The elephant in the control room at KKOB

An earlier Esquivel;
one who stood up and
demanded an independent
examination and review.

Former APS School Board heavy hitter Marty Esquivel will be on KKOB this morning.

APS needs to float a bond issue in a few months. Because stake and interest holders have no other way to register their outrage with the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS, they will strike down the bond issues (that feed the local construction industry).

If the election were being held next week, the bonds would sink like rocks.

Esquivel needs to polish the board's tarnished image.  He needs to convince taxpayers that it isn't the board's fault that so much trust and treasure have been squandered even while he led the board as its president.

Esquivel is a self described expert in all the law that pertains and surrounds the hiring and firing of superintendents.

Being an expert in open government,
doesn't necessarily mean supporting
open government and transparency.

And after nearly a decade of his experience, expertise and influence on the board and the law, nothing changed.

The next superintendent, if they leave early, will leave with a boot-full of cash.

The elephant in the room with host Bob Clark and Esquivel is the underlying, actually fundamental problem; the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Since it's family radio, let's call it the ethics, standards and accountability "situation" in the leadership of the APS.

I posit;
if independent investigators came into the APS looking for;

ethics, standards and and honest to God accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence,

their findings would be of legitimate interest to stake and interest holders.

If an impartial examination and review of ethics, standards and accountability were going to find;

• sufficient ethics, and

• high enough standards to protect the public interests in the public schools, and 

• due process for complaints over incompetence and or corruption.

those findings it would be of legitimate interest to stake and interest holders; in particular if they intend to ask voters to "trust" with more millions of dollars.

If impartial examination would find;

• inadequate ethics and standards and 

• inadequate accountability to any ethics or standards

it would be of just as legitimate interest to stake and interest holders.

Not only is there an elephant in the control room,
it has dropped a deuce.

It's a small room; the deuce could be steaming on Bob Clark's desk.

An immediate examination and review* of ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS.

*The ethically redacted findings of which will be surrendered to public knowledge at the earliest opportunity.

Esquivel once supported such an investigation (though not that level of transparency).

Does he still?

cc Bob Clark upon posting

Update; Clark did not respond to my email by the end of his show and was unwilling or unable to work in the question.




photos Mark Bralley