APS Bond/Mill Levy Election

“Putting the health and safety of APS students and staff first” 

profess the leadership of the APS in defense of their upcoming bond issue and mill levy.

Just how safe are students and staff. Just how safe are school board members and senior administrators?

The overwhelming majority of students and staff go to work in gun free zones; known colloquially as “soft targets”.


At any hour of the night and day and on any day of the week, there is no “harder” target than the twin towers at 6400 Uptown Blvd link.


There is no square foot in the entire APS covered by more security cameras manned by more people carrying badges and guns. APS has in house, a publicly funded private police force. Not a police department; a police “force”; uncertified, uncertificated, and unaccountable to anyone except school board members and senior administrators.

That to this day, there has not been a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd, should give voters pause. Audits at the time revealed;

• inadequate standards,
• inadequate accountability to such standards as there were, and
• inadequate record keeping.

The trifecta of public corruption and all the lawyers, litigation and legal weaselry that (taxpayer) money can buy.

Nothing has changed.

Unless and until the leadership of the APS can demonstrate that they are

honest to God accountable to meaningful standards
of conduct and competence within their public service, 

vote NO on every bond issue and mill levy until they can and do.

Don't punish the children; there's better way! they say

Those voters who are committed to “punishing” the leadership of the APS over their stewardship failure, even if it means “punishing” nearly 90,000 of this community’s sons and daughters, have come to that conclusion after concluding that there is no other choice.

There is no other way to hold the board and their superintendents accountable for their lack of ethics, high standards and honest to God accountability to any standards at all, except to reject these bond issues and mill levy.

Stewardship = standards and accountability.

If the leadership of the APS could point to honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence; they would. They can’t. Due process does not exist in holding them accountable even to the law.

If they could defend the fundamentals of their stewardship; their ethics, standards and accountability, they would; if for no other reason than to pass the bond issues and mill levies.

A bond issues and mill levy defender who was published in the Journal this morning, opinion, suggested that a more appropriate remedy for anyone dissatisfied with their stewardship, would be to a public forum at a school board meeting, and there effect substantial change.

Anyone who thinks they can go to a public forum at a school board meeting and petition the board for redress of any grievance at all; has not been to, nor have they watched the videotapes of, a school board meeting public forum.

In the absence of a candid, forthright and honest accounting of ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS, voters would be stupid to trust them with another cent.

It is interesting that no one using the “you’re only punishing the children” defense has articulated how exactly, the children will be “punished”.

I doubt that children will move from classrooms into tents on Feb 3rd. The heating will not be shut off. Food will not be taken out of their refrigerators.

I don’t know precisely what the consequences will be; no one does; except the people who know what the will be, and aren’t telling.

I can’t help but think if they are really all that bad, somebody would bring them up.

Is this a one or two year hiccup in a spending spree? Is there money from previous bond issues and mill levies left to spend; or has the last of it been gobbled up by executive and administrative spaces remodeling and refurnishing?

By what tenet of good stewardship do new remodeling and refurnishing at 6400 Uptown Blvd take precedence over classrooms with leaking roofs; if there are in fact, classrooms with leaking roofs, spotty heating and who knows what else wrong with them, and where children are actually paying the price of stewardship failure?

My money is on; yeah, there are.
And that's why we can't trust them with another cent.

If you were to ask the "would be stewards" of another $575,000,000 ...

... to tell you even to the nearest million dollars, how many dollars they have spent fortifying and remodeling the executive and administrative digs at 6400 Uptown Blvd, they would not; in no small part because they can not; they haven't enough records.

"Tax saver" turned "money pit", all a big secret, especially before the bond issue and mill levy election.

They didn't keep adequate records - the words of Meyners & Co. auditors, not mine.  Also, their words not mine; inadequate standards and inadequate accountability to the standards they had.

The spending of hundreds of millions of dollars in the face of the trifecta of public corruption, embezzlement and fraud;

1. inadequate standards and
2. inadequate accountability and
3. inadequate record keeping

Records? We don't keep
no stinkin' records.

Nothing has changed.  When the Journal asked for records regarding the alleged spending of $850,000 remodeling Don Moya's offices, APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez and APS Custodian of Public Records told them he couldn't find any.

The Journal let him get away with it.

Which is why you can't trust the leadership of the APS even to keep simple records, still, and why you can't trust the Journal to tell you that they can't, still.

Even when they want us to give them nearly 600 million dollar to lose track of.




photos Mark Bralley

APS' "School Improvement Election" vote YES but only if ...

A Saturday morning Journal began (and might very well complete) their coverage of the APS School Improvement Election; a $575M bond issue and mill levy election, link.

The Journal, by means of reporter Kim Burgess, would have voters believe that the "APS bond election could provide $575M for projects".

Because all of those 575,000,000 dollars will be spent by administrators who are manifestly unaccountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence and, who will work under inadequate oversight and, who will not  keep sound records, there is a distinct possibility that a great deal of those dollars will be spent on fancy furniture for senior administrators' offices instead of in schools and in the best interests of students.

The proof of their austere or lavish spending is there to see atop a building
you paid for.  Taxpayers are not allowed see for themselves, how their hard
earned dollars have been spent.

In order to see the truth firsthand, stake and interest holders would
  have to fight their way past a publicly funded private police force;
a Praetorian Guard "just following orders" to keep them out.

If the truth about standards, accountability and oversight in the leadership of the APS were flattering, it would be easier to find.

You don't hide that kind of information behind armed guards.
Frankly, if the truth were flattering, or even marginally
unflattering, you would be reading about it in the Journal;
it would be posted on APS' award winning website.

I would imagine that if you went to bank wanting to borrow 575 million dollars, the bank might want to know what you are going to spend it on, but they sure as hell would want to know if you were "good" for the loan.

APS school board member and superintendents never have to prove they're good for bond issues and mill levies; that they have even marginal knowledge and skill to be good stewards of hundreds of millions of dollars.

These same people have spent millions and millions of dollars renovating and fortifying their castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd. and can't or won't produce any records of how they spent them.

There's a turd in their punch bowl and there isn't a clean end to grab; they

• knowingly permitted or

• negligently allowed

the squandering of the public trust and treasure entrusted to their stewardship.

The executive and administrative leadership of the APS a record of incompetence and corruption that they don't want to address.

They will not have to address their record, even in the face of an election over a half a billion dollars, because they have the aid and abet of New Mexico Broadcasters Assoc affiliate stations KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV, and of the Journal.

When and where do the board and administration have to prove that they can be trusted as stewards of 575 million dollars and the power that comes with them?

If the best predictor of future performance is indeed current and past performance, then why are current and past performance on the table for examination? 

Vote yes in the "School Improvement Election" but only if a comprehensive examination and review of standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS is well underway.  




photos Mark Bralley

Journal will let their reporter take the heat

The Journal has been offering manifestly biased coverage of the settlement of our litigation with APS.  Their coverage over the many years has been equally biased and incomplete.  The Journal is complicit in covering up an ethics standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS;

• the abdication of APS senior-most executive and administrative role models of student standards of conduct, and

• their cover up of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS' publicly funded private police force, and

• their cover up of the cover of - and the aid and abet they got from Kent Walz and the Journal, and

• their relentless denial of due process for whistleblowers and their complaints, and

• their outright refusal to surrender a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending under APS COO Brad Winter, on fortifications and renovations at 6400 Uptown Blvd. and

• their relentless refusal to allow an independent administrative audit to expose corruption, incompetence and the practices that enable them, in the leadership of the APS

• their spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement after settlement, in order to insure that there are no admissions of guilt for even those of them who are guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

Marty Esquivel violated my civil rights on videotape,
spent nearly a million dollars on a cost is no object legal defense of his ego, and in the end, admitted no guilt.

The money was spent in meetings in secret, of which no recordings are made, and under no real oversight.

Esquivel cannot show you by means of any incontrovertible evidence, that the board ever agree to allow him to spend so recklessly.

I have made an earnest effort to get someone who casts a bigger shadow around the Journal than their reporter Kim Burgess, to take personal responsibility for the Journal's unethical coverage off Burgess' shoulders and wear it on their own.

So far, no takers.

Kent Walz would have readers believe that Kim Burgess is responsible for the fact that her story did not include the revelation that the APS school board negligently allowed or knowingly permitted Marty Esquivel to squander nearly a million dollars in defense of his ego.

less than two months before an election in which the ability of the school board to provide effective stewardship a quarter of a billion dollars, is a central issue.

In fairness, the Journal did print our side in an op-ed written by my lawyers, link.




photo Kent Walz

APS' $865,000 settlement - who got what?

I signed settlement papers yesterday in my lawyers' offices.  Taxpayers are out $865,000.  (APS' insurer is out $513K but they will get in back in premiums over the next several years; because that's how insurance companies roll.

Taxpayers won one thing worth every penny of the $865K, though it should not have cost them a cent.

1. If anyone of them finally gets pissed off enough speak out about what's going on, they can now stand up in public forum at an APS school board meeting, speak truth to power - individually and by name, without getting arrested and banned from public forum entirely.

The real winners were a politician and handful of public servants who traded tax dollars for admissions of no guilt.

Even former school board enforcer Marty Esquivel.  He who is manifestly the most responsible for the squandering of the public trust, admitted no guilt.

The famous First Amendment expert's record and reputation will not reflect the truth; there is incontrovertible evidence that he violated my civil rights.  His record and reputation will not suffer from the truth; a federal court judge found him found him guilty of violating my civil rights.

He who is entirely responsible for the size of the settlement (not me, not my lawyers, not even his own lawyers (who were just following their client's orders) is not out one thin a dime.

If there is a shred of controverting evidence, it lies in public records of meetings wherein the board knowingly permitted him to squander hundreds of thousands of dollars on a non-viable defense of his ego.  That or, there are no such records and the board negligently allowed him to squander the public trust and treasure in their name.

Armenta, gathering "evidence" against me.
Wasn't able to. Nor were any of the staffers
she assigned to photograph me doing something
wrong.  Not one photo, ever. 

In exchange for the $865K, APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta admits no guilt despite incontrovertible evidence of her libel, and compelling evidence of her personal participation in the violation of a number of my Constitutionally protected human rights.

Tellez whispers in boss Brad Winter's ear.

In exchange for the $865K, now disgraced former APS Police Chief Steve Tellez didn't admit his part in defaming me to the point he was able to convince the board they needed to install a quarter of million dollars worth of Kevlar between them and me.

Tellez admitted no guilt with respect to his part in felony public corruption in the leadership of the APS police "dept."; a publicly funded private police force.  Nor did he have to admit guilt for his part in the ongoing cover up of the felony criminal misconduct; including the hiding of public records detailing his involvement in both the scandal and cover up.

Secretary of State Brad Winter remains unscathed by the record setting settlement.  His part in the cover up of state and federal felony criminal misconduct remains secret.

As the direct result of Winter's incompetence and corruption, spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd remains secret from stake and interest holders; millions of dollars wasted, stolen or lost.

His ongoing efforts to hide the truth about spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd. will go unpunished.  Winter's incompetence and or corruption and will not be covered by the Journal (Editor in Chief Kent Walz, chief among them) or any other of APS' media cronies.

The twins; a taxpayer money pit and Winter's big secret.

In exchange for the $865K, Winter's admits no guilt even  for his perjury in a sworn statement contradicted by an audio recording.

In exchange for the $865K, disgraced former APS Supt. Winston Brooks admits no guilt for his direct involvement in the repeated violations of my civil rights.

left; Brooks is caught here by photojournalist Mark Bralley in the midst of ordering his Praetorian Guard to remove protesters for standing quietly, unobtrusively, holding up posters in the back of a meeting held for the purpose of gathering public input.

Tellez giving us the "APS thumb" - You're outta here!

photos Mark Bralley

Tour the twins!

The leadership of the APS is concerned that recent Journal coverage, link, of the spending of $850,000.00 on fancy furniture and other accouterments for top floor offices.  It is unclear from the Journal report, whether Don Moya spend the $850K on his own suite or on the whole floor of suites.

It really doesn't make that much difference; if there were ten offices renovated at $85,000.00 a piece, would it be any less unacceptable?  "Unacceptable" or "outrageously unacceptable" is a distinction without much difference in so far as neither is tolerable.

Taxpayer relief or a money pit?  Any answer but the truth
means; money pit.

APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez, according to the Journal, said he couldn’t locate documents on cost.

Seriously?!

That is exactly the kind of record keeping is characteristic of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

A recent audit of APS spending in the twins, found the trifecta of embezzlement and fraud;

1. inadequate standards, and
2. inadequate accountability and
3. inadequate record keeping.

The tour will be hosted by the $110K a year, APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta.

She will guide members of the press and public on a tour of the twins in order that they can report on how frugal they have been with the money entrusted to their stewardship over the last bond issue.

On the same day;

• pigs will fly,
• fish will speak,
• rocks won't sink,
• snakes will smoke,
• frogs will grow hair,
• hell will freeze over,
• chickens will grow teeth,
• fish will climb poplar trees,
• grapes will grow on willows,
• white crows will fly upside down,
• crayfish will whistle on the mountain, and
• monkeys will fly out of my ass.

Adynatons; wikilink





photos Mark Bralley

NM Secretary of State Brad Winter - seriously?

NM Governor Susana Martinez could have appointed any one of a number of highly qualified and honest people.  She choose instead, former APS good ol' boy and city councilor Brad Winter.

For as long as he was APS' COO, Winter hid the truth from stake and interest holders about at the very, very least, two significant issues.



Brad Winter was behind the wheel when the leadership of the APS decided to hide the truth about their squandering of public resources when they fortified and renovated their castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

When the buildings were purchased by taxpayers, the purchase came with a promise;

one of the towers would be rented out to pay for the other. 

The purchase, they promised, was going to save taxpayers' money.

Did Winter spend more than $800 a piece for board member chairs, link?

Instead, there was a stampede, link, that filled both buildings to the gunwales.

The leadership of the APS went wildly over budget making both towers "livable" for senior administrators and school board members.

This during a time when Meyners & Co. auditors found in their finance department, the trifecta of embezzlement, theft and fraud;

1. inadequate standards and
2. inadequate accountability to any standards there were, and
3. inadequate record keeping.

Winter kept the spending under wraps, link.  Deliberately.

If anyone just can't accept that fact, all they have to do to disprove it is to produce a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the squandering of the public trust and treasure in the money pit at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

They can ask Brad Winter for a copy; see what he says.

The other cover up led by Winter, was of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators and the leadership of the APS Police; a public funded private police force; a Praetorian guard if ever their was.  The Journal reported on the scandal in 2007, link.

The leadership of the APS and the APS Police, self-investigated the public corruption and incompetence of their leadership.

They hired lawyers to investigate and keep the truth secret.

They never turned over  to the District Attorney for prosecution;

• evidence of administrative felony criminal abuse of the FCIC database to harass whistle blowers, or

• evidence of administrative felony misappropriation of money in evidence.

The leadership of the APS covered up the scandal by promoting the deputy chief to chief.  This though the deputy chief was fully aware of the corruption and incompetence and never did anything about it.

photo by macquigg

The investigation was conducted by a sergeant who turned over his findings to the corrupt chief, did not keep a copy of his own, did not file a copy anywhere where it still exists, and who is now the Chief of APS Police Steve Gallegos.

He makes nearly $110K double dipping, and keeps his mouth shut about his investigation of the felony criminal misconduct of his chief and deputy chief.

Brad Winter covered it up.  He was there when a decision was made to spend operational dollars, not in classrooms as they were intended by the folks whose dollars they used to be, but spent instead on lawyers and legal weaselry in a, so far, successful effort to hide the truth from stake and interest holders.

He got away with it because the Journal steadfastly refused to investigate and report upon it.

Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz relentlessly refuses investigate and report upon the ethics, standards and accountability crises in the leadership of the APS.

He and his like at the NMBA affiliate stations KRQE, KOAT, and KOB have given aid and abet to the cover ups for as long as I have been trying to get them to expose them.

Walz and the owner/news directors have an obligation as the press (not as the media, as the press) to inform the democracy.  In particular, they have an obligation to inform the democracy in anticipation of elections; elections like the upcoming APS Bond Issue election.

They have chosen another path.

They need to be held accountable.

Who will hold them accountable?
When?
Where? and
How?




photos Mark Bralley

APS Interm Supt. Reedy; APS; education "at its best".

By way of disclosure:

APS Interim Rachel Reedy's name appeared in evidence in litigation of my complaints in federal court.

She is alleged to be among a group of APS senior administrators who live(d) in fear of me.

With the notable exception of APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta, I am not aware that any of these people have lodged any complaint against me. 

The sole exception, APS Education Foundation Executive Director Phill Casaus who joined Armenta in slandering and libeling me.  Casaus and my history goes back to when Casaus was the editor of the Tribune and I was ripping him for his part in the cover up of the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS; the corruption in the leadership of APS' publicly funded private police force, and out of control spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.  Coincidentally, Casaus is now fixed for life with a cushy job at APS.

There are among the rest Asst Supt. for Elementary Education Diane Kerschen, now Interim Supt. Reedy, former Asst Supt Eddie Soto, and Legislative Liaison/Policy Analyst Carrie Robin Brunder, none of whom act like they are in the least afraid.  Their alleged fear is so far, only hearsay.

APS' inability to produce a shred of evidence to prove a single thing Marty Esquivel and his lawyers have alleged, is why the $750K defense of his ego, is in such trouble in federal court.

 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

aps image

When I read APS Interim Supt. Rachel Reedy's first communique to stake and interest holders, link, I was struck by it's lack of candor, forthrightness and honesty.

I use the words candor, forthrightness and honesty deliberately.

They come from APS' "student standards of conduct".  APS "student standards of conduct" is in lower case because there really is no document anywhere that is entitled; APS Student Standards of Conduct.

The closest thing thereto; the APS Student Behavior Handbook.  There in; students are reminded that they are expected to "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!", link.  The Pillars represent a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

Whether she will embrace or even admit it,  Reedy is the senior-most administrative role model of honest accountability to the same standards of conduct that the board establishes and she enforces upon students.

Among the tenets; trustworthiness and honesty.  Students are told that when they choose to create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or misleading, they do so at the forfeiture of their good character.

Reedy wrote;

Walk through the halls of any school in APS, peek in a classroom, eavesdrop on some conversations and you’ll notice it, too: education at its best.

Simple observation proves that in general, the claim is self-evidently false.

Which is not to say that there are not islands, in even the worst schools, on which education at its best is taking place.

What I am saying is that if someone moved here to put their kids in APS based on Reedy's assurance that their sons and daughters would be receiving education at its best, would be sadly disappointed by the truth; a 40% chance their child would leave high school with no diploma or, no diploma worth having.

I wondered how anybody would think that they could get away with such egregious bending of the truth.

Then it occurred to me;

APS education is at its best, it is as good as it's going to get!

"Legally" she's covered; good as gold!




polytych Mark Bralley

"What is happening to the Albuquerque Public Schools?"

So reads the headline, link, on the invitation by the Albuquerque Press Women to attend their September luncheon.

Their speaker for Monday was to have been former APS Supt. Luis Valentino.  He of course, will not be speaking.

In his stead, longtime APS senior administrator Brad Winter and former School Board President Marty Esquivel will discuss will discuss "the things that public boards must think about when they prepare to undo a poor personnel decision."

There is normally an opportunity to ask questions, though the APW has in the past, suppressed legitimate questions at a similar event, link.

When APS' Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta was a featured speaker, she told the APW that she would leave if I were allowed to ask her any questions at all.

The APW accommodated her demand, refusing to call on me.

Brad Winter does not want to answer any questions about his part the cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators and the leadership of their publicly funded private police force, link.

Nor does he want to answer any questions about spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd. while he was the district's chief operations officer, link.

Marty Esquivel does not want to answer questions about the spending of nearly $750K in federal court in a non-viable defense of his ego, link.

The Press Women won't ask any questions on those topics, nor do I expect, will they allow me.  This though the answers have clearly to do with "what's happening in the APS?"




photos Mark Bralley

APS CFO was making waves; he had to go

The New Mexico Political Report comes with this.

APS Chief Financial Officer Don Moya was rocking the boat when he was pushed over board.  He was openly critical of a procurement process he thought looked suspect.

I won't tell their story; link, but my take from the emails published on the Political Report; it appears as though Moya was doing exactly what he should have been doing, when APS Supt. Luis Valentino decided it was time to fire him, and went looking for allies in that endeavor, in the person of the NM Secretary of Public Education.

APS' history of accountability around the spending of millions and millions of dollars on technology borders criminal. An independent auditor, Meyners & Co, found senior APS administrators were spending $50K at a whack "without involving purchasing".

The  auditors found the trifecta of public corruption, embezzlement and fraud in the spending on technology and renovations.  They found;

1. inadequate standards, and
2. inadequate accountability to such standards as they had, and
3. inadequate record keeping.

Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars were squandered and APS cannot produce a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

The Journal has dug as deep as they intend; they have and will publish Monica Armenta's press releases.
Update; the Journal comes with more coverage and my added questions. link.

It appears the NM Political Report is taking a different tack.  Kudos to them and to reporter Joey Peters.  Welcome to the fray.




photo Mark Bralley
Bralley's investigation and report. link 

APS to spend $2M on cameras for schools

Albuquerque schools will be getting about $2 million to be used toward new camera and alarm systems, link.

It's a good idea; money well spent.
They should have done it long ago.

 Recently fired Chief Steve Tellez
reported directly to Brad Winter.

School security wasn't improved long ago, because when APS COO Brad Winter had a half a million dollars to spend on cameras and security, he decided to spend them to create the most heavily surveilled and secure space in the entire district; their castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

More officers "guard" the administration than guard any school.  As many as three of them at a time, guard board members and senior administrators during public meetings and fora.

The APS police force answers to the leadership of the APS; the police force is publicly funded private police force accountable to no one but the administration and school board; they is uncertified,  unaccredited, unaccountable to anyone except the supt and board.  The MOU under the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office is ignored as a matter of routine.

So many dollars were spent on "security" here;
they won't tell you how many.

Winter, and they, spent a quarter of a million dollars bullet proofing the dais behind which board cringe during public fora, just in case "somebody" starts shooting at them in support of his belief that they should be better role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students, link.

Brad Winter was asked, over and over and over, for a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending during a time when auditors had uncovered the trifecta of public corruption, embezzlement and fraud;

1. inadequate standards, and
2. inadequate accountability and 
3. inadequate record keeping

He stonewalled and now he has gotten away with it.

Taxpayers will never know,
at least from Brad Winter,
how badly their trust and
treasure were squandered.

Journal readers and watchers
of TV "news" will remain equally ignorant.

Shame on Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz and his ilk among the affiliates of Paula Maes' NM Broadcasters Association;establishment's media, for their ongoing aide and abet in the cover up of the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.




photos Mark Bralley

APS top "Good ol' boy" Winter hands over reins; end of an era?

APS reports, link, that APS interim Supt. Brad Winter will retire this week, handing over the reins to the incoming Supt. Luis Valentino.

The reins run to bits in the mouths of members of APS' good ol' boys club.

One of the identifying characteristics of good ol' boys clubs is cronyism; partiality, especially in appointment to positions of authority, regardless of  qualifications.

Recently, the Council of the Great City Schools audited the administration of the APS.  They found rampant cronyism.  They found;

Administrative evaluations were subjective and unrelated to promotion or step placement.

There is no evidence that anything has changed since the audit.

According to the Wikipedia;

Cronyism is contrary in practice and principle to meritocracy.  Often, the appointor is inadequate to hold his or her own job or position of authority, and for this reason the appointor appoints individuals who will not try to weaken him or her, or express views contrary to those of the appointor.

And there you have the leadership of the APS in a nutshell.  Just ask anybody who isn't a member of the club.

If ever there was a good ol' boy, Brad Winter was and still is.

Consider that Winter hiding still;

• the truth about spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd, and
• the truth about APS' cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior Administrators and the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars they have spent on litigation and legal weaselry in order to keep secret public records including findings of investigations into the allegations, and
• the truth about student discipline and the effects of chronically disruptive students, and
• the truth about the wholesale abdication of the entire "leadership" of the APS as role models of student standards of conduct, and
• the standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

If ever there was a good ol' boys' club,
the leadership of the APS has been and still is.
The question is, will it continue to be?

Is this the end of an era cronyism in the leadership of the APS? It seems unlikely; nothing has changed.  The administration is still composed of people who were promoted to positions of power and influence based on the unlikelihood that they will make waves.

photo cmacq

Take for example, the chief of APS' publicly funded private police force.

Steve Gallegos was promoted to chief, not because he is any great shakes as an administrator (the APS police voted no confidence in Gallegos) and, not because he is any great shakes as a cop, link.

Gallegos is the chief of police because he investigated the corruption in the police department, and his findings (naming the names of senior APS administrators who were involved in state and federal felony criminal misconduct) have disappeared; missing without a trace.

There is no reason to believe Kent Walz and the Journal intend to tell the truth ever about the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

There isn't one single person in the entire leadership of the APS who is willing to talk openly and honestly about standards and accountability; not their standards; not even student standards.


APS culture of corruption and incompetence will not without candor, forthrightness and honesty from the leadership of the APS.

Since there is no indication of incipient truth telling, the wise money will continue to be bet on continuing the cover up instead.




photos Mark Bralley

PowerPoint presentation on discipline in the APS; in the works?

60 seconds isn't very long when you are trying to explain why the leadership of the APS must be candid, forthright and honest in describing to incoming supt. Dr. Luis Valentino, "the truth" about the many issues awaiting his attention.

The school board counts on the fact that 60 seconds are not nearly enough to build a case contrary to something they do or don't want to do.  They don't want to tell the truth about student discipline in the APS.

I challenged the board and interim Supt Brad Winter to own the creation of a PowerPoint presentation on discipline in Albuquerque Public Schools.  Such a presentation would provide for Dr. Valentino, everything he needs to know.  A PowerPoint presentation would show stake and interest holders everything they need to know.

Why do we never talk about discipline?

Why is there nothing ever in the newspaper about the way children behave at school?  Sure, if some kid or handful of kids are misbehaving in ways that will sell newspapers, the Journal will step in.  Look at the papers they sold with students ''misbehaving'' around PARCC testing.

But where is the Journal's comprehensive coverage of the fundamental issue; students are out of control.  Students no longer respond (adequately) to the authority of adults. When someone tells them to stop doing something (disruptive); their response increasingly more often, is no.

What is the state of student discipline in public school classrooms and hallways?  I haven't worked in a school in over a decade.  I am presuming that since I retired, discipline has continued its decline.

I base the presumption in no small part, on the fact that there is no data to indicate otherwise.   If the fact was that things are getting better, we would be hearing about it from APS' million dollar a year public relations department.

So what is the truth?

• What is the current state of affairs?  What part of the average teachers day is consumed by chronically disruptive students?  What do teachers have to say about the way kids behave and the help they get, or not, from the administration?
• Are things getting better or worse?
• What have we tried before, and why didn't it work?
• What are we doing now, and why isn't it working?
• What are we going to try next?

Brad Winter was asked for a
candid, forthright and honest
accounting of spending over-
budget at 6400 Uptown Blvd.
He is yet to produce it

More importantly, are Brad Winter and board willing to answer those questions candidly, forthrightly and honestly?

Brad Winter was asked to tell the truth about the involvement of APS senior administrators in felony criminal misconduct that was never reported to law enforcement*.  He is yet to produce it.

*This points coincidentally to the issue of giving administrators the authority to decide what is and isn't criminal misconduct in their schools. 

If you give them an inch, they will take a mile.  The leadership of the APS took it upon themselves to decide that state and federal felony criminal misconduct wasn't ''bad enough'' that it needed to be reported.

Winter and the board are paying lawyers to this day, to hide public records that name the names of APS senior administrators who committed or covered up felony criminal misconduct.

Winter and the board are paying lawyers to this day, to cover up their cover up of felony criminal misconduct.

Winter and the board represent the senior-most role models of student standards of conduct, and there is not one of them who will accept actual, honest to God accountability even to the law.  They spend operational dollars without limit and without oversight, on non-viable litigation and legal weaselry in order to gain settlements where in they can write; and we admit no guilt.

Why in the world would anyone expect Winter or the board to put together a PowerPoint telling the truth about the most hushed up issue in APS?

Which brings us to ''the press''; the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV.  Everyone one of them knows about all of these issues.  The have known for years about corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz relentlessly refuses to investigate and report upon an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Why not?

To be fair, the allegation; there is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS is unproven.  It is difficult to substantiate in the face of the power and resources they bring to bear in covering it up.

The records they're hiding; the findings of investigations into the criminal misconduct going on in the leadership of their publicly funded private police force, would substantiate the allegation beyond doubt.

That is precisely why APS is litigating to this day to skirt the NM Inspection of Public Records Act and keep hidden, the records of their corruption and incompetence.

Why won't Walz investigate?

Would it be too expensive, too cumbersome, too time consuming?  Hardly.  All he has to do is ask APS to produce copies of every set of standards to which the leadership of the APS claim to be accountable, and of, the due process by which they can be held accountable to those standards.  A handful of documents at most.

The lack of (high enough) standards and (certain enough) accountability will be self evident.

The problem is the problems truth telling will create.  There in only one reason to hide the truth and that is to escape the consequences of the truth being known.

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez and APS
COO Brad Winter shared oversight over
corruption in the leadership of APS'
publicly funded private police force.

Brad Winter, and a handful of others will be held accountable for their parts in a cover up of felony criminal misconduct.

We can't have that.

Let's say, for the sake of discussion, the allegation is nonsense; I'm just another disgruntled former employee and in Walz' expressed opinion, a gadfly and bomb thrower.

Let's say APS does have standards of conduct and competence that are high enough to protect the public interests in the public schools.  Let's say they are actually, honestly accountable to those standards by a due process powerful enough to hold them accountable, even against their will.

Why wouldn't Walz report that?

Why wouldn't Walz inform and reassure the democracy that all is well with standards and accountability in the leadership of the largest school districts in the country?

Is it because he doesn't want to attach his name and reputation to a lie?

Is it because he is actually part of a conspiracy to cover people's asses, because that's the way good ol' boys and the privileged roll?

The real problem is that there can be no "grandfathering in".
The possibility of future corruption and incompetence cannot be eliminated without first exposing the ongoing one.  You can't eliminate corruption and incompetence without exposing the corrupt and the incompetent.

Names will be named.  Heads will roll.
People will embarrassed, shamed, fired, possibly prosecuted.

Kent Walz and the news directors at the NMBA affiliate stations can't report credibly on the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS without first reporting credibly on their failure to report on the scandal heretofore.

There will be no grandfathering in.




photos Mark Bralley

If you've an interest in character education in the Albuquerque Public Schools

there are three documents that you should read.

The first is called the Aspen Declaration, link.
It was written in July, 1992.

United States Senator Pete
Domenici helped write it.

He helped sell it to congress
who appropriated a bunch
of money to sell it to students
in the Albuquerque Public Schools.

It came in the form of a specific model for teaching about character called Character Counts!. The model was later adopted by the APS board of education by unanimous resolution.  The second document to read; the resolution  they passed, link, which reads in significant part;

3. That the Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to creating models of ethical behavior among all adults who serve students and schools;

4. That the core curriculum should continue to give explicit attention to character development as an ongoing part of school instruction;

That year and every year since, the board has told students via their Student Behavior Handbook; the third document you should read, link, page 3 at least, whereon it is written; students;

are expected to "model and promote (honest accountability to) the Pillars of Character Counts! ... link.

This is not about "Character Counts!" specifically.  It happens to be in this case because The Pillars of Character Counts! are the current standards of conduct for students and have been since 1994.

It is about the abject failure of the leadership of the APS to make good on a solemn promise to provide opportunities for the nearly 90,000 of our sons and daughters who attend the APS to develop their good character in an environment that is deliberately supportive of their efforts.  It is about reneging on their promise to be good role models of honest accountability to higher standards of conduct.

aps image

In one month, Dr Luis Valentino will take charge of the APS.  He will become the senior-most administrative role model of student standards of conduct.

Or will he?

APS Brad Winter, interim
Supt and former COO.  He
still won't tell the truth about
spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

Interim Supt Brad Winter would not (will not) step up to honest accountability to the same standards of conduct he expects students to embrace.

• Former Supt Winston Brooks would not.
• Former Supt Beth Everitt would not.
• Former Supt Joey Vigil would not.
• Former Supt Peter Horoschak would not.
• No school board member ever has, will now, nor likely, will ever.

APS' efforts to get students to embrace character and courage and honor have fallen short because of an ignoble want of honest to God role models.  Not one APS "leader" has ever been honestly accountable as a role model of anything.

The APS School Board Code of Ethics, link, is
by their own free admission, utterly unenforceable.

It's one thing to say you are accountable to a set of standards; it is a whole other, to prove it.  Yet, if it is true, if one is truly accountable, it is easy to prove.  All you have to do is point to the standards and then point to the due process by which you are accountable.

The leadership of the APS can point to neither really; not high standards and not honest to God, real accountability to those standards even against their will.

They enjoy the aide and abet of the ilk of Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz and the news directors at the NMBA affiliate stations in Albuquerque.

If Walz and the rest were about informing the democracy they would investigate and report upon the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

If only to inform the democracy that there is no scandal; there is no cover up.  Incoming Supt Valentino will take charge of an oligarchy whose members are honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct within their public service.

Ayn Rand argued;

To fear to face an issue 
is to believe the worst is true.

Walz and the establishment's "press" will not face the issue because the worst is true; the leadership of the APS spends hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in order to not be accountable even to the law.  Witness the three quarters of a million dollars they've spent in a non-viable defense of their unconstitutional restrictions on public forums and Marty Esquivel's ego.

Walz and the rest are not complacent.
They aren't unknowingly ignorant of the scandal.
They are complicit in its cover up.

Walz and they are complicit in the cover up of an ethics, standards and accountability crises in the leadership of the APS.




photos Mark Bralley

APS School Board Member chairs really did cost taxpayers a bundle

In 2007, the "leadership" of the APS was about building for themselves, a fancy new board room in the bowels of their castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

Though there were real needs elsewhere for the capital funds they spent at 6400 Uptown, they built an utterly unjustifiable board room and went over budget.

I was informed that they paid more than $800 dollars a piece for the leather chairs behind the dais.  I have been trying ever since, to find out if the report was true.

I even asked APS Supt Winston Brooks during a press conference, if the report was true.

He became very upset at the question but promised me the truth "by noon".

I'm still waiting.

When APS hosted the candidate forum in the John Milne Community Board Room, I found myself randomly and ironically, sitting in Marty Esquivel's seat. I was able to obtain a model number from the bottom of a chair.

I contacted the manufacturer/dealer to inquire about the cost of the chair and was told;

The 5252 part number belongs to the Leader Upholstered chair. Unfortunately this chair has been discontinued but I can recommend the Leader Knit chair or the ReAlign chair as a replacement.

Those two fabric chairs before taxes run $950 to $1,212 for the Leader Knit, and $657 for the ReAlign, link.

APS Interim Supt Brad Winter will not tell us how much he paid for the chairs board members sit in twice a month for two hours.  At this point, $800 looks low.  Winter may have personally authorized a thousand dollars a piece for those chairs when at the same time, students at Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary School were attending classes in worn out portables with leaking roofs.

Winter steadfastly refuses to produce a candid, forthright an honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown.

Millions of dollars were spent sprucing up the twins.  They were spent at a time when auditors found in the APS Financial Department;

1. inadequate standards
2. inadequate accountability to such standards as there were, and
3. inadequate record keeping

the trifecta of public corruption, embezzlement and fraud.

The Journal steadfastly refuses to investigate and report upon credible allegations and evidence of an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Even in the face of a school board election and the hiring of Winter's replacement.

To their everlasting shame.




photos Mark Bralley

Journal coverage of APS School Board election begins - finally

This morning, Journal Staff Writer Jon Swedien began Journal coverage on the election, link.

The Journal reporter handed in the report late without notice or apology;

Early voting already has begun in the election ...

 He wrote about the stakes on the table;

 ... voters will decide who ultimately hires ... the superintendent and (will set) policy for the district, which has about 90,000 students, some 14,000 employees and a $690 million operating budget. emphasis added

And then, apropos of nothing in particular, (Kent Walz et al dba staff write Swedien) gave Interim Supt Brad Winter's public image a little boost;

Acting Superintendent Brad Winter has taken steps to improve that relationship (with the NM PED)...

Good for Brad! Go Brad!

The editors; Kent Walz et al, relentlessly choose to not point out that;

• Brad Winter has negligently allowed or knowingly permitted public resources to be used to cover up a cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators*.  
And or that
• Brad Winter has not taken steps to produce a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd*.

*All anyone has to do to refute either or both of these allegations to produce the truth;

• The ethically redacted findings of investigations of allegations of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, and or 
• a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

If they won't tell you the ethically redacted truth about what they did yesterday;
if they won't tell you the truth what they are doing today;
why in the world would you believe they will tell you the truth any thing the do in the future?

Whatever else this Journal coverage is;
it is not candid, forthright and honest.
It does not sustain the democracy.
It thwarts it.
It is a betrayal of trust.

It is at the very least, journalistic malpractice.

Journal editors easily impressed

In the Journal this morning, link, the editors are wowed by Brad Winter's Academic Master Plan.

I get that as Journalists it is important for them to rhyme
master plan and masterstroke.

Nevertheless, masterstroke is an enormously powerful word.
It means;

an action which demonstrated great skill
an outstandingly skillful and opportune act
a very clever move.

The reform proposed by Winter and the lame-duck board, and which so wows the Journal amounts to;

• plan ahead and

• continuously evaluate performance

Don't get me wrong.  I cannot imagine a more important reform in the leadership of the APS than for them to finally begin to;

• plan ahead and

• continuously evaluate performance

That they have come up with
their masterstroke of a plan
well into the second century
of their endeavor, is more than
a little unsettling.

I submit the Journal editorial
as evidence of the Journal's
aide and abet in support of
the status quo in the leadership
of the APS and of their willingness to do anything to manipulate the discourse.

They write;

There’s nothing like having a fresh set of eyes focus on a challenge.

Seriously?  Brad Winter; fresh eyes?! A member of the inner most circle knew nothing about the profound lack of planning and accountability in the effort to achieve the district's primary mission?

Right, and a pint of Häagen-Dazs serves four.

For years Winter oversaw APS’ capital program.

If Winter is proud of his spending in their castle keep, why won't he show us
his record?  Did he really spent $800 dollars a piece on chairs for board members?
Why won't he produce a candid, forthright, and honest accounting of the money
he spent there?  Is it to avoid the accolades or to escape the consequences?

For as many years as Winter over saw APS' capital program, he has been refusing to be honest with stake and interest holders about the resources he committed to sprucing up their apartments in the sky at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

If Kent Walz and the Journal really believe Brad Winter has been an outstanding steward of our trust and treasure, why don't they insist upon publishing his record on his behalf?

When it was still reporting on corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS, the Journal actually reported, link, Winter was $500K over budget in his renovation of their utterly unjustifiable million dollar board room.

The corruption ridden leadership
of APS' publicly funded private
police force was a direct report
to Winter.  Winter enabled it.

For years

... he worked for policies designed to bring accountability and transparency to that endeavor

For years, Winter has been part and parcel of a cover up of corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS Police force.

For years, Winter has refused to produce ethically redacted records of investigations of allegations of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.

Winter says that the plan and program evaluations should justify the money spent on programs, and those that don’t produce results should be scrapped.

Wow! Winter really is a genius!

While Winter plans to leave APS after the district hires a new permanent superintendent, his academic plan promises to give his successor a better place to start.

"His successor" will not participate meaningfully in the decision making of the policy s/he will administer.  Nor will new school board members.  Nor will community members or any other stake or interest holder.

"These aren't the droids
you're looking for." unk

Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz would have us just move along.

Don't trust the Journal.

Don't trust anyone who does not stand on the record in support of your meaningful participation in decision making that affects your interests.  Don't trust them or their good intention to come up with a plan as soon as they are elected.

Don't trust anyone who will not point to the time the day and the place where they will stand and answer legitimate questions about the public interests and about their public service and then
respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly.

When the question is;

do you intend to tell the truth
(about the wielding of public power and
the spending of public resources)
the whole truth and nothing but
the ethically redacted truth?

any answer except yes,
means no.




photos Mark Bralley