Peter St Cyr breaks from the pack.

Albuquerque's legacy media, the Journal, KOB, KOAT, KRQE, have yet to talk to a political candidate about "ethics".
They're generally done when a candidate mentions the word transparency.

Peter digs deeper,
on the record, and
on tape, link.

He's got a political candidate
for a statewide office, not
only talking ethics, but
saying the words;
"role model" out loud.



Lawrence Rael is talking the talk.

He talks like he is willing to step up
as a role model for the two hundred
thousand or so, of his would be
constituents, who are children.

Will he walk the talk?

I guess that remains to be seen.




photos Mark Bralley

Maybe it's just that no one ever asked.

Governor Richardson, will you please end* the culture of corruption in New Mexico State government?

* call a special session of the legislature; "call" upon them to come up with legislation that ends the culture of corruption, at once and for all. "Call" upon them to write legislation that makes it impossibly difficult to hide public corruption and incompetence from honest accountability. And then sign the bill immediately.


If Governor Richardson can not
end the culture of corruption;

if Governor Richardson will not
end the culture of corruption,

of what good is he?





If the "press" does not hold him accountable,
of what good is it?




photo Mark Bralley

Busted at a town hall meeting.

Rep Martin Heinrich's plan was as fair as it could possibly have been; random access to a microphone and the floor for two minutes, to ask what ever question they wanted.

Everything about the process was literally transparent. Unless there is a world class magician in the wings, it was fair.

The very first card was called, and a "gentleman" took his
position at the microphone. The second card that was read,
had his name on it as well.

It was a second or two until the crowd noise indicated that they were beginning to understand what was going on. To their credit, they were outraged. Some shouted; throw him out!

He had helped himself to at least twice his fair share of the opportunity to speak. He was apparently under the impression that his input was worth at least twice as much as the input of any other of his countrymen.

And there he was, standing up at the microphone absolutely by himself. He could not have been more naked than, if he were actually naked.

Surely someone got the video, I couldn't.
Can anyone say? YouTube

Talk about karmic pay back; what a bitch.

My dad was kidding when he used to say to me,

There's a lesson to be learned here but, it escapes me.

... not.

Let's spend the reserve fund.

The State of New Mexico has a shoebox full of cash under its bed. It's called the reserve fund.

Right now there is more money in the reserve fund than there is in deficit. The fund could be spent to cover the deficit. To do so however, would mean depleting the reserve fund to a dangerously low balance. There would be no money for a rainy day.

I propose; in a special session dedicated solely to ending the culture of corruption, we take whatever money we need to, out of the reserve fund, in order to fully fund the end the culture of corruption through forensic auditing and transparency. Every branch of government, whose responsibilities include enforcing meaningful standards of conduct and competence, will receive whatever they need funding they need, in order to stop the stealing.

In a subsequent special session, spending will be cut or
taxes will be raised, in order to maintain the necessary floor
in the rainy day fund.

In the next fiscal year,
hundreds of millions of dollars will be saved.

The savings will be put into the shoebox under the bed, or
given back to taxpayers.

At what point should there be jail time?

I'm not even going to bother with links here, if you don't already have them on your own, you are not paying very careful attention.

One good ol' boy scammed tax payers out of millions,
while building them, ironically, a courthouse.

One good ol' girl, stole 9 million dollars from a town full of children.

Another, scammed taxpayers into paying for a big ol' party for
her good ol' friends.

One is sitting in jail, in a Club Med sort of a way.

One will go to jail eventually, in a Club Med sort of a way.

And the last, as far as I can tell,
still doesn't know what it feels like to be locked in a cage,
and feel the door slam shut.

I think there should be some jail time,
you don't pass go, and you don't get two hundred dollars.

I think betraying the public trust is treasonous.

I think if you sit around figuring out ways to screw
your countrymen, and you get caught doing it,
you should go to jail.

Would jail time be a deterrent? Who cares?

When these people do these things, they disturb a balance.
The imbalance remains until they "pay" for their crime.

Revenge is about getting even.

Martin Heinrick dodged an important question.

Let me begin by saying that I thought Rep Heinrich put on one hell of a town hall meeting. It was carefully choreographed and went off without a hitch. No matter how one feels about health care reform, it would be difficult to find fault with the way the meeting was conducted.

Update, apparently it depends on where your seats were, link.




That said, I will lodge a complaint with respect to what he didn't do after the meeting, when members of the press had the opportunity to ask Rep Heinrich their own questions.

I asked; what is the paradigm change that will guarantee that a significant part of the federal funding for health care reform is not going to be lost to the same waste, fraud, and abuse we see in every other federal spending program?

I prefaced my question with the observation; the more money
that the federal government spends, the more money that will
be lost to waste, fraud, and abuse; by the following logic.

If the government spends one dollar, some part of that dollar will be wasted or stolen. There may be a government agency where that part is zero. There are also government programs, like the six million dollar federal grant that is at the heart of the Vigil-Giron scandal, where more than half of each dollar goes unaccounted for.

For the sake of argument, let's say that five cents of every federal dollar is wasted or stolen. If the federal government spends one dollar, you lose five cents, if the federal government spends two dollars, you lose ten cents, if the federal government spends three dollars, you lose 15 cents, ...

Or, the more money the federal government spends, the more money is lost to waste, fraud, and abuse; my original premise.

Unless there is a paradigm change, and assuming 5% loss,
if the federal government spends one trillion dollars on
health care reform, 50 billion dollars, will be wasted or stolen.

The bottom line, Heinrich spoke to no change in the paradigm. He talked about administrative overhead and some other stuff, and then ended by saying he rejected my premise.

Good work on the town hall meeting.

Not so good on how he is going to keep fifty billion tax dollars
from being wasted or stolen.




photo Mark Bralley

Pete Dinelli, wannabe cop.

The setting was the press debriefing after Rep Martin Heinrich's town hall meeting. There was security at the door, allowing only the credentialed press to enter the room. Pete Dinelli wanted in. He was asked if he was with the press.

He answered by representing that he was a police officer.

That's against the law; isn't it?




photo Mark Bralley

More truth, or the whole truth?

Expect more transparency in state government. If for no other reason than that virtually every candidate is promising transparency in exchange for your vote, and whoever gets elected is going to have to produce at least "some" more transparency.

It is fair to ask, how much more?

And, why not "complete"? Why don't we go clear to the end of the road? Why don't we take the giant step this year, instead of baby steps every year?

Consider the entire truth about the spending of your power and your resources. There is a line between the truth that must be told, and the truth that must not be told (there are specific exceptions provided in the law).

According to blogger Haussamen;

Referring to the litany of scandals, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish said the most recent indictments of Vigil-Giron and others are “further evidence of New Mexico’s need for an independent ethics commission and increased transparency in state government.” (emphasis added)

"Increased" a little, Ms Denish,
or "increased" all the way?

Where do you draw the line?




photo Mark Bralley

Denish runs the same old flag up a different pole.

Lt Gov Diane Denish laid a plan on the table on July 9th, link.

As I far as I can tell, it represents the sum total of her plan to end the culture of corruption in state government.

In the light of the recently announced scandal involving former Secretary of State Vigil-Giron, Denish has redrawn attention to her plan, link.

In as much as it is the sum total of her plan to end the culture of corruption; it is fair to point to some serious shortcomings; there still is no mention of funding the Office of the State Auditor adequately enough to allow the State Auditor, Hector Balderas, to forensically audit corruption out of existence.

It is fair to point out as well, the Denish is applying no pressure at all, to see her plan implemented now, rather than later.

I was particularly moved by a line from a movie about a black college debating team. The subject of the debate was the end of discrimination and when that would take place.

The subject of the current debate is; shall we really end the culture of corruption, and if so, when shall we do it?

"the right time, to do the right thing, is always right now"

photo Mark Bralley

Martin Heinrich's town hall meeting.

I don't know what more voters could ask for. Rep Martin Heinrich is showing up in person, and he has assembled a panel of "experts" including
at least one opposing, articulate opinion; Paul Gessing.

There is room for 600, more may come.
I hope there is provision for those who came too late to get in.

As long as it remains civil,
it should be very productive.




photo Mark Bralley

"trust in government" a "crap issue".

Scott Stigler is substituting for Jim Villanucci this week.

His guest yesterday was
Gwyneth Doland representing the
New Mexico Independent, link,
one of KKOB's competitor news outlets.

In response to a question from Stigler about the issue of trust
in government, Doland allowed that the issue is a "crap" issue.

Since it is my main issue, I cannot let the remark go unnoticed.

All of the power and resources that the people turn over to government are protected by one or both of two mechanisms; either there are standards and accountability adequate to protect the public interests, or, we can trust the government to protect them.

In the abject absence of adequate standards and accountability,
there is only trust; hardly a "crap" issue.

As proof of their trustworthiness, I insist that public servants
promise to tell the truth about the public interests and about
their public service; complete transparency.

Without adequate standards and accountability, and without
public servants who will promise to tell us the truth,
our power and resources are completely unprotected.

Trustworthiness is a "crap" issue only in the presence of
truth telling, standards, and honest accountability.

In the absence of any one of those, trust is all we have.




photo Mark Bralley

Is State Auditor Hector Balderas bluffing?

State Auditor, Hector Balderas, said that, given the resources, he could audit the spending of tax dollars so closely, as to make it impossibly difficult to steal money and expect not to be found out.

Is he bluffing?
I don't think so; for two
reasons. He was looking
me in the eye
when he said it, and
it makes perfect sense.


There is nothing unbelievable about the premise.

Clearly, if there were ongoing forensic auditing of spending,
if it were impossibly difficult to steal without being caught,
there would be no more corrupt spending.

I would urge any "real" political "journalists" to call Balderas' bluff, if that's what they think it is. Otherwise, I would urge them to give some attention to his plan to end the culture of corruption.




photo Mark Bralley

The most partisan issue OF all, is not a partisan issue AT all.

Expect Republicans to be hammering Democrats over the
endless stream of revelations of corrupt Democrats.

Yet if the situation were reversed,
the situation would be reversed, exactly.

There are two elements of public corruption; temptation and human weakness. Neither have any correlation to political party.

There are those who are arguing right now, that we could solve all of our problems by electing people who are not weak. Good luck on that one.

Imagine a large suitcase filled with someone else's money;
unmarked twenties, absolutely untraceable. Imagine that
the suitcase is there for the taking, with absolutely no chance
of getting caught.

Now tell me that you think you have the opportunity to elect people who have what it takes to walk by that suitcase, and another, and another.

Of the two, human weakness and temptation,
we have no control whatsoever over one, and
complete control over the other.

We can eliminate the temptation, we can make it impossibly difficult to yield to that temptation without getting caught.

Casinos are not stolen from, like taxpayers are. Casinos make it
impossibly difficult to steal without getting caught.

There is the opportunity to protect the suitcase, thereby removing the temptation. At which point human weakness no longer plays.

State Auditor Hector Balderas says that he can keep a forensic eye on the suitcase, given resources. Given the resources, he can make it impossibly difficult to steal or waste tax dollars. Given the resources, he says he can end the culture of corrupt spending.

There is not a single candidate for Governor, promising to give the Office of the State Auditor, resources enough to end the culture of corruption, at once, and for all.

Someone reached my blog recently, by way of a question they googled, "why do people steal public money?"

They steal it because they can.

They steal it because we allow them to.

They steal it because there are not enough of us,
willing to stand together on the steps of the Roundhouse
there to demand, the end of the culture of corruption.

They steal it because we don't have the cajones to stop them.




photo Mark Bralley

Our government has lost control over our government.

By any reasonable measure, the people have lost control over
their power and their resources.

If the width and the depth of corruption and incompetence in
government is any indication, the government does not have
control over the spending of our power and resources, either.

The permanent fix is;

government, transparently accountable to the people.

Honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for public servants, within their public service.

Any politician who will not step up on the record and demand completely transparent accountability right now, wants to hide something.

The worst thing that any public servant can do,
is anything they're doing in secret.

It's time for politicians to pick a side;

1. those who are willing to raise their right hand and swear;
they will tell the truth about the public interests and about
their public service; the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,

(so help them, God),

or

2. those who will not.


"no comment" means, no.
Any answer except yes means, no.

Stonewalling means, no.


If we don't even know the truth about the spending of
our power and our resources, how is that not,
our government, out of our control?

Robbins cries, foul!

I was at the public forum to point to the need for an impartial standards and accountability audit of the administration of the APS, before they ask us to trust them with another $650M.

I was listing examples of evidence of the lack of standards and accountability. Among the examples, some quotations;

• Governor Richardson's, APS has an earned statewide reputation for its lack of financial accountability, and
• Mayor Marty Chavez', argument that it was necessary for him to be able to appoint his own school board members to address the lack of standards and accountability, and
• APS Police Chief Gil Lovato's, if the truth ever gets out, there won't be a single APS senior administrator left standing.

I was not able to read the entire list, because I am given only 2 minutes to speak.

After the public forum, there is "Matters of Information".
It amounts to a show and tell; everyone on the dais gets to talk
about whatever they want to, for as long as they want to.

Robbins chose to talk about the impropriety of my repeating of years-old quotes. He thinks, apparently that there is a statute of limitations on the truth. If they can keep the truth hidden long enough, then I cannot bring it up again.

A premise I reject categorically.

According the APS Student Standards of Conduct;

"There is no debt too old for an honest man to pay."

The problem is illustrated by the following example; at the time that APS Chief of Police, Gil Lovato was saying, if the truth ever gets out, there won't be a single APS senior administrator left standing, there was a scandal going on in the APS Police Department and evidence room. There was also felony criminal misconduct, including the criminal misuse of a supposedly secure NCIC criminal database. APS senior administrator(s) were involved in using the system to retaliate against whistle blowers and to investigate the fiancee of a very senior APS administrator.

The reason that it is appropriate to mention the quotation more than 2 1/2 years later is, 2 1/2 years later, the truth is still not "out". Even after statutes of limitation have expired on felony criminal misconduct, the leadership of the APS has still not surrendered the evidence of that felony criminal misconduct to the District Attorney. The misconduct is not 2 1/2 years old, it is ongoing.

Then Robbins went on to address my allegation that
APS has never has had a standards and accountability audit
that did not reveal findings of inadequacy.

I use the phrase "standards and accountability" deliberately
and repeatedly. It is not the same as a financial audit.
APS is passing "financial" audits.

Assuming of course that the Meyners Audit's statute of
limitation on telling the truth has expired.
Meyners auditors reported that the leadership of the APS
never had adequate financially adequate written policies and procedures,
they never had adequate accountability to the standards they do have, and
they (never) kept adequate records of the spending of billions of tax dollars.

The audit that needs to happen is one where impartial auditor looks for meaningful standards of conduct and competence in the administration of the public schools. They will look for honest accountability to those standards.

Good ol' boy oligarchies do not have adequate standards and accountability. Standards and accountability are fatal to corruption and incompetence.

They cannot produce a clean audit.

Nothing would be of greater value in passing a $650M bond issue, than a clean audit. If they could produce one they would produce one.

In bringing up financial audits in a discussion of standards
and accountability audits, Robbins dragged a red herring
into the discussion. It was dishonest.

It is the kind of behavior that is specifically prohibited according the APS Student Standards of Conduct. Except that Robbins is not accountable as a role model of those standards; by his own deliberate choice.

At this very moment, more than 100 whistle blower complaints are being denied due process. According to School Board Policy, the Audit Committee is required to "review and approve" of whistle blower complaints.
It is an important check and balance between the administrative and executive branches of the government of the APS.

Robbins refuses to put the review and approval of whistle blower complaints on his audit committee agenda. He is denying every one of these complaints their due process.

In order to get away with denying due process to the two complaints that I filed, due process is being denied to all complaints.

Because David Robbins does not want an open and honest public discussion of whether or not he and the rest of the leadership of the APS are actually accountable as role models of an ethical standard of conduct, every complaint that has ever been filed with APS SilentWhistle blower protection program is being denied due process.





photos Mark Bralley

A link to this post, will not be sent to David Robbins,
according to his stated preference.

Denish steps up, falls down.

Lt Gov Diane Denish is using the Vigil-Giron indictments to remind voters that she has a plan on the table.

Blogger Haussamen this morning writes;

"Referring to the litany of scandals, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish said the most recent indictments of Vigil-Giron and others are “further evidence of New Mexico’s need for an independent ethics commission and increased transparency in state government.”

“The indictment of a government official erodes public confidence in their government,” she said in a prepared statement. “… On July 9, I announced a plan for establishing an independent ethics commission that has the legal authority to investigate ethics complaints and impose penalties when necessary. I am more committed than ever to working with the Legislature to pass this ethics plan.”"

Yet, the truth is that Denish's plan does not include adequate funding for the State Auditor's Office, does not include adequate funding for the Attorney General's Office, and does not include adequate funding for the Secretary of State's Office.

Nor is Denish apparently, much concerned about when her plan will be enacted.
She is apparently willing to let the legislature bring it up on its own; like that will ever happen.

She is not insisting that it be the first order of business for the next meeting of the legislature, nor of the next, nor of the next.


Anything that is everyone's responsibility,
is no one's responsibility.




photo Mark Bralley

NM's Culture of Corruption, Chapter 14,873

Former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron is looking at a 50 count indictment over millions of dollars in fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, ...

Blogger Monahan suggested that former NM Attorney General Patsy Madrid may be dragged in before the last chapter is written.

The point that I would like to make, again,
is that if this particular project had a project end forensic audit, we would not now be where we are.

If the Jemez Mountain School District had a year end forensic audit, three million dollars would not have gone missing there.

If the Bernalillo County Courthouse project ended with a forensic audit, taxpayers would not be out millions of dollars there either.

If the Housing Authority was subject to forensic auditing, millions would not have been lost or stolen there.

Blogger Haussamen, reports this morning, what I have been reporting since May. link, State Auditor Hector Balderas said his audits by the State Audtor's Office, and investigations by the attorney general aren’t coming close to uncovering all the fraud that’s taking place.

If all government spending was independently audited as the bottom line, the stealing would end. It is possible to make it impossibly difficult to hide corruption and incompetence.

And on that day, corruption and incompetence will see their end.

The question is not, can it be done?
The question is, will it be done?

The first day of the very next day that the legislature meets,
could be the day that the culture of corruption in Santa Fe
ends.

It will be, if enough people are standing on the steps of the
Roundhouse carrying signs and demanding;

First,

end the culture of corruption!

photo Mark Bralley

This is why you can't trust APS Board Meeting Minutes

Tonight, one of the first things the board will do is to vote to
approve the minutes of the last board meeting, link.

From those minutes;

B. Bond Election Update

Dr. Brad Winter introduced Kizito Wijenje who informed the board of the progress in opening new schools and renovating current schools.

Mr. Wijenje advised that the Celebrate the Schools! Program, which involves the school and surrounding communities in planning and dedicating new facilities has created community ownership, built goodwill and kept the parents, elected officials, and the general public informed about all of the expenditures that have gone into improving the school environments.
The media is invited to come to the celebrations to review and document that APS has kept the promises to use the monies raised by the past bond elections. He advised that the process will continue with educational interactions and questions fielding with grassroots campaign groups, legislative committees, and other organizations.
The Capital Master Plan Committee will be meeting to determine the final assessment prioritization, which will be brought to the board for review and approval.
Research and Polling will be conducting a survey to ask respondents if they feel that APS has used public monies wisely. This will be compared to a survey that was completed three years ago. (emphasis added)
Winston Brooks has created PSA’s in English and Spanish, which have been distributed to all of the media outlets.

D. Presentation on NMSBA Leadership Conference

Dolores Griego discussed the topics of the 2009 NMSBA Leadership Conference.
Specifically, she relayed information about meeting procedures, recent court decisions and legal developments affecting schools, open meetings act technical compliance issues, the 2009 legislative program and her appointment to the NMSBA’s resolutions committee.

APS represents that minutes are written by an admin. The "Bond Election Update" reads like it was written by a stakeholder administrator. It's a little off putting, since minutes are supposed to be impartial and accurate.

Noteworthy, the districts intention to poll stakeholders by conducting "a survey to ask respondents if they feel that APS has used public monies wisely."

Apparently, the poll will be done by APS' Research, Development and Accountability division. The greatest advantage of that strategy is that, the results can more easily, be kept secret from stakeholders. I don't remember seeing any publication of survey results after they did the survey three years ago, and I was paying very close attention to that bond issue election. I will of course, bow to any controverting facts.

On the issue of Ms Griego's presentation to the board on the NMSBA Leadership Conference. It was during this presentation that Ms Griego suggested destroying records of board meetings as soon as the minutes are approved, link.

Note that the outrageous suggestion is not included in the "official minutes."

This omission hides one of two things;

1. that the suggestion was actually made in the first place, or
2. the board's intention to move on the proposal under the radar.

Board Meeting tonight is scheduled to be streamed.

Tonight marks the debut of the streaming of board meetings
over the internet through the APS website, link.

Once on the site, click on

1. "APS Leadership", then on
2. "Board", then on
3. "Watch the APS Board of Education Meeting Live"

Or, you can click on this link. (unclear without a meeting in progress,
whether or not this will actually help you. It seems like it might)

Board meetings are held on the first and third Wednesday.
They begin at 5pm. Public Forum is usually about 20 to 30
minutes in.

If you want to speak at the public forum, you must sign in
before 5pm. They offer no good and ethical reason that they
will not allow anyone to sign up any time before the forum ends.

The meeting will be broadcast with a two minute delay,
coincidentally the same amount of time speakers are allowed
at the public forum.

They say they intend to archive the recordings; although their last stated interest was in destroying any public records of meetings once the written minutes were approved.

Robert Lucero is already spending the bond money.

The bond issue election doesn't even happen until February.

The administration was asking for permission to spend about
$6M doing apparently necessary remodeling and renovation
at Sandia High School.

Lucero said, the heck with that, let's spend the six million dollars instead, on designing a new school, which will be part of the up coming bond issue.

Paula Maes, in whose district Sandia lies, agreed, and then rest of the board hopped on board as well.







The issue is not whether Sandia High School needs to be renovated or rebuilt.

The question is whether Robert Lucero should be spending taxes that the district has not yet collected, without the slightest consideration of stakeholder interests.

What about stakeholders who might have a different priorities when it comes to which schools need renovating or rebuilding?

More importantly, is it ok for Robert Lucero to be blocking an independent audit of the standards and accountability that stakeholders are relying upon to protect their interests and the resources that he is spending so freely?

Is it ok for Robert Lucero to refuse to tell the truth about administrative and executive role modeling of the APS Student Standards of Conduct?

Is it ok for the board to destroy the audio record of this meeting, as soon as they approve their own anecdotal written minutes?

If you ask Robert Lucero any of these questions, he will not respond candidly, forthrightly, and honestly, because







"you can't make me"




photos Mark Bralley