APS denied Don Moya's IPRA request and violated the law

Insofar as justice delayed is justice denied,  APS lawyers denied Don Moya's request for public records of the money APS paid lawyers to obstruct his efforts to hold APS board members and senior administrators accountable for their retaliation against him as a whistleblower.

As part of the settlement agreement that Moya signed, at least one term stands out;

(5)E Plaintiff will withdraw the IPRA request made to APS on October 18, 2017 requesting copies of all legal bills, invoices, or other legal billing materials for work performed by the law firm German and Associates between August 7, 2015 and the present.

A few things seem obvious; the first being; the leadership of the APS does not want stake and interest holders to know how much they squander on legal defenses in order to separate their guilt from their names.

Obvious as well, to those who understand the NM Inspection of Public Records Act, here cited in significant part;

A custodian receiving a written request shall permit the inspection immediately or as soon as is practicable under the circumstances, but not later than fifteen days after receiving a written request.

APS obviously failed to meet the deadline.  As of January 5th of this year, they still had not filled the request.

Are we to believe that German and Associates records are in such disarray that they can not be assembled in 79 days?  Are there so many of them that the request is burdomsome?

One would think, one would hope, that APS' efforts to keep stake and interest holders in the dark about how their money is being spent in meetings in secret and of which no recording is made, in the self interests of school board members and seniors administrators seeking to escape the consequences of their corruption and or incompetence, would strike Journal editors as newsworthy.

Apparently, it does not.

Journal publishes Moya cover up.

The Journal reports this morning, link, that former APS CFO and whistleblower Don Moya has settled his suit against APS.  It comes as no surprise of course, the Journal didn't tell the whole story.

Conveniently left out of the Journal's so called "coverage", is the money paid out to APS family lawyers; firms like the Modrall who make millions and millions of dollars protecting school board members and senior administrators from the consequences of their incompetence and corruption.

Former school board member Marty Esquivel admitted long ago, that firms like Modrall run up enormous bills making lives miserable for those who file complaints against the leadership of the APS, and then settle right before the case gets to court. APS spent over a million dollars in this case because they knew they were going to lose in court - who is kidding whom?

Nothing changed during Esquivel's "service" on the board. In fact, while he was on the board he helped himself to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of dream team lawyers in order to himself, be allowed to admit no guilt in the face videotaped evidence of his incontrovertible guilt.

Not only that, but I have been told that Esquivel is trying to get himself declared an APS lawyer in order to get his own little pipeline to the operational fund; money that should, could and would be spent in classrooms were it not being used to buy "admissions of no guilt" for APS' privileged class.

The Journal would have you believe that APS' (read taxpayer's) liability will be limited in this case to $300K; insurers picking up the balance.

Is anyone really so ignorant to believe that the insurance company is not going to recover their loss by raising their premiums. APS already pays premiums far in excess of comparable school districts because of their record of numerous overly expensive litigation in their quest for admissions of no guilt.

APS could have settled this lawsuit two years ago for a fraction of this settlement. All they had to do was admit they made a mistake in retaliation against Don Moya, and then make him whole. Instead, they made him whole, spent an extra $750K and admitted no guilt.

There is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS. The Journal has been part of a deliberate cover up for at least a decade.

Were they not, they would investigate and report upon ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS, if only to report that these allegations are nonsense, and that the leadership of the APS is honest to God accountable to ethics and standards high enough to protect the public interests in the public schools.

Blame Esquivel’s buddy, editor Kent Walz and current editor Karen Moses in particular for the Journal endless complicity in and complacency surrounding a very real ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.