KRQE covering up for APS and Modrall

KRQE has reported, link, that the leadership of the APS has entered into a settlement agreement with an employee.

KRQE reports;

It took them more than a year to get APS to hand over the supporting documents.

(Why did it take a year; how much did the delay cost taxpayers. This is typical APS; they paid lawyers to obfuscate the surrender of public records.  KRQE chooses to let it slide - undoubtedly upon the advice of their lawyer Marty Esquivel(?).)

The suit ended up costing APS considerably more than the $65,000 settlement because the district also had to pay Broussard’s attorneys and pay a high-powered law firm to represent the district.

... his attorney declined to comment on the settlement.

KRQE should know; they should have found out, how much the leadership of the APS had to pay to the “high-powered law firm”. They know who the high-powered law firm is and didn't mention them.

KRQE decided apparently; neither fact is “newsworthy”; their viewers have no need to know those two salient facts.

KRQE furnishes a link to the settlement agreement which does not include the amounts that APS paid its own attorneys nor the amount paid to the plaintiff's attorney.

Viewers can read the actual settlement agreement; they can decide for themselves whether taxpayers have bought more admissions of no guilt in exchange for operational funds.
Operational funds are tax dollars that should, could and would be spent in classrooms if they were not being squandered instead in courtrooms; if they were not being spent instead on "high-powered", and really, really expensive lawyers and legal weaselry.

Secrecy surrounding APS and their lawyers is particularly important now because the leadership of the APS needs stake and interest holders to believe that APS is so strapped for cash that they cannot afford to underwrite middle school sports.

They need stake and interest holders to not know;
how much money they’re funneling to their friends at the Modrall and others.  Modrall makes so much money, through their large bore pipeline into APS' operational fund, that the amount they guzzle is secret.  The board spends without limit and without oversight.

The "oversight" that the APS school board is supposed to provide amounts to

1. meetings in held secret, 
2. of which no recording is made, and 
3. over which, there is no oversight. 
   Subordinate oversight is not oversight; it is an oxymoron.

KRQE has been in the bag for APS for a long time; for at least as long as, former school board member and direct beneficiary of APS’s willingness to squander millions of dollars in cost-is-no-object legal defenses for school board members and senior administrators, Marty Esquivel has been their lawyer.

In fairness, it’s not just KRQE covering for APS.
You will notice that there isn’t a word of this in the Journal this morning. Nor anything (a cursory search revealed) from KOB or KOAT.  No surprise there.

When the Journal finally does get around to it, if they get around to it, they cannot be expected to have honestly investigated and reported upon the wholly unjustifiable amount of money the leadership of the APS squanders every year on litigation and legal weaselry.

cc KRQE upon posting
KRQE responded "The settlement follows the dismissal order – just scroll down"

Pat Davis, Congressman, Role Model. Not.

With his announcement that he is running for Congress, and whether he has even considered it or not, Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis would have voters believe that he is ready to step up as one of New Mexico's five senior most Congressional role models.

Role models of what; and before whom?

What ever else and, for whom other else he wants to be a role model worthy of emulation, he claims to be ready for be a role model for a hundred thousand APS students and their contemporaries in charter and private schools, of honest to God accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within his public service.

That seems unlikely in light of his current stand on role modeling, which is; that he finds compelling language "vague and coded".

To wit; a role modeling clause;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult,

be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

The language could not be less vague; there is no coded language as Davis avers, link.

When given the opportunity to defend this indefensible position, he did not.

He still has not.  Nor will he ever.

Davis is not ready, willing and able to be held accountable as a role model, for students and the communities and community members he would serve, of honest to God accountability to the same standards of conduct as are public school students' higher standards of conduct; ethical standards of conduct.

There is no such thing as an inconspicuous role model.

Davis needs to explain to students, in words they can understand, why it is that he cannot be expected to model honest to God accountability to the higher standards of conduct that students are expected to "model and promote".

If we expect students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone is going to have show them what it looks like.  The obligation grows with (even political) stature.

The only thing that stops Davis and nearly every other politician I have ever met, from holding themselves accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human being, is their own individual lack of character, courage, or both.

If there is another explanation, I cannot imagine it, nor has it been suggested to me by any of them.




photo Mark Bralley

Restorative justice too little too late for APS students

The leadership of the APS will spend $4.3 million dollars in an effort to make student discipline “more educational and less punitive”, link.  They're calling it restorative justice.  In this context, restore meaning, reestablish, repair, rehabilitate, rebuild, reconstruct, redevelop …

The fundamental premise; the students in question are, for whatever reason(s) both within and outside of their control, are in need of restoration. And, certainly, we should spend money on their restoration.

Much better; we spend money on prevention. It is a given; dollars spent on prevention go further than dollars spent on repair.

So how much money will APS spend over these same three years on any district wide effort to develop the character in students that might help them minimize their involvement in criminal activity?

The answer; nothing, not one thin dime, not one red cent.

However much sense it makes to offer students restorative justice, it makes exponentially more sense to offer students some training in beliefs and skill sets that will help them “just say no”.

If Thomas Paine was right;

if character is much easier kept than recovered,

then it seems prudent to invest in keeping students from the need to be restored in the first place.

The leadership of the APS will not invest in character education for at least two reasons;

1. Character (education) is not measured in standardized tests, and therefore any attention paid to developing character would necessarily lower test scores in math perhaps, and more importantly,

2. The leadership of the APS cannot find the character and the courage to talk openly and honestly about student standards of conduct; ethical standards of conduct, and their honest to God accountability them.

They are unwilling to admit to, and deal with, the double standards of conduct in the APS; students are expected to model and promote honest accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct. School board members and senior administrators are manifestly unaccountable even to the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

APS leadership in a familiar pickle ... begging and prevaricating

The leadership of the APS went to the people last night, seeking their support during a radio "call in" show.  They seek support in securing more money for their failing enterprise.

They did not take questions directly from stake and interest holders.  They never do.

They claim, according to Blogger Joe Monahan this morning, link, it was technologically impossible for them to take phone calls directly from listeners (without having to spend $2,600 on the technology that would have allowed them to take questions directly, not only during this show, but during every other call in show they will ever have.)

And, all you have to believe is that APS with all it's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of technology and technology experts, cannot manage to play a phone call live into a microphone.

photo Mark Bralley

The Journal wrote about it before, link, and after link.  It appears clear that despite the change in editors-in-chief, the Journal will remain in the tank with the leadership of the APS.

"We don't know about an accountability crisis (in the leadership of the APS)"

Blogger Joe Monahan quoted me in a post this morning, link, on the abject lack of availability of the leadership of the APS to the communities and community members they serve.  I had concluded by pointing out;

There is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

To Joe, and those who don't "know" about an accountability crisis, knowing is as simple as;

1.  ask the leadership of the APS to produce any ethics or standards to which they regard themselves accountable in their public service, and then

2.   ask them to point to the due process(es) by which they can be held accountable to those ethics and standards.

For example; 

1.  Were the school board asked to point to any codes of ethics to which they claim accountability, they would have to name their own code of ethics; link.

2.  Were they then asked to point to any due process at all, by which they might be held accountable to their own code of ethics, they would be compelled to admit that there isn't any.

Ergo, because there are more, equally incontrovertible examples of their lack of honest to God accountability to any standards of conduct at all, even the law, there is an accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Because the media, the Journal in particular, are part of a cover up, it is fair to say that there is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis and scandal.

Current Journal Editor-in-Chief Karen Moses is the person I find most currently most culpable.  She and the Journal refuse to investigate and report upon the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

If only to report that there is not one.

If only to report that school board members and senior administrators are honest to God accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence in their public service.

Journal photo

Moses will not report upon the one
and,
she cannot report upon the other.

APD leadership scores poo...

... reads the ironically truncated Journal headline on my list of open tabs.

It actually reads in full; APD leadership scores poorly in survey.

The article, link, goes on to point out that the survey itself, is statistically meaningless.  Begging at least a couple of questions;

1. Why was even one penny spent on a survey that lacked validity in its very design; you can let people fill out as many surveys as they want to, and expect valid survey results.
2. Why isn't a real survey being done? - one that can be expected to produce valid data.

As to the first, because the person or people who ordered it up, were incompetent, corrupt, or both.

As to the second, the only reason to not tell the truth is to avoid the consequences of the truth becoming known.

APD Chief Gordon Eden

Who in the Albuquerque Police Department, benefits the most from the truth not becoming known, the leadership who ordered up the survey, or the rank and file who never held it in their hands?

Time for a vote of (no) confidence?




photo Mark Bralley

Peercy win ensures continuing scandal cover up

David Peercy has scored a mighty win in the APS school board mini-election.

With that victory comes the end of any hope of an open and honest public discussion of ethics, standards and accountability in the (leadership of the) APS, for at least the next four years.

There is no one in the entire leadership of the APS, who is more responsible than David Peercy for the ongoing double standards of conduct in the APS; higher standards of conduct for students than for administrators and school board members.

We don't need no stinkin'
role modeling clause

There is no one in the entire leadership of the APS, more responsible than David Peercy, for blocking the reinstatement of the role modeling clause into school board and administrative codes of conduct.

As the Policy Committee chair, Peercy steadfastly refuses to hold an open and honest public discussion of the role modeling clause and the responsibilities for the senior-role models in the entire APS.

The board struck their role modeling clause more than a decade ago in order to mitigate their "legal" liability as role models.

Before the night of their unanimous abdication, their standards of conduct contained the following statement and commitment;

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

In the effort to not talk about ethics, standards and accountability in leadership, Peercy has some powerful allies.

The clause was recently maligned by a couple of Albuquerque city councilors.

Pat Davis and
Diane Gibson
say the clause
contains what
they call
"vague" and
coded" language".

During a recent
public forum,
they were given an opportunity to actually point out any vagueness and coded language they perceive, neither would; nor could.

The Journal, despite the retirement of Kent Walz, will remain an ally in Peercy's effort to cover up the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS. 

Frankly, the Journal has no choice.  How can they report credibly upon the ethics, standards and accountability crisis without first reporting credibly on their failure to report upon it heretofore.

Journal image

As an aside; I'm pretty damn certain that Walz' replacement Karen Moses and I have history.  I'd almost swear that it was her that I contacted personally many years ago, trying to get the Journal to follow up in the abdication of the senior-most role models in the district and upon their cover up of state and federal felonies involving senior administrators in their publicly funded private police force.

She told me that if I could get a few hundred signatures of people who care about ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS, she might consider looking into it.

I wasn't able to gather that many signatures - but that's a whole nother story.





photos Mark Bralley

Gibson feigns ignorance, Davis says nothing

Alb City Councilors Diane Gibson and Pat Davis sent out a flyer, link.  Within the flyer, the following;

In District 3, Ali Ennenga talks about “reinstating the Role Model Policy” – which is vague, coded language.

I sent an email to Councilors Davis and Gibson reading;

Councilors Davis and Gibson,
I have to say that I reacted with horror when I was forwarded the following; which was attributed to the both of you;
    Ali Ennenga talks about "reinstating the Role Model Policy" - which is vague, coded language.

The clause to which Ennenga is referring used to read; In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult be lower than the standards of conduct for students,
until it was removed from the board's own code of conduct in 2005, and in the board's self interests.
I know of no one who is better able to "fill you in" on the whole story than I. 
I was one of the first teachers in Alb. to be trained as a Character Counts! trainer of trainers, and am personal witness to the abdication of the board from their obligations and responsibilities as the senior-most role models of honest to God accountability to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students.
School board policy is voted upon every year.  For more than two decades it has read; Students are expected to model and promote (accountability) to the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.  (This is not about Character Counts! per se.  It is, only because the board unanimously adopted the standards in 1994 and has signed off on the language every year since.
My schedule is very flexible; I would like very much, to meet with the both of you, and anyone else that you would like to invite, anytime anywhere.  Obviously, the sooner the better.
There is a full blown ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership.  If the attributed feelings are actually yours, you are aligned on the wrong side of an issue that is having an incalculable negative effect on the thousands of your constituents who are students in the APS.
Whatever else you may have heard about me,  My efforts, and those who have stood around me, recently compelled the largest settlement of its kind, in the history of the United States, against the board.  The board and their lawyers spent nearly a million dollars in an effort to cover up civil rights violations.   They spent the money in meetings in secret, of which no record was made.  They spent without oversight (subordinate oversight is not oversight; it is any oxymoron) They knowingly permitted or negligently allowed a school board member, the superintendent and all of their lawyers to squander a million operational dollars in a non-viable defense of a board member's ego. 
All the allegations are easily, and incontrovertibly proven.

Councilor Davis did not respond; Councilor Gibson wrote;

Dear Mr Macquigg, 

Thank you for contacting me about the school board election. As a citizen of Albuquerque, I am also very interested in how this election will be decided. However as a City Councilor, I don't think a meeting would be productive since Council has little influence over the school board. 

Diane Gibson

When I confronted the two of them over the falsehood, during the public forum at a City Council meeting, I used the overhead projector to display the role modeling clause.  Then I asked them to point to the vague language and to the coded language they claim lies in the role modeling clause.

The interaction was recorded by Charles Arasim and published on YouTube, link.

After I finished, Gibson stated on the record;

"I really don't know what that was about. I have no knowledge of that."

Apparently having forgotten our recent email exchange.











Councilor Pat Davis simply sat there, waiting for the council president to explain that councilors don't answer questions.

He is yet to respond in any manner to allegations that he deliberately misled everyone he told; the role modeling clause is vague and contains coded language.




photos Mark Bralley

David Peercy; still a coward, still a liar.

David Peercy, whether or not he or any other school board member will admit it, is a role model for APS students, of accountability to the standards of conduct that he and the board establish and enforce upon them.

Else is hypocrisy pure and simple.
Do as I say, not as I do.

As school board President, David Peercy is in fact, the senior most role model of accountability in the entire APS; all eyes are upon him, looking to him for leadership by example.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what they look like.

Character is taught by example;
character is taught only by personal example.

A little more than a decade ago, the APS School Board removed the “role modeling clause” from their own standards of conduct. The clause had read; in no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult be lower than the standards of conduct for students (as expressed in the APS Student Handbook)

The handbook requires yearly approval by the board and represents board policy on student standards of conduct. In the handbook, (written at a 14th grade reading level) their expectation of student’s conduct is clearly stated; students are expected to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!. The Pillars represent “higher standards of conduct” than the law.


Since the board openly abdicated their responsibilities and obligations as role models of honest to God accountability to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students, there have been double standards of conduct in the APS. Students are accountable to higher, ethical standards while school board members and administration are accountable only the “the law”; the standards of conduct that higher standards are higher than; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

Longtime APS Modrall
lawyer Art Melendres

They did it on the advice of their lawyers.

At the time, the board and their lawyers were refusing to “tell the truth” in state district court proceedings. Their obfuscation was of course, all “legal”. The board had been challenged in those proceedings, to live up to their obligations as role models of student standards of conduct; in especially those standards which required them to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows. They were being asked to tell as much truth as the law allowed rather than surrendering only as much as could be compelled in the face of cost is no object litigation and legal weaselry.

It is the obligation to answer legitimate questions “candidly, forthrightly and honestly” of which David Peercy and the entire leadership of the APS are so afraid.

David "we don't need no stinkin'
role modeling clause" Peercy.

There is no person in the entire APS who is more responsible for the fact that the board's role modeling clause will never be the subject of open and honest, two-way public discussion, than David Peercy, link.

Peercy and the rest of the "leadership" of the APS are at best unable and at worst unwilling to require from themselves, what they require from students; candor, forthrightness and honesty.

When David Peercy refuses to hold himself honest to God accountable to the same standards of conduct that he establishes and enforces upon students, it is not because, as he repeatedly claims, he is already accountable to even higher standards of conduct than student standards (the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct).  There is no such thing.

There are no standards of conduct higher than any standards of conduct that require candor, forthrightness and honesty in communications with stake and interest holders.

When asked to point to a single one of those supposed higher standards to which he claims accountability, he could not. He cannot.  There are none.

More importantly, when pressed on honest to God accountability and on the fact that their own Code of Ethics is utterly unenforceable, Peercy, clearly grasping for straws, suggested that complaints could be filed through APS’ whistleblower program, link. He suggests, in effect, any complaint regarding his or another board member’s failure to live up to the board’s Code, will see due process at the hands of a subordinate in the administration.

Peercy claims to be a scientist; he should not have to have the appearance of a conflict of interests explained to him. Nor should he need to have it explained to him, that appearances of conflicts of interests come at the expense of the appearance of due process.

When I reminded him that he, and they, could not even be held accountable under the law, he said he would not defend the excesses of former school board member Marty Esquivel, who squandered nearly a million operational dollars in an effort to escape honest to God personal accountability, and to buy for himself, admissions of “no guilt” over civil rights violations he committed while being videotaped, on David Peercy’s watch.

Peercy‘s response; “Marty Esquivel is his own man”.   Thereby absolving himself I suppose, of his failure to keep Esquivel's spending under control; within reason even.  Nearly a million dollars that should, could and would have been spent in classrooms except that they were wasted in court rooms, in Esquivel's from raid the district’s operational fund in order to underwrite his cost-is-no-object but nevertheless non-viable, defense of his ego.

Maestas has yet to pay
the piper for her failure
to role model honest to God
accountability to meaningful
standards of conduct

Finally, on the issue of the actual, honest to God accountability of school board members even to the law, much less their code of ethics, need I remind Peercy of the current status of school board member Analee Maestas?

David Peercy cannot summon the moral courage to hold himself honest to God accountable as a role model of student standards of conduct; he is a coward.

Alternatively, David Peercy claims honest accountability to higher standards of conduct; he is a liar.

His simple defense to both allegations could not be simpler. All he has to do is;

1. Point to any one of the standards to which he claims that he is accountable, that are in fact “higher” than student standards of conduct. And then he must;
2. Point the mechanism by which he and other school board members, senior administrators and their eloquence of lawyers can be held honest to God accountable to that standard, even against their will.

He cannot on either count.
None of them can.

That's why Peercy and the board will never tolerate an open and honest public discussion of ethics, standards, accountability and role modeling in the leadership of the APS.




photos Mark Bralley

APS School Board's silence gives consent.

Qui tacet consentire videtur, ubi loqui debuit ac potuit

He who is silent,
when he ought to have spoken
and was able to, is taken to agree
— Latin proverb wikilink

Have APS students a right to good role models?

If the behavior of the seven senior most role models in the entire APS are any indication, the answer is no.

APS School Board member Maestas

One of them has betrayed the public trust.

The other six of them sit with her at school board meetings and pretend there's nothing wrong; no censure, no nothing.  If asked; they're still "waiting for all the facts".  The case has dropped into the legal process where it will languish until long after anyone who cared stops caring.

The APS School Board expects students to "... model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

Of themselves, the board expects compliance only to "the law".  Already the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings, litigation and legal weaselry will lower them to near non-existence.

Analee Maestas is role modeling a corrupt politician New Mexico style.  The rest of the board are role modeling the enabling culture that allows public corruption and incompetence to continue unabated; even in plain sight.

If we really want students in APS to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone is going to have to show them what they look like.  If not the so called leadership of the APS, then who?

The leadership of the APS is doing everything they can to eliminate Character Counts!.  It isn't about Character Counts! per se; it is about any standards of conduct that require truth telling and honest to God accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

The senior most role models in the entire APS are abdicating right before our eyes; abandoning their duties and obligations as the senior most role models of nearly 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters.

Journal Editor in Chief
Kent Walz - leader in the
cover up of the scandal.

They get away with it, because the Journal is complicit in the cover up of the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.




photos Mark Bralley

CABQ Chief Administrative Officer Rob Perry is a bald-faced liar.

In the Journal this morning, link, CABQ Chief Administrative Officer Rob Perry is quoted regarding his and the city's efforts to keep the truth hidden from stake and interest holders by making special team reviews "secret" records.

Perry said;

“We don’t mean to conceal anything."

Raise your hand if you believe him.

Seeing not one hand; bullshit is called.

CABQ Chief Administrative
Officer Rob Perry
is a bald-faced liar;
shameless and undisguised;
barefaced



photo Mark Bralley

Analee Maestas and the cherry tree

Many Americans have for centuries, been sharing a fable, link, with their children.  The point in sharing the story with children is to encourage them to embrace character and courage and honor

"The cherry tree myth is the most well-known and longest enduring legend about George Washington. 

In the original story, when Washington was six years old he received a hatchet as a gift and damaged his father’s cherry tree. When his father discovered what he had done, he became angry and confronted him. Young George bravely said, “I cannot tell a lie…I did cut it with my hatchet.” Washington’s father embraced him and rejoiced that his son’s honesty was worth more than a thousand trees. 

The fable is useful as an illustrative example, because
there are so few real life examples to point to instead.

One of the senior most role models in the entire APS, School Board Member Analee Maestas, has an opportunity to provide for those who look to her for an example to emulate, honesty worth more than a thousand trees.

She will provide for students apparently,
a diametrically opposite example.

She, and the rest of the APS school board.




photo Mark Bralley

In the absence of trust there must be transparency

The most onerous and inescapable aspect of representative government is that the governed must surrender their control over their combined power and resources, to politicians and public servants.

Except for manifestly feckless governmental conduct laws, and nearly as inconsequential open meeting and public records laws, the only thing the people have ever had to protect their interests has been trust; trust that those they elect, appoint and hire will act in their interests; with the entirely predictable result; “power corrupted; absolute power corrupted absolutely”.

At this point, in the face of human history and any understanding at all of basic human nature, how is it anything but mind-numbingly naïve to expect human beings to not yield to temptation; to not take advantage of the lack of transparency?

If trust has been lost, then there is only transparency left to protect our interests.

There needs to be no argument made, that meetings where the people’s power is being wielded, where the people’s resources are being spent, should be open to the public. The question is; will the meetings be open; what happens if they aren’t?

A more important question is; what are you going to do when by their words or their deeds, they make it clear to you, that they have no intention of letting you watch their little meetings in secret?

Who are you willing to follow, where are you willing to go,
what are you willing to do, to defend your interests?

"Maestas ‘working diligently’ ..."

The Journal headline, link, reads; "

Maestas ‘working diligently’ to resolve $342.40 dispute"

Marc Lowry of the Rothstein Law Firm; the attorney and firm representing Maestas in her effort to escape the consequences of  misconduct, said;

"(Maestas) is “working diligently” to resolve questions surrounding a receipt the state auditor claims she doctored."

Lowry noted in Maestas' defense, that in more than 47 years as an educator, this single receipt for $342.40 is in dispute.

The argument is nonsense of course; the law doesn't provide exceptions for people who have never been caught before.

It's a little like someone accused of drunk driving arguing that they shouldn't be prosecuted because they've never been caught driving drunk before.

Her lawyer wrote;

“Dr. Maestas ... looks forward to returning to her full-time job as the Executive Director of La Promesa Early Learning Center once a full review of this case is completed.”

One wonders how long exactly, a "full review" will take.
It's stretches credulity past its limit, to suppose for even one moment; there has not yet been a "full review" and that the review looks bad for Maestas.

If Maestas' record of not getting caught before is germane at all, it will be during a sentencing hearing to determine a fair consequence; not in determining her guilt or innocence.

Not clear from the Journal report, whether Maestas' will be paying for lawyers or if taxpayers will get stuck with what is bound to be and enormous bill.  When it comes to defending school board members and senior administrators - cost is no object when it comes to their legal defenses.




photo Mark Bralley

The coward David Peercy is a liar.

The coward, link, APS School Board
President David Peercy is lying;
intending to leave impressions 
that are untrue or misleading*.

*conduct prohibited for students by the standards of conduct Peercy and the board enforce upon students but will not enforce upon themselves.

He told the Journal; "... the board has “great concern” about ethics, and that (school board) bylaws require board members to “in all instances, maintain their conduct at the highest professional and ethical standards” ...”

The lie lies in the fact that the board provides no venue where a complaint can be filed against them over ethics violations. By their own free admission, their own code of ethics is utterly unenforceable.

There is a full blown ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS. The board and their supt are covering it up in their own self interests.

They wouldn't be getting away with it, except that Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz is up to his eyeballs in the cover up as well.

Either could completely exonerate them self by simply pointing to the place where school board members and senior administrators can be held honest to God accountable for their conduct and competence.

The Journal is covering up an epic ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS. Walz is covering up double standards of conduct; students are expected to model and promote ethical behavior while their senior most adult role models are manifestly unaccountable even to the law.

All any of them has to do, all they have ever had to do prove otherwise is to;
1. identify their ethics and standards and then
2. point to the process by which they can be honest to God accountable to them, even against their will.

Whether they have written down ethics and high standards or not is moot; there being not one whit of difference between the highest standards and the lowest, if neither is enforceable.

Don't suggest "taking them to court". Peercy and the board (within the last year) knowingly permitted or negligently allowed former school board member Marty Esquivel to squander a million dollars in federal court in defense of his ego. No change has been made that would prevent them from doing the same thing for Maestas.




photos Mark Bralley

APS school board member subject of review and investigation by the state auditor.

APS School Board Member Analee Maestas moved a step closer to justice today when the State Auditors Office released a "Review of Allegations at La Promesa Charter School".  The review outlines the misappropriation of public funds and efforts to mislead investigators.

Maestas is the subject of the report though her name isn't mentioned; referred to repeatedly only as the "executive director".

SAO image

NM State Auditor Tim Keller continues to clean house; his energy and determination are commendable.

According to the review, the NM PED is still conducting another investigation of their own, of which little is known.  The NM PED PIO Robert McEntyre is not inclined to share any information on the investigation.  Though he is a "public servant", he has earned a reputation for ignoring emails and questions this investigation and others.

The Review, link, has been turned over to District Attorney Kari Brandenburg for prosecution.

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




photo Mark Bralley

Pat Rogers; "Shame on (me) for not leaving!"

Republican Party National Committeeman Pat Rogers was the guest speaker at the Bernalillo County Republican Party Friday morning get-together at the Golden Corral this morning.

He began his talk by insisting that any members of the media turn off their recorders and further, that they were not to write anything about what they were going to hear.

When it was my turn to speak, I informed Rogers that had I a recorder with me, I would have turned it on at the instant he told me that I could not.  Who in the hell does he think he is?

Further, I told him that I had every intention to write about what I had seen and heard this morning, specifically including his effort to contain the truth by ignoring the rights of a free press.

Rogers said I should have left the room if I didn't like his terms.

"Shame on you for not leaving the room!" he said.

At which point, I called bullshit.

I am a member of the NM Republican Party and I had every right to attend the meeting.  My human right to be the press is protected by the First Amendment and not subject to the whim of petty politicians and tyrants.

My question to him (it was a Q & A);

"Do you really think this kind of behavior, manipulating the dissemination of truth and the press, is what the Republican Party needs right now?

He chose to not respond directly to the question.




photo Mark Bralley

Former APS school board member comes clean

Former APS Audit Comm Chair Robbins

Former APS school board member David Robbins spoke at the Bernalillo County Republican Party breakfast and meeting last Friday.

His frank admissions of accountability issues in the leadership of the APS had jaws dropping.  Literally.  Ask anyone who was there.

He stood up and confirmed in essence, what I have been saying for years about an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

If the Journal interviews Robbins and reports upon the concerns about which he is finally willing to talk, stake and interest holders; taxpayers in particular, will be outraged.

 ... more than reason enough for the Journal to not investigate and report; as is their want and practice.

As an aside, Robbins confirmed that it was Marty Esquivel personally, who sought to ban me from public forums for life; a violation of my civil rights that ended up costing taxpayers $863K (over a million if you include Mark Bralley's settlement over similar violations).




photos Mark Bralley

Reedy's first act lacked character and courage

aps photo

One of APS Supt. Raquel Reedy's first acts in her capacity as APS' new Chief Administrative Officer, was to hold a press conference; APS style.

APS pressers aren't about informing the democracy.  They're about showcasing whatever it is that the leadership of the APS want to exhibit and display.  They only invite those who have been cooperative in shining the APS apple.

aps photo

An APS style press conference is a press conference to which only "APS credentials" gain admittance.  You have to be on APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta list of media "friends".

Bralley photo

In the face of the potential of another federal complaint being filed against them,  APS, by and through their Director of Communications Rigo Chavez, (supposedly) placed me on the advance notice list for press conferences.

Neither I, nor photojournalist Mark Bralley were notified in advance of the press conference.

I was not invited because, given the floor, I would have asked;

What are your intentions as the senior most role administrative role model of student standards of conduct?  How will you hold yourself honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct* that you enforce upon students?
*The Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

Bralley would have taken photographs of the new superintendent not responding candidly, forthrightly and honestly.

The reporters who Monica Armenta saw fit to invite, would have stood there feeling useless; wondering what it would be like to work for a news organization that was about informing the democracy and not about promoting the interests of their news directors, owners, and former school board heavy hitter Paula Maes and her NM Broadcasters Assoc.

Perhaps some of them, who had not tried before, would have tried to report on the wholesale abdication of the entire leadership of the APS, as role models of student standards of conduct; to no avail.

Supt. Raquel Reedy is absolutely responsible for this, just the latest in a string of violations of my First Amendment rights.

Reedy is responsible because she is knowingly permitting or negligently allowing

• Monica Armenta to indulge her paranoia and personal vendetta against me, by violating my Constitutionally protected right to be the press by knowingly permitting or negligently allowing
• APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez to knowingly or negligently fail to get
• some administrative assistant who Chavez will not identify, and upon whom the blame will be heaped for violating my civil rights, to update the email notification list.

Bralley and I have missed what could have been the most important presser of Reedy's superintendency.

The only way to hold anyone accountable is to take them to court again. To begin again, an impossibly difficult and years long process in search of justice, in order to leave with a settlement including their admissions of no guilt.

Been there and done that; have the T-shirt, and
zero interest frankly,
in earning another.

Raquel Reedy cannot be APS' superintendent; she's unqualified.

aps image

Now APS Supt. Raquel Reedy
is unqualified to be the
superintendent APS because of
her manifest unwillingness to be
held honestly accountable as the
senior-most administrative role
model of student standards of conduct.

Pure and simple.

The argument rests one major premise; students have a right to adult role models.
In particular, they have a right to adult role models of accountability to meaningful standards of conduct.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what those look like.

It is Reedy's apparent intention to double down on APS' double standards of conduct;

• ethical standards for students and

• whatever they can get away with under the law.

Students are led to believe that their good character rides on they own willingness to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows.  It is one of the most fundamental tenets in the Character Counts! character education model.

Yet their senior-most adult role models; school board members and superintendents, spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on litigation and legal weaselry in, so far, successful efforts to escape accountability even to the law.

Reedy listening to teachers - a handful of them anyway.

About 50 teachers from across the district met recently at Sandia High School.  Their convention was called in order that they could "imagine the future of Albuquerque Public Schools".

aps image

Imagining along side them,
Supt. to be, Raquel Reedy.

It is unclear from her weekly 
message to employees, link,
in what capacity exactly,
she participated.

In particular, the convention
participants "imagined" in the
context of working on the
district's Academic Master Plan.

"What skills, dispositions, attitudes and characteristics will our graduates need to succeed in a world that we’re just now imagining? And how do we reshape teaching, learning, classrooms and schools to fulfill the needs of this future generation?"

"Tough questions" in Reedy's estimation.

It is encouraging that the leadership of the APS is finally turning to "practitioners" for input, albeit only 50 of them who may or may not be representative of practitioners as a whole.

Reedy conceded;

It makes sense to turn to practitioners as we develop the Academic Master Plan.

It could not possibly make more sense; Practitioners district wide have more than 100,000 years of current and ongoing teaching experience between them.  Reedy seems surprised to find out that;

"Their experience, insight and vision are proving to be invaluable."

"(Their) astute thoughts ... will help us flesh out our goals and develop focus areas and strategies for preparing our students for the happy, successful lives they deserve."

This story ends the way all stories about gathering stake and interest holder input, end; for all of the effort and expense, Reedy will not be able to identify one thing, not one, that she both;

• learned from their input and that,

• she should not have already known.

Nothing new here.

To file as well, under nothing new;
the school board will meet Wednesday, in secret, to evaluate Raquel Reedy's performance as acting superintendent, and then likely offer her the job permanently (relatively speaking of course).

Reedy will assume the position without having once admitted that she is as such, she becomes the senior-most administrative role model of honest to God accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics, the Pillars of Character Counts!; the standards of conduct the school board established and she will enforce upon students.

Are APS school board members accountable as role models?

As a school board member, Analee Maestas is one of the senior-most role models in the entire APS.

As a role model, she must follow one or the other of only two paths;
1. show students what it looks like to do the right thing; or
2. show students what it looks like to accept responsibility for having failed to do the right thing.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what they look like.

Teachers have to show students what character and courage and honor look like; principals have to show teachers, senior administrators have to show principals, the superintendent has to show the senior administrators and,
the school board has to show the superintendent.

If Maestas will not hold herself accountable as a role model,
how can she be expected to participate in the hiring of a superintendent who will?

Are superintendents accountable as role models?
Should they be; should any of them be?

Nobody in the leadership of the APS will admit to honest to God accountability as a role model of student standards of conduct. If that isn’t proof that they aren’t, what is? There is no such thing as inconspicuous role modeling; the concept is oxymoronic.

Are they accountable to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students or are they not?  Are the leadership of the APS actually, honestly accountable to any standards of conduct at all?

They are not.

There is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

The simple proof of the allegation is their inability to prove that there isn't that crisis. If they are honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, they could show you their ethics and standards, and they could show you the mechanism by which they can be held accountable to those standards, even against their will.

They truth is, they aren't really accountable even to the law.
They spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on whatever litigation and legal weaselry they need, in order to "admit no guilt" in settlements of complaints made against them.

If Kent Walz and the Albuquerque Journal weren’t in cahoots in the cover up of the scandal, they would investigate and report upon executive and administrative ethics, standards and accountability in the APS.  The would prove that there isn’t that crisis and that they are not covering it up.

That they won't, is prima facie proof that they are.

That the leadership of the APS actually were accountable to meaningful ethics and standards would be newsworthy;
as newsworthy as the fact that they are not.




photos Mark Bralley

APS' Analee Maestas - justice denied?

According to William Ewart Gladstone (according to some)

"Justice delayed is justice denied."

William Penn wrote;

"To delay justice is injustice."

Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger wrote;

... inefficiency and delay will drain even a just judgment of its value ...

Ancient Rabbis taught;

The sword comes into the world, 
because of justice delayed and justice denied..."

It has been more than six weeks now since then APS School Board Vice President Analee Maestas was accused, link, of stealing from her school.

The evidence makes her look guilty as sin.

There was supposed to have been an investigation.

Perhaps the investigation might have cleared her of wrong doing; perhaps not.

Whichever, it seems unfair to leave her twisting in the wind.

The supposed investigation needs to be completed before Maestas participates in the hiring of their next superintendent; else the hiring be tainted by the resignation or recall of a board member involved in the decision making.

Clear Maestas or get along with the indictment and disallow her from participating in the decision.




photo Mark Bralley

Journal opinion writer on the wrong side of history

journal photo

Journal opinions are expressed
by opinion writer, Sharon Hendrix.

I intend to take issue with the one
she expressed Saturday last, link.

Before I begin, by way of disclosure, Hendrix seems to have an issue with me personally.  I don't know why, except that I often write about the Journal's complicity in the cover up of the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS, and perhaps she takes that criticism personally.

She writes at every opportunity;

"MacQuigg ... was accused of being disruptive and threatening, allegedly taking hundreds of photos of APS employees in attendance, speaking out of turn and looming behind the then-superintendent while videotaping ..." or words to that effect.

The statement is of course, absolutely true.

Nevertheless, it is misleading.  Hendrix and the Journal repeat them to create impressions and beliefs that are misleading.  Readers who don't know the truth gain an impression every time the Journal repeats the allegations, that because the Journal keeps spreading them, there must be something to them; that I actually did these these things and somehow got away with doing them.

Hendrix and the Journal steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that with all the resources that APS had available to them, they could not produce a single shred of hard evidence to support even one of their allegations that I did anything ever, that justified banning me from school board public fora for life.

Nor will Hendrix and the Journal admit that they keep repeating the allegations in the interests of Marty Esquivel.

Hendrix is consistent in her lack of candor, forthrightness and honesty in her failure once again, to point out that the villain in the piece; the guy who cost taxpayers more than a million dollars in a cost-is-no-object legal defense of his ego.

She is consistent in her refusal to disclose her and the Journal's personal and professional connections to Esquivel and the appearances of conflicted interests in both Journal coverage and opinions regarding Esquivel's well documented violations of my (and Bralley's) civil rights.

Now, on to the editorial she wrote.

Hendrix and the Journal picked a side in the struggle between the "protesters" and city councilors.  They think it's the protestors who are pushing the limits on free speech.

They see nothing wrong with council rules that limit poster size to something they can't see from where they sit.  Nothing to do with protecting the rights of all participants to see, nothing to do with disruption; simply, your "poster" has to be to small for us to see.

I am reminded of a public forum where candidates for the APS superintendency were answering questions.  It was their practice to not entertain any questions about the obligations of the senior most administrative role model of the standards of conduct s/he would enforce upon students.

So, I constructed a poster, wondering if any one of them could summon the character and courage to talk about role modeling.  I stood quietly against the wall, creating no real disruption whatever.

I was asked if I would mind standing somewhere else, somewhere where the candidates could not see the poster or read my question.

Alternatively I suppose, I could have used a poster too small for them to see.

I declined.

That the people who run public meetings have an obligation to maintain order in meetings really doesn't require reiteration.

Unfortunately, the power they are given to maintain order in meetings can be abused to include disallowing simple dissent.

The city council meeting in this case was disrupted, but by whom?

Was it disrupted by a dissident refusing to obey an unnecessarily restrictive rule, or by a city councilor's efforts to enforce an unnecessarily restrictive rule?

Hendrix and the Journal see only the abuse that the councilors (sometimes) see and paint all protestors with the same brush,  The editors are unwilling or unable to see the abuse that the little people see when they step up to the podium during a public forum to speak truth to power.   Clearly they identify with the powerful and not the powerless.

The Constitutionally protected human right to petition one's government is at stake, and Hendrix and the Journal are on the wrong side of the fight.




photos Mark Bralley

Journal editors ignore SPJ Code of Ethics

The Society of Professional Journalists has a code of ethics.
As far as I know; it is as good as any and widely accepted by members of the press who are willing to be bound by ethics in the first place.

Like all codes of ethics; the SPJ CoE is unenforceable in a court of law and therefore, for all practical intents and purposes, unenforceable period.

All higher standards depend upon on self enforcement;
the character of the people involved.

Does Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz subscribe to the journalists' code of ethics?

If this morning's editorial, link,
is any indication; he does not.

When the question is; are you willing
to be held honestly accountable to
higher standards of conduct than the
law, any answer except yes means no.
If you asked the editors of the Journal;
do you subscribe to the SPJ code of ethics;
they would say yes.  Yes, we do subscribe.

Then they publish an editorial attack on people who stand up at public forums, and use it to weave in a defense of Walz' and journal crony Marty Esquivel.  Esquivel cost taxpayers more than a million dollars in settlements without being exposed in the Journal, while Walz and the Journal have yet to disclose the personal and professional relationships amounting to conflicts of interest.

It is a blatant violation of the journalists' code of ethics.  But like I said, there's nowhere to lodge a complaint.




photos Mark Bralley

APS settles civil rights lawsuit

The hosing that taxpayers are taking as a result of the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS just never stops.

photo Mary Ellen Broderick

The board has just settled the complaints brought by Mark Bralley, the photojournalist whose work has illustrated this blog for many years.

Bralley will leave with a little less than $60K and the satisfaction that he, litigating pro se, stood up against the APS education litigation complex long enough to prevail.

APS lawyers will walk away with many more dollars than Bralley.  If I were inclined to guess; I would guess three times as many or more.

No one who has not taken on the leadership of the APS and their lawyers, spending an unlimited budget in meetings in secret, of which no record is made, and without any honest to God oversight, can even begin to imagine how monumental is Bralley's accomplishment.

The dollars will come (ultimately, in one way or another) from APS' operational fund.

Operational dollars are dollars that should, could and would be spent educating students if they were not being squandered along with the trust of stake and interest holders, on litigation and legal weaselry in cost-is-no-object legal defenses at taxpayer expense.

In this case, and though taxpayers are out $200-250K,  
no guilt was admitted by anybody;
no matter how guilty they obviously are.

Nobody done nothin' ...

Get used to it.

The Journal is yet to report even that Bralley had filed his civil rights complaints, much less that litigation was underway, and taxpayers were getting hosed, again.

Consequently, public outrage will be kept to a minimum.

KRQE and Iain Munro called out on ethics breach

Iain Munro is the news director at KRQE.

He decides, or is the flak catcher for
the person or people who decide,
what truths will and will not be
shared with the people who look to
him and KRQE for their information.

Munro and KRQE have among their many obligations, the obligation to inform the democracy.  Their obligation is at once;

1. an ethical one, and
2. a sacred one, and
3. an utterly unenforceable one.

Andy Lyman and the NM Political Report, link, report on an unresolved appearance of conflicting interests.  An unresolved appearance of conflicting interests is as damaging to trust as actual conflicting interests.

Lyman writes;

Munro’s motives for the memo (that created the appearance of conflicted interests) are unclear; no one at the station, including Munro, responded to numerous emails and phone calls over the past few weeks seeking comment on this story.

The proper response; the only exculpating response; an easy response if they've nothing to hide, is to address the appearance of a conflict of interests by explaining them away.  He and they need to own the conflicting interests and offer their assurance that they are resolving the conflicts ethically.

In the absence of any assurance of any kind, and in particular in continued absence of even Munro's open and honest acknowledgement of the conflict, the need for real concern is substantiated.

Munro and KRQE are behaving unethically; clear as the nose on your face.  Just like when they covered for KRQE lawyer Marty Esquivel, link, when he squandered the people's trust and treasure in a cost-is-no-object non-viable legal defense.

The only way Munro and KRQE can regain the trust
they have squandered, is to start behaving ethically.

And that's not going to happen any time soon; mark my words.




photo w/o credit