Sunday, August 23, 2015

Rudys fights back, Bregman represents her

In the Journal this morning, link, we find APS Assistant Supt. for Human Resources Karen Rudys isn't going to take lying down, School Board President Don Duran's defamation of she and her department.  She has hired Sam Bregman to defend her.

The school board is meeting in secret this afternoon to decide what they are going to do about all the trouble their new supt. has created, and to decide how to spin it all to the people whose trust and treasure they have squandered.

Duran has been insisting that HR was responsible for the snafu and might continue to argue in secret, that it was.  And, by logical extension, was Karen Rudys.

It looks like Don Duran is looking for a scapegoat;  Rudys and Bregman should be there to defend her interests.

The people should be there too, and for precisely the same reason.

We know the people will be barred from the room; will Karen Rudys and her lawyer Sam Bregman be barred as well?

Duran is under fire over the appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety created when Supt. Valentino made Duran's daughter his Associate Supt. of Middle Schools.

A few years ago, Sam Bregman spoke on behalf of another embattled APS administrator, Police Chief Gil Lovato.

Lovato and Bregman claimed
(justifiably);
when the truth is known
there won't be a single 
senior APS administrator 
left standing.

Though a statement like that could be chalked up to Bregman braggadocio, it happened to be true. 

It is true still.

There is not one single member of the leadership of the APS who is not corrupt and or incompetent, or who does not have guilty knowledge of those who are.

It is time for an honest independent audit of the administration of the APS. Even against their will. Especially against their will.

The terms of public service are the prerogative of the people, not of their servants.


The next school board meeting with a public forum is a week from Wednesday and in their castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

People say “somebody should do something” when what they really mean is; somebody else should do something. Much has been written about whether now is the time to stand up;
All that is necessary for the rot in the leadership of the APS to prevail, is for good people to do nothing. (derived)
The right time to do the right thing is always right now
You pick a side when you don't pick a side.
You say something when you say nothing.
Your silence gives consent
You get what you tolerate.
If not you then who, ...
and so on.

If you want there to be honest to God accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence in politics and public service in the APS, sooner or later you're going to have to show up somewhere and do something.

Historically, torch and pitchfork gatherings have seen some success in toppling tyrannies and could now.

Sacrifice is the currency of commitment.
If your commitment to repairing the APS isn’t worth a trip to a school board meeting, how important to you is it?

Show up one week from Wednesday.
There is no equivalent gesture.




photos Mark Bralley

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bregman's letter to Valentino and Duran states that it was Art Melendres, APS chief legal counsel, who informed Rudys that Martinez had been hired and what his salary would be. The involvement of APS's chief legal counsel begs a question: since when does a non-APS employee (Melendres) informs/instructs/orders the head of APS HR how she will proceed with a new hire? Ched, you have posted numerous times your first hand legal experience with Melendres and his own admission of billing APS around $1M per year. How much knowledge of Martinez's pending criminal proceedings on child sex crimes did Melendres have prior to his telling Rudys that Martinez had already been hired? You are absolutely right that Duran will throw Rudys under the bus today at the Board's closed session. After all, it's Duran's daughter's employment at stake here. It was Valentino who appointed Duran's daughter to a high cabinet position even though she at the time was not an APS employee which clearly broke the APS Board's nepotism policy. It is of no surprise then that it is Duran who continues to stand by the incompetent and shady Superintendent. Now that Moya and Rudys have concrete proof that the superintendent has abused his powers/law/policies, much of what you, Ched, have been fighting so courageously for so many years to make public is finally resonating among the many good and honest Albuquerque educators and residents. It is time for the entire truth about APS to be fully revealed once and for all. Today should be a good start to start cleaning house at APS. For our children's sake.