Darren White's Desk

That's where the buck stops on accountability for criminal misuse of the Bernalillo County computer system for criminal background checks.
background link.

Some members of the leadership of the APS ran illegal criminal background checks on computers under Darren White's oversight; allegedly. They ran a background check on the man who blew the whistle on the fraud at the vocational high school; allegedly. They ran a background check on Tom Savage's girl friend; allegedly.

The truth about what happened; the truth about public corruption and criminal conspiracy is fairly represented by public records; public records that you have a right to see.

The public does not know the truth about public resources, public servants, and public service in the leadership of the APS, or in the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office, because the public record is being suppressed.

Between the leadership of the APS, the BCSO, and District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, the truth about public corruption and criminal conspiracy is being kept from public knowledge.

They are using technicalities and loopholes in the NMIPRA to suppress the truth. Tax dollars are paying the salaries of lawyers whose job it is to litigate exception to the law for powerful public servants.

They are not suppressing the truth in the public interest.

They are suppressing the truth out of self interest.
They do not want to be held accountable
for their conduct and competence as public servants.



It is against the public interest.
It is not an appropriate use of public resources.
It is a betrayal of the public trust.


The Journal, and the Trib, and KOB, KOAT, and KRQE
have a responsibility to the community.

Unfortunately that responsibility is completely unenforceable.

There is no way to get them in investigate and report upon public corruption in the leadership of the APS, BCSO, and DA's office, if they don't want to;

... and apparently, they don't want to.

Against The Public Interest; and On The Public Dime

Your lawyer's name is Jeffrey Landers.
His title is Bernalillo County Attorney.

Like anyone whose salary is paid in tax dollars;
he is a public servant; your servant.

You would expect that his job
would be to protect public (your) interests.


It is in your interest, to know the truth about the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS; and in the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office.

It is in your interest, that the public records of that corruption become public knowledge.

Your lawyer, Landers is writing letters on your behalf
to the New Mexico Attorney General's Office;
letters whose purpose is to forestall the release
of public records.

He is writing those letters against the public interest


... and on the public dime.

NMIPRA tested

I am still trying to find out what really happened as a result of the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS (police department).

I am trying to get Darren White to surrender public records. Bernalillo County Attorney Jeffrey Landers is the lawyer who is supposed to be representing for the public interests; but instead is the point man for the effort to keep public records from public knowledge.

This is a letter in response to a letter he sent to the Attorney General's Office. In that letter, he defended the legal weaselry that allowed him to deny my request for public records.

Dear Ms. Valicenti,

I write to you in response to a letter sent to you,
dated June 26, 2007, and from Bernalillo County Attorney Jeffrey Landers.

From the rules of civil procedure;

These rules shall be construed and administered to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of every action.

There are lawyers more expert than this old shop teacher, at using the law to delay justice. I am relying upon your office to protect my right to a just, speedy and inexpensive determination on my complaint; which is that I am being denied my right in inspect and or copy public records.

The public records in question relate to criminal misconduct by public officials. Specifically, public resources were used to do illegal criminal background checks. Those involved include; public employees in the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, and the board and administration of the Albuquerque Public Schools.

I want to inspect and or copy those public records. If they are to be redacted; I would have them redacted honestly and ethically.

The leadership of the sheriff’s department and the Albuquerque Public Schools know exactly what public records are involved. Lawyer Landers would have me produce specifics about those records that I don’t have. I have no idea, for example, when the criminal behavior took place; because he and those he represents, are keeping it secret.

I cannot frame this complaint in words that lawyer Landers cannot twist to his advantage.

This complaint will or will not receive a principled resolution at the hands of the Attorney General’s Office;

If in order to achieve that result, I have to out legal weasel, the legal weasels; this whole exercise is a waste of time.

Please forward this letter to Attorney General King; not by way of any complaint about you, but because he has, I believe indicated his personal interest in this case.

I am grateful for your time and attention.

Charles “Ched” MacQuigg

c.c Landers and Diogenes’six

These are the same public records that APS/Modrall
and District Attorney Kari Brandenburg are secreting from public knowledge by use of the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act's loopholes and technicalities.

The Inconvenient Truth Can Be Avoided

by ignoring the inconvenient question.

The inconvenient question for the candidates for superintendent is;

As the senior administrative role model for students;
are you willing to hold yourself honestly accountable
as a role model of the student standard of conduct;
the Pillars of Character Counts?

We know that the question will not be allowed because
the current leadership will not allow it to be asked either.

I'll prove it.



Ms. Armenta,

At your earliest convenience;

please communicate to stakeholders; the truth
about APS leaders, and their actual accountability
as role models of the student standard of conduct.

A link to this post will be provided to Armenta who will either respond or not. If she does not; it means that there is something to hide.

And it means that no venue will be provided where the question can be asked of a prospective superintendent either.

Students Get a Say on School Boss

according to the Journal. (sub req)

Not only that, but

"I think you guys could sway the input," board president Paula Maes said at the sight of the stack of comments. "I think who you want to be the superintendent is going to be the superintendent."

Does anyone seriously believe that the person that
students want, is going to be the next superintendent?

Is Paula Maes so accustomed to "spinning" the truth
that this crap comes out without even thinking?

At the very least,

no one will be selected to be the next superintendent
who will commission an immediate and honest audit
of the relationship between APS, Maes, and Modrall;

a relationship that spends two million dollars a year
insulating the leadership of the APS from honest
accountability for their conduct and competence
as public servants.

Darren White for Congress

Darren White is the Bernalillo County Sheriff.

As such, over sight of the most extensive of criminal background check systems was entrusted to his supervision.

On his watch, apparently, the leadership of the APS made felony criminal misuse of those computer resources.

There are public records of felony criminal misuse of the criminal background check system.

Darren White broke the law, rather than surrender those public records.

I would suggest that a man with a manifest
criminal disrespect for open government laws


is poor choice for election to congress.

confront, cajole, or ignore

For the sake of this argument

cajole; to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially in the face of reluctance

confront; to come face to face with, especially with defiance or hostility

ignore; to refuse to pay attention to; disregard

Within moments of arriving at school; authority figures will witness misbehavior. Let us assume that the misbehavior, if continued, will adversely affect the safety and/or well being of other students. And therefore cannot be ignored.

This argument concerns a specific type of student; not all students. This type of student, when asked to stop the misbehavior, and then accompany the adult to the place where appropriate consequences will occur, will say, no.

What does the adult do then?

The administration will say, cajole, don't confront.

So the adult tries to persuade the hoodlum with flattery and/or gentle urging to come along to get punished; with the same inevitable result.

The teacher now has two choices; confront or ignore.

If the teacher chooses to "confront", to stand their ground as a matter of principle; their future becomes uncertain. There is at least some possibility that a physical confrontation may be required to carry the thug to his/her consequences. It is possible that at any point in the process they will find themselves "on their own"; abandoned by the leadership of the APS.

The leadership of the APS refuses to state on the record; their expected reaction by the adult authority figure. The teacher, or whomever, is entirely on their own.

There is not even a district wide discipline philosophy,
to which the teacher might look for some kind of guidance.

The teacher's choice at this point is to embark upon a defense of the rule of law in a civilized society, with uncertain, but certainly far reaching, consequences;

or they can ignore the misbehavior.


I reported to you that Rio Grande High School had three students arrested for assaults and interference with adult authority at school.

I reported to you that the leadership of the APS, Delores Griego and others are concerned that the adults involved should have handled the matter differently; that they had behaved inappropriately when they "confronted" student misconduct.

I have reported that the teachers at West Mesa High School (and others) have chosen to ignore misconduct rather than confront it; and that as a result, students unsafe/less safe at WMHS. They are kept safe by as few as seven adults during lunch and passing periods.

I wrote that Manzano High School's administration has commissioned a student militia in order to address student violence issues.

Monica Armenta has had more than enough time to respond, refute, or rebut any of these allegations.

She chose to ignore them.


The leadership of the APS is absolutely responsible for establishing and maintaining the authority of adults over children in schools.

They have chosen to ignore that responsibility.

They have chosen to ignore questions about that failure.


In the Journal this morning, you will find no stories about student and campus safety and discipline.

You will find reporting about what's for lunch in the public schools this week.



If your kid makes it to lunch this week.

Albuquerque Teachers Federation members, your attention please

The new superintendent will either be an advocate of teacher empowerment and site based management;
or s/he will not.

The union used to be an advocate of both.

It is now advocating for neither.

on Looking for Leadership

Your time and attention to an essay on this subject
at Eye on APS would be greatly appreciated.

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg Is "Too Busy" To Do Her Job

Kari Brandenburg is not too busy at work that she can't give out her work number to listeners to her radio talk show. She has time during her work day to clear up their boggle on the amount of sugar to put in a recipe.

Though when it comes to doing the people's business,
she says she is too busy to keep up with her caseload.

She has not found time so far to look at the evidence that has already been collected. She just cannot make the time to make a determination whether or not criminal misconduct had taken place in the public corruption and conspiracy scandal in the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools (Police Department).

There should be no further investigating to do. If the APS internal audit, and the independent private investigation of the scandal were at all competent; there should be no further investigation necessary.

It is simply a matter of reading the two reports and making a decision.

Yet Brandenburg is so overwhelmed with calls from people who cannot keep up with her fast paced delivery of cookie recipes, that she just can't find time to read the reports on what will be the largest public corruption scandal in the history of the APS.


Coincidently, the delay works to the advantage of the leadership of the APS, who would like very much to sweep the situation under the rug forever.

It works well for Darren White as well.

White is reportedly interested in running for congress;
but he is not interested in surrendering the public record of the (felony) criminal use, by the leadership of the APS, of computers and data bases entrusted to his supervision.

Brandenburg says she is too busy to complete the investigation.

She is too busy to determine if the leadership of the APS and the BCSO have betrayed the public interest and the public trust.

But if you want to chat about her favorite recipes,
you may call her at work, and she will be simply
delighted to spend some time chatting
on the company dime.


And finally; no report on public corruption in the city
is complete without citing the complicity of the Journal
in keeping it all from public knowledge.

(as is my custom, a link to this post has been sent to DA Brandenburg, and to Sheriff White, allowing them the opportunity to respond, refute, or rebut.)

The Albuquerque Journal Has Joined Forces with APS/Modrall

Consider their headline in this morning's Journal. (sub req)

APS Exec Has Sued Past Employers

Now consider your feelings about the former APS executive and her lawsuit against the leadership of the APS. Does her complaint feel less credible?

It does if Charlie Moore and the Journal got the effect they were looking for. The wording is not accidental. The purpose of the article is too discredit Boothe. There is nothing in the article that is "news".

If you are honest, after reading the report, you will have to admit that you feel differently about Lou Anne Booth and her complaint. This despite the fact that there in not one word in the article related to any of the issues of the complaint.

She sues people all the time, you are thinking; she must be less credible; her complaint must be less credible.

APS/Modrall will not be allowed to enter her previous lawsuits as evidence during a trial.

No judge will allow them to enter the record as evidence, because it is irrelevant.

So APS/Modrall needs to enter her record into the mind of the jury (pool) now; before a judge can prevent them from bringing it up.

And the Journal has stepped up to help. The "news" story did not mention, for instance, that the person against which Boothe made her complaint; APS CBO Bill Moffatt, also has a record of a previous lawsuit;
over similar allegations, and one which he lost.



Shame on the Journal for a flagrant, a blatant, and an absolutely egregious disregard for the ethics of journalism.

And for its continued complicity in the cover up of a widespread ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

I have been told

There has been some trouble at Rio Grande High School.

Three students have been arrested.

One for battery on school personnel, one for interfering with a police officer, and one for carrying a knife to school.

It appears that School Board Member Delores Griego thinks the police have over reacted in arresting these students. She sees students who are arrested, as victims of over zealous police officers.

She thinks arming police will cause turmoil in valley schools.

Tell us Ms. Griego, what is a police officer supposed to do
when they ask two students to stop blocking traffic,
and the students say, "fuck you"
and mean it?

The leadership of the APS is directly responsible for
the fact that students are in control of schools.

It is they who permit; prohibited behavior.

What do they expect staff members to do when students refuse acknowledge the authority of adults; when they refuse to obey legitimate commands?

I have also been told that students at RGHS often sit in classrooms without teachers because of the number of subs who refuse to substitute teach at Rio.

Maybe West Mesa needs a student militia like the one at Manzano High School.

I have been told that the staff at West Mesa High School no longer assumes the burden of enforcing campus discipline; that during passing periods and lunches, one sergeant and six campus carry the burden of enforcing discipline on the entire campus exclusive of classrooms.

It would be great if that which I have heard, was not true. If anyone cares to refute or rebut the allegations; I will publish their refutation or rebuttal.

I will copy this post to Monica Armenta in order that you will know that she has the opportunity to communicate with the community on these issues; and to set the record straight as necessary.


Not that she will of course.

Albuquerque school board wants closer look at alcohol use on field trip

According to Susie Gran and the Trib; "... Albuquerque Board of Education members Robert Lucero and Dolores Griego said Wednesday they want a closer look at the investigation.

"These people need to set an example for our kids," Lucero said of the teachers. "Our teachers and our principals have to have higher standards."

Robert Lucero himself does not have to have higher standards. He voted to except himself from accountability to the higher student standards of conduct, when he voted to remove the following statement from the employee code of conduct.

In no case shall the standard of conduct for adults be lower than the standard of conduct for students.

After excepting themselves from accountability to the student standard of conduct, he and the rest of the board just voted to hold themselves "accountable" to a comparatively meaningless and completely unenforceable "code of ethics".

Robert Lucero, by his own deliberate choice,
is unaccountable to any meaningful standard of conduct at all; much less any "higher standard" of conduct.

The Trib knows about the whole truth.

They will not give a column inch to an investigation and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS. Yet they will give Robert Lucero all the ink he wants to bray about higher standards of conduct (for his subordinates, but not for himself) .

Robert Lucero is a hypocrite.

And the Trib should be telling its reader stakeholders
the truth.

APS police officers, forget about carrying guns for a long time

The policy change didn't make it past Robert Lucero and Delores Griego. Additional language will be added to the suggested policy change and run by the policy committee yet another time. The next policy committee meeting is two weeks off; the next board meeting two weeks after that.

It has been a month since the board passed a motion that would arm APS Police. It will now be at least another month before a motion can pass through the policy committee and full board.

All the leadership of the APS had to do to arm police officers 24/7 was to write the policy changes and the pass the policy changes by the policy committee and then by the full board.

The entire change in board policy amounted to striking one sentence.

The entire change in procedural directives added one paragraph.

It could have been done already;
it would have been done already;

if that were really the will of the leadership of the APS.

All they have to do to refute the allegation is to tell the truth.

Heather Wilson
Bill Richardson
Marty Chavez
Terri Coles
Darren White
Kari Brandenburg
Don Harris
Craig Loy
Sally Mayer
Martin Heinrich
Michael J. Cadigan
Brad Winter
Isaac Benton
Debbie O'Malley
Ken Sanchez
Elizabeth Everitt
Tom Savage
Linda Sink
Rachel Reedy
Eduarto Soto
Monica Armenta
Diego Garcia
Paula Maes
Robert Lucero
Berna Facio
Delores Griego
Mary Lee Martin
Gordon Rowe
the Modrall
the Journal
the Trib
KOB TV
KOAT TV
or KRQE TV

It is alleged that they are part of a conspiracy
to prevent stakeholders from meaningful participation
in the decision over the scope of the upcoming administrative accountability audit.

The allegation is refuted by their conspicuous support of; fully informed stakeholders deciding on the scope of the administrative accountability audit;

or by their public counter argument in support of widespread stakeholder disenfranchisement.


Any other response would seem to cement the validity
of the allegation.

...or their individual cowardice.

It cannot be overlooked; there is one public servant
who is standing on the record for meaningful participation
by stakeholders in determining the scope of the audit.


Let's hear it for Mr. Marty Esquivel.


I mean really, let's hear it for Marty Esquivel.


You pick a side, when you don't pick a side. unk

"You can't just tell the truth; you never know how someone might want to use it"

I will tell you in a moment, who said that.

It was more than a decade ago. I was fresh out of Character Counts training, and a member of the teachers union team that was negotiating contract language.

I had managed to get a plank into the union platform.

I was there to see that the new contract contained language that respected and recognized the right of stakeholders to know the truth.

It was during that negotiation that Tom Savage said, "If I told (stakeholders) the truth about what was going on at my school, the realtors in my neighborhood would have my neck".

It was outside of negotiations where I met face to face with then APS Superintendent and West Point graduate, Peter Horoscak.

And when I argued that teachers (and other stakeholders) had a right to know what was going on in their schools; Peter Horoscak said; "You can't just tell the truth; you never know how someone might want to use it."

The truth is, the leadership of the APS treats the truth as a commodity that they distribute according their interests. They are not compelled by any standard of conduct to distribute the truth ethically.

The truth is, the leadership of the APS has a full staff of professional prevaricators whose absolute priority is to distribute the truth in a manner that does the least harm to the leadership of the APS.

That fact is indisputable.

The public interest is not served by this arrangement.

In fact, the interests that are served are diametrically opposite to the public interest.

They are milking a billion dollar a year bureaucracy;
for all that its worth.

They could not have established their exception to accountability if the public were aware of what they are doing. If stakeholders knew that the leadership of the APS has methodically and deliberately excepted itself from accountability even to the law; they would be outraged.

They would show up at a board meeting carrying their pitchforks and torches and demand;

honest accountability to meaningful standards, for public servants within their public service; for eight measly hours a day;

transparently accountability under a system over which they have no control; and even against their will.


There are those who do not want the public to start talking about accountability in public service. Their position; that they are excepted from honest accountability, is indefensible in open discourse. They are conspiring together to keep the subject from public discourse.

The media in Albuquerque, the "leadership" of the Journal, the Trib, KOB, KOAT, and KRQE, are involved in the effort to keep the public from considering honest accountability for public servants.

That fact is indisputable.


One of the privileges of membership in the privileged class is that if you are to be held accountable at all;
you are accountable only to others of the privileged class;

... and certainly not to the great unwashed
or to any of their silly rules.

As predicted

The Journal's coverage of the school board meeting last night does not include the board's unanimous approval of a deceitful and misleading goal to address the board's communications problem with stakeholders.

Communications has long been regarded as a major problem in the district's relationship with the community.

The adopted goal is to increase "efficiency" in communication;

a meaningless and completely unenforceable standard
that manifests the complete lack of respect that
the leadership of the APS has for stakeholders.


Shame on Paula Maes, Robert Lucero, Berna Facio,
Mary Lee Martin, Delores Griego, and Gordy Rowe.

Mostly though, shame on the Journal for betraying
the trust of reader stakeholders again, and again,
and again.

By Unanimous Decision* The Board of Educations Proclaims its Goals for SY 07-08

*Marty Esquivel was absent.

There are four goals.

None has anything to do with being better role models.

One says; their goal is to increase efficiency of all communication processes between the Board of Education and all stakeholders.

At the same time they steadfastly refuse to answer legitimate questions.

Questions like;

why won't you explain why you are no longer accountable as role models for the student standard of conduct?

It is a legitimate question.

The board has excepted itself from accountability to any meaningful standard of conduct. They are no longer accountable as role models. I would like to know why they have abdicated as the senior role models for 99,000 students in the APS; and they won't answer the question.

But by unanimous vote tonight, they have just promised the community that their goal is to increase communication "efficiency". What the hell kind of word is efficiency to use to describe communication?

My bet is that it is the word that a group of Modrall lawyers decided upon, as the standard that they could most easily except themselves from, in a court of law.

What would the community think if they knew that the board just set a meaningless and misleading goal as their standard of communication with stakeholders?

The question is moot. It is moot because the community will never find out what happened.

They will never know; because the newspapers won't report it.

The TV news wasn't even there.


And Monica Armenta sure isn't going to try to explain it.


And so there we are. The leadership of the APS has systematically, methodically, and deliberately excepted itself from accountability to any meaningful standard of conduct at all.

• They are no longer accountable as the senior role models for employees and students in the APS.
• They are not accountable as role models, nor as stewards of a billion tax dollars a year, nor as public servants.
• They have used the Modrall law firm to except themselves from accountability even to the law.
• Sherriff Darren White is covering for them.
• District Attorney Kari Brandenburg is covering for them.
• The Journal and the Trib are covering for them.
• and, KOB, KOAT, and KRQE are covering for them.
  

If this were some crazy conspiracy theory; wouldn't you expect that at least one of them would deny the allegation and offer controverting proof;
if any such proof existed; any proof at all?

Not one of them will,
because not one of them can,
because no such proof exists;

... not even in its smallest measure.

Trib editor Bill Slakey proves me wrong

I would have bet my house that the Trib didn't have the grapes to write about a real controversy in the APS.

And then there it is, right on tonight's front page.

It seems that there is a controversy over the name of the new high school.


According to Susie Gran and the Trib; after taking seven calls objecting to the name Tuesday, state Sen. James Taylor called Albuquerque Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Tom Savage to voice his objections.

"I've got people raising hell," said Taylor...
"There are a lot of names they could have chosen that would be better," ...

South Valley school board member Dolores Griego stood her ground saying, she thought Vista del Rio was beautiful. Adding ... you can see the river ....

The pressure from the powerful politico might be enough to make Savage and the rest of the senior APS administrators roll over on the naming committee; who probably thought they were actually naming the new high school, when they invested their time and effort.

What next Trib? an expose of corruption and incompetence?

The board will approve it's goals for the current school year tonight

Board Goals 2007-08

Goal 1: The Board of Education will lead and support improved student achievement and improved instructional practices by developing and monitoring effective and targeted policies during school year 2007-08.

Goal 2: The Board of Education will lead, model, select, and support effective and culturally-sensitive leadership in Albuquerque Public Schools by strengthening positive relationships with its community and governmental partners and celebrating our diversity.

Goal 3: Increase efficiency of all communication processes between the Board of Education and all stakeholders.

Goal 4: Use continuous improvement processes to enhance the Board of Education’s leadership role in day-to-day Board work.

Does this mean the public forum will be returned to the public record?

Does it mean someone in the leadership of the APS will finally stand for legitimate questions?

Well no, it doesn't.

Which makes a goal which reads;

Increase efficiency of all communication processes between the Board of Education and all stakeholders,

a lie. Does it not?

What kind of efficient communication involves
hiring an executive director of communications
whose job is not, to tell the truth, but
whose job is, not to tell the truth?

Reflect please, upon their recent adoption of, as their own standard of conduct, a comparatively meaningless and completely unenforceable code of ethics.

A decision which was not communicated to stakeholders; despite the personal witness of reporters.

If ever there was an eye into the sole of an organization;
it is a policy statement.

And tomorrow, despite the fact that reporters will be at the board meeting tonight; it will not be reported to the community which board members vote for and against a deliberately dishonest policy statement, from the board and for the community.