Steven Michael Quezada speaks out on settlement

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Actor, comedian and school board member Steven Michael Quezada stepped up tonight for an interview with KRQE, link, regarding the very expensive settlement of my complaints against Marty Esquivel and the board.

He became the first one of them, as far as I can remember, to accuse me of suing them for the money;

“I don’t think that we should settle with people who come to disrupt meetings and use that kind of format to make a living or make money.”

In the first place, I never came to a meeting to disrupt it.  Ever.  If a meeting was disrupted, it was not by me, it was by some board member's reaction to whatever lawful and ethical act I was engaging in.

As far as being in it for the money; if I total just the hours I've spent blogging about their steadfast refusal to hold themselves honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, and divide $95,000 dollars by that number, the "format" paid considerably less than minimum wage.  Never mind the hours I spent preparing for and participating in, public forums at APS school board meetings.

As far as "making money"; if someone had offered to pay me $95,000 to spend a third of my life fighting against some of the most powerful people in Albuquerque in a fruitless effort to hold them accountable for their public service, I would have declined.  It was, and is, a fool's mission.

Quezada thinks I am "disrespectful".

Whether I am or not is moot; disrespectful isn't illegal.
His feeling "disrespected" doesn't justify (in any Constitutional sense) banning me from school board meetings for the rest of my life.

Quezada admitted to KRQE;

“We’re wasting our funds fighting this."

Damn right they are.  Quezada and five other board members knowingly permitted or negligently allowed Marty Esquivel to squander $833,000.00 on a non-viable defense of his ego.


Quezada is disturbed when I walk up to the podium at a public forum and tell anyone who is listening that;

• he and the board are spending operational dollars covering up felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of their publicly funded, private police force. and that

• he and the board  are covering up an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS. and that

• he and the board are shirking their responsibilities as role models of student standards of conduct.

He probably didn't like it when I wrote about the number of school board meetings he misses, link.

And what he really, really doesn't like, is when I stand up at the podium and ask;

Is there even a single one of you who can summon the character and the courage to hold yourself honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct that you establish and enforce upon students?

They don't like it because it makes them feel ashamed. 
They can't summon the character and the courage
to hold themselves actually, honestly accountable
to student standards of conduct,
even for the few hours they are serving as the senior-
most executive role models of student standards of conduct;
ethical standards of conduct.

If we really want APS students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what they look like.  That obligation falls first on leadership; the board and their superintendent.

Not one of them has answered the question, yes.

Ever.

And, they find the questioning "disruptive".

When the question is;

are you willing to step up as a role model? 

any answer except yes, means no.

When asked to step up as a role model,
Steven Michael Quezada's response means no.

Steven Michael Quezada is a coward.

I could not give one shit less what he thinks are my motives.