KRQE, Iain Munro guilty of SPJ Code of Ethics violations

photo w/o credit

KRQE and their news director Iain Munro are just as guilty as the Journal and Kent Walz of Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics violations.

Munro and KRQE refuse still, to disclose that Marty Esquivel, who directly benefited from KRQE's unethical coverage of the $863K settlement of complaints over Esquivel's violations of my civil rights, works for them; he is their lawyer.  That and the myriad additional violations outlined in my letter to Journal managing editor Karen Moses, link.

KOAT and their owner and general manager Mary Lynn Roper are as guilty or more.  KOAT is yet to even report that the APS school board negligently allowed or knowingly permitted Marty Esquivel to obligate the board, the district, and taxpayers to the largest settlement of its kind in the history of the United States.

kob photo

KOB TV and their news director Michelle Donaldson are just as guilty of misinforming or failing to inform altogether, the democracy, even in the face of an election over the school board's stewardship of another half a billion dollars.




Roper's photo, Mark Bralley

A bone to pick with Thom Cole, Karen Moses and the Journal.

Journal photo

Karen Moses is the Managing Editor of the Albuquerque Journal.  In that capacity, she is the recipient of at least two of my complaints over Journal coverage of the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.


The first complaint was
written in response to a report

penned by Journal investigative reporter Thom Cole, and his response to my objection.


I challenged the accuracy of his report, writing to him;

In your report you wrote; "The Robles and Yenson firms have received a total of nearly $288,000 since 2013 for representing APS and the Board of Education in the lawsuit",

The truth is, a significant part of the $288K was spent on Marty Esquivel's defense alone; to imply that the spending was for representing APS and the Board is inaccurate and misleading. Esquivel hired his own lawyer at huge expense to the district. Robles was Esquivel's lawyer exclusively until Pat Allen (Yenson and Allen) fired his clients (the board and all of the individually named defendants) because they wouldn't take his advice to settle their loser of a case. At that point, late in the spending, Robles took over for all defendants including Esquivel.

There are those who believe that Esquivel is one of the Journal's golden boys, and inaccurate and incomplete reporting substantiates those suspicions.

In response, he wrote;

Thanks for getting in touch.

So I wrote to Moses,

I am given to understand that it is you to whom I should look for a correction in Thom Cole's report on APS spending on litigation.

I sent the following to Cole;

Mr. Cole,

In your report you wrote; The Robles and Yenson firms have received a total of nearly $288,000 since 2013 for representing APS and the Board of Education in the lawsuit,

The truth is, a significant part of the $288K was spent on Marty Esquivel's defense alone; to imply that the spending was for representing APS and the Board is inaccurate and misleading. Esquivel hired his own lawyer at huge expense to the district. Robles was Esquivel's lawyer exclusively until Pat Allen (Yenson and Allen) fired his clients (the board and all of the individually named defendants) because they wouldn't take his advice to settle their loser of a case. At that point, late in the spending, Robles took over for all defendants including Esquivel.

There are those who believe that Esquivel is one of the Journal's golden boys, and inaccurate and incomplete reporting substantiates those suspicions.

His response, "thanks for getting in touch" doesn't lead me to believe he intends to correct the report.

I look to you then, to correct Cole and the Journal's error.

She is yet to acknowledge my email.

Today, I penned a second;

Ms. Moses,
I write to you in search of a good faith response from the Journal over my allegations of past and current wanton violations of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics in its coverage of my struggle with the leadership of the APS over their lack of honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

The first question I suppose, is, does the Journal admit to and accept an obligation to comply with the SPJ code?

If yes then, I would point to the following past and present violations of the code in Journal coverage of the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.
The “Journal” has failed to provide accurate and fair coverage. It has failed to respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness. Journal reporters have failed to verify information before releasing it. (and) Use original sources whenever possible.

They have failed provide context. (and) Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify … They have not acknowledged mistakes and corrected them promptly and prominently. You (the leadership of the Journal) refuse to expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within your own organization. They will not gather, update and correct information throughout the life of (their) news story. They have failed to diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism or allegations of wrongdoing. They have failed to provide updated and more complete information as appropriate.

The Journal has failed to avoid conflicts of interest, and disclose unavoidable conflicts.
The Journal has steadfastly refused to seek truth and report it. It is yet to be vigilant and courageous about holding those (in the leadership of the APS) with power accountable for their abuse of their power. It has granted favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, in failing to resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.

The Journal
is covering up a cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, and
refusing to report that student standards of conduct are being lowered in order that the senior most adult role models of student standards of conduct, will not be expected to model accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts! or any other standards of conduct higher than the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings. and
Refusing to report that board members and senior administrators are making use of unlimited budgets in order to pay for all the litigation and legal weaselry they need to escape the consequences of their incompetence and or corruption. And that they spend in meetings in secret, without records, and without any real oversight. And

Most importantly; refusing to report that the school board knowingly permitted or negligently allowed Marty Esquivel to squander more than three quarters of a million dollars in order to buy an “admission of no guilt” in the most expensive settlement (of its kind) in the history of the United States.

Realizing that;
The SPJ Code of Ethics is (only) a statement of abiding principles … and that the code should be read as a whole; individual principles should not be taken out of context. And that it is not, … legally enforceable.
I await your rebuttal, refutation, denial, defense, or at least your acknowledgement that these allegations have been made.

photo Mark Bralley

Kent Walz' Code of Ethics no more enforceable than the school board's.

If you asked Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz if he considered himself accountable to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, link, and if he responded to your question; I assume his answer would be yes; Yes, I am accountable to the SPJ Code of ethics.

If you asked the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education if they are accountable to their own Code of Ethics, link, and if they would respond to your question, I assume their answer would be yes; Yes, we are accountable to our own Code of Ethics.

The truth is; neither would be telling the truth; Walz is no more accountable to his code of ethics than the board is to theirs.  Both codes are utterly unenforceable.

Esquivel spent >$750K on
litigation and legal weaselry
in order to admit no guilt
despite incontrovertible 
evidence of his guilt

If Walz were accountable to the SPJ Code of ethics, he could be held accountable for his multiple breaches of ethics in covering the board's recently exposed and documented, willful permission and or negligent allowance of Marty Esquivel's squandering of public trust and treasure in a cost-is-no-object legal defense of his ego.

Walz could be held accountable for failing to respond quickly (or at all) to questions about the accuracy, clarity and fairness of his coverage.  Walz could be held accountable for failing acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently.

Walz and the Journal could be held accountable for failing to disclose their conflict of interests by withholding facts about the several relationships between Marty Esquivel, Walz and the Journal.  Esquivel was not only a former Journal reporter, he has represented the Journal in a number of legal cases.

Walz and the Journal could be held accountable for yielding to internal and external pressure and granting favored treatment to a special interest; Marty Esquivel and his reputation as a lawyer, school board member and man.

Neither Walz nor the Journal can be held actually, honestly accountable to any higher standards of conduct than the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

Perhaps that is why Walz and the Journal are so reticent to report that the school board is not only unaccountable to their own code of ethics; they are demonstrably unaccountable even to the law.




photos Mark Bralley

Journal editors; Oh, wow! There's an elephant in the room!

Journal editors have as close as they will likely ever come, to acknowledging the elephant in the APS board room;

• the leadership of the APS expects voters to trust them with another half a billion dollars, and

• voters don't really trust them at all.

There are two questions voters must ask themselves before voting for or against in the February 2nd Bond Issue and Mill Levy elections.

1. Is the spending justifiable? - are the right amounts being spent on the right things, and
2. Do they trust the board and their superintendent's stewardship over their trust and their treasure?

Stewardship; the careful and responsible management
of something entrusted to one's care.

The answer to the first question is subject to debate; though there will never be that debate.

The answer to the second question is a resounding no.

This isn't the first time that voters have had to balance their distrust of the leadership of the APS against their desire to provide state of the art facilities for the nearly 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters who are students in the APS.

With rare exceptions, voters have held their noses and entrusted their power and resources to people who never seem to get any better at what they do.  They have hoped that if they just give the drunk one more drink, s/he might stop drinking.

If you research APS bond issues, you find the same thing over and over and over;

• the need to appropriate money in support of education and

• the to the bone lack of trust in the competence and character of the people though whose hands, their money will pass.

Here is an example, a post by Mario Burgos entitled; Dilemma Facing APS Voters, link.  Please accept my assurance that it is representative.

The editors have finally acknowledged the elephant in the room, link.  At last, an inkling of candor, forthrightness and honesty with voter stake and interest holders.

Talk about betwixt a rock and hard place;

• on the one hand denying our children resources they can use, and 

• on the other, entrusting our money to people we really don't trust at all.

There is a third option;

Voters (and other stake and interest holders) can demand an immediate examination and review of the ethics, standards and accountability in place for the leadership of the APS; school board members and senior administrators.  They can demand that the findings be surrendered to public knowledge.

With the truth made public, we can demand the reforms that will justify re-instilling trust in their stewardship over our power and our resources.

If you agree; if you think an examination and review of
the standards and accountability that protect your interests
in the public schools, is long over due, make some noise.

Make some noise.

In thirty days, it will be a day too late to do anything at all.

Journal still covering for Esquivel

Editor in Chief Kent Walz

Except that former APS School Board member and Defendant Marty Esquivel admitted under oath that he and Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz are really good friends; the connections between Esquivel and the Journal and the Kabal (KRQE, KOAT and KOB TV) remain largely secret.





We do know that a few years ago, Esquivel and Walz bamboozled the NM Foundation for Open Government board of directors into giving APS Supt. Winston Brooks their hero of transparency award.  This at a time when Walz, Esquivel and Brooks were hiding (and still are) public records that individually identify APS senior administrators who were involved in felony criminal misconduct.

photo un

KRQE news director Iain Munro, when asked if he, as a member of the board of directors of the FOG, voted in favor of the perversion of the Dixon Award, did not respond.

Nor did he respond when asked to fully disclose his and KRQE's relationship with Esquivel and the conflict of interests the relationship introduces into their coverage of Esquivel.  Esquivel is and has been for some time, KRQE's lawyer.

Munro wants not to explain why KRQE made a public records request for the same findings that I sued over*, then abandoned their request.  Was it on the advice of KRQE lawyer Marty Esquivel?

*APS is spending money still, on litigation in their effort to keep public records of the findings of investigations into felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, secret from public knowledge.

Which begs a question; with respect to the ongoing spending of operational dollars on lawyers and legal weaselry in litigation over the production of the Caswell Report and others;

Is the APS Board of Education

• knowingly permitting operational dollars to be spent hiding the truth, or

• negligently allowing it?

Esquivel is lawyer and friend to a number of heavy hitters in the
local media. They are doing
their level best to keep Esquivel's fat out of the fire, but they've bitten off more than they can chew; Esquivel has screwed up too badly to cover up; he spent $865,000 to buy an "admission of no guilt" in a legal settlement; despite videotape of his guilt.

Esquivel is by the way, still spending operational funds in other unsettled complaints that have been filed against him in federal court.

Aside from the lawyers he pays to agree with him, Esquivel has found no learned support for his risible defenses.  No number of cost-is-no-object defenses will change incontrovertible evidence of his guilt.

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education;

• knowingly permitted or

• negligently allowed Marty Esquivel to spend a million dollars (all told) on lawyers, litigation and legal weaselry, in order to buy for himself and the board; their individual admissions of no guilt.

Esquivel can produce no record either that;

• the board legally approved of the amount of money he was squandering, or that

• the board even knew how much he was spending in cost-is-no-object defense of;

1. his ego, 
2. his lawyer Art Melendres, and 
3. the Modrall law firm (on the hook to taxpayers, for Melendres' bad legal advice).

Are Art Melendres and the Modrall going to reimburse taxpayers the money they lost when their Melendres' and Modrall's incompetence and or corruption led them to advise Marty Esquivel that he could ban me for life from public forums, or until I promised not to criticize him individually in that forum?

In Journal coverage yesterday, link, Journal investigative reporter Thom Cole led readers to believe that the $288,000 APS spent on legal defenses, was spent in defense of "APS and the board".

In truth, had Cole "investigated" them, billing records would show that the lion's share of the bills can be linked directly to Esquivel's defense, not APS and the manifestly clueless school board.

However bad it is, that the Journal and the Kabal of local NMBA affiliate stations won't dig for the truth, it is so much worse, that they won't pass the truth along even when it's dumped in their laps.




photos Mark Bralley

Journal investigative reporter Cole didn't ask ...

In the Journal this morning, link, Journal investigative reporter Thomas Cole, began the unraveling of the APS education litigation complex; the spending of millions and millions of dollars in the best interests of school board members and senior administrators.

Cole decided, or was directed, to investigate back one year. Twelve years is more justifiable; thirteen if you include K in the number of years that primary stakeholders; students in the APS, feel the impact of that kind of waste, fraud and abuse.

It's a shame that Cole's investigation didn't include chatting with me.  He was doing an "investigation" supposedly, of the board's stewardship over the operational fund and the draining of that fund into defense lawyers' bank accounts.

If Cole had asked me; hey, as a recent victim of APS spending on cost-is-no-object legal defenses in search of "admissions of no guilt", do have anything interesting to add?

I would have added; did you know that when the large bore pipeline from the operational budget to Modrall coffers was being laid, the President of the Modrall and the President of the School Board were married to each other?

Did you know that Paula Maes is the President and CEO of the New Mexico Broadcasters Association and likely the impetus for the local affiliate stations' (KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV) complicity in the cover up of the standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Cole might have said; gee, that seems far fetched.

And I would have asked him;


How else do you explain why KOAT owner and General Manager Mary Lynn Roper has yet to inform her viewers in the least, about the treasure APS and Esquivel have squandered?


 

photo w/o credit

How else would you explain why KRQE News Director Iain Munro offered slanted coverage while refusing to disclose that Esquivel is his lawyer?

kob photo

How else would you explain why KOB TV News Director Michelle Donaldson buried Stu Dyson's report?

Cole might have thought, wow!

He might have scurried off to
talk to the boss Kent Walz
about exposing a "K"abal
trying to manipulate the outcome of an election.

 

Right, expose a cover up
in which we play the lead
role!?  Are you crazy?

At which point, Cole's
investigation would have
come to a screeching halt.




photos Mark Bralley

Journal Editor in Chief's bias laid bare.

When Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz' interests lay in helping APS lawyers defame Don Moya and weaken his position in ongoing legislation, Walz was happy to report, link, that Moya had spent $850,000 remodeling his (and other) offices on the top floor at 6400 Upyours Blvd.

When voters have a real need to know that board members and administrators are squandering millions of dollars on themselves instead of classrooms in schools, suddenly the $850,000 isn't newsworthy.

How is that anything but naked journalistic malpractice; the willful manipulation and misleading of voters?

The Journal; "New Mexico's leading news source" they claim.

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




photo Mark Bralley

APS' "School Improvement Election" vote YES but only if ...

A Saturday morning Journal began (and might very well complete) their coverage of the APS School Improvement Election; a $575M bond issue and mill levy election, link.

The Journal, by means of reporter Kim Burgess, would have voters believe that the "APS bond election could provide $575M for projects".

Because all of those 575,000,000 dollars will be spent by administrators who are manifestly unaccountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence and, who will work under inadequate oversight and, who will not  keep sound records, there is a distinct possibility that a great deal of those dollars will be spent on fancy furniture for senior administrators' offices instead of in schools and in the best interests of students.

The proof of their austere or lavish spending is there to see atop a building
you paid for.  Taxpayers are not allowed see for themselves, how their hard
earned dollars have been spent.

In order to see the truth firsthand, stake and interest holders would
  have to fight their way past a publicly funded private police force;
a Praetorian Guard "just following orders" to keep them out.

If the truth about standards, accountability and oversight in the leadership of the APS were flattering, it would be easier to find.

You don't hide that kind of information behind armed guards.
Frankly, if the truth were flattering, or even marginally
unflattering, you would be reading about it in the Journal;
it would be posted on APS' award winning website.

I would imagine that if you went to bank wanting to borrow 575 million dollars, the bank might want to know what you are going to spend it on, but they sure as hell would want to know if you were "good" for the loan.

APS school board member and superintendents never have to prove they're good for bond issues and mill levies; that they have even marginal knowledge and skill to be good stewards of hundreds of millions of dollars.

These same people have spent millions and millions of dollars renovating and fortifying their castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd. and can't or won't produce any records of how they spent them.

There's a turd in their punch bowl and there isn't a clean end to grab; they

• knowingly permitted or

• negligently allowed

the squandering of the public trust and treasure entrusted to their stewardship.

The executive and administrative leadership of the APS a record of incompetence and corruption that they don't want to address.

They will not have to address their record, even in the face of an election over a half a billion dollars, because they have the aid and abet of New Mexico Broadcasters Assoc affiliate stations KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV, and of the Journal.

When and where do the board and administration have to prove that they can be trusted as stewards of 575 million dollars and the power that comes with them?

If the best predictor of future performance is indeed current and past performance, then why are current and past performance on the table for examination? 

Vote yes in the "School Improvement Election" but only if a comprehensive examination and review of standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS is well underway.  




photos Mark Bralley

APS Board cancels public forum w/o explanation or apology

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education had a meeting scheduled for January 6, 2016.  The regular board meeting and one of only two public fora before the February 2,  2016 "School Improvement Election", link., has been cancelled without explanation or apology.

If you've never heard of a "School Improvement Election", there's a reason.  A Google search for "School Improvement Election", gets 1,820 hits; a relative speck of sand in a desert.  Most of the first of them, link, to APS.

... APS "spokesperson" Monica Armenta

I think it's fair to say,  someone in the leadership of the APS invented terminology that would play better before voters than bond issue or mill levy election.

I think it's fair to say, the same kind of person wrote;

"The funding would come in the form of a $375 million mill levy and $200 million in general obligation bonds that will NOT increase taxes!" emphasis their own

I'm just going to go ahead and assume my readers "get" that if you pass a tax, you pay more taxes than if you don't pass the tax.

No matter how they might try to justify their argument,
it is on its face; less than candid, forthright and honest.

It wouldn't surprise me if the board cancels the January 20th meeting and public forum as well.

The media; the Journal and the NMBA "K"abal; KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV remain in cahoots.  They are bound to pass this bond issue and mill levy with or without the democracy, informed or otherwise.




photo Mark Bralley

APS 2016 bond issue and mill levy elections bound to fail

Fourteen years ago to the day, Albuquerque voters rejected an APS school bond issue and tax increase, link.

Coincidentally, the last bond issue to fail before that, failed fourteen years earlier.

Coincidentally, APS had just paid another supt. a bunch of money to leave.

Voters are legitimately upset and, the leadership of the APS
is doing nothing to address that upset.

Instead, as is their want and practice, APS and the media will
keep the bond issues and mill levies largely secret from voters until the last minute, when they will deluge likely supporters with information that will get out their vote in elections that go otherwise unnoticed.

There are three options;

• voters can approve the tax increases in spite of the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS - Gov Bill Richardson's advice, link.

• voters can reject the tax increases because of the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS and the possibility of a number of otherwise good outcomes will evaporate for at least another two years. or

• voters can approve the tax increases, but only if a full blown examination and review of ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS is well underway.

The best outcome unfortunately, is the least likely;

resources in exchange for honest to God accountability
to meaningful standards of conduct and competence
as stewards of the public trust and treasure.

"K"overing for Katz' boss

Voters and other stake and interest holders in (city) government, depend on local "news" for information they can use in their effort to maintain control over their government, and the wielding of power and spending of resources belonging fundamentally to them.

Within the local media there is a cabal; a small group working together in secret; heavy hitters in politics, education, industry and media.  I refer to them occasionally, as a Kabal in reference to their call signs; KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV.  The Journal is part of the Kabal, spelling notwithstanding.

The interests of the Kabal include covering each others asses in general.  Not in so much as they approve individual's misconduct, but in so far as they endorse and enable practices that will allow them to escape the consequences should the need arise one day, of their own incompetence and or corruption.

Right now, the Kabal would stake and interest holders, not know who was Katz' immediate supervisor.   Again, not so much that they want to protect that person personally (although that possibility can never be ruled out) but in general.  They would like people to not think in terms of holding powerful people accountable over the misconduct of their subordinates.

At this point, the Kabal's leadership in the media includes but is not limited to;

• Kent Walz, the Editor in Chief for the Journal.

• Iain Munro, KRQE new director,

• Mary Lynn Roper, owner and general manager of KOAT, and

• Michelle Donaldson, KOB TV news director.

I am naming these folks, not because I can prove they're covering for Katz' boss in this specific case, even though they are yet to identify the culprit, but because I know they are covering for Marty Esquivel's bosses (the APS School Board) and their knowing permission or negligent allowance of Esquivel's squandering of a million dollars in at least two non-viable defenses of his ego, in federal court.

All in all, they're one and the same.

Gov. Bill Richardson backs APS Bond Issue

It was fall, 2006.

William Blaine Richardson was governor.

APS was heading into an important bond issue election, link, and according to a Journal poll, link, 40% of voters were less than thrilled with the leadership of the leadership of  the APS.

The leadership was under fire for the usual;

• wasting tax dollars, link, and

• students choking on standardized tests, link.

Same as today, except that in those days the Journal was still making an honest effort to inform the democracy about the incompetence and corruption in the leadership of the APS.  The Journal even reported on the felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS police force, link; a publicly funded private police force; a Praetorian Guard if ever there was.  Today, they steadfastly refuse to report on APS' cover up of those felonies.

Today, the Journal is to their eyeballs in the cover up, of the cover up of the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

• inadequate ethics (higher standards than the law)

• inadequate standards of conduct and competence and

• inadequate accountability to such ethics and standards as there are.

Richardson wrote an op-ed, link, for the Journal.  Unclear, who wrote the headline; APS Bond Buys Buildings, Not Bureaucracy 

It read in significant part;

In a few short weeks, Albuquerque voters will be asked to support a bond package ... and I urge voters to support this bond package.
The money will be used ... to build and modernize schools, not on administration. Voters can be confident that money from these bonds will not be wasted on bureaucratic red tape.

(There are) who argue persuasively that Albuquerque Public Schools has a long history of dodging accountability when it comes to managing its finances and modernizing schools.

(APS is) a district that has generated ill will across the state ... 

I am endorsing this bond package ... (despite) ... critics who are skeptical of the way APS manages taxpayer money ...

Voters were told that despite a long record of APS' lack of accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, they should be given stewardship over another third of a billion dollars.

Trust them, Richardson told us, to spend the money in the best interests of students.

So how did that work out for voters?   According the Journal, link;

“(an APS senior administrator) (recently) spent over $850,000.00 on a remodel and furniture for his own suite of offices.”*

*Confusion exists over where the money was actually spent in just Moya's suite.  The confusion stems from APS lack of record keeping, and from the Journal's apparent disinterest in clearing it all up.

Richardson also wrote that day;

Following the school election, I welcome a debate on potential solutions aimed at requiring more accountability in our schools.

That debate never took place.

To this day, the leadership of the APS refuses to engage in any public discussion at all, of their ethics, their standards, and their honest to God accountability to any of them, even the law.

And it isn't because they are so damned proud of it all.




photo Mark Bralley

Did Rob Perry flub the dub?

In the Journal this morning, link, we find that another few hundred thousand tax dollars have been wasted.

It turns out that some petty tyrant abused the power entrusted to him.  He got a 90 day suspension.

Whomever it was who was, whose job is was to was to enforce ethics and standards that don't enable this kind of abuse in the first place, remains unidentified and more importantly will suffer no suspension at all.

The chain of command, isn't immediately apparent.
The Journal reporter is still holding the turd and trying
to figure out which is the clean end;
the failure to dig one inch deeper and to inform the democracy
burning one of their untouchable friends 

On whose desk should the responsibility for this scandal come to rest?

Where does the buck stop?

Is it reasonable to expect that
Mayor Richard Berry should
have known?

Should his expectations for
his subordinates been clearer?

No leader can be personally aware of everything and, the line is blurry.

cabq image

Toes in the fire is perhaps,
Chief Gordon Eden.

Should he have known what
was going on?

Did  he know what was going on?

If not, why not?





And then there's the guy who thinks he's in charge of everything.
 
An obnoxious chain smoking little
tyrant,  link, and bejeweled butt plug*
CABQ CAO Rob Perry. * Amazon,

He's a guy with enough power to have nipped this scandal in the bud, and close enough to the scandal that he should have known.

Did Rob Perry negligently allow or knowingly permit chief Katz to run amok?




photo Mark Bralley

"Tour of the Twins" put on hold.

A proposed Tour of the Twins is on hold.

What went on in here?  Was the board a good steward over the hundreds
of millions of dollars voters entrusted to the stewardship of the leadership
of the APS in the last bond issue?  Or did they squander your money on
$1k chairs and hardwood paneling?  Frankly you'll never know. You are
not allowed to see for yourself and the local "K"abal, KRQE, KOAT, and
KOB TV are more interested in passing the bond issue than "upsetting voters".

In truth, "on hold" is a bit of an overstatement.
The tour has run into a stonewall; they are yet to admit that the tour has even been proposed.

The tour was first proposed with the idea of a tour of the twins in anticipation of an upcoming school bond issue election.  For reasons that would probably make more sense to a public relations manipulation expert than they do to me, APS' award winning website is calling it a School Improvement Election, link.

If by "school improvement" you mean spending a million dollars every few years remodeling administrative offices on the top floor, then yeah, the bond issue is about improving schools.

The highly paid Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta is disinclined to lead the press and the people on a tour of offices, that I wouldn't be surprised to find; include her own.

This though, if the tour would actually lead people to believe that they could trust the leadership of the APS to spend their hard earned dollars frugally, a tour would be the most effective thing they could do, to insure passage of the quarter Billion dollar bond issue.

KRQE claims they "investigate".  News Director Iain Munro won't.  Having done his part in covering up the fact that the APS school board allowed KRQE lawyer and school board member Marty Esquivel to squander a million dollars on non-viable "legal" defenses of his ego without raising any flags; Munro will now help them cover up the $850K fortification and remodel of senior administrative offices on the top floor.

KOAT and Target 7 having done their part in covering up the Marty Esquivel scandal (they have yet to even report it!), has no interest in touring the towers with their cameras either.

Owner and general manager Mary Lynn Roper, I believe, is covering NM Broadcasters Association President and CEO Paula Maes' ass.

Maes was a heavy hitter on the board when the cover up of the felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the police force began.  Maes wants very much for people never to know that she once said, she would never agree to any audit that individually named incompetent or corrupt senior administrators.

KOB TV also claims to "investigate" and won't.  Having done their part in covering up the Marty Esquivel scandal, they intend to cover up reckless spending in the towers.

kob image

Blameworthy; KOB news director Michelle Donaldson.  She is apparently quite happy with letting poor Stuart Dyson take the blame for the fact that his report on the Marty Esquivel scandal never saw the light of day, link; but there is no point in letting her.

If she would like to pass the blame, or someone else accept it the blame for KOB's relentless refusal to inform the democracy with regard to APS' ethics, standards and accountability crisis, I would be happy to post that person's photo instead.

Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz' and the Journal aren't part of the Kabal, because the Journal doesn't start with a "k".  Walz and his Journal are certainly part of, perhaps pivotal in, a real cabal (a secret political clique or faction) of "journalists" willing to manipulate public opinion in order to fix an election - kind of the diametric opposite of what they are supposed to be doing.




photos Mark Bralley

Winter; if it's "legal" its permissible

Brad Winter
"if it's legal" it's OK"

There are some questions about whether the newly appointed Secretary of State Brad Winter can collect so many government paychecks at once.

The questions were settled in a Winter habilitation piece, courtesy of  the Journal this morning, link,


May I remind Brad Winter, the "law" is the lowest standard of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings.  There are other higher standards of conduct including; ethical.

If Winter had more respect for ethical standards, there would be no need to fall back on "legal" standards as often as he must.

Winter felt the same way about "higher standards" of conduct when he was an APS senior administrator, utterly unaccountable to any standards of conduct at all, not even the law.  Winter admitted "no guilt" despite demonstrable perjury in sworn deposition and statements in the Marty Esquivel scandal in federal court.




photo Mark Bralley

Moya offered "a job in the basement sharpening pencils”

APS CFO Don Moya could be returning to APS according to a report on KRQE, link.

According to his lawyer, his new job description amounts to "a job in the basement sharpening pencils".

Nevertheless, he will return earning the same salary and benefits.

Unclear if, instead of basement digs, he will return to the office he remodeled for part or all the $850K APS spent sprucing up the offices on the top floor of the twins.

KOB photo

Unclear whether he will keep the brand new Dodge Charger the district gave him to drive after he carelessly destroyed the brand new Chevy he was given to drive, link.

All other details, of course, will remain secret.




photo Mark Bralley

How was Marty Esquivel allowed to squander $865K? Can it happen again? It already is.

There is a parallel case to mine; more of the same complaints against the same defendants, including Marty Esquivel and another cost is no object legal defense of his, and their egos.

Not that you would read that in the Journal; they relentlessly refuse to publish the filing of the complaint brought by photo Journalist Mark Bralley.  Who knows how many other complaints have been filed?  Who knows how many other complainants are up against cost is no object legal defenses for even the most obviously guilty?

If the Journal won't tell their readers about the one,
it follows' they have not told readers about them all.

Voters will be asked in six weeks or so, to trust the leadership of the APS and their stewardship over the spending of more than a quarter of a billion dollars, AND to trust that they will wield in the best interests of students; the power that goes along with the spending a quarter of a billion dollars.

If the school board is negligently allowing their cronies to buy admissions of no guilt in settlement agreements, voters might regard that as a sign of incompetence, and why in the world would we trust them with another $254M?

If the school board is knowingly permitting their cronies to spend hundreds of thousands of operational dollars on admissions of no guilt; voters might regard that as a sign of corruption; even worse.

Instead of informing the democracy in anticipation of an election; the combined coverage of the Journal and the NMBA affiliate stations KRQE, KOAT, KOB TV, has a different theme in common; no matter what the facts, victims (and their lawyers) are the villains.

• Marty Esquivel ran up, and is still running up, more than a million dollars worth of bills,
• the board is knowingly permitting or negligently allowing him to do it, and  
• I'm the asshole.

Why are the establishment's "press" asking;

• how did this happen? and 
• why is it still happening? and
• what do they intend to do exactly, to keep it from happening again?

Why aren't those questions being asked and reported upon?
Why won't the media ask for the public records that demonstrate one one way or the other,

1. Is the board indulging Esquivel?  or
 

2. Is Esquivel slipping one by them?

Why is the media stirring up their trolls instead?

It is because the "media" disguised as "press" in this town are up to their eyeballs in the cover up.  They are damned if they don't (report the truth) and damned if they do*.  *They will have to account for their relentless refusal to tell the truth heretofore.

The heavy hitters at the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV part of a cover up.

The Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV will not investigate and report upon credible allegations and evidence of a widespread and deeply rooted ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Owner and general manager of KOAT TV Mary Lynn Roper has gone so far as to deny KOAT viewers of even the knowledge that APS just settled yet another lawsuit for nearly a million dollars.

Not even in the face of an election.

Not even to report that it's all bullshit;
that I made it all up, and voters
have nothing to worry about.




photo Mark Bralley

Iain Munro will take the heat for KRQE

Someone at KRQE is responsible for journalistic malpractice in the slanted coverage KRQE offered over the settlement of the largest suit of its kind in the history of the United States.

image source unk

The finger has been pointed at KRQE's news director Iain Munro.

I asked him in email, if he would accept the responsibility.
He is yet to respond.

I asked him why KRQE did not disclose their conflict of interests - Marty Esquivel is the station's lawyer.

I asked him if there was a personal relationship between he and Esquivel that was clouding his judgement, and which also required disclosure.

I asked him if he was on the board of the NM FOG when Marty Esquivel and Kent Walz bamboozled the FOG into giving the now disgraced former APS Supt. Winston Brooks a hero of transparency award.

I asked him if he voted in favor of Brook's recognition (at a time when Brooks dba APS, was fighting the release of public records to KRQE, over the cover up felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS police force.

He is yet to respond.

Stu Dyson takes the fall for KOB

KOB has offered biased and incomplete coverage of the settlement of my suit against Marty Esquivel and the board.  I recently filmed a lengthy interview with KOB's Stuart Dyson.  In the interview I laid out a lot of information that would be of interest to voters six weeks from now, when they decide whether the board will get another quarter of a billion tax dollars to spend.

Stuart Dyson  kob image

Stu Dyson is the "highest ranking" person at KOB, who I know, knows the truth about the squandering of the taxpayer's trust and nearly a million dollars of their hard earned treasure, on a non-viable defense of Marty Esquivel's ego.

I've asked Stu to identify whomever is covering for APS and Esquivel.  He hasn't responded to voicemail or email.

I don't hold Stu personally responsible, anymore than I hold any of the other reporters who've learned the truth and then aren't allowed to tell it.

Someone's fist pounded the table last when KOB decided to slant their coverage.  I doubt it was Dyson's.

That, that person will not step up, is not in the least surprising.

Mary Lynn Roper will take the heat for KOAT

I wrote to KOAT recently and asked them to identify the person whose fist pounded the table last, when KOAT decided to not tell voters that the APS school board has negligently allowed or knowingly permitted one of theirs to squander nearly a million dollars in defense of his ego.

There is a bond issue election coming up.  The stewardship of the board over a quarter of a billion dollars is an issue in the election.

KOAT has decided that evidence of the board's lack of good stewardship over nearly a million dollars, will not be shared with their viewers.

I told them that unless they identified someone else, I would continue to identify owner and general manager Mary Lynn Roper.

They didn't, and I will.




photo Mark Bralley