Kent Walz is responsible

The Journal has failed stakeholders as a watchdog over their
interests in the Albuquerque Public Schools.


I hold Journal Editor Kent Walz personally accountable for the Journal's steadfast refusal to investigate and report upon the lack of executive and administrative standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS.

I hold him personally responsible for the fact that voters don't know about the ongoing corruption in the APS Police Department and that evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators is being kept from prosecutors.

I hold him personally responsible for the fact that voters don't know that due process is being denied to hundreds of whistle blowers in an effort to hide the truth about an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

I hold him personally responsible for the fact the voters don't know that the leadership of the APS has abdicated as role models of the student standards of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

I hold him personally responsible for the fact that 30 fourth graders, who would have thrived in an "all boys" class, will be denied the education they want and deserve.

I hold Kent Walz personally accountable for the fact that APS Supt Winston Brooks is being honored as a "champion of transparency" when in fact, both of them are quite the opposite.

I will give Walz credit for printing a few letters to the editor, link, from other people who find the actions of the leadership of the APS as disturbing as I do.




frame grab Mark Bralley

Fill it, or kill it.

There once was an elective class for boys who believed they would thrive in an all boys classroom, link.

By any good and ethical measure, the class was successful;
it was hugely successful.

Because it was an elective class, the teacher was obligated to find students to fill seats. If an elective teacher cannot fill all the seats, the class is killed. It is killed independent of whatever success it had, or would have.

I pay pretty close attention to the APS, and I don't remember any effort made by the leadership of the APS to recruit students to this golden opportunity. I would not hesitate to bet that, had any attention at all been paid to the empty seats on APS expensive new website, the class would have filled. It might have over filled. There might now be two classes, or more.

Does anyone really believe that there are not 30 ten year old boys in the entire APS who would make their way to this class? (Update, according to an op-ed from the leadership, he only needed 22 to make his class)

The Journal has not reported the whole truth about this,
I believe, in deference to APS senior administrators who
would rather not be held accountable for their indefensible
decision.

APS Board off on Florida Junket

Four APS Board Members, a quorum, are going to Tampa Florida to attend "training", link.

My questions about who is going and who is paying for the junket, were ducked and have been referred to APS Director of Communication Rigo Chavez.

I have emailed for his assistance;

Mr Chavez,

I am told it is you who will tell me about the board training in Tampa.

I would like to know;
who is going; executive, administrative, and staff,
who is presenting, and
who is paying? how much?

I prefer that you answer by email and at your earliest convenience.

Since it is "not his practice" to answer legitimate questions timely, candidly, forthrightly and honestly; it may be some time before the truth is finally revealed.

In the meantime, I would like to know if there are board members whose terms will end in February, Marty Esquivel, Robert Lucero, and Delores Griego, who are helping themselves to a little trip to Florida, knowing the "training" they receive will leave with them in four months.

The Justice League a la New Mexico

The Justice League, wikilink, wore white hats; they were the good guys.

Enter the new Justice League (I assume this, link, is they).
(It is unclear whether they have gone through any of the steps
one goes through to avoid copyright infringement;
no one seems to want to answer that question.)

They are trying to affect the outcome of the Gubernatorial election by putting together, clever little ads, link, that play to voters' ignorance and naivete.

Can you imagine the effect, had this creative energy been
spent, not in manipulating voters by distorting issues,
but rather, spent instead on illuminating the issues of in the election?

And how much prouder they might have been of their body of work?

Questions beforehand!

If you watched the Gubernatorial Debate Sunday night,
you probably said to yourself, more than once,

... she's not answering the question.

Were you impressed with even your champion's answers?
Was either of them entirely candid, forthright and honest?

It is only by their own deliberate choice that they present
themselves for questions in forum where they can then duck
inconvenient questions.

By some good and ethical process; compile a list of (nearly)
every legitimate question of a candidate for Governor.

Put them to the candidates well in advance of a forum.

Then they sit down, sit still, and answer the damn questions;
one by one, and candidly, forthrightly and honestly.

Voters are being played for fools by political operatives
who are ruining the election.

Serrano, "The time has come to split up APS."

In the Journal this morning, link, west side leader Dan Serrano argues in favor of putting an APS split on the ballot in the school board election in February. Serrano sees splitting the APS as the solution to APS' accountability problems.

The leadership of the APS is not accountable to the people.
They are not accountable to meaningful standards of conduct
and competence. The truth is, they are not even accountable
to the law.

The leadership of the APS shows little to no respect for stakeholder's input. Their entire effort to allow stakeholder input consists of an opportunity to speak at a nearly inaccessible public forum for two minutes, twice a month.

Stakeholders are "not allowed" to ask questions at public forums. The leadership insists that questions be put in writing, a format that is easier for them to ignore. In fairness, they don't totally ignore them; those who submit questions will receive a post card thanking them for submitting a question. The question itself will be ignored unless the answer to the question would look good in the Journal.

Serrano and the Citizens Advancing Student Achievement, think splitting a large district into smaller districts will increase accountability.

Their argument rests on a specious premise; the smaller a school district is, the more responsive the leadership will be to input from stakeholders. The argument has a nice ring to it, but little in the way of empirical evidence to support it.

Serrano, et al, would be far better off confronting a recalcitrant leadership where they find them, than to create another set of leadership who could be every bit as recalcitrant.

West siders routinely re-elect
Robert "the weasel" Lucero
as their representative on the
APS School Board.

This despite the fact that
Lucero speaks regularly in
favor of limiting public forums
even further than they already are.

What makes Serrano think that
Lucero would act any differently
if he were a board member in a smaller district?

The answer is for stakeholders to take back control over power and resources that belong fundamentally to them. That can be done just as easily in a big district as in a small one. All it requires is "enough" people to show up at a public forum demanding transparent accountability and accepting nothing less.

In the meantime, Serrano et al, should be looking for someone else to support when Lucero stands for re-election in February.



photo Mark Bralley

Fascinating perspective on public education

I highly recommend that you invest eleven minutes and forty seconds in watching this fascinating perspective on changing paradigm for public education; link.

Cemetery seating;

five rows of six student desks, wherein sit 30 children
with nothing in common except the date of their
manufacture; who are expected to move as one;
staying on the same page in same book on the same day
as the other 29; for twelve long years.

There has to be a better way.

You cannot have at once, individualized education and standardized testing. You cannot at once, meet the needs of individual students and the requirements of NCLB; the single worst stumbling block restraining public education.

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance ..."

... and a people who mean to be their own governors must
arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

James Madison

Brooks' blinders

APS Supt Winston Brooks is going to invest a considerable amount of time visiting with high school students; they are to become some of his most important advisers, link.
Brooks says, ... we really want to get their input.

The students he will be meeting "... were chosen by their principals, who were asked to choose a diverse group of students who are leaders and can influence their peers."

Likely not among them;
students carrying weapons,
students high on drugs, or
any who drop out this year.
Nor will there be even one
student with a chronically
disruptive disposition.

The impression Brooks will gain
will be skewed because
his sample is skewed.

He is also not gathering input from parents; APS' Citizen's Advisory Council was dissolved by the leadership of the APS in lieu of a "better idea". So far they have not come up with a better idea.

He is also not gathering input from his teachers, who between them share more than 70,000 years of current and on going teaching experience.

He surrounds himself with sycophants who are as long out of the real world classroom as he. As far as I know, their is not one year of teaching experience on the entire school board.

I have often suggested that board members and senior administrators should work occasionally as substitute teachers. And not just in the honors classes; they need to get their fingers dirty dealing with the learning disabled and the unmotivated, the stoned, the dangerous and the chronically disruptive.

Then, they can tell everyone else what to do with some
actual credibility.




photo Mark Bralley

Brooks seeks advice from students.

The Journal reports, link, that APS Superintendent Winston Brooks has assembled a bunch of teenagers to guide his decision making. Students were not deemed capable of electing their own representatives to the group, which was instead, appointed by administrators.

The Journal did not report it when the leadership of the APS

• dissolved the Citizens Advisory Council,
• promised to replace it with "something better" and,
• replaced it with nothing at all.

The Journal has not reported that there is no Teachers Advisory Council, never has been, and never will be. This despite the fact that APS teachers share between them, more than 70,000 years of teaching experience.

The Director of the APS Research Development and Accountability Division freely admits that the leadership of the APS has never surveyed teachers and asked them; what is wrong and, how what can the administration do to help.

Now, we have an otherwise completely powerless group of people, from whom Brooks will take his lead.

"Brooks said the group will soon undertake the serious business of advising him on budget cuts and other topics."

And now, the money line. Brooks admitted said;

"My experience is that school board members will probably listen to (students) more than they listen to me,"

Which begs a question; if school board members listen to
students more than they listen to their superintendent,
whom they pay more than $250K a year,
does this point to a problem in the leadership of the APS?

duh! !!

OK here's proof

I am asked always to point to 20 second soundbites that prove my case. It is a challenge.

One has popped up.

There is the appearance of
conflicts of interest regarding
School Board President
Marty Esquivel's
service to stakeholders







and his service to Bruce Malott
and his Meyners +Co.















I will ask for all public records that reflect Esquivel's conduct with respect to disclosing all of his conflicts of interest, and whether he has recused himself appropriately from votes that benefit his friends and clients.

If past practice is any indicator of future performance, APS Custodian of Public Records, Director of Communications Rigo Chavez will;

• ignore the return receipt request that accompanies the emailed Request for Public Records, and
• he will refuse to communicate by email; he uses snail-mail as a matter of "practice", then
• he will insist that I have to come to his office in order that he can watch me inspect them, but only after,
• the APS police show up to hassle me a little, and then
• he charges 50 cents a page, though the law limits his take to "legitimate costs" of copying. That is assuming the records are actually there,
• he often feigns ignorance of the law in order to stall.
  
• He rarely produces the records specifically identified in the request. In response to request for audio or video recordings, he routinely surrenders blank or otherwise unusable information.
• He once gave me a recording of a TV playing the recording I had asked for.
  

As a recently joined member of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government I would like to nominate Mr Rigo Chavez as the foundation's Dixon Award as their next true champion of transparency.

I digress.

I will ask for the public records which pertain to Esquivel's conflicts of interest and response to them.

The will either respond to a legitimate question candidly, forthrightly and honestly, as required by their obligation to "... model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!"

or not.




photos Mark Bralley

It will be one week Friday

since I stood in front of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Board of Directors meeting and informed them that;

two of theirs where giving a Dixon Award to a man who during the day is making a mockery of the impotence.

As far as I know, they intend to go through with it.

The entire Board of Directors will sit and do nothing while;
Marty Esquivel deliberately denies due process to whistle blowers
Winston Brooks hides evidence of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators, and
Kent Walz refuses to investigate and report upon any of it.

NM FOG Executive Director Sarah Welsh is "trying" to get Brooks to hand over the ethically redacted results of an independent investigation into public corruption in the APS Police Department, link;

... fectlessly.


For awhile, the board members could claim that they were
only asleep at the wheel when the Brooks Dixon Award
was slipped by them.

Now it is something worse.

And it's getter worser, every day.

APS/Esquivel to extend Malott contract

The APS School Board will vote tomorrow, link, to extend a contract, link, with Meyners + Co, link, a local firm.

Meyners has been tied to the pay to play scandal in Santa Fe, link.

Meyners is led by one Bruce Malott.

Malott is a friend and client of APS School Board President Marty Esquivel.

Esquivel is defending Malott, link, against allegations stemming from the corruption and incompetence in the investment of state pension plans. Malott is being sued by Frank Foy, former New Mexico Educational chief investment officer, on behalf of the state.

This represents two conflicts of interest for Esquivel,
about which he is apparently unwilling to answer legitimate questions; link, link.

The conflicts of interest should have compelled Esquivel to recuse himself from any votes to steer APS' business to his friend and client's accounting firm.

I suspect that Esquivel has not, and will not, recuse himself,
though proof will be as hard to find as are any public records
in the hands of the leadership of the APS.

Friends of Marty Esquivel, step up.

And friends of Winston Brooks and Kent Walz.

I submit that Brooks and Esquivel and Walz will not tell stakeholders the truth about the corruption in the APS Police Department, and about the School Board's denial of due process to more than 200 whistleblowers.

And further, the reason they will not, is that not one of them
can summon the character and the courage to tell the truth,
the whole ethically redacted truth, and nothing but the truth.

If any of you friends and supporters,
can think of any good and ethical reason at all,
to suppress testimony, evidence, and public records
in blatant violation of the law, or to deny due process
to whistleblowers,

please share it, now, ___________________________

Marty? Winston? Kent? Did you boys chop down that cherry tree?

According to the standards of conduct that apply to students in the APS, young George Washington did the right thing when he held himself honestly accountable for his conduct.

According to the standards of conduct that apply to administrators and board members, young George should have hired himself a Modrall lawyer.

It would appear that School Board President Marty Esquivel, APS Supt Winston Brooks, and Journal Editor Kent Walz are hiding something.

The question is; are you boys hiding the truth about public corruption in the leadership of the APS?

Winston, are you hiding evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators?









Marty, are you really denying due process to hundreds of whistle blower complaints?









Have you both, abdicated as role models of the APS Student Standards of Conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!?


And Kent, are you really going to
show up at an APS School Board
Meeting and give NM FOG's most
prestigious award,
the Dixon Award
for Champions of Transparency
to Winston Brooks?





Are you really going to try to keep the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, secret through yet another school board election?

George Washington reportedly, would fess up.

We tell the 90,000 of our sons and daughters in the APS;
their character depends upon their responding to any
legitimate question by, answering candidly, forthrightly
and honestly.

If we really want students to grow into adults who
embrace character and courage and honor,
someone has to show them what it looks like.




photos and frame grab Mark Bralley

It's our truth.

In the Journal this morning, link.

"Brutal attacks at the jail last year triggered public outcry and a call from Bernalillo County commissioners for an independent review of jail operations."

The results of the review are being kept secret from public knowledge.

Commissioners are ultimately responsible for whatever is revealed. Commissioners are the only public servants who are actually directly accountable to the people. If we are to hold them accountable for their conduct and competence, we have to know the truth about their conduct and competence; the ethically redacted truth, non the "massaged" truth.

If power corrupts, absolutely, the corrupting influence is the ability to deliberately manipulate the truth without accountability. The fundamental abuse of power is dishonesty.

To hear them tell it; they would love to tell us the ethically redacted truth about their spending of our power and our resources.

County Attorney Jeff Landers said in an interview.
"I can't go into detail on what they are because that information is protected by attorney-client privilege."

Landers would have you believe that, because of "attorney client privilege" he is prohibited from telling the truth.

The truth is, "attorney client privilege allows him to not tell the truth. They ran the investigation through an attorney deliberately in order that they could then hide the results under the loophole.

There is a trend; more and more independent investigations will be handled through attorneys who are paid by taxpayers but not accountable to them.

Its how they hid and are hiding from public knowledge,
an ethically redacted version of the independent investigation of the MATS scandal.

Another common dodge, by politicians and public servants who want to protract the surrender of ethically redacted public records real time, is to refuse to deliver any requested records until they can deliver them all simultaneously. They find one to nitpick over, with their loopholes and legal weaselry, and the people are told nothing about how their power and resources are act.

This investigation has been going on for nearly a year and a half. Are we really to believe that there is nothing our $106,930 has bought us nothing that we have a right to know?

It isn't just the county.

APS Supt Winston Brooks and School Board President Marty Esquivel are sitting on top of a three and a half year old "investigation", and hiding public records of felony criminal misconduct.

NM FOG is no longer a player; they still intend to show
up in APS' million dollar boardroom on November 3, and
give their most prestigious award to Winston Brooks
while is mocking their impotency.

This despite the many apparent discrepancies between the
the supposed goals of the NM FOG and the manifest behavior
of their Champion of Transparency Winston Brooks
including his on going cover-up of corruption in the APS
Police Department.

The FOG is proving less than useful in getting Brooks to hand over the ethically results of an independent investigation of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators.

The Journal will be of no use. Editor Kent Walz must continue his part in the cover-up, because it was he who actually nominated Brooks for the award. If he exposes Brooks, he exposes his obligation to answer a few questions like,
wtf were you thinking?

The power belongs to the people.
The resources belong to the people.
The ethically redacted truth about how they're being spent belongs to the people.

Duneesh ad; right on the money

There is an ad being aired that shows Lt Gov Diane Denish endorsing Bill Richardson.

She argues that, the ad shows that the Republicans are running against Richardson not against her.




Au contraire; the ad shows one of a few things about Diane Denish at the time she cut the ad.

Since we now know, the Richardson administration wasn't doing well at the time; she either believed all the stuff she was saying about one of the most corrupt administrations in recent memory; meaning she was incompetent, or,
she did know what was going on and was willing to lie to people in order to get elected, meaning she was corrupt.

Which begs an answer to a question that has been asked an awful lot of times; If Denish knew about the culture of corruption, why didn't she champion a campaign against it?

If she didn't know about it, then why didn't she?

Was she complicit, compliant, complacent,
... or what, exactly?

It's a fair question.




photo Mark Bralley

Walz; no comment

Kent Walz has either not received my email, or chose to
not respond.

When the question is; will you tell me the truth?
any answer except yes, means no.

my question and email to him;

Sir,

I am wondering if you will offer any explanation for the fact that the leadership of the APS has completely abandoned any concerted effort to offer character education to APS students, and that the Journal has not investigated or reported upon that situation.

grateful for your time and attention

He is yet to respond; I have no idea why; I have my suspicions.

When the question is will you tell the truth;
any answer except yes, means no.

No, Journal Editor Kent Walz
is not willing to offer any candid,
forthright and honest explanation for his ongoing failure to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.





I will offer one; he doesn't want to be exposed as the person who nominated Winston Brooks for his Champion of Transparency Award.

Right after he exposes his "champion" as an utter fraud.

The biggest obstacle for the Journal to overcome in investigating and reporting upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, is their own credibility. Before Walz can investigate and report credibly upon on the current scandal, he must report credibly on his failure to report credibly on the scandal in the 16 years heretofore.

The leadership of the APS has been hiding from their obligations role models of the Pillars of Character Counts!; ever since they were unanimously adopted by the board, as the Student Standards of Conduct, in 1994.

Walz reported to stakeholders when the Board adopted the Pillars of Character Counts! as the student standard of conduct, and consequently, as their own.

He did not report it when they abdicated as role models when they removed from their own code of conduct, the words;

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

He will not now report that his buddies Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks are hiding public records and evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.

He will not now report that his buddies Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks are denying due process to every single one of more than 200 whistle blower complaints.

He will not now report that his buddies Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks, the senior most role models of the student standards of conduct, have renounced their own accountability to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students, even for the measly few hours a day that they hold students accountable.

Most of all, Journal Editor Kent Walz is not going to report to you, why he is not going to report to you.

His position is indefensible.

The only defense for an indefensible position is, to hide it.

He is hiding his answer to a legitimate question;

Will you tell us the truth about the (alleged) ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS?

Any answer except yes, means no.

He means, no.

He will not tell the truth, even through the next school board election; just as he did in the ones before.

"Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink and his silence,
by the barrel." - Twain I believe




frame grab Mark Bralley

Journal extolls bullying website

The Journal is quite pleased with APS' new bullying website, link.

The site, link, should be of use to the victims of bullying,
assuming their eyes are not swollen too shut to read along.

The Journal chose to not mention that,
the site represents no threat to bullies, at all.

The greatest threat to bullies, would be some meaningful
character education, district wide.

The Journal chooses also to not mention that
there is no concerted character education in the APS, link, at all.

APS Supt Winston Brooks superficial repair is newsworthy, apparently, his underlying fundamental failure is not.

APS abandons character education.

The leadership of the APS has decided to abandon character education in terms of any concerted effort.

The leadership of the Albuquerque Journal has decided that, that isn't newsworthy.

I will bow to controverting fact.

Brooks walkabout expensive and feckless

The Journal gives APS Supt Winston Brooks free space on a regular basis, to write whatever he wants without fear of contradiction or rebuttal.

Today, link, Brooks writes about his walkabout, wikilink, the 1230 square miles that encompass the APS. He did not write about the cost; hourly wage x hours at each school x 163 schools, but if he makes it to every school and spends a couple of hours going, being, and coming, we're paying north of $40K for his little adventure.

$40K is a pittance when compared to the district's more than $1B budget.

It is also nearly the salary of another teacher, two teachers aides, another 1000 textbooks, etc.

Brooks writes;

"Although the school administration sets the agenda for
these visits, they aren't staged."

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

It is hard to believe that a man in a position of such authority could be so naive. How much more likely is it, that he is simply being dishonest?

Imagine you are a school principal. Imagine the Supt is coming to visit your school. Imagine you set the agenda for his visit. Imagine which classrooms you would lead him toward, and which classrooms you would avoid.

This isn't about "wasting" 40 grand, it's about building APS' image in the community to lessen the sting of the egregious failure to meet the educational needs of 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters.

Brooks' time would be better spent;

• addressing the corruption in the APS Police Department, or
• providing due process to more than 200 whistleblowers, or
• finding a code of conduct for students, of which he is not afraid to speak, or
• beginning an honest and independent audit of administrative and executive standards of conduct and competence, and accountability to them.

Instead, he and the Journal, will continue to hide the problems and tout the successes.

"America's ruling class"

This essay, link, is 12, 500 words long and not for
the faint of heart.

Other than that, it is a thought provoking read.

Monahan asks the $64K question

Blogger Monahan asked the $64K Question, wikilink, this morning.

He was writing about, "... a ceaseless stream of political ads that are simply false."

Many of the heavy hitters in the blogosphere have pointed to dishonest and misleading campaign ads. None (I will bow to controverting fact) save me has asked; what can we, the people, do to stop them?

Monahan writes;

"... the ads will stay up and continue to mislead voters. They (Heinrich and Barela) won't even revise them. Ultimately, it is the candidates who must be held responsible for the bad ads.

Exactly! the candidates must be held responsible for their efforts to manipulate an election by deliberately misleading and deceiving voters.

But how? That's the question.

Monahan points to the "impunity of the political class" and how it is "igniting voter anger and cynicism."

Monahan concludes; "There must be a better way to run a railroad."

There must be; but what is it?

How do you vote against candidates who will deliberately
deceive you, if they all do?




photo Mark Bralley

APS to lower Student Standards of Conduct

APS students are currently expected to "model and promote" a nationally recognized, accepted, and respected code of ethical conduct. That the result of a resolution passed unanimously by the APS School Board in 1994, that recognized the Pillars of Character Counts! as the student standards of conduct.

This has always been a problem for board members and administrators who are uncomfortable being held accountable to higher standards of conduct; who could not, and can not, summon the character and the courage to step up as role models of the Student Standards of Conduct.

That "problem" will be resolved this afternoon at a meeting of the APS Policy Committee.

According to their agenda, link, reference to the APS Student Behavior Handbook, will be dropped from the section of School Board Policy entitled "Student Discipline". With the removal of the reference to the Student Behavior Handbook, comes the removal of the last remaining mention of the Pillars of Character Counts!, in School Board Policy.

The old policy reads;

Administrators will utilize the progressive discipline procedures and options specified in the APS Student Behavior Handbook.

The new policy reads;

Administrators shall use the progressive discipline procedures and options specified in administrative procedural directive.

The fallout from this decision could be far reaching. At the very least, it removes the mention of Character Counts!, as APS' student standards of conduct.

There is no citation of language of the "procedural directive" that will replace the Student Behavior Handbook, but it is a safe bet that the procedural directive will not contain the current language which reads; students are expected to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!.

By logical extension, as role models, adults, including administrators and board members, are expected to "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!

The leadership of the APS has no intention of being held honestly accountable to any standard of conduct higher than the lowest; the law. In particular, they have no intention of being held accountable to any standard of conduct that requires them to "respond to any legitimate question, candidly, forthrightly and honestly"; the current standard for students.

With the removal of the reference to the Pillars of Character Counts!, the standards of conduct for students are being lowered.

They are being lowered to accommodate the needs of board members and senior administrators, not one of whom, can summon the character and the courage to stand up and hold themselves honestly accountable as a role model of a nationally recognized, accepted, and respected code of ethical conduct.

This is reminiscent of their change in School Board Policy that struck the language that required the Audit Committee to provide due process to whistle blower complaints; a story that was conveniently missing from the Journal coverage of the APS.

There is no public forum at Policy Committee Meetings.

This step is being taken in relative secret in order that the public will not discover and discuss their moral cowardice. I am still illegally banned from board meetings, so they will take this step without anyone raising any objection.

This is the second worst day in the history of the leadership of the APS.


Their worst day was they day they voted unanimously to remove the role modeling clause from School Board Policy, the one that used to read;

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

Shame on them.













Shame on the Journal for helping them hide their shame even through school board elections.




photos Mark Bralley

Sunshine Portal closed.

Actually the Sunshine Portal, link, has never opened.

I have run into more than a few people who are stunned to
learn that the Sunshine Portal, a basic accoutrement of
governmental transparency, still has not opened. Most
think the portal opened when it was signed into law.

Though passed and signed into law on March 5, 2010,
the actual opening does not take place until July 1, 2011;
effectively two fiscal years after by Lt Gov Diane Denish,
signed it into law; and long after the budget knives are
put away in the next legislative session; long after citizen's
real need for the numbers has passed.

While only a step forward in governmental transparency,
the portal will be a monumental step, once it has been taken.

One wonders then, why Denish is no longer claiming any credit
for it, or association with it?

One reason; if she brings it up, someone is likely to ask;
why is it not open?

She has no good and ethical answer for that question;
so she will avoid the question. She will avoid bringing
an unwanted attention to still unopened, open government.

Also avoiding the question; Denish's opponent DA Susana Martinez.

Why does she not care whether Denish's Portal is actually a portal, or simply a plan for a portal?

Does she share the politicos aversion to searchable databases that are actually open and doing business?

Brooks accepts Esquivel/Walz Hypocrisy Award

APS Supt Winston Brooks did not accept his Dixon Award in person; in his stead, APS Legislative Liaison Joseph Escobedo, and APS' embattled Police Chief Steve Tellez.

Tellez' claim to fame; as the Chief of the APS Police Department, he is responsible for failing to close a 3 1/2 year long "investigation" of felony criminal misconduct in the APS Police Department, and failing to forward the evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators to the District Attorney for criminal prosecution.

He is party to ongoing civil rights violations regarding the use of APS police officers to deny my rights to speak freely and petition my government at school board meetings.

Not surprisingly, Tellez' is also one of two senior officers in the APS Police Department that fell in a no-confidence vote by APS Police Officers, link.

Brooks' award comes apparently, as the results of efforts by NM FOG Board Members Kent Walz and Marty Esquivel.

Journal Editor Kent Walz, seen here extolling Brooks' many virtues,


could claim I suppose, that when he nominated Brooks for the Dixon Award, NM FOG's most prestigious award for champions of transparency, he was unaware of the fact that

• Brooks is hiding public records of public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS Police Department, and in the leadership of the APS in general.
• Brooks has abdicated as a role model of the student standards of conduct.
• Brooks is denying due process to hundreds of whistleblower complaints.
• Brooks is using of the APS Police Department to violate the civil rights of dissidents at board meetings.

Esquivel can make no such claim of course, since he is party to all of these efforts to obfuscate transparency in the Albuquerque Public Schools.

If Walz could ever claim honest ignorance of the corruption in the leadership of the APS, he can no longer.

He sat in the annual membership meeting of the NM FOG, and heard all of these allegations. He heard that it has been 3 1/2 years since the Journal's most recent investigation and report, link, on the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

He sat and listened, while I reported to the NM FOG Board of Directors, that APS School Board Member Paula Maes, who sat and spoke at the FOG Board Meeting but is not listed as a current member of the board, link, had once boasted that she

"... would never agree to any audit that individually identified ..." corrupt or incompetent administrators or board members.

She said that, right after APS School Board President and NM FOG Golden Boy Marty Esquivel had built a cogent argument in front of all assembled, that it is just such an audit that is so desperately needed.

He backed off, fell in line, and is now APS' School Board President.

Whether there should be an audit that "individually identifies" the corrupt and the incompetent in the leadership of the APS, is worthy of public discourse. It is worthy therefore of coverage in our newspaper of record; the Albuquerque Journal.

Walz can no longer profess ignorance. He has a few days to assign a Journal reporter to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

If that investigation and report is not forthcoming, and
especially if it does not precede the upcoming school
board elections, I will offer that failure as evidence and
conclusive proof of a conspiracy to cover up public corruption
and incompetence in the leadership of the APS, that
includes the Albuquerque Journal, and the leadership of
the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.

In fact, is there any good and ethical reason that we cannot
expect to read the truth, the whole (ethically redacted) truth
and nothing but the truth about the ethics and accountability
scandal in the leadership of the APS before November 3rd?

Before Brooks accepts NM FOG's highest award in a more
private setting, deep in the castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd?

Lest it go unnoticed; APS/Modrall also has a seat on the board.

Though, Modrall lawyer Pat Rogers, said, it is his practice
to recuse himself from any votes that might create some
advantage for the leadership of the APS.




photo and frame grab Mark Bralley

Denish and Colón; tied to corruption

They are deeply interwoven in the entrenched Party.

The entrenched Party is either complicit in, or complacent about, the culture of corruption and incompetence in state government.

Unless and until Lt Gov Diane Denish, and Lt Gubernatorial Candidate Brian Colón, can separate themselves from the entrenched Party and its complicity or complacency about the rot in the Roundhouse, they enjoy, at most, only one degree of separation from the most corrupt administration most people have ever seen.

... they are tied to it; inextricably.

End of an era for NM FOG?

It could well be. On their, link, agenda, link, today;

1. self-destroy every last shred of their credibility.

If you went looking for help in creating transparency in government, you would not have to look long before someone would point to New Mexico's champion in transparency; the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.

champion;
one who fights for or defends any person or cause:
a champion of the oppressed, a fighter or warrior.

The current efficacy of open government laws
speaks to the effect they have had.

However well, or not, they perform in the battle to make
government transparent; they are the standard bearer.

That will change today.

Today is the day that the NM FOG will honor two men with their highest accolades; one will be given the Dixon Award, the other will rise to President of the NM FOG.

This despite the fact that there are no two men on the planet,
who are fighting harder to hide the truth from stakeholders,
about public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS than;
Marty Esquivel, and Winston Brooks.

APS anti-bullying effort falls short

As a teacher, one of my greatest frustrations was the damage done to the educational environment by bullies. Everyone knew who they were, knew what they were doing, and watched them continue to disrupt the lives of students whose only "crime" was showing up at school everyday and trying to educate themselves.

The leadership of the APS has a long record of failing to mitigate the effects of chronically disruptive students. It has gotten to the point where they no longer compile meaningful data on the subject. Teachers are no longer surveyed on the deleterious effects of chronically disruptive students, including bullies. Students are no longer surveyed for their feelings on the effect of chronically disruptive students and bullies.

Imagine for a moment you are the victim of a school bully.

Everyday you wake up wishing for an excuse to not go to school. Perhaps you search your home for some kind of weapon, with which you can defend yourself, and for carrying which, you cannot yourself be suspended or expelled.

Imagine your hear of APS' marvelous anti-bullying website, link. Go there. See what these poor kids are being offered for solace in their time of trouble.

Missing from APS' response to bullying; as usual,
any meaningful consequences for being one.

I couldn't find the revelation of the cost to taxpayers;
I believe it is around $4M.

The return on investment, the actual value to the victims of bullies and those who care for them, much, much less.

Martinez draws ire

Blogger Monahan wonders this morning;

"... why are the (dishonest campaign) ads still on the air?"

He offers an explanation;

"... the press has not pressured Martinez. nor her campaign. She is not being asked directly why the ads are still on."

He concludes, quite correctly;

"Until New Mexico candidates are forced to pay a price for putting up false information on the tube, they will continue to ride roughshod over their opposition--and the truth."

DA and Gubernatorial Candidate Susana Martinez has apparently pushed her disregard for the press and the people, too far.

Blogger Monahan, "the home of New Mexico Politics" reports that he too is on the campaign's "ignore" list. Monahan wrote Monday;

We'd ask Ryan (Cangiolosi) (a question), but he does not return e-mail.

Cangiolosi, and by reasonable extension, his boss Martinez, have a well earned reputation for stiffing the press.

Lt Gov Diane Denish and her James Hallinan have no better reputations for their heavy handed disregard for the press.

Monahan's conclusion begs a question; how do we the people, make political candidates pay the price for their disregard, and disrespect, of voters? How do we make them pay the price for deliberately misleading and ignoring us?

And finally, if this is the was they treat us during the campaign, how will we be treated after they are elected?

They say the best indicator of future performance is past, and current, performance.

"They", are correct.




photo Mark Bralley

Wiener standing on shaky ground

I read with great interest, the Journal report, link, on the off, now on again, revisit of the County's new and apparently feckless ethics ordinance.

County Commissioner Michael Brasher wanted to discuss problems with the ordinance but was voted down by a majority of Commissioners who voted to kick the can down the road. They represented that they did so in order to fold new commissioners into the discussion. That argument becomes more specious the longer you think about it.

"The right time to do the right thing is always right now." unk

County Commissioner Michael Wiener, who voted for the delay, has changed his mind. According to the Journal;

"He doesn't want the public to think he opposes opening up the ethics process."

He would like to open the discussion, in part so he can amend the ordinance to strip whistleblowers of their anonymity.

Does he really not grasp the extent of the retribution and retaliation whistleblowers suffer? Or, does he want to put an end to whistle blowing altogether?

Wiener is worried that the system is too easy to abuse; that "gadflies" will file frivolous allegations to embarrass county officials. (emphasis added) "We have a right to confront our accusers" he argued.

He is right of course, but only later in the judicial process. According to the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution;

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to ... be confronted with the witnesses against him..."

The amendment speaks clearly to the opportunity to confront one's accusers, but only during criminal prosecution; not as a tool to discourage people from reporting the public corruption and incompetence they witness.

Those who seek public office place themselves in a position open to scrutiny. They betray their office in their attempts to limit that scrutiny in any way, whether it be by exposing whistle blowers to the full weight of retribution and retaliation, or by calling those who would pay attention to their public service, "gadflies".




photo Mark Bralley

Free speech ain't free

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government link, will be having a Board Meeting and Annual Meeting, link.

On tap; two Public Forums.

Although the meeting is open to the public and press,
actual free speech at the forum will run you $35
give or take, link.

After the forum, plausible deniability regarding knowledge of the ethical misconduct of their Dixon Award winner and soon to be President will have evaporated.

The meeting is scheduled in the middle of most stakeholders workdays, as a further disincentive to those who might be inclined to leave their spheres of safety and comfort,
then to attend to the board and annual meetings


... and perhaps, stand up for what they believe in.

When will state workers get their survey?

For how much longer will Governor Big Bill Richardson be allowed to obstruct the survey of state employees from the Governmental Restructuring Task Force, link?

There are good and ethical and dedicated state workers who are being deprived of their right to defend themselves against the public corruption and incompetence the soils them, but is not them.

Lt Gov Diane Denish stands to gain from his reticence in allowing the truth to be gathered before the election. No point in bringing up a bunch of scandal that she should have known about but didn't,

To hear him tell it; there will be no legislative survey, except with his specifically expressed permission.

I don't think so. Since when does the Legislature need anyone's permission to survey state workers?

Where is the outrage?





photo Mark Bralley

Is Esquivel the new FOG President?

I have reason to believe that APS School Board President Marty Esquivel is representing that he is the new President of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.

The Executive Director of the FOG Sarah Welsh writes that the actual election of the new president will not happen until the FOG Board of Directors meeting next Friday night.

Does Esquivel know something we don't know?
Has there already been a secret vote?

The NM FOG is making a laughing stock of itself by awarding the Dixon Award to APS Supt Winston Brooks while at the same time, their champion of transparency, is using legal weaselry to exploit the weakness in the NM Inspection of Public Records Act; of which, the NM FOG is supposed to be the leading defender.

Brooks is hiding an independent investigation of public corruption and incompetence in his own administration, and the NM FOG is handing him an award for transparency. What a joke.

Now they are about to compound their foolishness by anointing as their President a foe of open government, Marty Esquivel.

Esquivel is as responsible as any one in the APS, for the fact that hundreds of whistle blowers are being denied due process.

Brooks by the way, is apparently intending to pass up the opportunity to join the other Dixon Award winners at a banquet in their honor.

I suppose that he will point to some scheduling conflict as the justification for missing the banquet.

The banquet cannot be rescheduled, having already been rescheduled once to avoid Rep Janice Arnold-Jones; a true Champion of Transparency, being honored at a Dixon Award banquet that was originally scheduled to be held in May, immediately before the June Republican Primary.

Such recognition at that point in the Republican Primary race, would have been a game changer, and therefore not OK with the good ol' boys who had other people in mind to be their gubernatorial candidate in November.

Brooks will instead, accept the award at a APS board meeting, where his Praetorian Guard can protect him from anyone who might want to point out the hypocrisy taking place as he accepts the formerly prestigious award.





photos Mark Bralley

the State Auditor's race

The Journal paints a good contrast between the gentlemen running for State Auditor, link.

There are two basic differences; they center around the present and the future.

State Auditor Hector Balderas' plan is to make it impossible, in the future, to steal from taxpayers; casino security on the spending of our power and our resources.

... while grandfathering in
the currently corrupt and incompetent.





Just like Lt Gov Diane Denish's Sunshine Portal; it will make tax dollars harder to steal in the future, but shines no light at all on the ones stolen last month, this month or next.








It is the "entrenchment" corruption fighting;
outlaw public corruption if you have to, but push any real enforcement, a year or two down the road; hide the corruption for as long as it can be hidden.

Errol Chavez in contrast, say he wants to have arrested, everybody who is stealing, or has stolen (within the Statutes of Limitation), and throw their asses in prison.

Either plan will eliminate future corruption.

One plan is more eminently more satisfying to people who need to see the guilty held actually, and honestly, accountable for betraying the trust that had been placed in them.

The second point of contention has to do with resources;
Balderas says he needs more,
Chavez says there's plenty of money that needs to be spent differently.

I tend to agree with Balderas; I think that governmental oversight is grossly underfunded, deliberately.

But if Chavez knows better, I would like to hear about it.

Voters deserve a debate or two; an opportunity to watch
these gentlemen chat about their differences.




photos Mark Bralley

So what's up with the AFSCME?

State workers are represented by the AFSCME;

"The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) link; the second- or third-largest labor union in the United States."

But not well.

A few days ago, state workers were going to get the opportunity to blow the whistle on all of the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness in state government. A few days ago, state workers had the opportunity to fight back against the developing insensitivity for the plight of "state" employees.

Then Governor Bill "we don't need no stinkin' survey" Richardson, whose legacy is at stake, got wind of it and said;
... an anonymous survey where whistle blowers could expose all the corruption and incompetence in my administration, unafraid of retribution and retaliation?
on my watch?

aha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ... link.


And Denish gave her tacit approval.

And Martinez gave her tacit approval.

And the members of the Governmental Restructuring Task Force gave their tacit approval; but were noticeably upset,
well one of them maybe, Rep Patricia Lundstrom, link,
has expressed some "disappointment", link.

And the union who is supposed to be protecting state workers
from retribution and retaliation for whistle blowing gave its tacit approval.

And all the state workers who are paying union dues
in exchange for protection from this kind of stuff,
gave a collective sign and wondered, w t f ? ??

I assume.




photo Mark Bralley

Cop against cop at Eldorado High School

KRQE reports, link, that cops from the Albuquerque Police Department and from APS' publicly funded, private police force the APS PD, are not playing well together in the sandbox.

From an official police report, an officer with the APD wrote

"having personal knowledge of the lack of campus security at Eldorado high school and to protect the safety of the children on campus, ..."

The strife between the the APD and APS' Praetorian Guard stems from their contradictory missions; APD is there to enforce the law and keep the peace, and the Praetorian Guards are their to cover the asses of APS administrators and board members, and to make sure that nothing makes it into the news that might make the leadership of the APS look corrupt or incompetent.

I submit as proof of the allegation; the APS PD's ongoing cover up of their own corruption and incompetence; a story that came to light 3 1/2 years ago, link, and which they are "still investigating"; an excuse to hide public records from public knowledge.

I will bow to controverting facts.

Still nothing in the Journal

Still nothing in our "newspaper of record" on the no confidence vote, link, in the APS Police Department.

The story is newsworthy; there are allegations of "unsafe staffing levels". Taxpayers will be on the hook for damages if there are in fact, unsafe staffing levels, and those levels result in damage to APS property, cops or kids.

No explanation yet, on why the Journal will not investigate and report upon the corruption and in competence in the APS Police Department in particular and the in the leadership of the APS in general.

APS ignores records request

I have reason to believe that APS' Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta was party to an exchange of text messages with Lt Gov Diane Denish spokesman James Hallinan, in which I was defamed, link.

I handed APS' Director of Communications and Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez a bonafide records request for any public records in which I was individually named.

According to the law, Chavez was required to respond within 3 days. The response would acknowledge (officially) that he had received the request, and that the records were available for inspection and/or copying, or that the records were not immediately available and would be ready by some certain date.

In violation of the law, Chavez has not responded.

In violation of the law, it will likely be a cold day in hell before I see these particular public records.

As an aside, the guy who sits at the desk where the buck stops for this illegal suppression of public records, Chavez' boss, APS Supt Winston Brooks will accept the NM Foundation for Open Government's Dixon Award, link, for being a "champion" transparency.

The formerly prestigious award used to be given to people who actually deserved it.

Brooks is currently using the technicalities and loopholes in the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act and legal weaselry to hide the results of an independent investigation of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, link.