Forensic Audits of Public Service

Why isn't any agency of government subject to external auditing?

Why isn't every?

If one wanted to enable corruption;
who would they hire as their auditor;

• an outsider who gets paid to root out their corruption;
  
• or a local good ol' boy who is grateful for their cushy job?

The Meyners Audit revealed that the leadership of the APS
has never had financially sound policies and procedures.

They didn't use the word "never";
but it is self evident.

If there ever were such policies and procedures,
where are they now?

And who was it that went through the APS and tore those pages out of the written policies and procedures?

All the while,
their "internal" auditors never blew the whistle.

In fact, he and she, have been promoted.
They are now completely in charge of APS' cash drawer.

All of which begs a question;
why not have a forensic audit of every agency every year?

And more specifically;
Why not audit the entire leadership of the APS right now?

Accountability is fatal to corruption and incompetence.

Why not audit out the incompetent and the corrupt,
every year?

Because they don't want an audit.

In fact, Paula Maes and her Modrall say they will not allow
a forensic audit of the leadership of the APS.

and

Thomas J Lang, Kent Walz, Michelle Donaldson,
Mary Lynn Roper, and Rhonda Aubrey all say;

"Sounds good to us Paula."

Voters can choose to disregard Darren's demonstrable dishonesty

But why?


Refusing to tell the truth is; demonstrable dishonesty

prima facie;

• plain or clear, self-evident;
  
• obvious before investigation
• obvious absent other information or evidence

Honesty requires candid, forthright and honest responses to legitimate questions.

Stonewalling is dishonest.

It is dishonest in a county sheriff and
it is dishonest in a congressional candidate.

Anybody but

Darren White for Congress.

Taxpayers have already paid Winston Brooks thousands of dollars.

He gets one thousand dollars a day to visit the APS.

On his last (unannounced) visit,
he hired two more senior administrators who will
cost taxpayers another $250K a year.

For a thousand a day, we deserve more from Winston Brooks.

One of the most fundamental rights of democracy is the right to know of the character and the competence of our public servants. We have a right to know of the character and competence of their public service as well.

We deserve to know of Winston Brooks' character.

1. To what standard of conduct will he be held accountable?
2. By what system will stakeholders hold him accountable to that standard?

"No comment" is an unacceptable response to a legitimate
question about public service.

Had I input;

I would offer as his standard of conduct;

the student standard of conduct.

And then I would demand the principled resolution of
complaints; under a system over which Winston Brooks
would have no undue influence, and powerful enough
to hold him accountable even against his will.

Winston Brooks would be honestly accountable as the
senior most administrative role model of
the Student Standard of Conduct.

Character would count.


... had I input.

Redaction

We have a statutory right to know the truth about public servants and their public service.

We have a statutory right to inspect and/or copy the records of their conduct and competence as public servants and within their public service.

Some parts of those records need to be redacted.
For good and ethical reasons.

There are many degrees of redaction.

According to the standard set for students in the APS;
one's character depends on redacting less than the law allows, and none that the law does not require.

Darren White's redaction of the truth about the felony criminal abuse of his office, is complete.
He has blacked out every word but two; no comment.

Were Darren White a role model of the standard of conduct of 100,000 student constituents, he would do more than the law requires, and all that the law allows.

Darren White is a crappy role model of a standard of conduct
that requires a candid, forthright and honest response
to questions about APS' Peanut Butter Gate scandal and his
personal involvement.

When you ask your congressman to tell you the truth;
would you rather the "legally" redacted truth, or
an ethically redacted truth?

Darren White offers no more than the legally redacted truth;
redaction of as much truth as he can get away with without
actually breaking the law.

Darren White could choose to hold him self accountable to
a higher standard of conduct. He chooses to hold him self
accountable only to the law.

And the law is the lowest possible standard of conduct.

Darren White will not be honest.

He is not the kind of man that you want to elect
to congress.

Darren White; no balls, no brains.

NM 1st Congressional District candidate Darren White
lacks the personal and political courage to offer a candid,
forthright, and honest account of his personal involvement
in the criminal misuse of his NCIC data base by senior
Albuquerque Public Schools administrators.

NM 1st Congressional District candidate Darren White
lacks the personal and political wisdom to know that
he can't get away with it forever.

Even if he does have Thomas J Lang and the Albuquerque Journal aiding and abetting the cover up.

NM 1 Congressional candidate; Darren White, linked to felony cover up.

Politicians agree that if you have a problem,
you should get it on the record asap.

Otherwise, not only do you have to explain the misconduct,
you have to explain the cover up as well.

Covering up misconduct is always worse than the misconduct itself, which can often be explained away by a moment of weakness or carelessness.

Covering up is an ongoing choice to be dishonest.

Bernalillo County Sheriff, Darren White, has had more than a year to be honest with stakeholders concerning the felony criminal misuse of an NCIC data base under his oversight; on his watch.

He is yet to offer a candid, forthright, and honest explanation, defense, or even acknowledgment of the allegation that senior members of the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools used his data base to harass and intimidate whistle blowers.

The local District Attorney, Kari Brandenburg has been charged with determining whether or not the evidence supports the filing of criminal charges. She has had that charge for more than a year, without resolution.

She too, has been implicated in the cover up of the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools (Police Department).

She too, refuses to offer any manner of candid, forthright, and honest explanation of her failure to act on the evidence in her possession.

Why are public servants allowed "no comment" in response to legitimate questions about their public service?

The legitimate question is;

What did Darren White have to do with the felony criminal misuse of the sophisticated and supposedly "secure" data base that was entrusted to him by the FBI?

White's response so far is, no comment.

At Diogenes' six, I have consistently argued that stonewalling is unethical, and it is dishonest. It is a coward's way of "pleading the fifth."

And if Darren White had any explanation at all, to offer to voters, he should have done so, long, long, ago. Because now, not only does he owe voter stakeholders an honest explanation of his part in the scandal, but also an honest explanation, defense, or even acknowledgment of his part in the cover up.


(this is a copy of an article that I posted on Now Public.)

It is a story that will not be investigated and reported upon by Darren's buddies at the Journal; who are happily endorsing a manifestly dishonest politician,
to represent their interests in the United States Congress.

I sent a link to this post to Darren White personally
at 9;50 am giving him the opportunity to respond,
rebut, or refute.

What's in it for Thomas J Lang, Publisher

of the Albuquerque Journal.

I once asked the leadership of the APS to tell me how many tax dollars go through them to Thomas J. Lang.

They wouldn't tell me.


Let's say they spend a half a million a year advertising in the Journal.


Which begs at least one question;

Why do they need to advertise in a local paper at all?

If there is a teacher looking for a job in Albuquerque,
and they cannot find their way to 6400 Uptown Blvd
looking for employment;

are they really smart enough to be a teacher, anyway?


Maybe that's what Monica Armenta does all day.

She oversees the person who oversees the person who
oversees the clerk who pushes the button that SENDs
a half a million tax dollars a year into Tommy Lang's
bank account.

And then negotiates with him to decide what Zsombor Peter
will and will not investigate and report upon.

Unless and until the APS Modrall relationship is audited

all of the most vile and corrupt shit heads in the leadership of the APS

will enjoy the "cost is no object", and "win at any cost"
legal defense of one of the largest and most powerful law firms in the state; the Modrall;

Paula Maes' husband's law firm

who itself, enjoys the advantage of a large bore pipeline to
unwitting taxpayers, who think their money is being used to
educate their children,

and who will use all manner of loophole, legal technicality,
and legal weaselry to separate the good ol' boys in the APS
from honest accountability for their conduct and competence.

It will be interesting to see for how much longer Paula Maes
can make good her public promise,

to prevent any honest audit of her stewardship of
the public trust and treasure.

no matter what.

"What we have here, is a failure to communicate."

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta
has failed to communicate.

All she has to communicate to stakeholders
who pay her a hundred five thousand dollars a year,

is even one single, solitary, good and ethical reason

not to conduct an immediate full scale forensic audit of
the entire leadership of the APS.

Hurting children and their teachers; is not the answer.

Stakeholders loathe the leadership of the APS.

It is difficult to imagine another group of public servants that are more loathed.

The answer that I am hearing over and over again is;

Just wait 'til the next school bond or mill levy election;
I'll show the bastards."

Which hurts in the end, only those to struggle at the educational interface, to educate and to be educated.

So why will people vote down necessary funding?

It is because they have no other choice.

What else can they do?


So far as I can see; there is only one other avenue.
It is, imho, a far better solution.

If enough stakeholders go to a school board meeting,
and there DEMAND an immediate full scale forensic audit
of the entire leadership of the APS;

they will accomplish exactly the end that they desire.


How many people? Who knows?

But there is a number that Zsombor Peter will have to write
about, even over the objections of Thomas J Lang, Kent Walz, et al.

And there is some number, that if they demanded an audit,
the board would have no choice but to acquiesce.

There is a number that even Paula Maes and the Modrall
cannot resist.

I can't tell you what the number is.

I can tell you with great certainty that the number is not 1.

Board meetings are held at a time and in a place that is
not convenient to most stakeholders; deliberately.

You will not be allowed to make your demand "on the record".

Paula Maes has ordered the cameras off during the Public Forum.


Never the less

if you believe that an immediate full scale forensic audit of the entire leadership of the APS is in order;

you must say so. in person.


Otherwise the next bond issue and/or mill levy will be voted down;

and the only people it will really hurt are kids and teachers.


Even now, they have not stopped adding on to the Uptown
digs.

Even now, they refuse to offer a candid, forthright and
honest accounting of the money that they have spent there.


Come check out your million dollar board room.
Take a peek in the little control room that would make
a TV station green with envy.

Come tell them you want an audit.

Immediately.

Speaking of Beth Everitt

Was she honest with the Aiken County School Board?

Did she tell them that the the APS Financial Division
was in chaos? That it had been functioning for years,
for ever actually
without financially sound policies or procedures?

She had to have known.
We paid her $200K a year to know.


Was Paula Maes being honest when she was telling everyone
what a top notch administrator Beth Everitt was;

in spite of the corruption in the APS Police Department,
the APS M&O Division, the Uptown Administrative Complex,
the APS Financial Division,

and the overall corruption of APS Modrall in general?

Insiders hired to cover up APS' financial woes.

Gina Hickman is APS' new Chief Financial Officer.
Within that capacity, she has already made public statements
minimizing the problems and their root causes.

She has worked for APS before. She is a CPA. She could have,
she should have, seen the lack of financially sound procedures
and policies.

She did nothing, she reported them to no one,
she didn't blow the whistle on anything;

and now she is in charge of the whole thing.

Michael Kimbrell has been intimately involved with
APS finances for 15 years.

He too, never made any waves, never blew the whistle on
the lack of sound financial procedures and book keeping;

and now he is their new Internal Audit Director.

And how do they justify hiring the people who enabled
the problem, to fix it?

They don't; because
they can't.

And with the continuing cover supplied by Rhonda Aubrey,
Michelle Donaldson, Mary Lynn Roper, and Tommy Lang
and Kent Walz at the Journal;

they will never have to.

Their qualifications are not as book keepers,
their qualifications are a solid record of never making any
effort to hold anyone more senior than themselves
accountable for anything.

If they had, they wouldn't be there any more.

Like LouAnne Booth, an APS CPA who blew the whistle on
APS CFO Bill Moffet, and who was then put on administrative leave

and never heard from again.

APS' budget shortfall

Rhonda Aubrey's investigators reported on the $20M budget shortfall. link

They blame it on a number of factors; most of which will stand little scrutiny.

Aubrey's news crews failed to mention years and years of waste, a financial department that has few policies and follows even fewer.

In driving by the Uptown Complex, I notice a construction dumpster parked in front. There has never been a time when there wasn't. The leadership of the APS has never even slowed down the torrent of money flowing into unnecessary and unjustifiable renovations to their digs at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

How could KOB TV do a report on a budget short fall and
not include the waste and mismanagement that has cost millions,
more millions than they are now short?

It is because Paula Maes, Modrall, and the media have a mantra
offered in a comment on Topix;

... what happens in (the leadership of) the APS,
stays in (the leadership of) the APS.

And there you have it.

The Meyners + Co Auditors

do not work for the public; they do not work for stakeholders.

They work for the same APS leadership whose corruption and
incompetence they are, or should be, exposing.

They work for the same people who will pay them to fix the problems without exposing the corrupt and the incompetent who created them.

And they still have not answered the question;
what are they required to do, and what did they do,
with evidence of criminal misconduct by administrators?

Has it been surrendered to APS Modrall for safe keeping?

Is District Attorney Brandenburg going to look at it?
(until the statute of limitations expires
and the good ol' boys escape accountability for ever)

Brandenburg is still sitting on the evidence from Peanut Butter Gate; almost a year and a half after it made the front page.

Still nothing from State Auditor Hector Balderas.

If Darren White were an honest politician; (he is not)

He would be honest about the corruption in the leadership of the APS, and their illegal use of the BCSO's resources on his watch.

He will not be candid, forthright and honest.

Why would anyone want as their congressman,
a person who won't answer legitimate questions about what
they are doing with the public power and resources
that have been entrusted to their use?

He will win the June primary without ever standing in front of
voters and answering their direct questions.

He is afraid of the truth.

Why a man like this is even in the running is beyond me.

That he can win a primary without a single town meeting;
is a manifestation of the political corruption in NM.

The Albuquerque Journal will not take issue;
also a manifestation of the political corruption in NM.

Can you imagine Monica Armenta on the Villanucci show

explaining why the results of the Meyners Audit;

"wide spread and deeply rooted incompetence
and corruption"

do not justify an immediate full scale forensic audit
of the leadership of the APS?

If you can imagine it, that's good;

because that as close as you are ever going to get
to hearing it live.

Either Veteran Investigative Reporter Larry Barker

couldn't investigate
his own ass with both hands and a flashlight,

or there is some other reason
he is not investigating and reporting upon
APS Board Member Paula Maes' refusal to allow
a forensic audit her stewardship of the public trust and
treasure in the APS.

Darren White is corrupt.

The proof of his corruption is his unwillingness to offer

a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the criminal misuse of his computers by the leadership of the APS.

Please, let's all try not to forget that on election day.

Does Meyners + Co. do crappy work?

Taxpayers paid Meyners + Co. a hundred and seventy five dollars an hour to audit a few APS divisions.

For awhile, two pages were secreted from the public

They have supposedly been surrendered. I say supposedly because the two pages that I got were not numbered or dated consistently with the rest of the Project Plan.

It looks like someone with an old fashioned typewriter tried to type into a spread sheet with too small boxes preprinted on the paper.

The truncation made necessary by this disturbs me.

I will give one example, there are more.

"Action item;
Continue to ensure that
anonymous reporting hotline
tips are followed up. Ensure a
environment where whistle"

This one really disturbs me because the former policy was
to ensure an environment where whistle

"... blowers were taken out into the parking lot
to have the shit kicked out of them,
and until they stopped blowing the whistle."

(In one of the more extreme and cruel manifestations of their policy.)



In 2003, the Council of the Great City Schools audit
revealed that APS has a "culture" of retaliation and retribution.

In response to a request for a public record of any change in
policy after the audit, the APS failed to produce any record
that they had made any changes in their policy at all.


I would like to know that the policy will be different,
and it is difficult to tell because the Meyners + Co typewriter
cannot, apparently, type small enough to put the whole truth
into such tiny little boxes.

Even for a hundred and seventy five bucks an hour.



In fairness to Meyners; they earned their $175 when they
suggested that Tom Savage hire someone whose monthly
duties would include

"... a review of Journal entries to look for entries
that do not have a business purpose."

I bet that most taxpayers would wish that he had figured
that one out a few billion dollars ago.

If only they knew.

On my honor

I have never made even the slightest effort to prevent anyone from commenting on this blog.

Which begs the question; why have I never been refuted?

If any of these folks could defend themselves in any manner at all, why would they not?

Seriously, why would they not?

They can publish anonymously,
but they won't.

Why hasn't even one of the subjects of my allegations
offered any explanation or defense of their conduct and
competency?

Why? except that there is no good and ethical alternative explanation?

Why, except that I have written the truth?

Their record will show, I believe

That someone at Modrall Sperling
used to read Diogenes' Six from the Modrall server.

And that shortly after an exchange of private emails with
another blogger being read regularly by Modrall;

their attention then came through one or more servers that
are more difficult to trace back to the actions of public
servants and their lawyers, all on the public dime.

I believe.

Why is it necessary to hide the truth,
except that you are damned by it?

Thomas J Lang's lackey; Kent Walz

sat down at a typewriter and pounded out an editorial about
some high schools athletes who will have to choose whether
to participate in the culminating event of their careers
as high school athletes; or as students.

He had an obligation to give us his best.

He could have written an editorial that pointed out to stakeholders that

• the APS has been audited, and
• the audit revealed that there have never been financially sound policies and procedures in the APS Financial Division
• which handles a billion tax dollars a year, and that
• senior administrators can spend upwards of $50K
• without following rules, without oversight, and without authorization,
• doing business with vendors who appreciate that system so much, that
• they pay for overnight soirees at places like the Inn of the Mountain Gods.

Thomas J Lang/Kent Walz could have told stakeholders
the leader of the APS Board of Education, Paula Maes, and
her husband's law firm; the Modrall, have made millions
litigating their own exception to the law,
in order to perpetuate the scheme.

They could have told you that there is video tape of

APS School Board President, Paula Maes standing up
and announcing that she (and of course, the Modrall)would

never allow an audit of the leadership of the APS that would identify by name; any administrator taking advantage of easy availability of unprotected cash.

She excepted from individual audit, by name, Tom Savage.

Tom Savage was in charge of the APS Police Department
when there was apparent felony criminal abuse of
Darren White's FBI criminal background check system.

Along with the "disgruntled former employees" who
suffered a criminal invasion of their privacy,
Savage's girlfriend.

Savage's official response to the breaking scandal;
he ordered APS employees to keep their mouths shut.

Savage is also responsible for the mess in the APS Finance Division.

And, in a position to benefit greatly from the failure
of the division to protect public funds from criminal corruption.

And Paula Maes and APS/Modrall say there will be
no forensic audit.

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg has failed to indict a single participant.

Congressional candidate Darren White has still to offer any manner of candid, forthright and honest explanation, defense, or even an acknowledgment of his own participation in the APS Peanut Butter Gate scandal and cover up.

The failure of United States Senator Pete Domenici to intervene.

The failure of NM Governor Bill Richardson to intervene.

The failure of NM State Auditor Hector Balderas to intervene.

The failure of NM Attorney General Gary King to intervene.

And Character Counts! "founding father"
Mayor Marty Chavez.

Lang/Walz could have editorialized on those instead.

It isn't so much that it wasn't the topic just this morning;
as it is that; it will never be the topic of a Journal editorial.

The subject of a full scale forensic audit can never become the subject of public discourse.Opposition to impartial auditing of public resources; is indefensible. The moment it become the subject of public discourse; full scale forensic auditing will become common place, the normal course of events.

And the good ol' boys in the APS would be screwed.
If most of them weren't such assholes;
you might almost feel sorry for them.

There is of course;
no good and ethical reason not to conduct an immediate
full scale forensic audit of the entire leadership of the APS.

And in very particular; there is no good and ethical reason not to conduct an honest and impartial public examination of the record of APS/Modrall.

Such an audit of the leadership of the APS,
will never be the subject of an investigation and report by
Zsombor Peter or any other reporter from the Journal.


It will never be investigated by Larry Barker, or any of
the other supposed investigative reporters.
Ever.

No one has ever offered any explanation for this situation,
except that they are corrupt.

They are deliberately covering up public corruption and
criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS.

Mary Lynn Roper, and Michelle Donaldson,
and Rhonda Aubrey, and whomever is keeping
Jim Villanucci from single handedly, in a single segment,
ending good ol' boy corruption in the leadership of the APS forever.

are corrupt.

If this is not the truth, then shouldn't they tell the truth instead?

Shouldn't they investigate and report that
in spite of every indication that millions of dollars are
being stolen from tax payers every year;

no such theft has taken place.

and then perhaps a human interest story on the miracle
that that happy ending possible.

If you could make it impossibly difficult to get away with public corruption

... why wouldn't you?

Why not do a forensic audit of the public interests and resources every year?

Cost prohibitive?

What do you think it costs to make it easy to to steal public resources?


APS Finance Department

• One Billion dollars a year.
• No sound financial policies or procedures.
• No adequate books were kept.
• The State Auditor was denied access to the books, and
• Paula Maes APS Modrall is on the record saying that

she will not allow an honest impartial forensic audit that
would identify a senior administrator like Tom Savage
by name. Tom Savage is the APS senior administrator
who was supposed to protect the public interests from
corruption in the APS Police Department, and did not.

It was he who oversaw the Finance Division, and he
was supposed to protect the public interest from
corruption and incompetence; and did not.

How much would you think this is costing taxpayers?
My hunch is, a damn sight more than a yearly audit
would cost; approximately $120,000 dollars.

Less if the system was designed to be easily audited.


An the coverage by Thomas J Lang, Kent Walz,
Michelle Donaldson, Rhonda Aubrey and Mary Lynn Roper?

You can see that for yourself.

State Auditor Hector Balderas is running out of time.

There is a window of time and opportunity that applies to
the situation in the APS and the responsibilities of various
public servants to deal with that situation.

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, for example.

She was given the results of a highly qualified and impartial investigation of public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS (Police Department). She has been sitting on that evidence for more than a year.

All she had to do was decide whether or not felony criminal misconduct has taken place.

When does the window close? How long can she stall before there is no reasonable doubt that she has fallen in with the corrupt in the leadership of the APS?

And Darren White. His super sophisticated and secure FBI data base was used by APS senior administrators to harass and intimidate "disgruntled former employees", and to do one of the most intensive criminal background checks possible; on APS senior administrator Tom Savage's girlfriend.

After all this time, Darren White still cannot offer a candid, forthright and honest explanation, defense, or acknowledgment even of his failure to protect the NCIC data base that had been entrusted to his oversight.

When does his window close?

And Thomas J Lang, Kent Walz and the Journal
whose every obligation it is to inform voters, to allow them
to make autonomous decisions based on all of the facts.

When does their window close?

And Michelle Donaldson, Mary Lynn Roper and Rhonda Aubrey,

When does their window of reasonable doubt finally close?

And Marty Esquivel and
Delores Griego, and
Mary Lee Martin, and
Gordon Rowe?

For how much longer will they deny;

a candid, forthright and honest discussion of ethics
and accountability in the leadership of the APS?

When does the window of doubt finally close on them,
and we are absolutely justified in concluding that
they have thrown in their lot, with evil?

Personally, I think their window closed a long time ago.

But then, I've been at this since 1994;
the year I was trained to be a Character Counts! trainer
for the APS; by Michael Josephson, personally.

What a disappointment that turned out to be.

Which brings us back to Hector Balderas.

He knows more of the truth than anyone except the people who are hiding it; APS Modrall.

If he doesn't, he is not fit to be the NM State Auditor.
We are talking about a billion dollars a year.

In the hands of the folks who are still adding on to the
Uptown Administrative Complex.

If Hector Balderas does not have the authority
to begin a full scale forensic audit of the leadership of the APS;
he knows who does.

And the longer he waits to pick a side on the issue of
whether or not to conduct an immediate audit;
the more obvious it is that he has already picked a side;

a side he doesn't want to admit to, publicly.

When does his window of opportunity to do the right thing
finally close?

Board of Education breaking it's own rule.

Rule number 7 of the new BOE code of ethics;
(by their own admission, completely unenforceable.)

7. Avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof
and refrain from using the board position for personal
or partisan gain;

Paula Maes and the Modrall need to be forensically audited.
The protection of the public interests in the APS absolutely
requires it.

Yet Marty Esquivel, Delores Gonzales, Gordon Rowe, and
Mary Lee Martin will not insist upon a full scale forensic audit
of the entire leadership of the APS including Maes and Modrall.

Which in their minds apparently creates no conflict of interest,
not even the appearance of a conflict of interest.


Like I said,their "code of ethics" is completely unenforceable.

Fox hired to guard henhouse.

The Meyners Audit revealed that the APS Finance Division

• has never* had financially sound polices and procedures
• has never* required senior administrators to follow what procedures there are, and
• has never* kept adequate financial records.

*If they did ever have them, Monica Armenta could show them to us,
and identify by name, the administrators who eliminated them and
left the hen house completely unprotected from incompetence and corruption.


Michael Kimbrell has been appointed APS Internal Audit Director. He has worked in the department for fifteen years.

Never during those fifteen years did he blow the whistle on
the improprieties in the Finance Division.

If he had; either he would have been fired; like LouAnne Boothe, or the problems would have been corrected.

Since neither is the case;
obviously he never made any waves.

And now he is in charge of internal audits.

And will report directly to, and only to,
the good ol' boys that run the APS, and who are
plundering its treasure.

A little something you won't see in the corrupt local media.

Would you buy a used car from Darren White?

I watched the "debate" between Darren White and Joe Cararro
on KNME.

Even if I didn't know about Darren White's involvement in
the cover up of APS Peanut Butter Gate; a scandal that
involved felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior
administrators and Darren White's secure and sophisticated
criminal background check system;

I would not buy a used car from him, and I sure as hell
would not vote for him.

perhaps you will agree. Link episode 135

Hector Balderas offered State Auditors to the APS

And the leadership of the APS turned him down.

The minutes of two meetings of the APS Board of Education,
Finance Committee show that the board was
reminded on two occasions that the NM State Auditor
Hector Balderas had offered the assistance of his auditors.

Robert Lucero, the Finance Committee Chair, and the
rest of the leadership of the APS turned him down.

They are admittedly starved for qualified accountants, and
they turned down free and highly qualified help. Why?

What did the leadership of the APS not want state auditors to see?

Why did taxpayers pay almost $50,000 for an audit
the results of which, will be seen only by the people who's
incompetence and corruption have been revealed by the audit?

Why did Hector Balderas take no for an answer?


When will he demand that state auditors investigate the
several and severe problems in the APS Financial Division,
and the very real likelihood that large sums of tax dollars
have been stolen as a result?

Larry Barker and KRQE scooped!

The name of the APS administrator who started the ball rolling for Modrall's letter to the fire marshal, which marked the beginning of the end for fire safety inspections in APS.

According to Rigo Chavez, APS Director of Communications
the honor goes to APS Facilities Director Karen Alarid.

There is no proof that is was in fact her.

We must take the word of the leadership of the APS, that
it was her, because she created no record of the order.

It was all done "by phone".

For all we know, she drew the short straw and had to take
the hit for Brad Winter,
who can't take very many more hits.


Was Larry Barker scooped?

Did I find and publish the truth before he could, or would?
I suspect that he and his news director Michelle Donaldson
have know for quite some time that it was Karen Alarid.

He, she, or they simply decided not to tell the truth to stakeholders.

So what?

Stakeholders need to know that the person who ordered the end of fire safety inspections to save money, will be held accountable for that decision.

Stakeholders cannot know that she has been held accountable if they don't know her name.

Who cares if Karen Alarid is held accountable for saving some money on fire safety inspections while at the same time spending completely unjustified fortunes on a new board room and audio video toy box?

I don't know Karen Alarid from Adam's off ox.

I am not nearly so concerned that she be held accountable,
as I am concerned that no administrator is held honestly
accountable, to any meaningful standard of conduct or
competence, ever.


So here's the scoop;
the leadership of the APS traded student safety for fancy
furniture and electronic gizmo's for their new boardroom,
the very existence of which, remains unjustified to this day.

And Larry Barker and/or Michelle Donaldson made a
deliberate decision to keep it secret from stakeholders.


Larry's follow up to breaking the fire safety inspection scandal;
he turned up missing pipe that saved taxpayers 8 grand on
project that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

You gotta think taxpayers would rather hear how much of
the public trust and treasure has been squandered at the
Uptown Administrative Complex.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say,
I think way more than 8 grand was wasted.

And what about the tens, maybe hundreds of millions of
dollars that have gone missing in the APS Financial Department,

• which has no financially sound policies or procedures, and
  
• wouldn't be following them even if they did.

Oh yeah, and they didn't keep books on it
that could be used to send anybody to jail.

Is Paula Maes still "in charge" on the APS Board of Education?

If you google "in charge" you'll find more definitions than
there are corrupt and incompetent APS administrators.

I am particularly concerned with;

In charge; having control over ...

I have oft argued that, in general,
children are "in charge" on campuses in the APS.

By the following logic;

when there is an opposition of wills,
the person who's will is done, is "in charge".

If the school board; in their board policy, tells students,
"you may not sag" and students by their overt action say,
"Yes we will." And they get away with it;
children are in charge.

This is not about sagging.

This is about, the permission of prohibited behavior.

Marty Esquivel, Delores Griego, and Gordon Rowe
might want you to believe that the diminutive
Mary Lee Martin, is in charge on the board of education,
because they elected her as board president.

Is it Mary Lee Martin's will that there never be an honest
audit of the leadership of the APS? And the other board
members as well?

Paula Maes said she would never allow a forensic audit of any
division of the APS, that would identify by name,
corrupt and incompetent administrators;
good ol' boys

"... like Tom Savage for example."

Her will is done on the board, still.

There are not four members of the APS Board of Education
that will demand a full scale forensic audit of the leadership
of the APS.

It is Maes and Modrall's will that is being done.

Unless it is the will of Marty Esquivel, Delores Griego,
Gordon Rowe, and Mary Lee Martin, that those who have
taken advantage of the lack of sound financial practices
in the APS Finance Division;

those who will likely see prosecution for felony criminal misconduct,

be excepted from any honest accountability
to any meaningful standard of conduct or competence.

It is Paula Maes and Modrall who's will it is,
to continue to cover up wide spread and deeply rooted
incompetence and corruption in the leadership of the APS.

It is also the will of those board members who will not demand
a full scale forensic audit; even if it means that Paula Maes,
the Modrall Law Firm, and all of the rest of the good ol' boys
that run the APS,
go down hard.

What is Marty Esquivel's will; cover up or honest audit?
And Delores Griego, and Gordon Rowe, and Mary Lee Martin?


Actions speak louder than words.

Stonewalling is an action,
it speaks just as loudly as any action.

It is prohibited by the standard of conduct that the board
enforces upon students.

... because it is cowardly and it is dishonest.

Congratulations to Winston Brooks

He has managed to add two more $125,000 a year administrators to help fill up Uptown.

It is consistent with his;
"all we really need is more administrators"
philosophy of educational administration.

I suspect that there are not many teachers and teachers assistants that have been thinking; gee I wish that there were more administrators.

Just for the record, a quarter of a million dollars would pay the annual salaries of 12 educational assistants, or five teachers.

At least Brooks will have two votes that he can count on, in any minor dispute with other administrators.

But not against the good ol' boys; because the new recruits
come from you guessed it;

the local pool of good ol' boys.

Speaking of Albuquerque Public School's Bond Rating

The Meyners Audit of the APS Finance Division revealed that the APS Finance Division has never had financially sound policies and procedures.

They have never kept books that are accurate or complete enough to figure out who is stealing what.

They have never required senior administrators to involve APS' Purchasing Division, even when spending more than $50,000 dollars.

They have never been required to follow what few procedures and guidelines they have.

If you do not believe that the Meyners Audit results mean
that all of this has all been going on forever,

then all you have to do is believe the only other alternative;
that the APS Finance Division once had all of the necessary
procedures and policies in place;

and some APS senior administrators decided to throw them all out.

In which case APS' Executive Director of Communications
Monica Armenta will be able to show us the documentation
of the change including the name of
the APS senior administrator who did it.


It must suck to have Monica's job, except for the
$400 plus, a day she gets for serving the "public".



Oh and the bond rating;
what kind of an interest rate would you offer the APS.
The cost to tax payers; easily millions of dollars.

The coverage in the local media; zero.

should you care to respond or rebut

It is the subject line that heads the link to most everything that I write about someone.

When I write about District Attorney Kari Brandenburg's apparent complicity in the cover up of the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the APS Police Department; I usually cc'd her.

Not so much lately; since she never really responded.

Same with Darren White, Bernalillo County Sheriff,
and candidate for the Congress of the United States.

Except that he will not offer a candid, forthright and honest account of his involvement and responsibility in APS Peanut Butter Gate and the subsequent cover up.

Nor Mayor Marty Chavez, when I remind readers that he bitches about APS' lack of accountability; but he won't stand up for a full scale forensic audit of the entire leadership of the APS.

I think it is because he would not survive the same audit of city government, and he knows it.

I often copy media moguls; Michelle Donaldson, Mary Lynn Roper, Rhonda Aubrey, Kent Walz and Thomas J Lang

when I rip them for their obvious cover up of the crap going on in the APS.

I copied Larry Barker when I ripped him for reporting on APS Fire Safety Inspection Scandal, without revealing the name of the APS administrator who decided to save money by thwarting fire safety inspections of schools.

I copied United States Senator Pete Domenici
when I first began exposing the Character Counts Scandal
in the leadership of the APS; the grant made under his name, and the group of upstanding citizens in the Character Counts Leadership Council,
who's names must remain secret.

They all have an opportunity to offer a candid, forthright and honest alternate explanation of the circumstances which appear to be widespread and deeply rooted incompetence and corruption.

They just choose not to.

Winston Brooks has had the opportunity to respond or rebut
he just chooses not to.

They just stonewall; the only defense of an indefensible position.

Stonewalling; a violation of the student standard of conduct;
the standard of conduct to which students are accountable;
but their most senior role models are are not.

In order that they can stonewall

... without consequence.



And you are to just trust them with that.

But why?

Is APS School Board Member Paula Maes in "the mob'?

Two readers have wondered aloud if the corruption in the APS is as large interstate mob influence.

Would that mean that maybe the FBI would investigate?

After all, it involves a sitting United States Senator;
Pete Domenici, a hefty federal grant and the still secret
Character Counts Leadership Council.

Honestly, I have no information that would indicate that
Dona Paula is a member of an organized crime family.

But if a forensic audit of the leadership of the APS revealed that she was mobbed up; I would not be surprised.

Nor would I be surprised to find out that the "Character Counts Leadership Council" was in fact,
a code name for the local "family".

It must suck to be Michael Josephson;
founding father of Character Counts!

He knows about all of this, you know,
and he isn't doing a thing about it.

cc Michael Josephson upon posting.

How stoopid would Winston Brooks have to be;

to take personal responsibility for APS' cash drawer,
without first conducting a forensic audit?

Or,

... how corruptible?

The remaining six members of the APS Board of Education

could have begun a full scale forensic audit of the entire leadership of the APS already;

except for one or both of only two reasons;

1. they lack the requisite character
2. they lack the requisite courage.

Were there any other reason at all, not to audit APS Modrall,
Monica Armenta could have thought of it by now.

She has had the issue on her desk from her very first day
on the job.

A day for which taxpayers paid her something north of
$400.00.



In truth, there only needs to be four board members
with the character and courage to pull the plug on
the good ol' boys of APS Modrall by beginning a full scale
forensic audit.


In fact, there is not even one.


Today is not our day;
tomorrow is not looking too good, either.

The plight of Michelle Donaldson, Mary Lynn Roper, Rhonda Aubrey, Kent Walz and Thomas J Lang

Soon or later the truth will come out.

The leadership of the APS is stealing way too much money,
and they are being way too arrogant about it
to keep it secret forever.

And when the truth comes out, what will Michelle,
Mary Lynn, Rhonda, Kent and Thomas say?

How will they explain that they have steadfastly refused
to investigate credible evidence of widespread and deeply
rooted corruption and incompetence,
in the leadership of the APS?

How will they explain away the fact that they knew that

• the leadership of the APS has excepted itself from accountability to the student standard of conduct; that they had simply abdicated the obligations as the senior most role models of the student standard of conduct? and that
• the leadership of the APS has been audited; and that
• their Financial Division has been operating for years with inadequate written policies or procedures, and routinely violating purchasing guidelines and regulations. and that
  
• Paula Maes, Modrall, and the rest of the leadership of the APS flatly refuses to conduct a full scale forensic audit of their administration of over a billion tax dollars a year. and that
• the leadership of the APS will not identify those who chose to end fire safety inspections in public schools. and that
• the leadership of the APS made that decision to save money. and that
• the leadership of the APS used that money to build a million dollar board room, whose need has never been justified. and that
• the leadership of the APS flatly refuses to tell tax payers how much of the public trust and treasure has been squandered at 6400 Uptown Blvd. and that
• the leadership of the APS is hiding evidence of felony criminal misconduct in the Peanut Putter Gate. and that
• the leadership of the APS enjoys the support of District Attorney Kari Brandenburg and Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White in the Peanut Butter Gate cover up. and that
• they will run for elected office without voters being given a candid, forthright and honest explanation of their own involvement in the Peanut Butter Gate cover up.

How will Michelle and Mary Lynn and Rhonda Aubrey and Kent Walz and Thomas J Lang explain away their betrayal of the trust of those who rely upon them for the information they need to know, to participate meaningfully in democracy?

My guess is that they will stonewall;

the only defense of an indefensible position.

The Top 10 Reasons not to conduct a forensic audit the APS

hmm...

OK, The Top Reason not to audit the leadership of APS.

hmm...

damn, I can't even think of one.

And neither can Monica Armenta
the highly paid Executive Director of Communications
for the Albuquerque Public Schools,
and part time poster nazi! link

Larry Barker; no longer up to the task?

There was a time when if a public official didn't want to answer hardball questions from Larry Barker, they had to slam a door in his face to get him to back off.

Now all they have to do is ring up Michelle Donaldson
and tell her to tell Larry to mind his own business.

That is why after Larry's huge expose on fire code violations,
we still don't know the name of the APS administrator
who wrote the letter to Modrall, ordering Modrall lawyers
to write the letter to the fire marshal, that ended
fire safety inspections in APS schools and classrooms.

Thereby saving enough money to build a completely
unnecessary and still unjustified million dollar boardroom.

Who dunit? Mr. Barker.

State Auditor Balderas' mettle will be tested in a fight with Maes Modrall.

In one corner we have Paula Maes and the Modrall Law Firm.

In the other, the new State Auditor Hector Balderas.

In dispute; a forensic audit of the entire leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools.

A recent audit of the APS Financial Division by Meyners & Co;
revealed that the billion dollar a year budget for the public schools has been vulnerable to corruption and incompetence for years.

The audit revealed that the APS Financial Division does not enforce, in fact they do not even have;

"... financially sound policies and procedures."Nor, according to the Meyners Audit; do they keep "adequate records" on the spending of more than a billion tax dollars a year.

Former APS School Board President, Paula Maes, and her husband's law firm; the Modrall, have sworn that they will not allow a forensic audit. Maes is on the record stating that she will not allow APS senior administrators or board members to be individually identified by the results of any audit.

Nor has one been.

She specifically excepted APS Deputy Superintendent Tom Savage from audit scrutiny.

Tom Savage over saw the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the APS Police Department. He over saw the APS Financial Department for years, while it remained vulnerable to corruption and incompetence.

Paula Maes and the Modrall are committed to continuing to hide the corruption and the corrupt in the leadership of the APS.

Standing in diametric opposition to the interests of Maes Modrall, is State Auditor Hector Balderas.

He is pretty much stakeholders' last hope.

United States Senator Pete Domenici, founding father of
Character Counts, would rather see a mockery made of
the Pillars of Character Counts, than stand in their defense
against Maes and Modrall.

Governor Bill Richardson, will acknowledge APS earned
statewide reputation for their lack of accountability,
but will not audit them.

Mayor Marty Chavez wants to take over the school board because they are so unaccountable. But he will not utter the words; forensic audit. Likely because he would not survive such an audit of his own administration.

The District Attorney Kari Brandenburg has already joined Maes Modrall in the effort to cover up the criminal misconduct in APS' Peanut Butter Gate by failing to act on evidence in her possession.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White is part of the cover up of the same scandal. He has yet to offer any candid, forthright and honest explanation, defense, or even acknowledgment of his part in the cover up.

State Attorney General Gary King has been of no help.
His office continues to allow the APS Modrall to play games
with public records.

Veronica Garcia; State Secretary of Education manifest her mettle in the bungled Grade Gate investigation. She failed to ask then APS Superintendent Beth Everitt even one question on the record.

The New Mexico Educator Ethics Bureau, under Paul Calderon is a public service embarrassment.

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education cannot
claim a single member who will stand in defense of an audit.
Nor, will they defend their position not to conduct an audit.

APS School Board Members; Marty Esquivel, Mary Lee Martin,
Delores Griego, Gordon Rowe, Berna Facio, and Robert Lucero
can only stonewall on the issue;

the only defense of an indefensible position.

Incoming APS Superintendent Winston Brooks
is inexplicably silent on the issue.
Inexplicable at least, by any explanation except that
he has no intention of auditing APS' good ol' boys into oblivion.

The local media, Thomas J Lang, Kent Walz, Michelle Donaldson, Mary Lynn Roper, and Rhonda Aubrey have a record of investigation and coverage of the issue of a forensic audit of the leadership of the APS;

their record is that they have not said one word.

Not one word on the real possibility of ending public corruption
and incompetence in the leadership of the APS for ever,
with a full scale forensic audit.



Which leaves us with State Auditor Hector Balderas.


Does Balderas have the balls to stand up to Maes and Modrall?


Or will Maes, Modrall, and the media,
put him in his place as well?



State Auditor Hector Balderas responded to the "Open Letter" post;

His response;

Charles,

I do care.

Thank you for your continued concern
about public dollars and resources.

Respectfully,
Hector Balderas

See, he says he cares.


We will find out just how much he cares
in the next few days, I would suppose.

Open Letter to Hector Balderas and Gary King.

Gentlemen,

The leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools administers a billion tax dollars a year.

A recent audit of the APS Finance Division reveals that the public interests and resources have gone undefended against corruption and incompetence, for years.

It would be ridiculous to assume that millions of tax dollars have not been stolen.

Our local District Attorney, Kari Brandenburg, is of no help.
She may well be a criminal co-conspirator in the cover up of
public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White is involved as well.

I am wondering if either of you, either as State Auditor or
State Attorney General, has any obligation to involve your
offices in investigating the corruption and the cover up?

I am wondering if either of you will defend the public interests against incompetence and corruption in the leadership of the APS?

If the responsibility is not yours,
to whom should I address my inquiry?

If Winston Brooks is not just another good ol' boy

In these circumstances, why is he not demanding a full scale
forensic audit of the entire leadership of the APS

before he takes charge of the cash drawer?


If he was not hired to continue to cover up the ethics and
accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS

he would end it

with a full scale forensic audit of the entire leadership of the APS.


There is only one reason why he will not.

If there is ever a full scale forensic audit of the leadership of the APS

it will identify by name, every corrupt public servant who is
stealing tax dollars from the APS.
Maybe some of them will even go to jail.

It will end an industry of corruption that is costing taxpayers
at least tens of millions of dollars, every year.

It will cost taxpayers only a few tens of thousands of dollars.


There is no downside.

There is no downside.

Zero, zip, nada.


So why are Paula Maes and the Modrall Law Firm
so dead set against an audit?

Why did she swear on the record; that she they will never allow
an audit that would identify by name, senior administrators
like Tom Savage (key player in at least two huge scandals),
and cite their incompetence and/or corruption?

Why are Marty Esquivel, Mary Lee Martin, Gordon Rowe,
Delores Griego, Berna Facio and Robert Lucero
going along with her?

Except that they will be destroyed, one and all, by that audit?

Except that they are damned by their record? one and all.


And how do you explain the conduct of the media;
Thomas J Lang, Kent Walz, Michelle Donaldson,
Rhonda Aubrey, and Mary Lynn Roper;

except that they are deliberately withholding the subject
of an APS forensic audit from public discourse?

.. even through many board member, mill levy and
bond issue elections.


There is only one reason to oppose a full scale forensic audit
of the entire leadership of the APS.

There is only one reason for the media to keep that truth
from voter stakeholders.


If they are not corrupt, one and all,
how else can this all be explained?

Journal editors unhappy with APS' response to "guns" on campus.

Studying the situation through his retrospectascope;
Journal editor Kent Walz is concerned about the manner
in which two different situations were handled differently.
link sub req

He is still not upset about the very real possibility that
tens of millions of tax dollars have gone missing in APS'
Finance Division.

Nor, does he seem to be much upset about the other
current scandal; the fact that senior APS administrators
stopped doing fire safety inspections in schools,
in order to save some money;

money that they used to build, among other things,
a completely unjustifiable million dollar board room.

Walz is concerned that "hundreds of students stood outside
for hours", but apparently unconcerned that if they were
back inside their classrooms, they would be in very real
danger of being burned alive.

It's almost like Walz is deliberately trying to draw attention
from the real problems and divert it elsewhere.


Kent Walz, hero or lackey,
in the eyes of the good ol' boys in the leadership of the APS?

Either way, the victims are the same; taxpayers and students.

The following folks will not lift a finger

to enable a candid, forthright,and honest discussion discussion of ethics and accountability in the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools;

United States Senator Pete Domenici; deadbeat founding father of Character Counts.
Governor Bill Richardson, former critic of APS' earned state wide reputation for their lack of accountability.
Mayor Marty Chavez; deadbeat founding father of Character Counts, and continuous critic of the lack of accountability in the leadership of the APS
The Character Counts Leadership Council; a still secret organization that was formed apparently to scam some federal grant money in a scheme involving Senator Domenici.
Paula Maes; President of the Character Counts Leadership Council, although she has personally renounced the Pillars of Character Counts as her own standard of conduct, even as the senior most role model of the student standard of conduct.
Marty Esquivel, Delores Gonzales, Gordon Rowe, Berna Facio, Robert Lucero, and Paula Maes; the members of the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education who's manifest response to all of the crap that is going on in the leadership of the APS, is;

their steadfast refusal to allow a candid, forthright, and honest discussion of ethics, accountability, and the obligations of administrative role models.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly,
Winston Brooks will not lead such a discussion either.
It isn't in his contract. Really, it isn't in his contract.

He wouldn't do it if you paid him a thousand dollars a day.

But the board is paying a thousand dollars a day anyway.


All with the aide and abet of Albuquerque's finest;
Thomas J Lang, Michelle Donaldson, Rhonda Aubrey,
and Mary Lynn Roper.

It would appear that the educational future of
89,000 of this community's sons and daughters
is in a great deal of peril, and not just from the lack of
fire safety inspections.

Somebody should do something.

What do you think the CoGCs Auditors meant?

The leadership of the APS was audited in 2003 by
the Council of the Great City Schools.

They were auditing as the result of a corruption scandal in APS' Maintenance and Operations Division. The "documented" loss to taxpayers was north of $500,000.

The auditors wrote about the lack of accountability that allowed the corruption. They wrote about the system by which the good ol' boys evaluate each others conduct and competence as public servants and senior administrators.

The Council of the Great City Schools wrote;

administrative evaluations are subjective
and unrelated to promotions or step placement.

When I filed a request for public records of any change in policy or in procedural directives that specifically addressed any of the finding of the audit;

I did not get one.

The leadership of the APS either did not change a single thing about the way they do business; or they are willing to violate the New Mexico Inspection of Records Act, in order to hide the fact that they did.

New Principal Hired

A new principal has been hired. Link

Normally proud as punch to announce stakeholder input; the news release does not mention the involvement of a single stakeholder.

The candidate seems qualified, but I have to wonder if the
obligation to meaningfully involve stakeholders in decisions
that affect their interests has been forgotten again;
"oops. our bad"


Winston Brooks said he was going to end site based management.

If anyone knows any different, please let me know.