November 1st showdown

It looks as though the leadership of the APS has no choice but to sign off on Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston's MOU. They will either sign by the close of business October 31st, or they will wake up the following morning without the authority to arrest criminals.

One of the stipulations in the MOU is, the APS Police Department has to surrender the evidence they are hiding, of criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators, link.

It's going to be close. It's been nearly five years since the leadership of the APS Police Department began it's investigation of the corruption in the leadership of the APS Police Department. Statutes of limitation on felony criminal misconduct, are about to expire.

In order to get the truth out as quickly as possible, it will be necessary for a number of people to step up; beginning with Sheriff Dan Houston.

He needs to make it clear to the leadership of the APS, the MOU regarding their possession of evidence of their own public corruption and incompetence, will be enforceable immediately upon signing the MOU.

If Houston instead, allows them to "begin their search" for records on that date, they will continue their stall until the statutes actually do expire. (Only they know the dates of the actual criminal misconduct.)

Houston will have to give no quarter. He and his legal adviser have indicated that they have no intention to prosecute any of the felonies, or even investigate them; though the corruption involved the felony criminal misuse of Sheriff's Department access to a highly secure national criminal data base.

He can, if he chooses to step up, expedite the surrender of public records to public knowledge. He can make certain that the truth about the scandal in the leadership of the APS is made public knowledge, November 1st.

Or not; we'll just have to see.




photo Mark Bralley

“This is what open government looks like”

Mayor Richard Berry has delighted the editors of the Journal, link, by leading his administration to the "highest levels of transparency and accountability."

He put already available public records online.

If you look up "transparent" you will conclude that it means; "having the property of transmitting rays of light through its substance so that bodies situated within or behind, can be distinctly seen."

In the context of government; transparent means; having the property of allowing sight through and beyond its substance, so that the truth about the spending of the people's power and resources can be distinctly, and easily, seen.

The power and resources that government spends, belong to the people. The truth about their spending, belongs to the people.

The truth can be sorted into two piles;

1. should be shared (with the people) and
2. should not be shared (with the people)

There are good and ethical reasons to put some of the peoples' truth into the pile which will not be shared. There is work to be done on the process by which the truth is sorted. It begins with the understanding that nothing goes into the should not be shared pile, except with the people's informed consent.

Poorly written governmental transparency laws create a third pile of the people's truth; may be shared. It may be shared if you can find out about it and are willing to sue your government in order to see it.

Berry and the establishment media think transparency means showing a lot of information, no matter how useless the information is in uncovering problems in the government.

Transparency is a matter of quality of information; quantity is just another government statistic.

Transparency is not measured in the number of documents that are posted on line, it is in the difficulty seeing something from the share pile, that they would really rather you not see.

I will switch institutions for an illustrative example.

APS spent a bunch of the people's power and resources on a brand new board room. The truth about how and how much belongs to the people; it is not excepted by the law therefore lies in the share pile.

APS COO Brad Winter has been avoiding telling the truth about that spending for years. Before he tells the truth, he will have to ordered to do so by a judge and after lengthy and expensive litigation.

APS shares a lot of information and they claim it as proof of their "transparency". But dig for something in the share pile that embarrasses or incriminates them, and you quickly find out how transparent they really are.

Transparent means everything in the share pile is either a mouse click or an email away. Transparent means, no third pile to fight over.

Berry has impressed the establishment media by shining a flashlight into a dark warehouse.

He will impress the rest of us when he turns on every light and illuminates every square inch except for the very small space where he keeps the truth that, we really shouldn't see.




photo Mark Bralley

More honesty from APS administrators; from Paula Maes, not so much.

APS senior administrators have been leading and facilitating public meetings in each of the seven school board member districts. The meetings are focused on the district's goals; current and future.

The leadership team begins the meetings by defending their progress in the last three years, toward the current eight goals. Then they solicit input on the next set of goals.

One of the goals will be community involvement, and is doomed from its inception. It is impossible to involve a community without communicating with the community.

The history of the leadership of the APS and their communications with their community, is one of a one-way stream of information. Extracting information other that what they stream, has always been difficult. Consider for example, the years long and completely unsuccessful effort to get APS COO Brad Winter to tell the truth about how much money they spent on the new board room.

Are board members really sitting in chairs that cost $800 dollars each?

The leadership of the APS will try earnestly to involve the community. In the next set of goals setting meetings, a couple of years from now, they will be able to point to a lot of things they did in their effort to involve the community.

What they won't be able to point to, is any assistance they provided to the people who want to establish real open and honest communications; the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication.

As hard as they work to involve the community, they will work harder to obstruct the creation of a forum that diminishes their control over the dissemination of the truth. They will obfuscate any effort to begin open and honest, two-way communication between the leadership of the APS and the community they serve. They will be fighting against the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication.

They need to control the communication. While their interest, I suppose, in "communicating" openly and honestly about the education of the 89,000 of this community's sons and daughters in the APS, is genuine, there are things they don't want to talk about; things the people have a right to know about. They don't want to admit to any inconvenient truth.

They don't want to communicate openly and honestly about the corruption in the leadership of their police department, or about the evidence they are holding, of APS senior administrators committing felonies. They don't want to talk about denying due process to hundreds of whistleblowers. And they don't want to communicate about the standards ad accountability problems in the leadership of the APS, or about the need for a standards and accountability audit.

Unfortunately for them, they can't have one without the other. They can't tell the whole truth part of the time. They can't accustom people to candid, forthright and honest communications in one meeting but not in the next; in response to one question but not the next. People would notice.

Since the goals setting meetings began, last night's meeting was the fifth of seven, they have made a big deal of "we're here to listen" and "we're not allowed to respond to questions".

Last night they were taking questions. Usually it is only Supt Winston Brooks' who's willing to play "stump the chump". He really needs to stop calling it that. There's nothing wrong with standing there and taking questions.

Except for School Board President Paula Maes who did not stand for questions in any way, shape or form.

It would take both character and courage for her to stand in front of the hundred people or so people who signed the petition. And then to explain to them, candidly, forthrightly and honestly, why she has denied due process for their petition. And, why their petition warrants neither open and honest discussion, nor a roll call vote when they decide whether to grant the petitioner's requests of the leadership of the APS;

• the benefit of APS administrative expertise and experience with CACs, and
• access to their records of the previous and current CACs, and
• a decent place to hold meetings, and
• professional, competent and impartial facilitation for meetings.

There is no good an ethical justification for Paula Maes' wanton disregard for a petition from people who want to form the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication, nor for the disrespect manifest in the unlawfully written "thank you" note she took it upon herself to offer instead of due process.

There is no good and ethical reason to obstruct the commencement of real, open and honest, two-way communications between the leadership of the APS and the community members they serve.

They are covering up something.

Paula Maes' and they, are covering up an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Occupy APS?

Whatever else is true about the "occupiers" individually and collectively, they are people who at least, are willing to stand up for what they believe in. They are willing to be maced in defense of their beliefs.

Most people it seems, are only willing to complain, and only then from relative safety.

The world is not going to change because of the people who do nothing; it will change because of people who are willing to stand up, make sacrifices, and make a difference.

Tomorrow, Tuesday October 18th, at 6pm in the Sandia High School Media Center, link, School Board President Paula Maes is scheduled to host the fifth of seven meetings on District Goals.

Maes recently denied due process to a Petition bearing more than a hundred signatures. The Petition was filed by the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication.

Maes took it upon herself to write an unlawful response, a thank you note, and deny the Petition its due process; an open meeting and a role call vote.

There is an opportunity to stand up and defend the petition; an opportunity to defend the people's right to the truth about the spending of their power and resources. If enough people show up to defend due process for the petition, a difference might be made.

It is unlikely that you will be maced; though with a publicly funded private police force accountable to no one but the leadership of the APS, anything is possible.

There is no guarantee of course, that by showing up we can compel due process for our petition. But we all know the chances for due process will be if we do nothing at all.

All that is necessary for the lack of open and honest
communications, between the leadership of the APS and
the community members they serve, to prevail,
is for good people to do nothing. Edmund Burke - derived




photo Mark Bralley

Yeah, but are the kids any less rowdy?

In France, a teacher, fed up with rowdy students,
immolated herself in protest, link.

Telling students "This is for you." she doused herself in petrol and lit herself on fire.

A witness reported seeing the teacher;

"... running and on fire. ... a human torch.
... students were screaming ..."

A student, unclear whether one of the teacher's, thought the whole thing seemed "... totally strange ..."

I don't know any more about it than we just read.

I would be willing to bet though, she, like most teachers in the
Albuquerque Public Schools, was not getting the help she
needed in her efforts to control the behavior of a bunch of
chronically disruptive students.

Maybe if an APS teacher lights herself on fire, or duct-tapes
some kids mouth shut, the leadership of the APS will get around to doing something with chronically disruptive students, beside sticking them back in a classroom.

More students duct-taped to keep them quiet

An APS teacher has been sent home following an incident where students mouths were duct-taped shut, link.

While not condoning it's use, I can understand how APS teachers may feel they have no other choice when dealing with chronically disruptive students, link.

More than four years after that post was written, APS still has no written discipline philosophy upon which they can build effective discipline policy.

Willful ignorance

Despite the fact that the Citizens Advisory Council on Communications submitted their Petition to the School Board more than two months ago; Board Member David Robbins swears they never saw it or discussed it. They know nothing.

People sometimes pretend to not know something in order to
escape accountability for not doing something about what they know.

Politicians and public servants are renown for "not knowing".

There is a name for the pretense in this case; willful ignorance.

Willful ignorance is akin to "guilty knowledge"; knowing about corruption and incompetence and doing nothing to expose it. The one worse than the other, mostly by degree. A lack of character leads to one; a lack of courage to the other.

I have been accused of saying all APS administrators and
board members are corrupt or incompetent. The truth is,
all I have ever argued is, there are only two kinds of
administrators and board members;

1. those who are corrupt and/or incompetent, and
2. those with guilty knowledge of administrative and executive incompetence and corruption.

That leaves very few left who want to expose the truth about the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

Willful ignorance and guilty knowledge sustain cultures of corruption and incompetence. They are the oil for their engines.

APS' self insurance

I'm cynical, so I think the leadership of the APS wants to self insure, in no small part, to keep a lid on the truth. All the mistakes that get made that cost taxpayers dollars, will be handled in secret from the people who are paying damages. The opportunities to conceal public corruption and incompetence will be increased. The culture of corruption and incompetence will be further enabled.

Despite all their talk about communication with the community, any real open and honest communications threatens their very existence.

Monica Armenta isn't being paid to
open communications, she is paid to
control them; she is paid to spin the
truth to make APS look good.

She is paid to have their backs;
to cover their asses.

Monica Armenta is paid to handle
the media. She's doing it quite well.

For example;

almost five years ago, some APS senior administrators ran some criminal background checks on a few whistleblowers and an Asst Supt's fiancé. The manner in which it was done constitutes felony criminal misconduct. They also moved some evidence (money) around, in violation of the law; also felony criminal misconduct.

They had their police department, their Praetorian Guard, conduct a self-investigation of their own public corruption and incompetence. No other agency of law enforcement investigated, or will, despite the fact that it was the Bernalillo County Sheriff's access to the NCIC database that was used to commit the felonies.

They are holding all of the evidence they gathered (assuming they gathered any at all) while statutes of limitation on the felonies, expire.

The self-investigation of felonies, and the holding of evidence of one's own felony criminal misconduct, are both specifically prohibited in the MOU Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston is trying to enforce upon the leadership of the APS.

In the face of the expiration of the statutes of limitation on felony criminal misconduct; Houston just gave them thirty more days of cover.

If you watch TV, you have seen KRQE, KOAT, and KOB, blow about their investigative Journalists defending our interests. Is this not a great story? Is this not a perfect story for investigation and reporting by the crack TV investigative reporters?

So why aren't they? Why isn't the Journal investigating and reporting on the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS?

Like I said, Monica Armenta is doing her job quite good well.




photos Mark Bralley

Can we watch? puleeese can we?

Despite Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston's assurance that his MOU with the leadership of the APS was not up for negotiation; it apparently is. On the table, the grandfathering in of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators.

Which begs a question;

What good and ethical purpose is served by conducting those negotiations in secret from those whose interests are being negotiated?

Why can't we watch?




photo Mark Bralley

Armenta; you can't make me!

On the face of it, it seems reasonable to ask a question of the Executive Director of APS Communications Monica Armenta and expect "communication" in response.

In response to my question; does APS pay someone to read blogs and keep records on posts and comments about the APS?, Armenta has chosen to respond to the question by not communicating. She has not delegated the response (apparently) and has not responded herself.

One might argue; who am I to be asking questions of an Executive Director of anything? Doesn't someone making more than $50 an hour have better things to do than to pay attention to me? The simple fact is that any question I ask of anyone, is immediately forwarded to the directors and above anyway. I'm actually saving you time and money by going to the top to start. Also, when asked to identify anyone who would field my questions except her, she did not.

Monica Armenta is responsible for the fact that a legitimate question about the public interests and about her public service will go unanswered. Why? because you can't make her.

You pay her well over a hundred thousand dollars a year to respond to your questions, but your can't make her answer any she doesn't want to answer.

It's not because she enjoys any exception under the law; it's because she doesn't want to, and you can't make her.

So there! ............

Also not answering questions this morning, Board Member David Robbins, who made a commitment to respond to us on questions about Board President Paula Maes' unlawful and disrespectful "thank you note" response to the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication Petition, and upon his own failure to even look at it.




photos Mark Bralley

Dear Ms Armenta

I have written to APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta to ask a legitimate question about the public interests and about her public service.

Ms Armenta,

I am told that APS employs someone whose job it is, to read blogs searching for posts and comments related to the Albuquerque Public Schools.

I am wondering if I might ask you for a candid, forthright and honest response regarding the existence of that position and its particulars; in particular; to whom do they report?

grateful for your time and attention

ched macquigg

School Board never even looked at the petition

School Board Member David Robbins was a guest speaker at a GOP ward meeting last night. After his opening remarks, he stood for questions. I asked him to describe the process that the board followed that resulted in the denial of due process for the petition submitted to the Board by the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication, link.

He said, he had never seen it!

Despite the fact that he, and the rest of the board, were all in their seats during the public forum where Rep Janice Arnold-Jones delivered the petition carrying more than a hundred community member signatures, Robbins claimed that whomever took the petition from Arnold-Jones, never passed it along to the board to read. He offered no explanation as to why none of them cared enough about petition to take the initiative and ask to see it.

When asked how it came to be that School Board President Paula Maes took it upon herself to write a "thank you note" as the board's entire response to the petition, he said, Maes was "authorized" to write the letter.

According to school board policy, the only authorization for an individual board member to do anything, comes from the entire board.

BB1 - Board Member Authority

Board of Education members shall have authority only when acting as a Board of Education in a regular, special, committee or emergency meeting. The Board of Education shall not be bound in any way by any statement or action on the part of any individual Board of Education member. No Board of Education member shall speak for or represent the entire Board of Education unless so authorized by the majority of the Board of Education. (emphasis added)

Maes could not have been authorized (by a majority of the Board), except in a meeting that violated the Open Meetings Act.

Yet Robbins steadfastly claimed the board never discussed the petition or their response to it. (Interestingly, the board just revoked a charter school's authorization, in part because of "... violations of the Open Meetings Act, link.)

As an aside; Robbins also conceded that there is a problem in the APS with (student) discipline. In my recollection he could be the most senior member of the leadership of the APS to admit there is a problem with student discipline. Yet if you look for any action the board has taken to address the problem district wide, you will find nothing; not even an admission that there is a problem.

The leadership of the APS has always had their head in the sand when it comes to chronically disruptive students and the lack of student discipline in general. Submitted as proof; they have not even taken the most basic step; creating a written an APS Discipline Philosophy to underpin their discipline policies.

Student discipline would of course, be one of the topics that the Citizens Advisory Council on Communications would try to put on the table for open and honest two-way discussion between the leadership of the APS and the community members they serve.

Where's the video?

There was a School Board Meeting on Wednesday Oct 5th.
The video record was supposed to have been posted on the
District's award winning website by Friday.

It is not up still, link.

Normally, their failure to archive the record, and in some cases their actual falsification of the record, link, means something happened during the meeting, or during the public forum, that they would rather not be seen.

One wonders what, exactly.

Impoverished APS students get computers and internet access

In the news, APS is involved in an effort to get computers and internet access to students who otherwise could not afford either.

It is a great move, link.

Now, if only APS would teach them how to use them safely,
effectively, efficiently and critically, at the earliest possible
opportunity.

If the goal of education is to create independent lifelong
learners, how can it not be the top priority?

And not just for children who live in poverty; but for them and
all of the rest of the 89,000 of our sons and daughters in the APS.

How would you know?

I have it upon good authority; not only are there fight clubs at Rio Grande High School, but there are gang initiations, rankings in, going on in plain sight.

If you Google "Rio Grande High School" fights, link, you can watch;

- Emilio VS Potter -

School Fight Crazy fight between two high school kids that hate each other extreme beat up violence funny wacked I recommend to watch this home made movie its funny as hell. Must see!!! good music and video rock rap...

Watching the fight begs a question;

does that kind of thing go on at your kid's school?

Let's say you want to do some research.

How would you find out about student violence in the APS?
Who would you ask, if you wanted to ask legitimate questions
and receive candid forthright and honest responses?

It sure as hell wouldn't be APS
Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta.

She's paid well over $100,000
a year, to not to tell the truth
about student violence in the APS.

And by her own admission
"... sleeps quite well at night."




It wouldn't be APS Director of
Communications Rigo Chavez,
who is yet to surrender, in
electronic format, the APS PD
incident report on a fight at
RGHS that culminated in
students being chemically maced, link.




Where is the open and honest two-way communication with the community they serve?


There would be no point in
asking the camera shy APS
Chief of Police Steve Tellez.

He's hiding evidence of felony
criminal misconduct by APS
senior administrators; why would
he tell the truth about student
violence?

He's just a little embarrassed that
they promoted him to Chief of Police
in secret, and in no small part because he's helping to hide the evidence of the felony criminal misconduct of APS senior administrators at least until the statutes of limitation expire in the next month or two.

It wouldn't be APS Supt Winston
Brooks, the administrator most
responsible for the cover up of the
public corruption in the leadership of
the APS and in their publicly funded
private police force.

A recent audit by Brooks' Council of the Great City Schools found APS administrators routinely falsified crime statistics to make the schools look safer than they really are.


If you want the truth about student violence or student discipline problems in schools, you cannot expect the leadership of the APS to tell it.

Tragically, neither can you expect the local media to tell it;
not the Journal, not KRQE, not KOAT, not KOB, and not KKOB.




photos Mark Bralley

Berry spins his ass-handing

Mayor Richard Berry still doesn't get it.

In Tuesday's election, he "bundled" a couple of proposals together, the Sports Complex and improvement of the Paseo Del Norte/I-25 interchange. He paid a price.

"Bundling" or logrolling (as it's called at the state level) is against the law (at the state level) for a number of good and ethical reasons. As a former state legislator, he should be familiar both with the law and with the good purpose it serves. He thought, or was convinced, he could get away with it anyway.

His most oft offered excuse; everyone else does it.

Listening to him after the election, he's still blaming voters and their unaccustomedness to "bundling" for his loss. He doesn't see it as a straight up, enlightened, and determined rejection of his attempt to log roll two dissimilar issues on one ballot.

Thomas Jefferson wrote;

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time
with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

While his observation is being used to fuel and inflame the political debate and incite people, on a less histrionic level, it points to a need for relatively minor bloodletting like the bloody nose Berry got from voters for his tyranny; denying voters a straight up and down vote on a controversial issue.

Though Berry continues to soft pedal his defeat, I expect he has learned his lesson and will remember this ass-handing before he tries again, to put one over on voters.

Voters are to be congratulated for feeding the tree of liberty.




photo Mark Bralley

Winter an unfortunate choice

I don't pay much attention to
Brad Winter as a City Councilor.

I pay more attention to him as
an APS Senior Administrator.

If, as a Senior Administrator,
he cannot be depended upon to
tell the truth, why in the world
would anyone trust him to
tell the truth as a City Councilor?

There is a simple and straightforward test of his character and courage; ask him a legitimate question about the public interests and about his public service.

Will you surrender a candid, forthright and honest record of the spending on the John Milne Boardroom, including accoutrements; yes or no?

Any answer except yes, means no.

Are Board Members really sitting in chairs that cost $800
a piece? Likely, you will never know, because Brad Winter
is unwilling to tell stakeholders the truth; not as a senior
APS administrator and not as a City Councilor.




photo Mark Bralley

Trouble on APS school buses just the tip of the iceberg.

It would appear that a significant number of students are "misbehaving" in school buses on their way to and from schools. "... throwing things out of windows, screaming and standing in the aisles ...", link, link.

If your immediate reaction was; well duh! then you have bought into the premise that children will misbehave no matter what; misbehavior on school buses is inevitable. There's nothing you can do about it.

Well there is in fact, something that can be done about it; we can make an overt effort to teach children what the rules are, why they should respect them, and then, most importantly, we can provide real consequences for their deliberate disobedience.

The leadership of the APS used to teach students about character. Then they made a deliberate decision to renege on their commitment to teach students about Character Counts!, link. Say what you will about CC!; what it is and isn't, what it will and what it won't; it was better than nothing.

To the extent that children think before misbehaving, it is a calculation; cost and benefit, how much fun it will be, and the likelihood of being caught and punished. The punishment itself is part of the calculation. If the punishment is inconsequential, its effect is zero. If the punishment is both certain and unpleasant, it becomes a factor in the decision making process.

In the APS and on its school buses, punishment for willful disobedience is neither certain nor unpleasant.

In the eyes of APS Supt Winston Brooks, link, willful disobedience of a teacher is the least severe deliberate misconduct. That is his philosophy. If you look for the Albuquerque Public Schools Discipline Philosophy, you will not find it; it doesn't exist.

Nowhere will you find it written, even so basic a commitment as, whether students who deliberately misbehave should be punished or cajoled.

What you will find written; is the "weasel clause"; the clause in the Student Behavior Handbook, link pg 2,

Nothing in the following is intended to prevent a ... principal or other administrator from using his/her best judgment with respect to a particular situation.

The weasel clause is what allows administrators to ignore their promise to punish students who misbehave, and then offer them yet another second chance to stop deliberately ignoring the rules.

"Best judgment" is not subject to review or even questioning; it is what it is, best judgment. How do you prove administrator didn't use their best judgment in sending a chronically disruptive student back into a classroom to continue their disruption?

The leadership of the APS has chosen to not provide punishment for deliberate (or reckless) misbehavior. Providing punishment for students who chose to misbehave has a cost; they're unwilling to pay it.

Students are in charge in schools. When adults make rules and children ignore them, children are in charge. When children are in charge, there is chaos instead of education.

One of the leading contributors to the failure of schools is their willingness to tolerate disruptive behavior; their unwillingness to provide certain and meaningful consequences for deliberate disruption. Ask a teacher.

It won't do any good to ask the leadership of the APS.

Standards of conduct, accountability and student discipline aren't even on the table for discussion, by their deliberate choice.

The truth about the out of control on public school campuses will not be told by their deliberate choice and with the aid and abet of the media.

The leadership of the APS is morally, ethically and legally responsible for maintaining discipline on public school campuses and on school buses. Yet they cannot, or will not, establish and maintain the authority of adults over the children in their charge.

How can you expect teachers and bus drivers to maintain control
if students are allowed to disobey them without consequence?

The very first rule has to be; you have to obey the other rules.
The consequences for deliberate disobedience must be certain
and significant enough to enter into their next calculation.




photo Mark Bralley

"We're not allowed to respond to questions."

There were a number of people
who asked questions of APS
Executive Director of
Communications Monica Armenta
at the District Goals Meeting at
Jefferson Middle School.

I heard her tell at least two people;
"We're not allowed to respond to questions".

Others were told; "We're not supposed to respond, but ..." and then she would answer anyway.

The difference was in the type of question that was asked. If the answer made the district look good, she would go ahead and respond, even though she "wasn't supposed to."

If the answer would make the district look bad, then she
"... wasn't allowed" to answer and would tell the person who
asked the question to call her instead.

And then she told them, "nobody has ever complained that her department doesn't respond to questions"; a false claim that has already been laid to rest by the facts, link.

So who has the authority to tell the Executive Director of Communications that she is "not allowed" to answer questions?

By law, the board has no authority, though I'm certain it wouldn't stop Armenta from doing what they tell her to.

That leaves Supt Winston Brooks. He is the only person in the APS with the authority to tell Armenta that she's not allowed to answer questions in public.

Which begs a question; why would he order Armenta to keep her mouth shut?

At the end of these meetings, Brooks invites the audience to ask him anything they want. He seems to enjoy playing "stump the chump" (his identifier, not mine).

I don't think anyone ordered Armenta to not respond; I think it is her own deliberate choice. And further, if anyone ordered anyone to not respond to questions, I think it was Armenta giving the orders.

Also not responding to questions that night; Board Member Marty Esquivel. After going on and on about how important it was for him to "listen" (as opposed to respond) to the community, he didn't even do that.

I was anxious to see him interact with the community, and what I saw instead, was him schmoozing administrators, another board member, and a teacher or two.

I didn't see him even listen in to either of the two groups that met in the room I was in. There was a time he was out of sight; perhaps he did interact in one of the two groups in a different room, however doubtful.

You really should go to one of these meetings. Listen to them talk about how important communication is, and then watch them avoid it like it was the plague.

The next meeting is at Sandia High School on Oct 18th, link. It will hosted by School Board President Paula Maes.

She's the one who proclaimed, she would "never agree to any audit that individually identifies"any corrupt or incompetent administrators or board members.

I'm betting, she's not going to be "allowed" to answer any questions either.

Like, why did she take it upon herself to write a "thank you note" as the board's entire response to a petition with more than a hundred signatures on it, link?




photos Mark Bralley

Berry's credibility takes a hit

Mayor Richard Berry has attached his name and reputation to an effort to "logroll" two issues, the Paseo Del Norte and I-25 Interchange Improvements and a Multi-Sports Complex. Logrolling, putting two unrelated issues in one piece of legislation is illegal at the state level, but is apparently "legal" at the local level.

Legal or not, it is wrong. Voters should have been allowed to vote on each issue separately.

Also just plain wrong, is Berry's effort to convince voters that voting for the bond issue "won't raise their taxes". The truth is; if voters vote yes, they will pay more taxes than if they vote no.

The phrase "won't raise taxes" is dishonest. The statement is "technically" correct based on mathematical machinations but is ethically dishonest.

Berry continues to disappoint; whether it's letting his PIO trample on the press or deliberately deceiving voters to get his Sports Complex funded, he is not the man he pretended to be to get elected.




photo Mark Bralley