NM FOG, Modrall, APS

Submitted as an object lesson in "open government" in New Mexico.

APS has a favorite law firm. Until recently, the husband of an APS Board Member was actually President of the firm. I suspect, they both made a great deal of money off litigation on behalf of the leadership of the APS.

Their litigation budget is unlimited. They spend so much money on litigation, their insurer raised their premiums for that specific reason. Premiums are paid by taxpayers.


The NM FOG recently awarded
APS Supt Winston Brooks an
award for "open government"
though APS is renowned for its
obfuscation of public records requests.

If you ask him for a candid,
forthright and honest accounting of
the spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd,
he will stonewall you.


If you ask him for a candid, forthright and honest explanation why he has not surrendered evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, to the District Attorney's Office, he will stonewall you.

If you ask Brooks for an candid, forthright and honest disclosure of the tax dollars APS has funneled to Modrall Law Firm over the last ten years or so, he will stonewall you.

If you submit a request to APS for a public record that shows how much money the Modrall Law Firm, link, makes off of the Albuquerque Public Schools, it will not be surrendered, in violation of the NM Inspection of Public Records Act.



If you report the violation to the
NM Foundation for Open Government,
you will get no help what so ever.

Sitting on the Board of Directors of NM FOG,
a Modrall lawyer and two APS Board Members.




photo Mark Bralley

APS holding RGHS parent meeting during work day.

APS is holding a meeting for Rio Grande High School parents, link. They are calling the meeting; the Rio Grande Parent Meeting to Review Parent Involvement Plan.

The meeting will begin at 4pm while the overwhelming majority of parents are still at work. Parents who really hustle, and who have nothing else to do after work and before feeding their families, may just make it in time to watch the meeting end at 6pm.

More "open government" a la APS.

Speaking of APS "open government" the board meeting last night, during which the board signed on to Supt Winston Brooks budget plans (including teacher layoffs), was not streamed onto the internet, according to their promise, because of "technical difficulties".

I can't help but notice that the more contentious the circumstances, the more likely it is that APS will have "technical difficulties" in getting the meeting broadcast to stakeholders.

Talk is cheap. Where is Martinez' data?

Someone else first quipped;

"In God we trust, everyone else must bring data."

DA Susana Martinez is claiming to be a huge success as a District Attorney. She hasn't brought any data to substantiate her claim.

Surely there must be statistical comparisons that can be made between District Attorneys related to conviction rates, plea bargains, and other meaningful measures of prosecutorial success. Why isn't she, if not touting them, at least presenting them for critical examination?

The point may be moot, as regardless of her success as a District Attorney, a completely different skill set is required of the person who would be Governor.

We need a skilled Governor in the Roundhouse, not a skilled DA.

Rep Janice Arnold-Jones on KKOB today

Rep Janice Arnold-Jones will be a guest on the Jim Villanucci show today between 3 and 5 pm.

She will apparently be alone.

She is seen here being interviewed
on another radio talk show that
happened to be on air during one
of her Saturday morning constituent
meetings.

My understanding was that all
candidates were invited to a forum
like setting on the Villanucci show,
and she was the only one who accepted.

This will not be the last time that other candidates decline an opportunity to debate against Arnold-Jones; she is rock solid in discussing issues that other candidates know little about.




photo Mark Bralley

Political machines running amuck

Terrell has an interesting report this morning, link, on the Democratic Party's efforts to screw fellow Democrats who are challenging sitting Democrats; in this case, a gentleman challenging party boss and Speaker of the House Ben Lujan.

In fairness, the Republican Party of New Mexico is equally willing to screw candidates who oppose their chosen ones. link.

Political parties are not supposed to involve themselves in the outcome of primary elections. They are not supposed to help any particular candidate in their effort to win the primary; only the general election.

But, as we know, if you are among the powerful and privileged, the rules don't apply.

Terrel interviewed Democratic Party spokesman James Hallinan and reports that he said;

“The software belongs to the (Democratic National Committee) and the state party has the right to decide who we give it to.”

Hallinan, who, until quite recently, worked for Lt Gov Diane Denish, has a history doing what he has "a right to do" instead of doing what is "right to do", link.

The bottom line; stakeholders should support candidates of their choice, and not the state party machines. The priorities of the machines are not the priorities of stakeholders. In fact, they may run contrary to the priorities and best interests of party rank and file; in both parties.

Engineering breakthrough

Engineering types will find this amusing, link.

Colón scandal, day three.

Conventional wisdom is that a news cycle lasts no more than three days. Today is day three in the saga over alleged push polling by Lt Gov Candidate Brian Colón.

Colón is alleged to have conducted a push poll during which it was suggested that Candidate Joe Campos was involved in a DWI crash that killed a number of people.

Campos' actual involvement was apparently limited to owning a liquor establishment that refused to sell liquor to the actual perpetrator.

If all of this is true,
Colón's run for Lt Governor
should be over.

Is this really the kind of man
Democrats would support?

Those who are still supporting
Colón and his refusal to simply
end the controversy by submitting
the script of the poll he conducted
to critical review, argue that the
need for his campaign to keep the script secret, outweighs the need to clear his name.

The only way that makes sense, is if surrendering the record would not in fact, clear his name; if the record shows he actually did conduct an unethical push poll.

In any case, the story is dead after today because apparently, no matter what you do in this state, if you can hide from actual accountability for three days, you get off scot free.




photo Mark Bralley

Brooks wins open government award. Say what? ??

What were they thinking? APS is infamous for its refusal to surrender public records.

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government has awarded APS Supt Winston Brooks, the Dixon Award for "actively championing open government" and First Amendment Rights.

The First Amendment protects the rights of individuals to petition their government. Yet Brooks has no problem using his Praetorian Guard to arrest people at Board Meeting Public Forums, for exercising that right, link.

Can APS Board Members Marty Esquivel and Paula Maes, who sit on the NMFOG Board of Directors have that much pull that they could drive this travesty?

If there were an award
for stonewalling,
Brooks would be a shoo-in.

He would get the lifetime
achievement award.






Consider;

If you ask Brooks to point to a time, a day, and a place where he, or someone in his stead, will simply sit still and answer legitimate questions, he will stonewall.

If you ask Brooks to explain why evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, link, is being withheld from the DA, even after three years, he will stonewall.

If you ask Brooks if Meyners Auditors found criminal misconduct in their scathing review of the APS Financial Division, he will stonewall.

If you ask Brooks to tell the truth about spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd, he will stonewall.

If you ask Brooks to tell the truth about APS Student Standards of Conduct and his obligations as the senior most administrative role model, he will stonewall.

If you ask Brooks, why there is no office in the entire APS where a complaint can be filed against him or any other administrator, and where the complaint will see due process, he will stonewall.

If you ask Brooks, why his code of conduct does not include the phrase,

in no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards of conduct for students,

he will stonewall.

If you ask Brooks, why there will never be an independent review of APS administrative standards and accountability, he will stonewall.

If you ask Brooks, why his Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Hotline no longer accepts complaints of ethical misconduct, he will stonewall.

If you ask Brooks, how many tax dollars are fed to the Modrall Law Firm every year, to litigate exception to the law for APS administrators, he will stonewall.

If the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government recognized politicians and public servants who have done their best to obfuscate the dissemination of the truth, by awarding them a stonewalling award, Brooks would be among the top contenders.

Yet instead, they not only ignore his lack of character and courage, they celebrate it by giving him a false award.

Shame on the NMFOG for their hypocrisy.

This casts a shadow of doubt and shame on everything
they have ever, or will ever, say or do.




photo Mark Bralley

More on Brooks' Dixon Award

Heath Haussamen has posted the FOG news release, link, within which lies their justification for selecting APS Supt Winston Brooks as worthy of the award. Here quoted in significant part;

Education: Winston Brooks, Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent. Since becoming superintendent of APS, Brooks has made openness a priority. He has presided over open hiring processes; released a comprehensive report of classroom-level test scores; allowed media coverage of a contentious town-hall meeting; disclosed high-profile personnel decisions and appealed an NMAA decision to ban the public and the media from a high-school basketball game. In good times and bad, Brooks’ first reaction has been to release information and to speak openly and frankly about APS affairs.

I submit that the statement;

"In good times and bad, Brooks’ first reaction has been to release information and to speak openly and frankly about APS affairs."

is blatant misrepresentation of the truth.

As proof I offer the following question and Brooks' response to it;

Why is evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, link, being keep from the District Attorney, now three years later, and long after statutes of limitation on felony criminal misconduct have expired?

He has been asked this question in public and on the record many, many times. His response has always been to stonewall. The last time I asked it, during a public forum, I was arrested for having done so, by a Praetorian Guard under his direct control, link.

Janice who?

There are two questions really, about
Rep Janice Arnold-Jones' candidacy;

1. can she win the primary election? and
2. can she win the general election?

The second question is a no-brainer.

Imagine Rep Janice Arnold-Jones
and Lt Gov Diane Denish running against each other.

While, it seems that there are an inordinate number of Democrats who will pull the "all D" lever on a voting machine without a second thought, the rest of New Mexicans are more discerning. They will not vote for more of the same, just because they are Democrats.

They are sick of the corruption and incompetence in state government.

Governor Janice Arnold-Jones will actually end the culture of corruption in state government. Governor Diane Denish would prolong and enable it. She has no choice. She is not going to "take out" a bunch of corrupt and incompetent Democrats. That's not the way it's done in New Mexico.

Once people stop the "Janice who?" nonsense, and see them
side by side, Rep Janice Arnold-Jones will win in a landslide.

But, can Rep Janice Arnold-Jones win the primary?

There are a number of people arguing that she cannot win the primary because she isn't swinging as big a bat as "the party" favorites. They like that she isn't one of the good ol' boys, and then want to hold it against her that she doesn't enjoy their financial support.

You can't get rid of the powered and privileged by electing another one of them. The need is for a Governor of the people, by the people and for the people.

I have not heard another candidate nor candidate supporter point to a single attribute of character or competence that distinguishes them above Rep Janice Arnold-Jones. Not one.

Rep Janice Arnold-Jones is the best qualified candidate
for Governor; proven competence, proven character, and
proven courage.

Let's stop whining about how she cannot win the primary, and
instead, make sure that she does, link.




photo Mark Bralley

Push poll nastiness; still nothing from Colón.

I was not part of the poll in question, I have no first hand evidence. Nevertheless, the following bears noting.

On the backside of the post on Democracy for New Mexico,about the allegations of push polling on the part of Lt Gov candidate Brian Colón there are currently 52 comments, link, two of them read in significant part;

"The push poll I got DID ask me if I would still support Joe (Campos) if I knew he was part of a DWI accident that killed a whole family."

and,

"I inquired into some of the nastiest allegations in the "non-push" poll. The extent of Joe Campos' involvement in a deadly DWI accident is that his establishment REFUSED to sell liquor to a patron who eventually bought package liquor elsewhere and drove head on into traffic. If this isn't distortion of the truth and dirty politics, I don't know what is. Shame on you Colon!"

If Brian Colón is responsible for "suggesting" that Joe Campos had a hand in the DWI deaths of an entire family, when in fact the truth is, his part consisted of refusing to sell liquor to the perpetrator, then Colón has indeed done something reprehensible; reprehensible enough to end his further consideration for a position of trust in government.

Which begs the question; what justification could there possibly be to continue to hide the script, that would outweigh the benefits of surrendering it and clearing his name?

I cannot imagine what they might be.

It is not completely unreasonable to conclude that he has done
something for which he does not want to be held accountable
and, that is the real reason he won't surrender the script.

State investments doing poorly

The State of New Mexico invests billions of tax dollars every year in the hope of growing their amounts. We pay huge sums of money to political cronies of the Governor, to invest wisely on our behalf.

Yet, according to Jim Scarantino, link, it appears that we could have done much better without their high priced advice.

"Character and class" in the APS

In the Journal this morning, link, APS' "selfless seniors";

"Students ... whose character sets them apart."

Most remarkable; these outstanding young people have developed their character without any leadership at all from their senior-most role models.

Senior-most administrative role model, Supt Winston Brooks not only will not hold himself honestly accountable as a role model, but cannot summon the character and courage to even discuss the issue openly and honestly.






Senior-most executive role model, School Board President Marty Esquivel not only will not hold himself honestly accountable as a role model, but cannot summon the character and courage to even discuss the issue openly and honestly.

At the heart of the matter, APS' employee standards of conduct and the role modeling clause;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult, be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

The clause was removed from the APS Employee Standards of Conduct in order to except the leadership of the APS from honest accountability as role models of an ethical standard of conduct. They prefer instead to held accountable only to the lowest recognized standard of conduct; the law, and even then, only to that part of the law from which, their lawyers cannot litigate their exception.

The Journal of course, covered only the kids, and not the adults who have refused to step up as their role models.

Congratulations to the "selfless seniors" for their success in spite of the lack of courage and character being modeled at the highest levels of the "leadership" of the APS, link, link, link




photos Mark Bralley

Brooks plan to"find inefficiency" in the APS is nonsense.

APS Supt Winston Brooks
has a plan, link, to find the
inefficiencies in the administration
of the APS;

"I’ve asked non-school department
directors to cut their budgets by an
additional 6.5 percent. This is a good
opportunity to re-evaluate the way
we operate and make some changes
to our structure. These changes may
help APS become a more efficient
organization." (emphasis added)

What "would help" the administration become a more efficient organization would be an impartial standards and accountability audit of the entire leadership of the APS; an independent review that reports to the public record.

There are people and organizations who make a living going in to bloated business management structures and pointing to the waste and inefficiencies. For a few tens of thousands of dollars, we could find out exactly who is taking home pay checks they aren't earning.

When the Council of the Great City Schools audited APS' administration recently, they concluded that;

APS administrative evaluations were subjective and
unrelated to promotion or step placement.

In other words, there is no objective evaluation of the conduct and competence of APS administrators. They promote people based on other than their skill sets. Consider the promotion of Michael Kimbrell, link, to APS' Director of Internal Audits; Brooks et al, did a such a poor job of vetting him, they ended up firing him within months of his promotion.

If Brooks' interest in finding inefficiencies were real, he would hire experts to find them. There is no good and ethical reason to not audit. His unwillingness to even discuss the idea of such an audit, openly, honestly, and on the record, points to his real interests; protecting good ol' boys from the earned consequences of their incompetence and corruption.

One of the greatest hurtles facing the leadership of the APS is restoring stakeholder confidence in their leadership. There is nothing that would be of more value in that regard, than an independent audit revealing that the administration of the APS is free of incompetence, corruption, and the practices that enable them.

The fact that the audit would
reveal quite the opposite, is the
real and only reason to not
commission the audit immediately,
despite Board Member Paula
Maes' insistence that,

she will never agree to any
audit that individually identifies
corrupt or incompetent
administrators or board members.

The 6.5% reductions will not include terminating the 6.5% of administrators who contribute the least to the education of this community's sons and daughters.

That ax will fall upon other necks.




photos Mark Bralley

Berry's reaction to "forensic audit" of city government

I have emailed Mayor Richard Berry regarding the forensic audit proposed by City Council President Ken Sanchez, link.


I wrote;

Sir,

Blogger Monahan reports this morning that a proposal is being considered to begin a forensic audit of city government that will expose incompetence, corruption, and the practices that enable them.

I fully support this idea. To the extent I am able, I demand that this review begin at the earliest opportunity, and further that, an ethically redacted report be surrendered to the public at the earliest opportunity.

I have received a response from Berry's Director of Constituent Services, Tito Madrid.

Chad,
thank you for your email. It is my understanding that Councilor Sanchez will make this recommendation to the Mayor. I an mot aware of the timing of this request, but if the Mayor proceeds in that direction, he will share, as appropriate, the findings of the report.

I asked him what "as appropriate" means. Does it mean sharing as little as the law requires, or as much as the law allows?

No response.

Therefore, it seems we can expect to find out as little of the truth as the law requires, which if past performance of city government is any indicator, means very little indeed.

You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from the
corrupt and the incompetent in city hall.




photo Mark Bralley

Colón refuses to release poll script.

Candidate for Lt Governor
Brian Colón, through his
campaign staff, has refused
to release the text of the poll
which Senator Ortiz y Pino
has called a "push poll".

"Push Polling" is widely
regarded as unethical,
as it is deceitful and
manipulative, wikilink.

If Colón is campaigning unethically, it will come back to bite him when he stands before an electorate who are about as sick as they can be of ethically challenged politicians and public servants.

The debate over whether the poll was a "push poll" began with a report on the New Mexico Independent, later followed by a report on Democracy for New Mexico.

Within the backside on both posts, Colón was asked to simply surrender the script of the poll, thereby answering the question about whose character should be called into question; his for conducting a push poll, or Ortiz y Pino's for making the false allegation that he was.

I also emailed both candidates, asking for the script.

Senator Ortiz y Pino's staff reported that they had only anecdotal reports of the content of the poll, and no incontrovertible text.

I just got off the phone with one of Colón's staffers;
I missed his name.

He refused to surrender a copy of the poll. He kept denying
that there was any script of a "push poll" to surrender,
since they had not done a "push poll". In my experience people
who try to keep re-framing the question, do so to avoid having
to answer it as asked.

After several such denials, I told him to stop calling it a "push poll", and to call it just "the" poll, and surrender the text. He refused. He claimed the truth is internal to the campaign and would not be shared.



I told him that I would write that there is only one reason to hide the truth, and that is to escape the consequences attached to the truth. He said I would be writing something that wasn't true.

I disagree.

I believe that Colón is hiding the text because it was a push poll and, push polling is unethical. Rather than admit to an ethical lapse, and step up to the consequences, he will hide the truth.

If Colón('s staff) could prove that Ortiz y Pino was making false accusations, it would be to their advantage. So why not do it, except that the poll script will substantiate Ortiz y Pino's complaint that Colón is behaving unethically?

If my surmise is wrong, then there must be a good and ethical reason to hide the text. Saying that the text is an internal secret, after reading it to several hundred people, just doesn't hold water.

It is rather like hiding public records under the excuse that they pertain to "personnel matters", whether they do or do not.

Brian Colón, if he is elected Lt Governor, is apparently willing to hide the truth from stakeholders under the flimsiest of excuses.

There is a difference between "not lying" and "telling the truth".
While Colón is "not lying", neither is he, telling the truth.

Do we really need more of that in the Roundhouse?




photo Mark Bralley

Budget deficit growing, more cuts or higher taxes in the offing.

Two weeks ago, Rep Janice Arnold-Jones told her Saturday morning discussion group, the state budget was accumulating a deficit, link.

This morning, the Journal corroborated her report. Arnold-Jones reported a $60M-$100M deficit, the Journal reports a projected $76M shortfall, link, for the current fiscal year (2010). The shortfall for fiscal year 2011 will be greater still.

Because there is no way to increase revenue in the current fiscal year which ends June 30, the shortfall will require spending part of the state's reserve fund. The fund, if projections are accurate (so far they have not been) will have $272M.

Gov Richardson and the Democrats plan to use even more of the reserve fund (up to $132M), and federal stimulus funds to make up the difference in the following fiscal year. At that point, the emergency fund would be effectively drained. And, if spending the reserve and stimulus funds don't make up for revenue shortfalls, additional program cuts, including education, are inevitable.

The Democrats in the Roundhouse own the problem. It was they, denying Republicans any opportunity for input, who decided how much money they would spend this year and next.

It was they for instance, who decided to keep Richardson's Rail Runner running, despite its $50M per year ongoing operational deficit.

They will try to keep all of this from coming to a head before elections in November, in order that they will not be held accountable by voters, for their reckless spending and wishful revenue projections.

Why not?

Why can there not be, a political Q&A website?

Questions would come from stakeholders.
Legitimate* questions would be posted on line.

*"Legitimate" according to some generally accepted and
transparent due process.

Answers will come from candidates.

I am supposing they would be in form of videos, but that would be up to them; it's their call.

So, why not?

Why post legitimate questions on line, and then allow/expect
candidates to respond to them; (candidly, forthrightly and honestly)?

Is it reasonable to ask a candidate for public office to promise
to tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Or not?

It would be the equivalent of a continuously ongoing gubernatorial forum with no place to hide.

Those without character and courage need not apply.


All we need is a few people willing to attach their honor
to the integrity of the process, in order that it be taken seriously both by stakeholders and by candidates.

The legacy media can come along for the ride or not;
we don't really need them.

Jerry Ortiz y Pino and Brian Colon to duel.

A century or two ago,
Jerry Ortiz y Pino and
Brian Colon would settle
their dispute with pistols
at twenty paces, wikilink.







According to Matthew Reichbach,
NMI, link, Ortiz y Pino has called
Colon a dirty no good push/pull pollster,
and Colon says Ortiz y Pino is making
a false allegation.







Because dueling is a fourth degree felony in New Mexico, link,
I propose, rather than a duel at high noon; why don't both guys just tell us the truth, the whole truth and, nothing but the truth, as they know it, and we will decide whether Ortiz y Pino's character and/or competence are damaged by his allegation, or if Colon's character and/or competence are damaged by his denial.

I posted a comment on Matt's post, and asked him to publish the script of the polling questions.




photos Mark Bralley

Councilor Ken Sanchez proposes forensic audit of city government.

Blogger Monahan reports this morning, link,

City Council President Ken Sanchez
"says he will seek to have the city hire
a forensic auditor to go department by
department to (expose incompetence,
corruption, and the practices that enable them).

With no signs that city cash coffers are
about to overflow anytime soon, it's an
idea the Berry administration should
find easy to sign on to."

If only.

Mayor Richard Berry cannot simply go to city Directors and ask them if their departments are as lean and as efficient as they could be. To do so, would create a conflict of interest; Directors would be asked essentially, to evaluate themselves. Creating a conflict of interest, creates the appearance of impropriety; why would you ask someone to evaluate themselves?

We need an independent review of government. We need an impartial third party to go into every nook and cranny of government and look for the waste that flows from incompetence and corruption.

Our government is celebrated as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Yet it is in large part, government that is secret from the people; a diametrically opposite situation.

Taxpayers and other stakeholders have no way to exercise any real control over their power and resources that are fundamentally their own. Despite open government laws like the Open Meetings Act, and the Inspection of Public Records Act, it is all but impossible for the average citizen to find the information they need to make informed decisions.

There are two things that can go wrong here. They first is that no independent review will ever take place. It is frankly, the most likely possibility. It has never happened before.

The second thing that can go wrong is that a review will be done, but the results of the review will be kept secret from the public by politicians and public servants who will redact any part of the review which threatens them.

An opportunity presents itself.

Contact Councilor Sanchez and tell him, you support his efforts to commission an independent review of standards, accountability, and business practices in city government. Tell him you want an ethically redacted report surrendered to the public record at the earliest opportunity.

Follow this link to the email addresses of City Councilors.
Contact Ken Sanchez and your own Councilor.

Contact Mayor Richard Berry. link. Tell him as well, that you want an independent review begun at the earliest opportunity.

Do it now, before you forget.




photo Mark Bralley

Last hired, first fired

When the subject of layoffs in APS was first broached, callers on a radio talk show said, this is great, let's get rid of all of the "worst" teachers.

After a while, someone argued that the teachers unions would never allow it. The argument is tangentially correct. The unions have negotiated contracts that cover RIFs (reductions in force). Those contract stipulations rarely, if ever, include "competency" in the decision making process.

The same holds true in all government positions. If there are layoffs in city, county, or state government, it will not be the deadwood which is removed, but rather, the new wood.

It is wrong on so many levels that it is nearly impossible to justify the practice. Yet, here we are.

It bears noting; if Winston Brooks, Richard Berry, and Bill Richardson were doing their jobs, there would be no deadwood, and the point would be moot.

APS "executive" furloughs

According to the Journal, link,
APS Supt Winston Brooks
is considering executive furloughs
as a means of balancing the budget.

The "plan" is disingenuous.

The approach fails to recognize that there are two kinds of administrators;
the most dedicated and hardest working administrators, and those who spend most days wandering the building shaking hands and slapping people on the back, link.

An independent review of the administration of the APS will reveal people and positions that are not critical to educational success. They are administrators who through their incompetence in other positions, political loyalty, or their body maps, hold jobs that could and should be eliminated.

That review of course, will not be done.

The leadership of the APS steadfastly refuses to allow their business model to be evaluated. Taxpayers are left with nothing but assurances, from people like Brooks (who has a self interest in covering up administrative waste) that no administrative waste exists.

There is widespread belief that APS' administration is bloated. The belief is a major stumbling block every time APS goes to taxpayers for another mill levy or bond issue.

There is nothing Brooks would like more than to show taxpayers an independent review of his administration which shows that he has actually ended administrative waste, incompetence, and corruption. There is no reason to not commission such a review, except that such a review would not reveal a lean and efficient administration.

Quite the opposite.

It is up to stakeholders to demand an independent review.
We need to identify the deadwood and eliminate it.

We need to cut superfluous positions entirely,
not just furlough them for a week or even two.

Also worth noting, so far no one has suggested that school board members take a cut in their per diem, despite the fact that they are as responsible for this mess as anyone.




photo Mark Bralley

"The agenda for this meeting will be released 24 hours before the meeting."

The APS School Board has scheduled a special meeting for April 5th, link.

There is a note posted in place of the agenda. It reads;

The agenda for this meeting will be released 24 hours
before the meeting.

... the absolute minimum notification required by the law. One minute less and they would be in violation of the Open Meetings Act.

The advantage they seek is, negligible attendance, which is also why the meeting starts before anyone who works 9 to 5, can get there.

According to the APS Student Standards of Conduct;

a person of character must often do more than the law requires, and less than the law allows.

Students are told that if they don't make every reasonable
effort to include stakeholders in decision making that affects
their interests, they do so at the forfeit of their good character.

The leadership of the APS is not accountable to that standard by their own deliberate choice.

They removed from their code of conduct, the phrase;

in no case shall the standard of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standard of conduct for students.

Therefore, they are "accountable" only to the law, and
unaccountable to any standard of ethical conduct.

And 24 hours notice to a meeting no one can attend,
in a room no one can justify,
works just fine.

Denish dropped the ball.

Jim Scarantino reports, link;
in 2007, Lt Governor Diane Denish traded around 25,000 tax dollars for a report that corroborated the widespread conviction that state government was too big and, bad for the state's economy.

According to Scarantino, she never made the report public, nor did she act on the advice she paid for.

Scarantino suggests that,
the explanation for her failure to act,
was as simple as the need to
not upset public sector supporters.

In other words; "for votes".

I think he may be right.





You will remember, that when he asked Denish to surrender any public records that proved she had acted on any concerns about any of the many scandals in their administration, and about the culture of corruption in Santa Fe, link,

she could not produce even one.




photo Mark Bralley

Half of APS' budget deficit due to $20M "accounting errors".

APS is projecting a budget shortfall of $43M next year.
Half of the deficit is due to accounting errors.

In the Journal this morning, link, the accounting error aspect was downplayed. APS' Chief Financial Officer Dupuy Bateman was allowed to explain it all away with;

"It was some very smart people who made an honest error and did it the same way the following year."

Within the last two years, an audit by Meyners + Co. revealed that APS' Financial Department did not have;

• adequate standards, or
• adequate accountability to the standards it did have, and
• was not keeping adequate records.

And that, they never did have them, link.

Likely, millions of dollars have been either lost or stolen. APS has refused several requests to estimate the losses due to the administrative failures. They also refuse to respond when asked if the auditors found any criminal misconduct.

During the last two years, one CFO resigned under the cloud of a cover up, link, and her replacement was fired a couple of months later because he was spending his days in porn shops and casinos rather than tracking down the accounting errors that have cost the district nearly $20M in this case alone, link.

Through this all, the leadership of the APS steadfastly refuses to allow an independent review of administrative standards and accountability.

School Board President
Marty Esquivel once not only
admitted to the need for an
independent review, but
argued publicly, in favor of it.

He argued in favor until
Board Member Paula Maes
informed him that she would
never agree to any audit that
individually identifies corrupt
and/or incompetent administrators or board members.

Now, he won't talk about it at all.

Nor, will he allow anyone else to talk openly and honestly about APS administrative standards and accountability, link.

The Journal; Andrea Schoellkopf, was offered a DVD record of Maes' boast, and offered that while she might be willing to add it to her file, she had no interest in investigating the story or reporting upon it.

The Journal also has zero interest in following up on their own story about felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, link, or the fact that three years later, long after statutes of limitation have expired, APS is still has not surrendered to the District Attorney, the evidence of that criminal misconduct.

Nor will they report upon the abdication of the entire leadership of the APS, as role models of the APS Student Standards of Conduct.

Nor will they report upon APS' refusal to surrender a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

Nor will they investigate and report upon the fraud in APS' Fraud, Waste and Abuse whistleblower hotline.

The Journal has denied voters the truth about a widespread and deeply rooted ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, even through school board elections, mill levy elections, and bond issue elections.

At best, it is journalistic malpractice. The Journal is supposed to be a newspaper of record. That implies that they will furnish voters with the truth they need to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their interests.

The Journal has betrayed the trust that has been placed in them.

The final victims; 89,000 of this community's sons and
daughters who are students in the APS who will see their good
teachers laid off, class sizes increase, and supply budgets dwindle.

Janice Arnold-Jones is one of us, unfortunately.

There is widespread agreement
Rep Janice Arnold-Jones is the
candidate best qualified to be Governor.

They is also widespread agreement
she doesn't have enough money to win.

No one has ever, or can ever, point to
any aspect of her candidacy that falls
short of any other candidate.


She has proven competence, proven character, and
proven courage.

She has everything except "their" support.
She isn't one of them.

"They" are the aristocracy;

a class of persons holding exceptional rank and privileges, esp. the hereditary nobility, a privileged upper class. a group considered to be superior as through wealth, social prestige, or political power.

"They" have been running this state for generations. "They" have been deciding for generations, who will represent the interests of power and privilege in the Roundhouse.

Arnold-Jones is not one of them. She is one of us.

She has never sat around a bar getting drunk and divvying up
the spoils of politics and public service. Nor will she ever;
so she isn't one of them. They aren't going to support her candidacy.

Consequently, she doesn't have enough money to buy her election.

She is one of us, and her support will have to come from us, link.

Else, one of "theirs" is going to be elected Governor,
even though "ours" is the best qualified candidate.




photo Mark Bralley

Teachers going the way of railroad brakemen.

There was a time when trains were stopped by having a brakeman move from car to car applying the brakes, link.
With the invention of remotely controlled braking systems,
brakemen became superfluous.

There was a time, when teachers (and textbooks) were the sole repository of information available to students. That time has passed. Teachers and textbooks cannot compete with the limitless wealth of information easily obtained from the "internet". The future is one of e schools.

The average student no longer needs a "teacher". Nor do they need "textbooks". They will become independent learners using the "internet" as their main resource, and need an adult, for the most, only to help them stay on task. The average student doesn't need someone with a college degree in "education".

There will still be a need for teachers. Students with genuine learning disabilities will need highly qualified "teachers" to help them overcome their various disabilities. Most students do not have such disabilities. Their only disability is their lack of self discipline; their only need is for someone to keep them on track.

The current model provides for a large number of highly trained teachers, and a smaller number of teaching assistants. The future calls for a small number of highly trained teachers, and a much larger number of less highly trained, and therefore less expensive, teaching assistants.

The savings can be translated into spending less on education all together, or spending the same amount, but lowering the ratio of students to adults. Instead of one adult per thirty students, we might see an adult for every ten students, allowing for the individual attention students need but are not now getting, whether to answer questions or simply to keep them on task and out of trouble.

The character of education will change dramatically.

The railroad unions fought the demise of the brakeman's job,
just as teachers unions will fight the demise of "teaching" jobs.
Textbook publishers will fight against the abandonment of
their anachronistic offerings.

The result will be the same; there will be an eventual concession
to the advances of technology, whether they like it or not.

Two years not enough time to fix APS; Bob Clark

KKOB talker Bob Clark, has APS Supt Winston Brooks' six this morning.

He just told listeners that Brooks came into a system "in need of reform", and has had "only two years" to fix things.

Two years strikes me as more than enough time. In fact, I would challenge anyone to point to any reform that takes two years to realize. Reform means policy changes and procedural directive creation. Neither of those require even two months to accomplish, much less two years.

Reform is not done in the APS even two years later, because "reform" is not the top priority.

The top priority is covering asses. Reform will be accomplished as quickly as possible, but only as long as no good ol' boy will be held honestly accountable for their misconduct or incompetence.

They absolutely will not allow the individual identification of corrupt or incompetent administrators. And that kind of reform takes a lot longer than actual reform.

APS layoffs; Brooks "declines" to tell the truth.

APS is looking at a $40M deficit next year.

One of the decisions being made is; a certain amount of money will be kept in a "reserve fund", and as a result, as many as 300 teachers and teaching assistants will lose their jobs. More importantly, students will be sitting in larger, and therefore less efficient and effective classes as a result.

APS Supt Winston Brooks,
according to Journal reporter
Hailey Heinz, link, "declined"
to say exactly how much money
will be kept in the reserve fund.

Apparently Heinz will leave it at that.

The Journal pulled its experienced
education reporter off the beat,
replacing her with Hailey Heinz.


She told me once that she was too busy with other stories to listen to anything I had to say about;

• the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, centered around their abdication as role models of the APS student standards of conduct.
• the cover-up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators and the APS Police Department, link,
• the truth about spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd,
• the truth about the fraud in the APS Whistleblower program.
• and on and on and on ...

Board member Paula Maes once said, she would "never agree" to any audit that individually identified corrupt or incompetent administrators. The leadership of the APS steadfastly refuses to allow any impartial independent audit of their administration of the APS that will identify any waste from corruption and/or incompetence.

Any competent newspaper of record would investigate and report upon their efforts to avoid an honest audit.

The Journal is content to leave a lot of truth untold.




photo Mark Bralley

Diogenes on his own til Monday next.

Diogenes will have to cover his own six for the next few days.

I'm on hiatus. I'll be back Monday, 3/29/10.

Denish can offer no proof of resisting the culture of corruption.

Lt Governor Diane Denish is impaired in her run for Governor, by an administration rife with corruption and incompetence. There are those who have argued, she was either complicit in the corruption, or complacent about it, and is therefore, unfit to be Governor.

Her only defense; repeated proclamations that she is in fact,
a leader in ethics reform.

Jim Scarantino called her bluff, link.

He asked her to produce any and all public records of her efforts
to curtail any of the rot in the Roundhouse. He filed a request
for public records including;

Any and all communications by the Lt. Governor Diane Denish and/or any member of her staff to the Governor Bill Richardson and/or any member of his staff concerning or containing information about public corruption, “pay to play,” ethics reform and/or state contracts being awarded to contributors to the election committees and/or political action committees of the Governor or the Lt. Governor. This request specifically covers any communications by Lt. Governor Diane Denish in which she expressed concern to the Governor about corruption, allegations or the perception of corruption, rewarding political contributors with state contracts, and investigations being conducted by the United States Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

She was unable to produce even one record. Not one.

Wouldn't a "leader" in governmental reform have created at least one record that documented the effort? One would think there would be many.

Political pragmatism, or Culture of Corruption?

In the following post, the preceding post chronologically,
I challenged those who passed and are praising the
Sunshine Portal legislation, link, to justify the inclusion
of a two year delay in actually opening the portal.

I argue, there is only one reason to include the delay; to give
corrupt and incompetent politicians and public servants an
opportunity to get their acts together before people find out
what they are doing - in effect grandfathering in current and
past corruption and incompetence.

A reader argued that there is an other reason to include the
two year delay; political pragmatism.

Political pragmatism dictates that legislation cannot be passed
if it holds politicians and public servants immediately accountable for their conduct and competence within their public service.

In other words, the delay wasn't included for the purpose of hiding current corruption and incompetence, but for the purpose of giving the legislation any hope at all of passing; had the delay not been included, no legislation could have been passed.

Why can't legislation pass if it doesn't include ample opportunity for the corrupt and incompetent to fix problems and cover tracks?

It would have to be; the fundamental unwillingness of those with power and privilege, to expose the corruption and incompetence they have enabled, and/or to hold any of "their own" honestly accountable for their corruption and incompetence.

The following comes from a post on Cultures of corruption, link.

The culture of corruption exists and is nurtured by the political and economic elites of society. Their political and/or economic status is their passport and visa to power. Personal gains earned through the abuse of their political and economic status is their commonality. This is the reason why, even if they hate each other, they have to protect each other. (emphasis added)

What we are left with is; was the delay included to protect the corrupt and incompetent, or was it included in deference to a culture of corruption that protects the corrupt and the incompetent?

This seems to me, a distinction without a difference.

I hope I have understood and done justice to an opposing point of view. If not, I'll be happy to give it another shot.

Still nothing from Sander Rue, or Diane Denish

Senator Sander Rue and Lt Gov Diane Denish are credited with legislation creating a Sunshine Portal on state government.

Nobody seems to be much upset that two fiscal years will come and go before the Portal actually opens. During those two years, corrupt and incompetent politicians and public servants will be scrambling to fix all of the problems they either created or enabled, and covering their tracks.

No one has suggested any other reason to wait two years.

Technical issues are not the problem. Most of the data is in a format that could be put on line immediately, though some is recorded in ancient computer languages that might take considerable time to translate.

What is really going to take two years, is for the corrupt and
incompetent to read every single line of what is going on line,
looking for evidence of their corruption and/or incompetence
and then finding some way to mitigate or obscure it.

The point is; the Portal could open, at least in substantial part,
tomorrow.

But is won't. And if there is another reason at all, except to
grandfather in corruption and incompetence,
why won't anybody articulate it?


Why won't Senator Sander Rue
answer the question; either on
Haussamen's blog, link,
on this blog, or in response
to my email?








Why won't Lt Gov Diane Denish,
explain, defend, or even acknowledge
the grace period on corruption?

I thought she was supposed to be
all about ending the corruption
surrounding her Office
sooner, rather than later.




photos Mark Bralley

Janice Arnold-Jones; state budget already $60M in the red.

Rep Janice Arnold-Jones told attendees at her Saturday morning office hours, the budget passed during the just ended Special Session, is already in deficit; $60M over actual revenues; maybe as much as a $100M.

The budget that the Democrats pushed through, spent revenue that doesn't exist.

For example, it is based on unrealistic estimates of revenue from natural gas sales. It depends on natural gas selling at much higher prices than exist in reality.

Arnold-Jones said another Special Session is inevitable.
It is a matter of when, not if.

Sooner is better than later for the Democrats.

The Democrats are going to have to raise taxes even higher
in order to fund their bloated and inefficient bureaucracy, and
the longer the time between raising taxes and standing for
re-election, the more likely they are to survive.

Look for another Special Session, soon.

Allen Weh is a war hero, so what?

Colonel Allen Weh has released a TV spot highlighting his
military service; in this case, in Vietnam, nearly forty years ago.

There will be those who will (deliberately) misunderstand the
point of this post; the absence of any correlation between being
a military hero and an effective Governor. So I will begin by
underscoring my respect for veterans; in particular combat
veterans, and most particular, decorated combat veterans.
Without their abundant sacrifices, we would not enjoy the
many freedoms and advantages that many take for granted.

Never the less, does that make him a better Governor?

How often do we need our Governor to beat someone else's
Governor to death with his bare hands? Realistically,
not all that often.

Does the same skill set that allows a man to lead a squad,
a platoon, a company, or a battalion in to battle, translate
into leading a state legislature to consensus?

I would argue that it does not; the necessary skill sets are
entirely different.

So why point to the one, and ignore the other? Because Weh
does have the one skill set, and can point to no evidence of the
other. In fact, there is considerable evidence he lacks the
latter skill set entirely; witness his intention to "carry a
baseball bat" into negotiations in the Roundhouse.

Does anyone really suppose that strategy will succeed?

And then there is the matter of personal courage.

Based on the medals that have been awarded to Col Weh
based on battlefield performance, he is a man of courage.

Why then will he not step up to the issue of the allegations
of his anger management issues resulting in a "physical attack"
on staff members of his own Party?

What is he going to say when Lt Gov Diane Denish asks him
why the incident was hidden from voters, and points to to his
lack of candor, forthrightness, and honesty?

If he cannot summon the courage to own that incident, it
is fair to ask whether he will be able to summon the courage
to own other, more consequential failures in Santa Fe.

Will he be another Governor (albeit, one with a chest full of medals) hiding the truth from New Mexicans?

So far, he has had nothing to say about the secrecy in the
Roundhouse, about webcasting, open meetings, public records,
or any of the other transparency issues in state government.

He has yet to show us the courage it takes to hold one's self
honestly accountable for their conduct and competence as
a candidate or as a Governor, by telling the truth about
that conduct and competence; candidly, forthrightly, and
honestly.

NM Republican Party dirty tricks

Eight years ago, Rep Janice Arnold-Jones submitted an email address to the NM Republican Party. The email address was created for this purpose and no other. It was added to a list of emails that are used to allow the Party and candidates to broadly email potential supporters, saving thousands in postage.

When Gubernatorial Candidate Arnold-Jones asked for a copy of the email list, she was told no such list exists.

Yet she is receiving emails to this address from the campaigns of Allen Weh and Susana Martinez. Apparently, they have gotten hold of the "non-existent" list.

The Republican Party is not supposed to support candidates in Primary Elections; only during General Elections after the list of candidates has been winnowed down to one.

NMRP Chair Harvey Yates has apparently contacted KKOB radio and informed them that they were to recognize only the candidates who received 20% of the votes at the Republican Pre-Primary Convention, and to disregard the candidates who are otherwise fully qualified to compete in the Primary Election based on the number of petition signature they have compiled.

Yates contacted Rep Arnold-Jones and invited her to drop out of the race.

I would suppose there are many of the same people involved,
who at one time, were threatening Arnold-Jones' daughter,
link, should Arnold-Jones continue her run against the Party anointed, Darren White, in the race for US Rep Heather Wilson's seat.


Add to this, the apparent cover-up of a physical assault by Colonel Allen Weh on member(s) of the Republican Party staff, and a picture emerges of Party favoritism in violation of Party Rules.

But then the NM Republican Party never has been big on following the rules, link.

Rep Janice Arnold-Jones urges no on "cap and trade".

"Cap and trade" is based on two fundamental premises;

1. global warming is real, bad, and causally linked to energy consumption, and
   
2. energy consumption can be decreased by making energy more expensive.

The second is incontrovertible, the first not so much. There is an ongoing debate over global warming. People on both sides of the debate can point to "science" that substantiates their positions and their proposed solutions.

"Cap and trade" will raise the cost of energy, and those costs, like all production costs, will be passed along until they land in the lap of those who cannot pass the costs on to anyone else. Thus, the cost of living will rise for those who are least able to afford the increase, those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Here at home, the New Mexico Environment Department plans to petition the Environmental Improvement Board, a state regulatory board, for a cap and trade program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Rep Janice Arnold-Jones writes;

“Cap-and-trade will substantially raise the costs of energy production on everyone including small businesses. It will hurt a very large segment of our population including senior citizens on fixed incomes, the poor and the unemployed.

This flawed idea is a job killing program that hurts New Mexico’s families.

Cap-and-trade programs have been proven to drive up the costs on everything. I cannot support placing additional regulations based on weak science on our businesses, farmers and ranchers, especially during these tough economic times.”

It is important to note that neither of these bodies are elected, and hence, neither is directly accountable to the people who will pay the "tax" they would levy.

Janice Arnold-Jones turns "39"

Tomorrow is Janice Arnold-Jones
birthday.

May I suggest, in honor of
the auspicious occasion,
a gift idea?

Join her by volunteering and/or
donating to her campaign.




photo Mark Bralley

It's not about who can beat Denish

There are those who would argue, Republicans need to field
a candidate who can beat Lt Gov Diane Denish.

I would argue, they need to field their best candidate;
the one of them who will be the best Governor
for the state of New Mexico and its citizens.

And if the Republican's best candidate for Governor
cannot beat Denish; the Queen of complacency, compliance,
or complicity in the culture of corruption and incompetence
in Santa Fe,

they don't serve to win, and it wouldn't make any difference
if they did.

Martinez to surrender "disc" of public records

The final resolution of the "controversy" over whether public records could be scanned is, they will be scanned and handed over on a disc.

Great.

How about posting them on line, so that if in the future, anyone asks for the same records, all District Attorney Susana Martinez would have to do, is to send them a link?

A nearly worthless Inspection of Public Records Act
is worse than worthless. It pretends something that doesn't
really exist, and mollifies the unwitting by leading them to believe they have something they don't really have.

Not knowing they don't have it,
they are unwilling to fight to get it.

If the Governor's race were a personality contest, Janice Arnold-Jones would win hands down.

It isn't a personality contest of course;
there are many more important issues in play.

Which is not to say that personality is unimportant.

It is a powerful lubricant when personalities are clashing
over differing political perspectives.

Rep Janice Arnold-Jones
brings much more to the table,
than her winning personality.
She brings intellect, experience,
and an open mind.

But it will be her personality
that will keep tempers and egos
in check during difficult deliberations
in order to arrive at real consensus
to bridge the philosophical and
ideological divides in Santa Fe.




photo Mark Bralley