Is power corrupting the Martinez administration?

Monahan reports this morning, link, on new scandal in the administration of Governor Susana Martinez.

If there is any corruption in the Martinez administration, it wasn't caused by the power she has handed over to her subordinates and the puppet master.  Power doesn't cause corruption any more than food causes overweight.  Temptation, and the opportunity to give in to it without consequence, corrupts.

Corruption is the child of temptation.
Without temptation there is no corruption;
there would be no reason for there to be.

Consider the corruption that occurs on a casino floor or the first floor of any bank.  There is none.

There is none because there is no temptation. There is no temptation because there is no hope of getting away stealing even a single chip or bill.

The opportunity to abuse power without consequence is tempting.  Ergo, it is corrupting.

How different would the city be, if for example, APD police officers had actually obeyed the existing standard on lapel camera use?

People yield to temptation because they believe they can get away with yielding.  Former APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez yielded allegedly, to the temptation of a free case of ammo.  If there had been a camera on the case and a Chief Operations Officer who would do something about what that camera recorded, Tellez would not have considered, allegedly, waling off with hundreds of dollars worth of public property.

The money takers at the Botanical Park who were helping themselves to cash all day long, and who were finally caught when cameras were installed surreptitiously, would not have taken the money at all, if on the first day their manager had told them; your job is to handle cash.  There is a camera over your head recording your every move.  Have a nice day.

There is a reason people pray for deliverance from temptation.

There would be no public corruption in government,
if it were not so damned easy to get away with it.

That it is so easy to get away with it is the fault of governors
and mayors and school boards.

That it is so easy for politicians to get away with it,
is of course the fault of the people,
who make it so damned easy for them to get away with it.

Actual, honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within public service ends temptation and corruption in one fell swoop.

Until the day they come up with;

1.  clear and unequivocal standards of conduct and competence, and

2.  a place or process where the least powerful can file complaints against the most powerful, and where those complaints will see timely due process.

everything else they; the Governor's Office, the Mayor's Office, the Chief's Office, and APS come up with, is bullshit.  Bullshit concocted to avoid open and honest public discussion of their standards of conduct and competence and of their honest accountability to them.

APD gun policy decision process illuminates a huge problem

APD Chief Gordon Eden has decided that all his cops will carry 9mm handguns.  It is reported that his decision was based on a need for "uniformity" although the policy includes a lack of uniformity right off the bat; cops will get to choose apparently between two different makers.

His real interest is in having smaller guns not guns that match.  He has some "problem" cops carrying enormous pieces and it doesn't look good having cops carry whatever they can qualify with, including I suppose; "the (currently) most powerful handgun in the world"; a Smith and Wesson Model 500, wikilink.

The Smith and Wesson Model 500 and its baby brother; a Model 629; 44 magnum; a former most powerful handgun in the world

The Model 500 is the most powerful pistol "in production".  You can get a 600 Nitro Express Pistol, YouTube, lmao
I digress.

The "uniformity" issue is cover for a political decision.  The FBI, I believe, decided the 9 mil was a tad light and decided that their agents would carry a 10 mil "uniformly".  Eden wants less powerful guns but won't come right out and say it.

I'm not here to argue 9 mm or 10.  I would argue that the decision about the caliber and power of their handguns, should reflect the input of the police officers whose lives can depend on the gun they carry.  What happens when some politically correct chief decides they would all look more "uniform" if they all carried 22s, or BB guns, or rubber band guns?

Ask the Chief and he will tell you the decision was "his call".
Yesterday the weapon choice was theirs, today by decree, it is his.

If his decision making process doesn't include the meaningful participation of the rank and file, nothing has changed.

We will still be victim of a belief based on false premise, that there really are people who know so much more than everyone else put together, that nobody else needs to participate in decision making, even decisions affecting their interests.

Government in general falls into disrepair for the same reason; an unjustifiable belief that you can find people who know more than everybody, and therefore can make the best decisions without input from anybody.

Nonsense on its face.

KOB TV report would be the height of irony;

Former Mayoral Public Information Officer turned KOB TV "investigative reporter" Chris Ramirez doing an investigation and report on how PIOs obfuscate truth telling about the public interests including the public service of their bosses.

It is newsworthy either way; either because after a fact gathering he can report that;

• PIOs really are on the people's side, or
• because they really are not.

They could bill it as their "man in the mirror" interview.



photo Mark Bralley

APS' new top cop; can he shoot straight?

Steve Gallegos, at El Dorado HS link

APS' top cop Steven Gallegos, the guy in charge of the cover up of the cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators and the leadership of their publicly funded private police force, is has trouble "qualifying".

The "traditional media" have known about the problem since the 2nd, link, and could have found the records more easily than I.  They apparently chose to not ask.

Qualifying for this post means; able to demonstrate on a regular basis, that he can shoot the weapon he carries into schools.

The records are sketchy. Strike that.  The available records are sketchy.  This is a volume of records but they're given out one at a time.  The one person in the Sheriff's Department who could have produced a few more records or answered a few questions about qualifications, was not available at the time of our scheduled appointment.

An appointment is required, because an apparently otherwise highly capable administrative assistant was paid by taxpayers to watch us inspect each record.  In order to inspect and or copy public records, public records that could have and should have been emailed to me, we had to drive down town, deal with dysfunctional parking meters, surrender our ids and be personally escorted to a conference room where we all sat around the end of an aircraft carrier sized table. It took us a couple of hours.  In fairness, our scanner was painfully slow.  In fairness, the Sheriff's high(er) speed scanner was available from the get go.  Rather than use it, we all sat around and chatted for a man hour.

Again, this all could have been done with a couple of key strokes, and probably would have if I was one of the traditional press and if I were looking for evidence of public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS and in particular, the leadership of its Praetorian guard..

The records amount to shooting scores for every member of the APS Police force.  Each is apparently required to qualify 4 times a year.  Gallegos record is incomplete.  So is former APS Chief of Police and shootist Steve Tellez'.

What the standards are and what the penalties for failing to meet standards are; they are obviously different depending on who you know.

It helps a lot if you know the Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston.

Houston is sitting on a criminal investigation of Steve Tellez while Tellez' boss and fellow republican APS COO Brad Winter slips off into retirement with honors and before the shit hits the fan.  It would help Houston's own re-election aspirations intact if the findings are found after the election.

This is why police departments fall into disrepair;
the abject failure of their "leadership" to hold themselves accountable, actually and honestly accountable the to the standards they establish, expect and enforce on everybody but themselves.

This isn't just true in police departments, it is true in every aspect of government.  There is no actual honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service.

The difficulty in holding powerful politicians and public servants accountable for their conduct and competence, is personified in public information officers.  Their job is to obfuscate the production of damning evidence against their boss or any of their bosses friends.

Their job is to obfuscate the production of damning evidence against their boss or any of their bosses friends.

If I wrote it three times, would it help?

Their manifest first loyalty is to the politician or public servant they work under; not to "the people" and not to their trust and their treasure.  Their real priority could not be clearer if it were tattooed on their foreheads.

APD PIO Janet Blair

The Albuquerque Police Department has just solved a lot of their problems by hiring someone to help solve their problems by hiding the evidence of them.

They will pay her $95K; more than we pay cops; more than we pay teachers, more than we pay a social workers; ...

There is no legitimate agenda that does not move forward on the day that the truth about the spending of public power and resources becomes as easily accessible as it ever will be.

There is no accountability in the absence of access to the truth.

All reform rests upon a first and fundamental reform; truth telling.

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the  
ethically redacted truth.

If that standard is too high, then at the very least;

the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
"legally" redacted truth.

A distant second but far better than what we have now;
the politically redacted truth.




Blair and Houston photos Mark Bralley

On the petition of government

One can understand how some politicians and public servants cannot make time to entertain the personal petition of even a small portion of interest holders; there is not enough time.  A clear front runner for second place solution to meeting with everybody, is meeting with people who can demonstrate that they have the same petition to deliver as some number of fellow interest holders.

The White House is offering an opportunity, link, for people to deliver their petition in exchange for a good faith response. All you have to do is prove that there are enough others who want to deliver the same petition.

Imagine local government offering the same.  Find a reasonable number of people seeking redress for essentially the same grievance and presto; you've earned a good faith response.

What is the point in having a Constitutionally protected human right to petition one's government, if the government has no obligation to at the very least, respond to the petition in good faith?

Which begs an interesting question; how many people would have to petition the leadership of the APS for an explanation, before they could be compelled to explain in words any student can understand,

why students expected to model honest accountability
to higher standards of conduct than the law, and
their senior-most role models are not.

Does the new APS COO have any experience running a police force?

APS has identified, link, APS' COO Brad Winter's replacement.  He is Ruben Hendrickson.  Hendrickson is of course, an APS insider.

If Brad Winters leaves any loose ends, an insider can be trusted to tie them up discretely; without anybody finding out about them.

In, 2007, then APS Supt Beth Everitt admitted that the problems in the police force leadership at the time, were the result of APS Deputy Supt Tom Savage's lack of experience in running a police force, link.

Winter apparently has no more experience running police forces than Savage with the same result, public corruption and incompetence of the highest order and at the highest levels.

Winter's replacement will be directly in charge of APS' Praetorian Guard.

It's a fair question;

does Ruben Hendrickson have any idea how, much less any direct experience in the oversight of an armed publicly funded private police force; in particular one with manifestly incompetent and corrupt senior leadership?

The answer of course is; only what he has witnessed first hand
while working in the leadership of the APS and around Brad Winter.


 

photo Mark Bralley

Get a grip, people

There come times I suspect, in all governments, when the people are required by their obligations, to stand up and be counted in opposition to the government.

As important as voting is, it is not standing up to be counted.
It is not marching; it is not demonstrating; it is not occupying.

Sometimes you have to march.  How else has tyranny ever been overthrown?

But, it has to be done right.  In this day and age, if the marches and demonstrations and occupations are uncivil, they are ineffective in direct proportion to their incivility.

Why do people, when they do finally stand up, then over exercise their rights to speak and assemble freely and petition their government for redress of their grievances?

Their need to over exercise is fed by the belief that nothing less will be enough.  It is fed by the belief that if you walk up quietly, wait your turn and speak your piece, it will not be heard.

It is fed by the conviction that there will be no good faith response to a peacefully delivered petition.

If that conviction is delusional, then all the government has to do, to dispel the delusion, is to point to the time, the day and the place where they will sit and respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly to legitimate questions about the public interests and about their public service.

There will be, according to the government; no such time, no such day, no such place.

The fundamental problem is the fact that the people believe the government is not paying attention to them.  Government is becoming less and less, government of the people, by the people and for the people.

The people rightly must stand up.  There equal obligation is to stand up rightly.

The kind of attention that needs to be paid to problems, will not be paid to people who are destroying public property and provoking confrontations with the police.  They will compound the problem by using the inattention to justifiy further destruction and provocation.  Their conduct diminishes the credibility of everyone around them.  A justifiable position is not strengthened by incivility and criminal misconduct.

What we lack are leaders that can both excite and calm the people; excite them to the point where they will leave their spheres of comfort and safety to go somewhere, to stand to be counted and then, calm them into behaving like civilized human beings when they do.

Its a fine line.  Its why there aren't more leaders.

Winter retires in 3 weeks; Houston can stall Tellez report until then

In the Journal this morning; link; part of the story of the hastily arranged retirement of Albuquerque Public Schools senior administrator Brad Winter.

If APS COO and City Councilor Brad Winter is to retire before the facts are known about public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS and its publicly funded private police force, Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston has only to hide the truth for three more weeks.

If that possibility seems outlandish, consider that public records; the findings of the previous investigations of felony criminal misconduct in the APS Police leadership are still hidden.

Tellez answered to Winter.

Winter, according the Journal, was not available for comment.

Winter will retire in 25 days.

In 26 days, Sheriff Dan Houston will be free to make available; the public record of administrative and executive incompetence and corruption in the leadership of the APS.

Assuming of course it is ever made available; a huge and utterly unjustified assumption .

The equivalent records from the 2006 scandal remain hidden in their entirety, still.  The findings of every single investigation of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators are being hidden from public knowledge at enormous expense to taxpayers.

The leadership of the APS has in their hands right now, the most recent findings of an investigation done by their in house but otherwise independent investigator Robert Caswell.  The findings have not been and will not be produced; not in ethical redaction, not at all.

If you ask them, how they intend to do that, they must answer that they will hide behind legal weaselry and the inadequacies in the Inspection of Public Records Act.

If you ask them why they intend to hide the records,
you will find them "unavailable for comment".

There is only one reason to hide the truth and that is to avoid the consequences of the truth being known.

Winter will leave as well, without having first produced a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the spending he and they have done sprucing up the digs at 6400 Uptown Blvd, link. 

Brad Winter spent how much on what?
Look; something shiny, a retirement with honors party!

Nowhere, in any record APS will produce, can you find out how much money the leadership of the APS spent in their castle keep.  Nowhere will you find, what they spent it on. 

This only makes a difference because we're talking about millions of dollars that could have been spent fixing up classrooms instead of on hardwood paneling in good ol' boys offices.  And, it makes a difference as a matter of principle.

According to a contemporaneous audit by the Meyners and Co, all those millions of dollars were spent;

1. without adequate standards, and
2. without adequate accountability to such standards as there were, and
3. without adequate record keeping. 

the trifecta of public corruption.

This situation could not exist without the complicity, complacency or incompetence of the traditional press; the Journal in particular.

If I had to pick one, I'd have to pick complicit.
Up to their eyeballs and then some, complicit.




photos Mark Bralley

BCSD/O Tellez investigation enters 8th week

Disregard for the purpose of this argument; circumstances over which Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston has no control.

The Sheriff's Department/Office has taken too long to complete it's investigation of allegations of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.

Tellez was Winter's direct subordinate

It's fair to ask, why?

Is it as simple as letting APS'
COO Brad Winter retire before
the shit hits the fan over his
lack of oversight over APS'
publicly funded private police force?

Would Dan Houston do that for a fellow Republican?

In general, the amount of time it takes to complete an endeavor depends on two variables; one's ability to complete the endeavor and one's willingness and interest in completing the endeavor. In politics and public service, the time it takes to complete an endeavor depends on competence and character.

In general, the simpler an endeavor, the less time it should take to complete it.

By outward appearance, the investigation of allegations of felony criminal misconduct by former APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez should be a simple one.

Things don't get much simpler than a confession.





If the investigation has become complex, as did the investigation by Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, link, then why won't he say so?  Brandenburg at least wrote;

It will take months before we make any decisions, as it is complex and we are working on many other things, too."

The "complexity" of the investigation and her manifest lack of interest ultimately got the best of the public interests in the public schools.  Statutes of limitation were allowed to expire on felony criminal misconduct.

The longer it takes to complete the investigation or offer a good and ethical justification for the delay, the more likely it is that
Houston is overwhelmed by the endeavor and or,
he has no real interest in completing it.

Houston's manifest lack of candor, forthrightness and honesty regarding his investigation points to his incompetence and or his corruption.

The failure of the traditional press to investigate and report upon the ongoing coverups of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators points to the same two possibilities.
The traditional press; the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV are overwhelmed by the endeavor, and or
they they have no real interest in investigating and reporting upon incompetence and corruption in the leadership of the APS.

Their relentless failure to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS points to their incompetence and or their corruption at the management level.

It is a management level decision that neither the absence nor the abundance of honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence in the leadership is worthy of report to the people whose power and resources they are spending.

It would be as newsworthy to report on high standards and honest accountability, as it will be to report that there are not and, that there is not.




photos Mark Bralley

Student graduates CNM before APS illuminating the dichotomy in public education

Whose interests come first; students or the system?

KRQE reports, link, on a young lady who has earned two degrees from Central New Mexico College before she was allowed to graduate from APS.

It points to the greatest dichotomy in public education;

• the need to create independent lifelong learners at their own speed v

• the relentless effort to take 30 kids with nothing in common but their age, and try to form them into thought choirs, able to learn in unison for twelve years.  30 kids in five rows of six desks, each on the same page in the same book on the same day.

Even if you could standardize individual achievement,
why would you want to, and especially at such great effort?

If the ultimate goal of public education is to create independent lifelong learners, why is it not the immediate objective?  Why are we trying instead to standardize individual achievement?
Students can be accommodated in their right to learn as fast as they want or as slowly as they need to.  The technology is there, the willingness to apply it is not.

The simple truths are;

1. there enormous amounts of power and resources to be spent in trying to educate and test children in groups,
2. there are a lot of people who enjoy spending enormous amounts of power and resources, and
3. you can expect them to prolong the status quo, blatantly or surreptitiously, for as long as they are able.

In start contrast, there is comparatively no money to be made in teaching children how to become independent lifelong learners at the earliest opportunity. 

Ass City Attorney signs mayor up for First and Fourteenth Amendments test case

Assistant City Attorney Greg Wheeler has responded, on behalf of Mayor Richard Berry and "the City", to my requests for "press credentials".

I need "credentials" in order to attend and participate in press conferences. This despite the fact; from a Constitutional standpoint, there is no such thing as "press credentials".

(Congress shall make no law ...) shall require no trinket, no talisman, fetish, mascot or mojo, no proof of membership as proof of entitlement to First Amendment protection of the press.

Voltaire argued convincingly;

a man is free at the instant he wants to be.

He doesn't have to "prove" that he is free, before he is free.

It must be the same with the press.

A wo/man is the press at the instant s/he wants to be.

S/he does not have to "prove" s/he is the press, before s/he is the press.  Entitled therefore to equal protection under the law.

If there is an issue over "pressness"; why is it automatically incumbent upon the press to prove that they are the press?

Why is it not automatically incumbent upon the small town mayor to prove the the press is not the press before denying them free exercise of their human right to be "the press"?

My request is for the same treatment as is afforded to traditional press; prior knowledge of press conferences, entrance and the opportunity to ask legitimate questions about the public interests and the about the public service of politicians and public servants.

The Fourteen Amendment here quoted in significant part;

no mayor "... shall ... deny to any (blogger) ...
the equal protection of the laws.

Mayor Berry can take questions
from all of the press or he can
take questions from none of the press.

What he can't do, is to take questions
from some of the press.

In particular, he can't take questions
from only some of the press if the some
are distinguished from the others by a
process that won't stand Constitutional scrutiny.

Berry's process; the "City's" process, cannot stand Constitutional scrutiny.  That is precisely why they are hiding it, even in response to a request for public records.

At the very least, the process is utterly arbitrary and based upon who one is, what one has said, and more importantly, the process depends on what one intends to say or do.  It's called prior restraint.  It's unconstitutional.  The process that "the City" of Albuquerque uses to distinguish those press who are invited to press conferences from those who are banned from press conferences is unconstitutional.

The Journal gave Defendant Marty Esquivel a few kind inches this morning, link, allowing him to point out that times have changed,

"... in particular the willingness of nontraditional journalists to push the envelope.”.

Berry doesn't get to ban me from press conferences because I "push the envelope" by asking questions like;

Who do Mayor Richard Berry's and other PIOs serve;
the people whose servants they are or,
the interests of the politicians and public servants
at whose pleasure they serve? link?

The issue; who is and who is not protected by the First Amendment, needs to be settled.  Times have changed.  One cannot offer protection for the press without answering who is the press?  Who is the press in the fundamental foundation upon which any Constitutional protection of the press must rest.

In real time, it is more important to know who has the authority at the local level to make that decision on the spot, in the form of  a command decision.  The courts? small town mayors? mid-level oligarchs?

I think we're about to find out.
Wheeler's letter, link.
Thank you, Ass City Attorney Greg Wheeler.




photos Mark Bralley

APS Police leadership; the gang that can't shoot straight?

APS Police officers, because they carry guns, have to be able to shoot them; accurately.  Every year, they, like any other police officer authorized to carry a gun, must "re-qualify".

I am told that in the past, the leadership of the APS went together to a private shooting range to witness each others' qualification.  I am told they didn't all shoot as well as they reported they had.

Now enter the Bernalillo County Sheriff  Dan Houston.  He has decided apparently, that qualifications for APS Police officers including the highest ranking of them, will be shot under the watchful eye of deputy sheriffs who would be less likely to cut any slack to high ranking APS police.

I am told a senior APS police officer, based on his failure to qualify, is now dressed in civies and without a gun.

The problem is not their failure to qualify.

The problem is the difficulty that an average citizen will have in trying to get a look at the public records of the qualification shoots.  I have asked for those records but hold little hope that they will ever be produced.

It's just not the way they roll.

cc KRQE, KOAT and KOB TV "investigative" news upon posting

Why do criminal investigations of APS administrators take so long? Part two

Criminal investigations, and civil complaints involving APS senior administrators and school board members take so long, because the leadership of the APS has virtually unlimited money and influence to use to delay the process.  APS and taxpayers actually pay higher insurance premiums because of the sheer weight of the cost is no object legal defenses they field in order to escape the consequences of their misconduct and incompetence.

The power and money these folks are spending to separate themselves from the consequences of their incompetence and or corruption, is not theirs.  The power and resources they're abusing in their own interests, belong to the people.

The budget from which they feed their legal defenses is for all practical intents and purposes, unlimited.  They spend from the operational fund; money that could and should otherwise be spent in classrooms.

They don't tell the truth about the amount they're spending.

When Rob Nikolewski of Capital Report New Mexico, link, asked;

"... how much has APS — a public institution funded by taxpayers — spent to fight MacQuigg in court?"

he reported;

APS Communications Specialist Johanna King told New Mexico Watchdog the estimated legal fees will come to “about $250,000.”

The information is false.  The estimate is "off"; too far off to be innocent.

Defendant Marty Esquivel's defense alone will cost more than the "estimate".

Although APS lawyers will argue that the response is "legal" because the words "estimate" and "about" were used, the number she reported is off by a factor of at least three already and will likely end up off by a factor of four.  Even more if they decide to go to trial.  The amount could double again.So did the APS "communications specialist" lie?  It is unlikely.

Lying includes a intention to deliberately deceive.
Johanna King occupies a rung on the APS ladder where the
deceptions are repeated, not on the rung where they are conjured up.

The rung above King is
occupied by APS' Crisis
Manager, Executive Director
of Communications and
hawker of calendars
Monica Armenta.

I doubt the "estimation" was written in her hand either.

The estimation was not attributed.  If one is going to fabricate information, it doesn't pay to attach their name to the fabrication.

So who then?  It makes a difference because someone in the leadership of the APS deliberately misled the press; albeit a digital pressman; "Rob Nikolewski.  Either that, or whomever made the "estimate" was manifestly incompetent to make the estimation.  Corruption or incompetence, the effect is the same; the press and the people have been misled.

As far as I know, the Journal has not been misled.
There is no need to mislead the Journal, or any of the
establishment's press, because not one of them has any intention to investigate or report upon the squandering of public trust and treasure by the leadership of the APS.  Ever, apparently.

Why do criminal investigations of APS administrators take so long?

In June of 2007, the scandal in the APS Police force leadership, link, had been in the news for four months.  I wrote to then and current Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg and asked for a progress update on the investigation of allegations of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.

Among other things, link, she wrote in response;

"We cannot comment regarding specifics. The investigation is ongoing & being reviewed. It will take months before we make any decisions, as it is complex and we are working on many other things, too." 

Brandenburg's estimate was spot on.
It has taken months, 82.1  to be exact.
And, like Sheriff Dan Houston's
ongoing investigation; no end in sight.

Statutes of limitation on felony
criminal misconduct have expired long since.

In a later interview, she told me she couldn't do anything because APS hadn't turned over the evidence and she had no authority to make them produce it.

The "evidence" the findings of several investigations including a criminal self-investigation by the APS Police force, is still hidden from Brandenburg and from the people.  The current leadership of the APS is spending untold operational dollars trying to keep them secret.

If only the establishment's media weren't in cahoots,
we could hold them all accountable.




photo Mark Bralley

"1. no 2. yes"

In response to my questions of the Bernalillo County Sheriff/s Dept PIO

Sgt. Aaron Williamson,

1. A simple yes or no, can you estimate a day for the conclusion of the investigation into the allegations against Steve Tellez?

2. You still have not answered my question; will you produce the findings of that investigation (pursuant to my previous and ongoing public records request) to me at the same time you produce them for the "media"?

macq

fyi

Graduation rates; comparatively meaningless

Much hoopla recently, link, about reaching an 80% high school graduation rate nationally.  Locally, more like 70%.

There are a number of ways to measure the effectiveness of public schooling.  Among the least meaningful and therefore least useful, are graduation rates.

There are students "graduating" from high school who can't read.  Colleges and universities are bulging with students in need of remedial classes because high school "graduates" are not adequately prepared for post secondary education.

Any claim that a typical high school "graduate" is prepared for life after high school is patently false.

So why the emphasis on one of the least valid indicators of the effectiveness of public schooling?

The emphasis is placed there because graduation rates are comparatively the most easily manipulated.  School board and senior administrators cannot manipulate ACT and SAT scores, or any other objective measure of learning and performance, but they can manipulate graduation rates.  It is precisely because it is so easily manipulated, that it is a favorite of politicians and public servants. 

In the APS for example, it was decided that graduation rates should be calculated based on five years in school instead of four.  Regardless of the rightness or wrongness of the decision, it is impossible to deny that the decision raised graduation rates without raising performance.

Similarly, APS' decision to drop from graduation rate calculations, students who had failed the 9th grade, link, raised APS' graduation rate again without raising performance.

My own opinion is that there needs to be a cumulative test.  Every student, in order to "graduate" from high school must pass the test (whatever "test" is ultimately determined to mean).

If the testing is well done, students who can pass that test won't need remediation before college.  Students who can pass that test will be ready for apprenticeships and vocational training.  Students who can pass the test, life long independent learners, will be prepared for life.

Graduation rates are a smoke screen.  They are being used to cover up the fact that public schooling is not getting any better.  For all of the advances in learning and education, public schooling is not getting any better.  It should be getter better and cheaper every year.  Any other industry enjoying leaps and bounds in technology gets better and cheaper; why not public education?

The ongoing failure of public education is an executive and administrative failure.  They have the wherewithal to control the language of their evaluations and they choose to use "graduation rates" because graduation rates don't reflect their ongoing failure.




photo Mark Bralley

Brad Winter retiring from APS?

Steve Tellez was Winter's subordinate.

It's only a rumor, but I've heard that APS Chief Operations Officer Brad Winter is about to retire.

It was from under Winter's watchful eye that former APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez allegedly stole public property.  Is the scandal in the leadership of APS' publicly funded private police force coming home to roost?

It wouldn't be the first time a senior administrator hit the bricks after a scandal in the leadership of APS' police force.

APS Deputy Supt Tom Savage was let go after the 2006 scandal, link.  Good ol' boys, when they have to fire other good ol' boys don't use words like fired, terminated or even, let go. Instead, they like say retired with honors.

Winter, like Savage, will not be bounced for his lack of oversight.
Winter, like Savage, will retire with honors.

Among the things Winter didn't do before he left; he never produced a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the public resources he and they spent sprucing up 6400 Uptown Blvd, link.







photos Mark Bralley

Sheriff's investigation of Steve Tellez into 7th week. What do we make of that?

The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office/Dept investigation of former APS Chief of Police has entered its 7th week.  There is still no end in sight.

When the Sheriff's PIO last briefed the establishment media, there was an end in sight.  He indicated that the investigation would take two weeks.

We're into the 7th week now.

The fact that Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston; the guy who sits behind the desk where the buck stops, isn't saying anything is significant.

Something is said, when they say nothing at all.

There is only one reason to hide the truth; that is to escape the consequences of telling the truth.

My experience and cynicism lead me to believe that the Sheriff's detectives have found evidence of a culture of corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.  And now, the "powers that be" would like to keep it hidden.

They have found circumstances that allegedly led one of the senior-most administrators in the entire APS to believe that he could walk off with public property being stored in plain sight, and get away with it.

Nobody allegedly does anything, unless they think they're going to get away with it.

It isn't power that corrupts.  It isn't money.
It is temptation that corrupts, and rather absolutely.
The greater the temptation the more inevitable the corruption.
The more certain you are that you're going to get away with doing something wrong, the greater the temptation, the more likely you are to do it.  Do the (human nature) math.

Which presents a greater temptation?;

• a hundred dollar bill lying loose on a table in a casino, or 
• a hundred dollar bill lying loose in an empty hallway?

Which presents a greater temptation and therefore a greater likelihood that people will think they can walk off with public property and get away with it;

• an administration where there is actual and honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within public service, 

or,

• an administration with little or no actual honest accountability even to the law.

Talk about an empty hallway.

Blame Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz.  He has allowed his personal relationship with people like School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel to interfere with his greater obligation to the people who trust that he will tell them the truth about the spending of their power and resources in the APS.

Blame all the heavy hitters at the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB who steadfastly refuse to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Blame them for not putting pressure on Dan Houston, to tell us what the hell is going on with his investigation of still more felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.

How is a felony criminal investigation of a member of the administrative inner circle of the local school district, one of the twenty or so biggest in the country, not newsworthy?  If only to report that it's all a big misunderstanding and everything is hunky-dory;

• APS really does have standards of conduct and competence high enough to protect the public interests.

and

• the accountability to those standards is so swift, so certain, and so inescapable - even for the most powerful politicians and public servants in the APS

that there is no temptation and therefore, no culture of corruption, and no culture of incompetence.

Either way its newsworthy.  They won't report either version.
That makes them complacent, complicit, incompetent or
just plain lazy.




photos Mark Bralley

Armenta now APS' star witness

"Star" in the sense of "best", not "good" or credible, by any stretch.

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta has the same problem that all of APS' witnesses have; no evidence in support of their testimony.

Not one second of videotape,
not one bite of sound,
not one photograph.

Nothing but her (and their) manifestly conflicted testimony.


In order to escape the consequences of his violation of my Constitutionally protected human rights, Defendant Marty Esquivel has to prove that I am a genuine safety threat to school board members and senior administrators.   Dangerous enough to justify him in banning me from school board meetings for the rest of my life*.

*For rest of my life, or until I admit doing something wrong though I did not and then, promising "sincerely" to Esquivel's personal satisfaction, that I will never do it again, though it is my every right to do it again and again and again.  "It" being; standing up at the podium of a school board meeting public forum and criticizing school board members and senior administrators by name,

I can't really promise that I will never to that again. 
It is in fact, my specific intention.

Like I said; for life.

Esquivel's personal reputation is on the line and he would rather see my reputation destroyed than his own.

Former APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez was going to be Esquivel's star witness.

With his years of experience and supposed credibility, his testimony might have carried some weight.  Though again, no evidence to support his allegations.

Tellez' testimony, whether they still try to use it or not, remains conflicted.

It has been necessary (in Tellez' mind) to defame and discredit me ever since I began asking for public records that would reveal his part in felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS' publicly funded private police force, link.

Tellez has spent years slandering and libeling me.  He stirred people up to the point where they spent a quarter of a million dollars fortifying the twin towers against my inevitable "armed assault".  $250K on cameras and Kevlar and not one iota of evidence to justify any of it.  It's ironic that with all the cameras they installed to keep an eye on me, they can't produce a single frame of evidence that I actually did anything I need even to be ashamed of.

As an advocate of higher standards of conduct than the law, I made myself a role model of those standards of conduct.  In the same manner that the leadership of the APS made themselves role models of the Pillars of Character Counts! by establishing and enforcing them on students, as an advocate of their accountability as role models, I acquired my own set of obligations and duties.

As a role model, any of the behavior they allege would have been against my own best interests.  As a spokesperson, I had everything to lose and nothing to gain by threatening anybody. 

Would Armenta have given me the press credentials I asked for if I had ever actually threatened her?  I think not.  If I had, it would still be with everything to lose and against my every interest.

In any case, with Tellez' recent plummet from whatever semblance of credibility he might have had, Defendant Esquivel is in need of a new star witness in his effort to defame and discredit me.

Up steps APS' Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta.

It falls upon her now, to convince a federal judge and jury that I am a threat not only to her but to everyone else.  Never mind that the only threat I pose to any of them is my search for public records and what I write them on this blog.

Oh yes, and the threat I pose to them, from podium during a public forum.

It is interesting that when Esquivel banned me for life, it was only from school board meetings with public forums.
 
If I am a genuine threat to their personal safety, how is it that they only need to protect themselves from me when there is a public forum or a place to stand and hold a poster?

Esquivel's only and slim hope to avoid the public humiliation of being found guilty of violating my civil rights is to somehow create an ex post facto justification for his banning letter.

Esquivel needs the judge and jury to believe that Monica Armenta has legitimate reasons to be afraid of me.  By and through his lawyers, Esquivel writes;

Finally, after sitting through seven hours of powerful testimony in which Ms. Armenta recounted the terror Mr. MacQuigg inspires in her through his intimidating actions, he defiantly posted a blog entry entitled “First, We Need to Kill All The [Public Information Officers]” .

This is Esquivel's best shot? Seriously?

Read the post, link,  and if you'd like, my defense of the headline, link.

No reasonable person, no judge, no jury is going believe the headline was written to inspire terror in APS' highly paid Crisis Manager, link.  Whatever part of Armenta's expressed fear of me is genuine, is not due to anything I did.  If anything, it flowed from or was exacerbated by Steve Tellez relentless slander and libel.

Nevertheless, Defendant Esquivel has paid his lawyer to write, here quoted in significant part;

"Plaintiff’s public posting ... appears to threaten an individual who (had) expressed real and personal fear for her safety the day before (based in part on Plaintiff’s hundreds of pictures of her) is ... “objectively reasonable”.

Fear for her safety based on the hundreds of pictures I've taken of her?

Where is Esquivel's evidence of "hundreds of photographs" I've allegedly taken? During discovery, we produced all of the photographs I had.

The truth is, I have not taken even tens of photographs of Armenta, never mind hundreds.  Honestly, I would be surprised to find I have taken even ten photos her.

I had no reason to take pictures of her.  In truth, I have taken so few photographs of any of them, that during APS Supt Winston Brooks' sworn deposition he testified; he didn't believe he had ever seen me taking photographs.

An image I did capture with my own camera, left, is of Monica Armenta giving me the "APS thumb"; get him out of here!

The thumb is a signal to their Praetorian Guard, their publicly funded private police force, to put an end to the free expression of my Constitutionally protected human rights.

They're certified police officers.  They're not supposed to take orders from people like Armenta, but they do.




photos Mark Bralley except as noted

Who will stand up for Character Counts!? when? where?

Before we begin, this really isn't about Character Counts! per se.
It is only about Character Counts! because that happens to be
the standards of conduct that the leadership of the APS has
established and enforces upon students.

It is really about character education in general and about
whether public schools should play any deliberate part in
the development of character in students beyond having them
read a hackneyed fable about George Washington and the
Cherry tree, wikilink

APS School Board Policy, by way of the APS Student Behavior Handbook, reads;

students are expected to model and promote 
the Pillars of Character Counts!

As far as modeling standards of conduct, what we're really talking about is modeling accountability.  One models standards by modeling what it looks like to be held honestly accountable to them.

I really don't care whether the Pillars are the standards for APS students, or some other equally appropriate model. That said, the Pillars of Character Counts!, link, are a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.   I have yet to come across a better model.

Even then, its not about the model, its about an honest to God dedication to higher standards of conduct than the law.

The one thing that every character education model shares is the conviction that there are higher standards of conduct than the law and it is important that students learn about them in the hope that they will come embrace them.  In the hope that they will grow into adults who embrace character (however defined) and courage and honor.

When Character Counts! came to APS, it came with a bunch of money. United States Senator Pete Domenici had brought home a federal grant. The records of who spent how much money were not made available even after several requests.

Senator Pete Domenici was actually a Founding Father of Character Counts!; he helped write the six pillars;

• Trustworthiness, 
• Respect, 
• Responsibility, 
• Caring, 
• Fairness and 
• Citizenship.

The Pillar of Trustworthiness, by the way, is the one that has them running. It requires of persons of character and of role models of ethical standards of conduct, candid, forthright and honest responses to a legitimate question about the public interests or about their public service.

I asked the good Senator, by and through his pio, to intervene in APS under the table abandonment of the Pillars he helped write.

He was/is nowhere to be found as APS school boards and superintendents take down Character Counts! posters and hide them away in closets.

They didn't "phase out" Character Counts!; they simply changed their minds.  Character doesn't count; not enough anyway to make any concerted effort at all to teach and role model honest, actual personal accountability to higher standards of conduct than the law.


At the time the federal grant needed spending, former APS School Board President Paula Maes Maes was elected or appointed to be the President of the APS Character Counts! Leadership Council.

She is still around.

She is the President and CEO of  the New Mexico Broadcasters Association and apparently has enough juice with the local affiliates to keep them from doing an investigation and report on the abdication of the entire leadership of the APS from their duties and obligations the senior most role models of student standards of conduct. Either that, or the story really isn't "newsworthy".

Maes was the President of the APS Character Counts! Leadership Council.

Awhile later, she and the rest of the board voted unanimously to remove the language in their own code of conduct, that required them to actually step up as a role models of higher standards of conduct than the law.  They removed the role modeling clause in the hope that they could legal liability stemming from their role modeling malfeasance.

Their role modeling clause use to read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult,
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

By striking it, they hoped to eliminate their obligations as role models of any standards of conduct higher than the law. The law, it must not be forgotten, is the standard of conduct that every "higher standard" conduct is higher than.

Maes and Domenici are not alone in their abandonment of Character Counts!.

Former Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez was a huge fan.  He regarded himself as a local Founding Father of the Character Counts! movement.

If I recall, he even had the CC! logo or message on a decal on city vehicles.  APS still does; the Pillars of Character Counts! are displayed on the sides of their publicly funded private police cars.

Chavez is still around and nowhere to be found as the APS Board and senior-most administrative role models abdicate; deciding they would rather be not be actually, honestly accountable to any standard of conduct higher than the law.

Under any standard of conduct higher than the law, their abdication would be seen for what it is, cowardice, corruption, or both.

Greater Albuquerque President Teri Cole was a big cheerleader for Character Counts!.

She still around and nowhere to be found.

Many years ago, I asked her to do something to stop the abdication of the entire leadership of the APS after they voted to strike role modeling from their own standards of conduct.

Her response meant no.

I cannot find any reference that Albuquerque Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz ever stepped up at some point and either endorsed Character Counts! or at least character education.

If he did, he is of course still around
and nowhere to be found.

Literally nowhere; the Journal relentlessly refuses to investigate and report upon an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.
 
Is there really no page in a legitimate newspaper, where this story might fit?

I look forward to my return to the public forum in a couple of weeks.

I will advocate as usual, in favor of meaningful character education in the APS.

It would be nice if a few other people who believe;

if we really want children to grow into adults
who embrace character and courage and honor,
someone has to show them what it looks like.

would show up at that forum and take advantage of a
rare opportunity to actually stand up for
what you believe in, for two minutes.




photos Mark Bralley except for Walz, whom I caught.

If Tellez is charged, his credibility will be diminished. Is that why he isn't being charged?

Tellez whispers in Winter's ear link
despite Winters' sworn testimony;
nobody whispers in his ear, ever.
To be fair; Tellez could be blowing
in Winter's ear; it's hard to be sure.

If there is a star witness in APS' trumped up allegations against me, it is former APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez.

He is at the center of APS' efforts to defend themselves by defaming me.

It is their only defense against the complaints I have filed against them.




If Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston ever completes the investigation of allegations of felony criminal misconduct that have been leveled at Tellez, and the findings of the investigation are that Tellez should be criminally charged, Tellez' character and credibility will suffer.

If he is actually charged, they will suffer more.  Upon his conviction, his testimony will become worthless.

Therefore, it is to the advantage of APS Defendants Marty Esquivel, Winston Brooks, Monica Armenta and the board, if Dan Houston takes forever to complete his investigation.  Forever is an option but not a necessity, they just need it to happen after Steve Tellez testifies against me.

APS, in their motion to reconsider, claims they are looking for an evidentiary hearing.  The last thing they want is for the judge to study the evidence.  They have no supporting evidence; we have an abundance of evidence; too much even to use.

What they are looking for is a "testimonial" hearing; an opportunity for the judge to listen to the manifestly conflicted testimony APS COO Brad Winter, APS ED of C, Defendant Monica Armenta and Defendant Steve Tellez, former APS Chief of Police.  None of whom have any hard evidence to support their unfounded allegations.

Armenta for example, has claimed that I followed her around in my car.  Under oath, she admitted that it was only one time and she didn't actually see me following her but, because we had once ended up at the same place at the same time, I "must have followed her" there.  Armenta has a motive to lie, she has been the subject of a number of exposes on her character and competence as t public information officer and APS senior administrator.

Brad Winter has also been the subject of numerous posts on this blog, on his character and competence.  He has the same motive to lie.  When his sworn deposition is compared to videotapes of the same incidents, there is very little in common.

Steve Tellez will testify, if not investigated, charged and convicted first of felony criminal misconduct, about the threat I constitute to the leadership of the APS.  He has a motive to lie.  The threats I constitute are my relentless efforts to get a hold of findings of several investigations into allegations of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of APS' publicly funded private police force.

The findings will show that Tellez, if not guilty outright of complicity in public corruption and incompetence, was complacent about it.  He had guilty knowledge of that corruption and incompetence.  That, or he was bone numbingly incompetent as Deputy Chief.

The question(s) then;
Is the investigation of allegations of criminal misconduct by a former member of APS' innermost circle of leadership, being deliberately delayed

• in the interests of Marty Esquivel, Winston Brooks, Monica Armenta and the Board (which would be public corruption) or

• because the Sheriff's detectives aren't up to the task (which would be incompetence), or

• is it legitimately delayed for unknown reason which his PIO Aaron Williamson cannot possible reveal without "alerting potential defendants to destroy evidence, coordinate stories or flee the jurisdiction"? 

Why would Houston deliberately drag his feet?

Research suggests that cultures of corruption and incompetence exist because the good ol' boys take care of each other.  Good ol' boys are accountable to each other, and certainly not under any system they cannot control.

Their lack of candor, forthrightness and honest flows not from of personal allegiance to each other but allegiance to way of doing things in ways that keep the truth hard to find; a situation that floats the boats of the all of the corrupt and incompetent.

Houston may be covering for Esquivel and Brooks out of some personal allegiance, or he may not even like them.  That question is moot.

The effect is the same, a simple investigation will drag on and on and on, until the good ol' boys can no longer be held actually and honestly accountable.




photos Mark Bralley

BCSD/O Tellez investigation enters 6th week. Still, no end in sight.

If ever I have to write a post entitled

Tellez investigation enters 157th week, 

it will be a week too late for the people to get their pound of flesh from a public servant who betrayed their trust.

Statutes of limitation will have expired on felony criminal misconduct.  Evidence and testimony will not be used in a criminal prosecution of a senior APS administrator over alleged felony criminal misconduct.

Really?     No way!

These same players; APS, BCSO, Tellez,
have done it before.  They will do it again.

The leadership of the APS and the Bernalillo County Sheriff Office allowed statutes of limitation to expire on felony criminal misconduct while holding evidence secret from prosecution.

In 2006, there was felony criminal misconduct going on in the leadership of the APS Police force.  The Journal investigated and reported on it in 2007, link.

The District Attorney Kari Brandenburg has never filed charges.

She has never filed charges, because
she has never seen the evidence.

She has never seen the evidence because the leadership of the APS decided to not let her shoe it to her.

Brandenburg claimed ;

• never to have seen the evidence of felony criminal misconduct and
• to be without the authority to demand to see it.

The evidence still has not been produced; not to the DA and not to the public knowledge.

The findings of every investigation of public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS Police force are still hidden from the District Attorney and they are still hidden from the people.

The leadership of the APS still has not explained why they want to keep the ethically redacted public records secret.

Defendant Esquivel

Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks are spending a lot of your money in federal court, in their effort to keep those findings secret from the people and secret from criminal prosecution.

They dip from a bottomless pool and spend without adequate oversight.






By any honest account; there is a culture of corruption and incompetence in most governments in New Mexico.

Cultures of corruption and incompetence exist in no small part, because the likelihood of being caught and punished is so miniscule.

APS Supt Brooks

With pitifully few exceptions, no pound of flesh is ever taken from powerful politicians and public servants who betray the trust of the people who elected, appointed and or hired them.  For powerful good ol' boys in New Mexico, there is no

payment or punishment that involves suffering and sacrifice on the part of the person being punished.

Its one of the accoutrements of power in New Mexico; if you get caught and you're powerful enough, you just pump in more tax dollars and walk away scot-free.


Steve Tellez does not deserve to walk away scot-free.  No politician or public servant who betrays the public trust should walk away scot-free.  The people deserve their pound of his flesh.

They should especially not walk because strings are being pulled.

Tellez will walk in order to that the people who enabled him to betray the public trust, politicians like Marty Esquivel and public servants like Winston Brooks, can walk on their own guilty knowledge and personal corruption and incompetence.

Kent Walz and the Journal are part of the cover up.

Paula Maes, Winston Brooks

The NM Broadcasters Association Affiliates are bowing to the influence of their President and Chief Executive Officer Paula Maes;  APS heavy hitter at all times relevant herein.

How else do you explain the circumstances?

How else do you explain all of this happening in plain sight and nothing in "the news"?   Not even an investigation and report that my allegations are all bullshit.

Walz caught here by author.

If Kent Walz could publish a report that there is no standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, why would he not?

What is stopping him, and them, from telling us that the standards of conduct and competence that apply to school board members and senior administrators are high enough to protect the public interests?

What is stopping him and them from telling us that board members and senior administrators are honestly accountable to those standards?

Except that the standards are not high enough and
the accountability to them is virtually non-existent.




photos Mark Bralley