chose to offer Constitutional protection for the free exercise of the human right to be the press, it must have been because they knew how important the press is, in a functioning democracy.

Kent Walz demanded, and received I suppose, responses from school board candidates to their candidate questionnaire by 5 pm Monday last; a full week ago. 

All he had to do was cut and paste the responses and he chose to wait.  All he had to do was report to the democracy that there is a very important election coming up and they need to pay more than 3.7% of their attention.

What is he waiting for?  The questions is rhetorical. 
He is waiting for his routine day after the election
editorial harrumph over voters lack of interest in the election.

The wheels are coming off their train.  Their cover up of the cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators is about to be exposed. 

Kent Walz and the Journal's relentless refusal to investigate and report upon credible allegations and evidence of an ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, is about to be exposed.

There is a public meeting tomorrow.  It will be held in the John Milne Community Board Room, link.

I refer to it as the Susie Rayos Marmon Board Room.  The board built the room instead of fixing leading roofs on portable classrooms at Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary School.

When the board bought the building, they promised to rent out half of it;
it was going to be a money maker for taxpayers. It became instead,
a money pit; millions and millions of dollars were spent "sprucing it up".

The board room construction was very expensive and over budget.  The construction was unjustified at the time and remains unjustified.  The actual number of dollars that were spent in its construction remain a mystery.

Winter here seen with Steve Tellez.
Winter was the "oversight" over APS'
publicly funded private police force. 
His failure to oversee competently was
the proximate cause of the corruption
in its leadership

APS Interim about to be interim for another year  Supt Brad Winter has been asked a number of times to produce a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the money they spent there.

He steadfastly refuses to comply.

There is really only one reason to not tell the truth, and that is to avoid the consequences of the truth being known.

Brad Winter does not want you to know how much money they spent there and on what.  He doesn't want you review the record of his stewardship of hundreds and hundreds of millions of capital dollars.

More importantly, Kent Walz does not want you to know about APS' stewardship of more than a billion tax dollars a year.  Former APS heavy hitter Paula Maes' and her cronies at the NM Broadcasters Assoc affiliate stations don't want you to know.

It is up to you to spread the word.

As far as I know, the candidate forum tomorrow evening and the public forum of the regular school board meeting Wednesday evening, represent your two of your last opportunities to actually stand up to be counted somewhere in defense of your interests in the Albuquerque public schools.


It is up to you to attend and stand up to be counted.

There is no equivalent gesture,
there well may not be another opportunity.




photos Mark Bralley