Journal coverage of Latino/Hispanic Education forum incomplete

In the Journal this morning, link, coverage of the Latino/Hispanic Education Independent Task Force's school board candidate forum.

During the forum, one of the candidates accused the sitting board of

• covering up felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators,
• denying due process to more than 300 whistleblower complaints, and
• abandoning their obligations as role models of the student standards of conduct.

The candidate pointed out that the APS Police Department had been allowed by the school board to investigate its own corruption, link, and four years later, after statutes of limitation have expired, they have not surrendered one shred of evidence or testimony to the DA for prosecution.

There were three board members present; Delores Griego and Marty Esquivel in the front of the room and Lorenzo Garcia in the audience. Not one of them denied the allegations either publicly or privately.

More "newsworthy" according to the Journal, than those allegations was; an attributed quote on Esquivel's opinion on a certifying the APS Police Department;

"... Esquivel said the proposal would free up much-needed funding."

I don't blame the reporter for the Journal's Esquivel bias; she is between a rock and hard place; her obligations as a Journalist and to editors who want to see Esquivel re-elected.

It turns out that is isn't just Kent Walz. I received the following from editor Ellen Marks, in response to an email I had sent to the reporter asking why my blog address had been censored from my responses to the Journal questionnaire;

Hi:

I am Hailey's editor, and I am responding to the e-mail you sent to her.

Although we did not publish the exact address of your blog, we did report the name of it. I just did a search on "Diogenes' Six," and the first link that came up led me directly to your blog. Anyone who wanted to find it could easily do so.

When I first saw a message from you, I thought it would be to thank us for managing to get in the new photo you wanted us to use. We had to remake part of a page, but I was glad we were able to accommodate your request.

Best, Ellen Marks

To which I replied;

I am of course most grateful that you used my new photo, I do appreciate it.

I still do not understand why my response was censored, can you please explain it?

Also, since I have an editor on the line, would you mind telling me why the Journal
will not investigate and report upon;

1. the fact that it has been four years since the corruption in the APS Police Department and the APS Police, investigating their own corruption have not surrendered any evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, to the DA ref http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/537182metro02-11-07.htm and that they are hiding the final report of an independent investigation of the corruption by Robert Caswell Investigations.

2. the fact that the APS Board of Education is denying due process to more than 300 whistle blower complaints. Not one complaint has received the review and approval of the Audit Committee as required by board policy, and

3. the fact that the entire leadership of the APS has renounced accountability as role models of the student standards of conduct, and finally

4. the fact that my opponent Marty Esquivel, who I am told works for the Journal, has created an illegal restraining order, enforced by APS' publicly funded private police force ( a Praetorian Guard in every respect) already having arrested me on no less than 10 occasions for exercising my constitutionally protected human rights to free speech and to petition my government.

I would really appreciate a candid, forthright and honest response

grateful for your time and attention,

Charles MacQuigg

To which she is yet to respond.

There are two things wrong in government

Imagine please, a government where every single politician and public servant was both manifestly competent and scrupulously honest.

Until we can manage to elect and hire only competent and honest servants; our only defense against public corruption and incompetence is to make them impossibly difficult to hide; casino security on the public trust and treasure.

Elect me, and every single politician and public servant in the entire APS will be held honestly accountable to the highest standards of conduct and competence, even against their will.

Give me your money, and nobody (else) will get hurt.

DONATE

Ask your self

Why won't the establishment media, the Journal and the NM Broadcasters Assoc affiliates, report that a bonafide school board candidate has made specific credible and substantiated allegations of public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS, if only to report that the allegations are unsubstantiated?

What good and ethical reason excuses their failure to investigate and report upon

• the corruption in the APS Police Department,
• the denial of due process to hundreds of whistle blower complaints against administrator and board members, and
• the abdication of the leadership of the APS as role models of the APS Student Standards of Conduct, the Pillars of Character Counts!?

What reason at all except their own corruption?

Esquivel gives Brooks a "B" and a 1/2 million dollar golden parachute.

In the Journal this morning, Marty Esquivel gives Winston Brooks a letter grade of "B" as superintendent of the APS.

Recently, he has given Brooks a half million dollar golden parachute in recognition of his brilliance as superintendent.

Esquivel will never present himself in a forum where he can be compelled to respond to a question about the apparent disconnect, candidly forthrightly and honestly.

He will not raise his right hand and promise to tell you the truth about the public interests and about his public service.

I will.




photos Mark Bralley

District 4 race makes it to the Journal

In the Journal this morning, "coverage" of the APS school board race, link.

I am unsettled for two reasons;
they censored my blog address from my responses, and
they invaded my privacy.

The ground rules included a 35 word limit on responses to questions on even the most complex issues. Perhaps they will claim that including this most important piece of information exceeded 35 words. I would invite you to examine the length of answers they permitted else where.

Diogenes' six is where I answer any legitimate question about your interests and my public service candidly, forthrightly and honestly. I have been known to write more than 35 words even on the lesser issues. For the Journal to simply deny voters convenient access to my blog, to their candidate's advantage, is inexcusable. It is journalistic malpractice.

Then they published this;

(Editor's note: Court records show MacQuigg was charged with misdemeanor aggravated battery on a household member in 1996. The case was dismissed, contingent on MacQuigg receiving counseling.)

No one, who does not come to this blog, will read the truth which is;
my then 15 year old daughter intended to engage in series self destructive behaviors beginning with jumping out of a moving car. I did what I had to do to prevent her from hurting herself. I love her very much and would do the same again.

Fortunately that will not be necessary, she and her brother have grown into wonderful and responsible adults. I could not be more proud of both of them.

As I have long argued, public servants have a right to private lives. The fact that I am running for a public office, does not create a warrant to invade my privacy; the right to privacy being a constitutionally protected human right.

Worse than that, the Journal sees fit to publish that, but does not see fit to publish the facts that;

• Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks are hiding evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, link,
• denying due process to more than 300 whistle blowers, and
• shirking their duties as role models of the official APS Student Standards of Conduct

even during an election.

I hold Journal Editor Kent Walz personally responsible.

If for no other reasons than that he and Marty Esquivel gave Winston Brooks a Dixon Award for hiding the February 2007, Robert Caswell Investigations report on public corruption and incompetence in the APS Police Department, and
the Journal's ongoing failure to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS and,
the fact that he won't report that Marty Esquivel has created an illegal Restraining Order that is preventing me from the free exercise of my constitutionally protected rights to free speech and to petition my government.




frame grab Mark Bralley

Martinez, bloggers, and the establishment "press"

I will admit freely that I don't know, and don't care to research, the chain of command that oversees Sergeants at Arms in the Roundhouse.

Wherever that path leads to on paper;
(the leadership of the legislature)
the buck stops on the desk of Governor
Susana Martinez.

Sergeants at Arms in the Roundhouse
are denying the free exercise of First
Amendment rights of bloggers, link.

If Gov Martinez has any intention to respect the First Amendment Rights of bloggers to equal treatment under the law, she will do what ever she has to do, to call off the Sergeants at Arms and prohibit them from discriminating against any member of the press, regardless of their medium.

I think it is fair to say that bloggers tend to be more critical
of the establishment than are the reporters who work for
the establishment. That the establishment then blatantly
discriminates against them creates appearances of conflicts
of interest and impropriety.

The founding fathers understood the critical need for a free press. They chose to protect the human right to be a free press, in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Are bloggers the press? Realistically, if an internet press had been around in colonial days, don't you suppose the founding fathers would have protected them in particular against the abuse of power by government?

It is the manifest position of the establishment that, only
their reporters are protected by First Amendment rights.

They are entitled to their opinion. They are not entitled to
use the power of the government to enforce their opinion
on others.

The Martinez camp has a record of jerking bloggers around.
Will the Martinez administration do the same?
Will there be "bold change"?

The answers are self-evident.

When the question is;

Do you respect the First Amendment rights of bloggers?

any answer except yes, means no.




photo Mark Bralley

Give me your money, nobody (else) has to get hurt.

Albuquerque Public Schools are failing in two aspects;
administratively and educationally.

Administratively they have failed to protect the public interests from administrative corruption and incompetence; standards of conduct and competence are inadequate and unenforceable.

Transparency is a joke; ask them if you can take a look at the report done by the independent investigator of the public corruption in the APS Police Department, link. You paid for it; it's a public record. See what they will surrender.

They have failed educationally. Most of this community's
sons and daughters leave the APS without a decent education.

The educational failure is a misapplication of resources.

A half a billion dollars worth of teachers, and their combined 100,000 years of teaching experience are being used for other than teaching.

Their combined energy and intellect, expertise and experience, are being squandered.

Never, not once, has the leadership of the APS
asked teachers;

What do you need to succeed?

The leadership of the APS is a oligarchy that exists to
perpetuate the oligarchy; education of our children is
a secondary concern.

There isn't one of them who cares enough about your
children to step up as a role model of the standards of
conduct they establish and enforce upon students.

There isn't one of them who will look you in the eye
and tell you why they aren't honestly accountable as
role models of the APS Student Standards of Conduct;
the Pillars of Character Counts!, link.

They are in cahoots with the media. Their influence over the Journal and the broadcast media has helped them hide evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, from the District Attorney for four years; long enough for statutes of limitation to expire on felony criminal misconduct.

Then Chief of APS Police Gil Lovato said;

"If the truth ever gets out, (in court) there won't be
a single senior administrator left standing."

So the leadership of the APS put him on administrative leave at full pay and benefits for half a year, just to keep him out of court.

They have usurped control over your power and your
resources. They don't intend to just give it back.

The leadership of the APS does not intend ever, to hold themselves honesty accountable to any meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

It is not in their plan ever, to respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly; your legitimate questions about your interests and their public service.

They don't intend ever, to offer you due process of your allegations against them. They are currently denying due process to more than 300 whistle blower complaints. The news knows and won't report on it.

They don't intend ever, to give you a seat at the table where decisions are made that affect your interests.

It's crunch time. Time to cowboy up.

Give me some money, and I will fight for the transparent accountability that will enable the Albuquerque Public Schools to provide the best possible education for every one of our children.

I have everything we need to champion this cause but name
recognition; no one knows me from Adam's off ox (link).

Name recognition costs money I don't have.

I need your help. Follow the link and you can use Pay Pal
or send a check to the campaign account.

DONATE

I will spend your contributions frugally. If you help me spread the word, maybe there will be money left over.
We'll donate it to homeless students.

If you can't donate, help spread the word.
A few thousand votes will do it.

"All that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world,
is for good people to do nothing." Edmund Burke

I'm not saying the leadership of the APS is evil,
but when Burke wrote those words,
these are the people he was writing about.

APS school board members subject to recall

(The numbers of petition signatures required for recall,
in this post, have been updated to correct my previous
mathematical errors. The current numbers reflect 1/3
of the number of voters who voted for the office,
four years ago.)

There are three seats on a seven-member board up for election.

Board members Delores Griego and Marty Esquivel will be held accountable, by 4% of voters, for their records. Board member Lucero is not standing for re-election.

Voters cannot hold board members David Robbins, David Peercy, Paula Maes, and Lorenzo Garcia accountable for their records for two more years.

Except, it is possible to recall them.

According to state law;

Any elected local school board member is subject to recall by the voters of the school district from which elected. A petition for a recall election must cite grounds of malfeasance or misfeasance in office or violation of the oath of office by the member concerned. The recall petition shall be signed by registered voters not less in number than thirty-three and one-third percent of those who voted for the office at the last preceding election at which the office was voted upon.

If voters want to hold David Robbins accountable for his part in a conspiracy to deny due process to more than 300 whistle blower complaints, some one of them is going to have to collect 560 petition signatures.







If voters want to hold David Peercy accountable for his part in a conspiracy to lower student standards of conduct in order to lower his own, some one of them is going to have to collect 576 petition signatures.








If voters want to hold Paula Maes accountable for saying, "I will never agree to any audit that individually identifies ..." corrupt and incompetent APS administrators and board members, some one of them is going to have to collect a measly 382 petition signatures.





If voters want to hold Lorenzo Garcia accountable for his tacit approval of a conspiracy to cover up an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, some one of them is going to have to collect 685 petition signatures.







If voters want to hold Marty Esquivel accountable for his part in a conspiracy to cover up corruption in the leadership of the APS Police Department,

all they have to do show up and vote.




I guess if people want to hold Kent Walz accountable for the Journal's refusal to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, they're going to have to stop buying his newspaper and patronizing his advertisers.




photos and Walz frame grab, Mark Bralley

Concerned Citizens for APS Change questionnaire.

I have completed another questionnaire, link; this one for the

“Concerned Citizens for APS Change, a wide-based group
of citizens for transparency and accountability to the taxpayers”

They clearly put some work into their survey, it was quite well done.

Why not the Pillars of Character Counts!?

There needs to be, standards of competence and conduct that apply to politicians and public servants in the Albuquerque Public Schools.

There needs to be some sort of honest accountability to those standards, even for the most powerful politician or public servant.

The standards need to be clear and unequivocal.
The accountability needs to be inescapable.

The first legitimate use of power is
to protect the power from abuse.

The power and resources that belong to the people
are available for their use in holding their government
accountable. They are used instead against the public
interests by politicians and public servants to defend
themselves against legitimate allegations of their abuse.

I propose as the standards of government in the APS, using
the same standards we establish and enforce upon students.
I propose that we hold ourselves honest y accountable to
the Pillars of Character Counts! a nationally recognized,
accepted and respected code of ethical conduct, at least for
the few hours a day we hold students accountable to them.

I am prepared to defend my commitment to these particular standards. If not the Pillars, then which? Put another set of standards on the table; let us look at them. As a matter of principle, I would be equally happy to defend my commitment to any standard of conduct established by the people; it needn't be, it shouldn't be my choice alone.

Why is it "crazy" to believe that our future rests on holding ourselves honestly accountable to a standard of conduct higher than legal weaselry? And that the Pillars are a worthy choice?

There is no higher standard than the law, which does not have as its grounding principle; you have to be willing to hold yourself accountable for telling the truth.

The difference between the law and any legitimate standard of conduct; is the difference between "not lying" and "telling the truth"; candidly, forthrightly, ... honestly.

I am prepared to loose this election over my advocacy of Character Counts! because I believe, if we want our children to grow up to embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what it looks like.

Character is taught by personal example, and it is taught
only by personal example.

It would be profoundly disappointing, if the subject never came up.

The candidate forums, to date, have not given candidates an opportunity to ask questions of their own. When I can, I will ask;
Why not restore the role modeling clause to their own standards of conduct? Why not declare and commit?;

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

And further; why not declare and commit to the Pillars of Character Counts! as the standard? Why not declare and commit the Pillars of Character Counts! as the clear and unequivocal standards of conduct and competence for students and for adults enforcing those standards upon them?


I would ask rhetorically, where are all the community leaders who stood on stages and endorsed Character Counts!? Where are the members of all of the Character Counts! Leadership Councils? whose only accomplishment was spending federal grant money a la United States Senator Pete Domenici, himself a bonafide Founding Father of Character Counts!?

Public education administration is a science, for certain

It isn't however, a "rocket" science.

It is within reason to expect that a public school administration be nearly flawless in terms of administrative (as opposed to educational) effectiveness and efficiency.

If there is evidence of administrative ineffectiveness and inefficiency like, frozen water pipes, scheduling snafus and educational ineffectiveness, an investigation is warranted.

We need to hire investigators who are expert in education administration and have them audit APS' administrative efficiency and effectiveness. Pay them to tell us the truth about the administration of our trust and treasure by the leadership of the APS.

There will be push back on any audit.

There problem is, you really cannot expose corruption and incompetence without exposing the corrupt and the incompetent. And they don't want to be exposed.

It wasn't that long ago,
School Board Member
Paula Maes admitted,
she would "... never agree
to any audit that would
individually identify ..."
corrupt and incompetent
administrators or board
members.



If you want an independent audit to be undertaken,
you're going to have to be willing to fight with Maes,
and the rest of the leadership of the APS,
to get one.

I will carry your flag.

Vote for Charles MacQuigg
APS School Board, District Four




photo Mark Bralley

Candidate forum

There is a candidate forum this evening, link.

District 1 starts at 5:45 p.m.

District 2 starts at 6:35 p.m.

District 4 starts at 7:25 p.m.

You can attend in person. You can listen live on the radio,
KANW, 89.1 FM, or listen to the audio stream from their website, link.

Lastly, there is supposed to be an audio and video stream on
APS website, link.

A large part of APS lack of success has to do with the
96 out of 100 voters who ignore the school board elections.

You have a voice; you just have to use it.

Open letter to APS teachers

In the mid-nineties, the buzzwords were "site based management".

The union fought long and hard to move decision making power and resources to the site where they are used. We argued long and hard that teachers have the education, the experience and the intellect to sit at the table where decisions are made. Never mind your constitutionally protected human right to participate meaningfully in decision making that affects your interests.

The union has done an about face. They have endorsed Marty Esquivel, who endorses Winston Brooks, who endorses stripping teachers, parents and other stakeholders of their right to participate meaningfully in decision making.

Together, they have decided to ignore more than 100,000
years of teaching experience in the APS.

When was the last time you were asked to point to the problems that stand in your way, without fear of retribution or retaliation? When was the last time you had input on the issue of the handling of chronically disruptive students, an administrative responsibility borne by teachers.

Do you believe that you can file a legitimate complaint
against an administrator or board member, and see due
process?

Marty Esquivel is currently sitting on more than 300 whistle
blower complaints. The actual numbers are secret, but it
stands to reason; most of those complaints were filed by
teachers and against administrators. Not one of them
has seen the due process that board policy requires.

Esquivel is denying executive review and approval
to every single complaint.

If I am elected, a legitimate complaint filed by the least powerful stakeholder against the most powerful administrator or board member, will see due process; impartial adjudication, powerful enough to hold even the most powerful accountable, even against their will.

I offer you, and all stakeholders,

• a seat at the table; real site based management
• honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for administrators and board members
• transparency limited only by the law, and
• open and honest public discussion of important issues.

I believe that within the APS, there is the wherewithal to fix what is wrong. And that, within that wherewithal lies 100,000 years of teaching experience, unrecognized and disrespected.


Elect me, and your voice will be
treated with respect.

Allow Marty Esquivel to be re-
elected, and you will continue
to be treated like chattel.

Seems like a no-brainer.

You pick a side when you don't pick a side.



Donations, link; all donations will be spent as ethically and as frugally as possible. Left over funds will find their way to homeless students.

"While it is possible to give without caring,
it is not possible to care without giving." unk

photo Mark Bralley

Student conferences fiasco, whose fault?

Students in the APS are subjects in an ongoing experiment; student lead student-parent conferences, link. The conferences occur at school, and schools are shut down for two days to accommodate them. The two days count as part of the 180 days "education" we provide for children on a yearly basis.

Apparently the scheme isn't working. Among other flaws in the model, teacher "advisers" for the conferences are apparently selected for students randomly, and may not even know the student.

The Journal editors added their two cents this morning, link.
They added Marty Esquivel's two cents worth as well.

Elections are all about name recognition. Every time the
Journal publishes Esquivel's name, he gets more votes.
The Journal is establishing a pattern of keeping Esquivel's
name in the paper, and no one else's.

During the election, a challenger's opinion is as important
as an incumbent's. For the Journal to keep printing
Esquivel's opinions, while ignoring challengers, is
intellectually dishonest. The Journal, almost 25% of the
way through early voting, still has not printed one word
from any of Esquivel's challengers.

More important than Esquivel's opinion on student lead
conferences; more important than challengers' opinions
on student lead conferences, are the opinions of the teachers
who have to teach 180 days of material in 178 days because
of student conferences, who have to teach 36 weeks worth
of material in 34, because of NCLB testing.

This particular plan is an example of top down thinking;
someone who hasn't been in a public school classroom
for ten years, telling experts who have been in the classroom
for the last ten years, how to do their jobs.

In the APS, there are 100,000 years of teaching experience,
and no seat at the table where decisions are made.

If the Journal cared about our kids, they would investigate
and report upon that issue and its consequences.

They care more apparently, about getting Marty Esquivel
re-elected. And shame on them for that.

Taxpayers on the hook for APS frozen pipes.

Over the winter break, the leadership of the APS allowed a number of water pipes to freeze. The cost of the damage has been estimated to be on the order of, one half million dollars.

The leadership of the APS claimed, at the time,
their insurer would pay for repairing the damage.

On or about, the 10th of December, 2o days before the damaging freeze; APS insurer, Poms and Associates, sent a letter to the leadership of the APS, telling them;

"... we are recommending the following process;
Maintain thermostat settings at no less than 50 degrees.
If possible assign school personnel to conduct walk through inspections during holidays or extend (sic) period when facility may not be in use.

It is the responsibility of all NMPSIA members to help maintain the integrity of the New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority.

The leadership of the APS' tacit choice was to allow the pipes to freeze anyway. After a hundred years in business, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS are not adequate to guarantee simple building maintenance.

Does everyone expect Poms to just roll over?

If you think the leadership of the APS is transparent,
ask them to tell you candidly, forthrightly and honestly,
what happened here.

Fortunately for the leadership of the APS, the Journal doesn't
ask those kinds of questions. They don't dig very deep. Read their editorial, (link when they post one), and you will find they still think Poms is going to pay off, and taxpayer liability is limited to higher premiums.

Notice that when the subject of protecting the pipes last night came up on NM Broadcasters Assoc affiliates; no mention was made of insurance covering the New Years freeze.

The leadership of the APS said they were now ready for a freeze; they now have the wherewithal to protect pipes from freezing temperatures.

So why didn't they have it two weeks ago?

The fact is that they did have the wherewithal to prevent the damage; it wasn't employed.

There are two reasons that a person might not solve the problem they are charged with solving; incompetence and/or corruption. Enabling incompetence is manifest corruption.

Either the person cannot solve the problem, or the person will not solve the problem. There is no other explanation. If there is a third factor in failure; some one could point to it.

The leadership of the APS has failed administratively, because they tolerate incompetence and corruption. The person most responsible for the damage, the person on whose desk the buck should stop, will not even be identified.

I have never said that all APS administrators and board members are corrupt and incompetent. The closest I've come is to point out, there are only two kinds of administrators and board members

1. those who are corrupt and or incompetent, and
2. those who have guilty knowledge of that corruption and incompetence.
   

Again, if anyone would care to point to a third kind of administrator or board member, please do.

Cultures of corruption are manifest in the permission of prohibited behavior. A culture is corrupt when it enables corruption and incompetence by tolerating them.

A impartial fact finding investigation of the administration of the APS will either point to an administration that enables incompetence and corruption; or it will reveals standards of conduct and competence high enough to protect the public interests and inescapable accountability to those standards.

The vigor with which the audit is being opposed by
Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks, suggests the former;
an administration that enables corruption and incompetence,
and leadership that is covering it up.

Esquivel's record on public forums

Four years ago, when open government and Dixon transparency award recipient Marty Esquivel joined the board, citizens were entitled to two minutes every two weeks to exercise their constitutionally protected human rights to free speech and to petition one's government.

Four years later, your opportunity to petition your government is still only two minutes every two weeks. Unless of course you use your two minutes to speak truth to power. Unless you use your two minutes to tell the inconvenient truth.

If you follow this link, and follow the link in the post,
you can watch Marty Esquivel having me arrested by
the APS Police Department; his publicly funded private
police force.

Now imagine yourself sometime in the next for years
standing at the podium at a public forum wanting
to speak candidly, forthrightly and honestly to power,

who would you rather be wielding the gavel
that protects or denies your right to speak,
Marty Esquivel, or me?

Why can't we talk about Character Counts!?

It is a school board election.

How are student standards of conduct not part of the discourse?

How is role modeling not part of the discourse?

I am prepared to discuss these points in a debate.
I am prepared to defend the Pillars of Character Counts!
as wholly appropriate standards of conduct for students
and for adults.

I am prepared to argue that we should restore to administrative standards of conduct, the phrase and the expressed commitment;

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

Why do those who would lower student standards of conduct in order to lower their own, not have to stand and deliver an explanation, defense, denial or even acknowledgment their failure?

Marty Esquivel will not defend his abdication as the senior most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!

He cannot summon the character and the courage it would take to hold himself honestly accountable.

He cannot summon the character and the courage to hold himself accountable for denying due process to hundreds of whistle blower complaints.

He cannot summon the character and the courage to hand over the impartial investigation of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators; four years later and long after statutes of limitation have expired.

He cannot summon the character and courage to explain why there has not been, nor will there ever be, an impartial independent investigation of administrative and executive standards and accountability.

He cannot summon the character and the courage to allow me to stand up in a public forum in a school board meeting and ask him legitimate questions about the public interests and about his public service. He has ordered his Praetorian Guard to arrest me if I attempt to participate in another public forum. APS Police Chief Steve Tellez has signed his name on the illegal order.

Are standards like Pillars of Character Counts! too high?

That is a community position, mine is clear. Whatever the
standard is, leadership needs to show students what it looks
like to hold one's self honestly accountable to meaningful
standards of conduct and competence.

If we really want students to grow into adults that embrace
character and courage and honor, someone has to show
them what that kind of accountability looks like.

If there is any reason that a man will not engage in open and honest public discussion of students standards and role modeling, other than a lack of character and courage, I cannot imagine it, and in the fifteen years that I've been advocating Character Counts!, no one else has articulated it.

How can a man be a role model if he can't even say the words out loud?

I hold Kent Walz (dba the Journal) personally responsible for enabling Marty Esquivel to escape accountability for his betrayal of the public trust.




photo and frame grab Mark Bralley

Esquivel wrong about sledgehammer

School Board Candidate Marty Esquivel admits there are
still problems in the APS but argues in his free Journal ad
this morning;

"I ...don't believe you need to take a sledgehammer
to APS to improve it."

When the flaws in an institution run to the foundation,
a sledgehammer wikilink, is a reasonable tool choice.

It one of only a few tools powerful enough to break through
the layers and layers of plaster hiding the flaw in the foundation.

Far from the indiscriminate smashing Esquivel would have you imagine; the tool can be used to deliver overwhelming force, exactly where it is needed.

Sometimes, that's what it takes.

Walz is arrogant

Journal Editor Kent Walz has a personal interest in making sure that Marty Esquivel gets re-elected.

Journal coverage of the election is heavily biased in favor of Esquivel, link.

Egregiously. Blatantly.



What words describe Walz and the Journal's reporting on felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, link, except covering up Marty Esquivel's cover up?

What words describe the Journal's failure to investigate and report upon Marty Esquivel's abdicated his obligations as the senior most role model of the APS Student Standards of Conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!, if not the words "cover up"?

Where except some third world country could a school board president order a publicly funded private police force to ban a bonafide candidate from the free exercise of constitutionally protected human rights during an election, and not have the local newspaper report upon the infringement of civil rights, as part of their election coverage?

If the Journal's refusal to investigate and report upon the
fact that Marty Esquivel is denying due process to more than
300 whistle blower complaints against administrators and
board members, is not a cover up of that scandal, what is?

The Journal is supposed to be a "newspaper of record".
That's supposed to mean something.




frame grab Mark Bralley

Honesty is fundamental.

I promise to tell you the truth
about the public interests and
about my public service.

Or I will resign.

Honesty in government
could not possibly be more
fundamental.

How can you have government
of the people, by the people and
for the people, if the government is not honest with the people? The truth about how our power and resources are spent belongs to us.

If there is any confusion at all about where the line is, between the truth we should be told and the truth that we should not be told, that confusion must end now.

However transparent government will ever be,
is how transparent government should be right now.

However accountable to the people, politicians and public
servants will ever be, is how accountable they should be
right now.

However high the standards of conduct and competence
will ever be, is how high they should be right now.

Why make one more decision, why spend one more dime,
before government is made as open and accountable as
it will ever be?

However meaningful the participation of teachers and parents
in the decision making process, is how meaningful their
participation should be right now.

There is no one of us more qualified to fix our schools
than all of us. In particular, the 100,000 years of teaching
experience in the APS have a right to a seat at the table
where decisions are made.

The people have a seat at that table as well.

Voters in APS District 4, have a rather unique opportunity to
regain control over power and resources that are fundamentally their own.

All they have to do is demand the truth.

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

Demand that candidates look you in the eye, raise their right arm and promise to tell the truth about the public interests and about their public service.

I offer my public service, every thing that I can do,
to carry these issues the table. There will be open and
honest public discussions of standards and accountability,
transparency and role modeling.

We will decide as a community whether or not
character counts.

... if you can manage to elect me to your seat on the APS
Board of Education in District 4.

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

unk

photo Mark Bralley

Every administrator in the APS not corrupt or incompetent

I was trying to explain to the Democratic Women of Bernalillo County and their guests, that unsolved problems with the education of students in the APS, has to do with corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

I could see on one woman's face, what I felt was insult;
as if ; she either was, or respected, an APS administrator
and I had said, all APS administrators are corrupt

I did not say that, I have never said that.

There are good and decent men and women who work in
the administration of the APS. They are perhaps some of
the greatest victims of all; their good reputations are tarnished
by the administrators who really are incompetent or corrupt.

Good and decent administrators do not fear a district wide
impartial standards and accountability audit. They have
nothing to fear. They should welcome the audit that
cleanses their ranks.

There is no ethical reason to oppose an impartial audit,
with the possible exception of cost, which is inconsequential.

There are only unethical reasons to oppose an impartial audit.

a compilation from the Josephson Institute

on the subject of character, link.

Two that seemed particularly apropos;

The proper time to influence the character of a child
is about a hundred years before he’s born.
— William R. Inge, American playwright (1913-1973)

The formation of character in young people is
educationally a different task from and a prior task to,
the discussion of the great, difficult ethical controversies
of the day.
— William J. Bennett, author and former U.S. Secretary of Education (b. 1943)

If I could ask Sen Pete Domenici a question

in the expectation of a candid, forthright and honest response.

I would ask him;

Are the Pillars of Character Counts! suitable standards
of conduct for students in Albuquerque public schools?
And by logical extension, are they suitable standards of
conduct of every single adult role model?

Sen Pete Domenici is a Founding Father of Character Counts!
He helped write it. He has defended it before, link.

If I could, I would ask the same question of fellow
Founding Father Michael Josephson.

If they believe that the Pillars of Character Counts! are
good for students, if they still stand by their product,
I expect them to stand up and defend it.

If I could, I would like to ask the same question of the
former President of the APS Character Counts! Leadership
Council (while there was federal grant money) Paula Maes!

What does Paula Maes think about holding herself honestly
accountable as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!?

What does senior most administrative role model of
accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!
Winston Brooks have to say about his own honest
accountability to them.

What does the senior most executive role model of
accountability to the Pillars, Marty Esquivel have
to say about his own honest accountability to them?

How can they be role models of accountability to the
Pillars of Character Counts!, if they are in hiding from
accountability to them?





So many questions, so few real press left to press them.




photo Mark Bralley

School Board Candidate Forum

The Democratic Women of Bernalillo County, link, are sponsoring a forum tomorrow morning from 9 until 10:30, link.

For voters, it just doesn't get any better than a forum;
it's the closest voters will get, to getting to ask a politician
or public servant a question about the public interests and/
or, about their public service.

If I am elected, I will continue to fight for standards of conduct which require politicians and public servants to, in a timely manner, stand and deliver candid, forthright and honest answers to any legitimate questions about the public interests and about their public service.

A question I would like to be asked tomorrow;

Will you point to a time, a day and a place,
where you will stand and deliver candid, forthright,
and honest responses to any legitimate questions?

My answer will be;

yes, any time, any day, and any place.

If I try to ask Marty Esquivel that question again,
I have asked it of him before, on many many occasions,
during a public forum of a board meeting; he intends to
have me arrested. The Chief of the APS Police Department
Steve Tellez signed Esquivel's illegal restraining order,
Tellez says he will arrest me rather than allow me to
exercise my rights to free speech and to petition my
government. Unless I get permission from Marty Esquivel
(now, Paula Maes) specifically expressing their permission
of my free exercise of constitutionally protected human rights APS Praetorian Guard Commander Steve Tellez will arrest me.

It isn't a right if I have to Marty Esquivel and Paula Maes' permission to use it.

I will if I can, ask the question tomorrow when and where
Esquivel's Praetorian Guard has no authority to stop me.

Journal coverage begins in earnest

There is a story in the Journal about the upcoming school board election. link.

The Journal cronies in the election, Esquivel, Griego, (Lucero) had their names mentioned; acknowledgment of their
competitors was limited to counting them.

Esquivel and Griego's names came up twice is as many column inches; it constitutes and endorsement through a "news" story.

Name recognition being important at election,
Esquivel and Griego were given a bump, undeniably,
their opponents were not.

Perhaps not all that important if that were the extent of Journal bias, but it isn't. The Journal's sins of omission are calculated to change the outcome of an election.

Explain why they won't investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS;

• the abdication of the senior most role models of the student standards of conduct,
• the cover up of corruption in the APS Police Department,
• the ongoing denial of due process to hundreds of whistle blowers

If Kent Walz could report that the nutty allegation, that Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks and the Journal are covering up an ongoing suppression of evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, link, was false, why won't he?

Esquivel and Brooks are foursquare against an independent audit of administrative and executive standards and accountability. Walz won't report on their opposition. He won't report that Board Member Paula Maes' opposition is on record; "I will never agree to any audit that individually identifies ..." corrupt or incompetent administrators or board members.

If Walz can write,

an independent audit would reveal unequivocal standards of conduct and competence, high enough to protect the public interests

and if he can write,

an independent audit will reveal that APS administrators and board members are honestly accountable to those standards

why won't he?

On another related issue; candidates have received the Journal questionnaire.

By my estimation is that half of the questions; (1), 6, 7, 8, aren't comparatively relevant to the discourse. Do voters really need to know if I what university I attended? Do they need to know that more than anything else?

A question like;

are you currently doing everything you can to deny due process to hundreds of APS employees and their whistle blower complaints against administrators and board members?

would give voters some information they could use.

The Journal's coverage of candidates consists in its entirety (even after voting has begun) of asking candidates a total of four meaningful questions (not the most important four) and then "allowing" candidates 35 words to answer a question like;

what school-based cuts would you make and
what other measures would you take to balance the budget?

Is the Journal really that hard up for ink?

Haily Heinz knows, by the way, about the Audit Committee's failure to review and approve even one complaint though Board Police requires it to review and approve every one.

Which is not to say I hold Heinz responsible for the Journal's cover up of the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

The responsibility falls in
my opinion, on the
shoulders of Journal Editor
Kent Walz.

I hold him responsible.

Hailey Heinz will catch the flak this year over
Kent Walz' lack of candid, forthright and honest coverage
in yet another election.

She has sent me a list questions and the "rules" for answering them.

Dear Mr. MacQuigg:

Below is the Albuquerque Journal’s candidate questionnaire. Your responses will be published in print editions of the Journal later this month and also will be published on the Journal website at ABQjournal.com.

Please respond to the request for biographical information and the issues questionnaire by Wednesday, Jan. 12. Note that the word length of responses to each issue question cannot exceed 35 words.

If your responses go beyond the 35-word length per question, we may have to cut some of your answers for length. In that event, we will try to keep your answers as close to the original wording and context as possible. We will edit for grammar.
The Journal also requests that you include a head-shot photo when returning the questionnaire that you would like us to use for the remainder of your campaign. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call staff writers Hailey Heinz and Andrea Schoellkopf or Education Editor Ellen Marks.

Finally, please respond to this e-mail so we can ensure you received it.


1. Please briefly tell us your date of birth, education history, occupation, family, community activities and political/government experience.

2. New Mexico schools face a budget crisis that could result in a reduction of more than $60 million in APS' budget next year. Given that less than 1 percent of the APS budget is central administration, what school-based cuts would you make and what other measures would you take to balance the budget?

3. Please give APS Superintendent Winston Brooks a letter grade, and explain.

4. Do you support tying teacher evaluations and compensation to student performance or academic growth? Please explain.

5. Do you support the idea of splitting the West Side off into its own school district, as some community activists have suggested? Please explain.

6. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

7. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?

8. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, or any misdemeanor or felony?




frame grab Mark Bralley

Character Counts! referendum

It is time to stand up and restore APS student standards of conduct.

Voters in Albuquerque New Mexico have the opportunity
to vote to hold students and their role models,
honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct,
or continue to have two standards of conduct;
one for adults and another, much higher one, for students.

In this case, the standards of conduct happen to be the Pillars of Character Counts!, link. They have been the APS student standards of conduct since their unanimous approval by the Board of Education in 1994.

There are fundamental questions on the table;

• will we have role modeling; will we hold role models accountable to student standards of conduct?
• Will that standard be the Pillars of Character Counts! or a lower one? Perhaps as low as low as legal weaselry; the lowest standard accepted by civilized human beings.
  

If we want the 90,000 of our sons and daughters who are students in the APS, to grow up to embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what it looks like.

Someone has to show them what it looks like to create inescapable accountability to unequivocal standards.


APS used to give kids tee shirts that on their front and back read;

Stand up for what
you believe in ...

... even if you are
standing alone.

Yeah, we could let them stand alone.

Or, we could

• stand behind them offering our support,
• stand beside them, helping to carry their load, and
• stand in front of them, leading by our personal example.

Let's have a referendum on Character Counts! as the standard of conduct for students. Implicit in that, understanding that role models must be honestly accountable to those same standards.

Should we restore to the standards of conduct that apply to administrator and board members, the phrase they removed, unanimously, the one which read;

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

Marty Esquivel votes no, over and over and over.

A clear choice; Marty Esquivel who will hold himself accountable to the law and all manner of legal weaselry
or
either of two candidates; Cheryl Harris or me.
Either of whom will hold ourselves accountable to one of the highest standards of conduct;
the Pillars of Character Counts!.

All that is necessary for Character Counts! to die in the APS,
is for good wo/men to do nothing. Burke - derived

You pick a side when you don't pick a side.

APS' Board Candidate Orientation

The school board candidate orientation meeting was held deep in the keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

Public access to the keep is limited to one door and an
examination by, in my experience, a very pleasant and
professional member of the APSPD and another apparently
random member working the same shift, chatting across a counter.

Tonight, the second man on the front door was none
other than Steve Tellez; the current Chief of the APSPD.

I made my way down the hall to the DeLayo Martin Room.
The meeting was held with the doors closed and the blinds half shut.

There was an armed officer who sat 10 feet behind and to my right in a completely non-threatening manner.

The Chief, also armed, sat in the diagonally opposite corner.

At least one more armed guard prowled the hallway outside the meeting.

No, I am not making it up.

I guess the market glut on stolen APS property has cut
down crime in the APS to the point where putting enough
firepower in the room to repel a terrorist attack, seems like
a prudent use of the resource.

Most of the orientation found us being read to.
You guessed it, a Power Point presentation.

Sidebar;

If elected, I promise to write policy that prohibits
meetings in which bright busy people sit and get
read to like elementary school students.

Part of the presentation centered on the need for accountability as a board member and public servant.

It was followed by a presentation of the New Mexico School Boards Association Code of Ethics.

I asked a question about it. It was the same question I asked four years ago; how does the NMSBA enforce its code of ethics?

The answer was also the same; the NMSBA does not enforce, at all, its code of ethical conduct.

We we also handed a copy of the APS School Board's own Code of Ethics.

Had I asked APS School Board President Marty Esquivel if he was actually accountable to that code of ethics, his candid forthright and honest answer would have to have been, no.

He admitted as much when they passed the code unanimously.

There is not a wit of difference between the highest and
the lowest standards of conduct, if neither can be enforced.

Accountable means; inescapably accountable to clear and unequivocal standards of conduct and competence. It means accountable by means of an impartial system, powerful enough to hold even the most powerful politician or public servant, accountable to those standards, even against their will.

You can't claim to be accountable and not be able to prove it.

If Marty Esquivel was honestly accountable to any standard of conduct at all, he would point to it.

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

The Board Staff support meeting is always top knotch. Kudos to Board Manager Brenda Yager and all of those who serve with her.

I did chat briefly with Cheryl Harris and introduced myself to Candido Archuleta Jr, the other candidates in District 4.

I visited Cheryl's website, link, and was most pleased to see she has stepped up on the issue of role modeling of the Pillars of Character Counts! She writes

APS leadership must set the example of "Character Counts!".

Cheryl Harris is willing to make Character Counts! a bonafide campaign issue.

Kudos to Cheryl Harris on her manifest character and courage.

Some people call me a nut, some people don't

"Scottishman" has left a comment on my post about the
leadership of the Teachers Federation endorsing Marty Esquivel, link.

Our hero wrote;

"You do not have to worry about all this. You will never be elected. Even uneducated people know when somebody is a nut. You my friend, are a nut."

I concede both; there are uneducated people who think I'm a nut, and Scottishman speaks for them.

All of my conduct which people think is "nuts", is matter of a comprehensive electronic public record. I would suggest that you cannot find any "nutty" thing I have done. Being resolute is not nuts. Fighting for what you believe in, is not nuts.

It would be happy to sit and listen to those tapes and defend my conduct. I haven't done anything I would not have done in front of my students, and would not do again, in front of them.

I would invite Scottishman to ask Rigo Chavez to produce all the public records of me being a nut. Review the tape, and get back to me.

This is about the message, not about the messenger,
it is too late to stop him from speaking the truth.

The message has been read; transparent accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, transparency limited only by the law, due process for any legitimate complaint, and a seat for stakeholders at the table where decisions are made.

Those who would not have that, people like Marty Esquivel,
need to discredit the messenger, because they can't discredit
the allegations; he can't even talk about them.

Ask him to point to his position on executive and administrative role modeling of the APS student standards of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

People who speak truth to power are subject to typecasting;
which of them has not been called a "disgruntled former employee" or "a nut".

Marty Esquivel has told me that he thinks I'm a nut job;
me and the lady from Wichita who thought someone
should be paying attention to allegations that
Winston Brooks is a bully.

What ever happened, by the way, to those allegations?

Have they been given due process? How were they adjudicated, and by whom? Will the "investigation" continue until after statutes of limitation have expired like the investigation of the corruption in the APS Police Department?

If people can be made to believe they are listening to the truth from a nut, they will conclude that the truth is nuts as well.

Concede if you must; that I am a nut, but fight as hard
as you can, the impulse to believe that government that
is honestly accountable to the people, is nuts,
simply because I am the only one talking about it.

Which of those who aren't "nuts", are willing to raise their
right hand, look you in the eye, and promise to tell you
the truth?

Maybe someone nutty enough to make that pledge
is just what APS needs.

APS Billboards an attractive nuisance?

The leadership of the APS has decided to allow massive electronic billboards on APS property. The justification is the $40K a year the signs will generate.

The $40K will go the APS Foundation. If past practice predicts future performance, at least some of the money will be used to underwrite an administrative soiree at the Inn of the Mountain Gods.

How many rear end collisions will there be, while drivers move their attention from the car in front of them, to what amounts to a distraction by deliberate design.

To how many of those hapless drivers, will it occur that
they can sue taxpayers, by way of the APS?
Especially if they can claim that, at the time, they were
watching the one in eight ads, the APS gets to put up.

Does the agreement with the APS Foundation protect taxpayers from liability?

I cut right to the chase, I asked the Magic Eight Ball;

Will this end up costing taxpayers much more
than the $40K a year it will "generate"?

(shake, shake, shake)

"... signs point to yes

The perfect round table is not perfectly round.

Or, perhaps the table is round, but there must be one chair
that stands a wee bit higher.

It occurs to me that in any deliberative meeting, if the decision making is to move in timely fashion; there needs to be one person whose ultimate responsibility it is, to refocus the particpation.

You just cannot just do nothing,
you can't just allow deliberation to grind to a halt
while a member indulges their "right" to give yet another
personal anecdotal example in support of the most long
settled premise. And then another and another and another ...

The responsibility for facilitation by custom, falls more or less
randomly upon capable and less capable shoulders.
It could be argued that, chairmanship is afforded, at least
in part, according to skill as a facilitator, but there isn't a
preponderance of evidence to support that conjecture.

It is at least statistically possible that the person given the gavel, may also be the least capable of any of them, to pound it in the community best interests.

Why not hire facilitators who only agenda is to allow every stakeholder interest to participate meaningfully in a fair decision making process?

Politicians and public servants could facilitate their own meetings. On its face, it would provide considerable savings. The caveat of course, the self evident conflict of interest.

Why not allow public servants to ask for facilitation at any meeting where it is warranted? Why not let facilitation be declined by the unanimous consent of those present?

Facilitators must be impartially efficient and effective.
If facilitation does not improve deliberative decision making;
surely it is the facilitator and not facilitation, at fault.

Seems like a no-brainer.

Some bad news I'm afraid.

"Lady Sunlight" Rep Janice Arnold-Jones just announced that Friday will be the last day for her radio show, New Mexico Now.

The show has been on KIVA, 1550 AM, from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM Monday through Friday since Summer 2010.

You are invited to call the show on Friday to let her know you have appreciated the show and seize the opportunity to express your views.

On Thursday she will have Alan Woodruff, Daniel Ivey-Soto and Rep. Tom Anderson. They will discuss proposed Election Code Legislation.

The numbers to call are;505-265-1550
Toll-free at 1-877-437-6119
Email them at talk@1550KIVA.com
Listen live on the internet at www.KIVA.com

A public servant in the truest sense;
she will find another way to serve.




photo Mark Bralley

School Board Candiate Questionnaires

I have been asked to fill out questionnaires by the leadership of the APS, link, and by the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, link. The links are to the questionnaires and my responses to them.

Teachers, offered a seat at the table, choose to sit in Esquivel's audience instead.

The Albuquerque Teachers Federation has endorsed candidates in the School Board Election.

Candidates met with a handful of union members who then made a recommendation to the Fed Reps. Fed Reps are the liaison between the union leadership and the classroom.

I offered them everything they could reasonably ask for;

• a seat at the table,
• real, timely and powerful due process for their complaints
• and unfettered access to the ethically redacted truth.

Currently, well over 300 complaints have been filed under APS' whistleblower, fraud, waste and abuse program. I would guess that around half of those complaints were filed by union members and against administrators. Every one of those complaints is being denied due process by Marty Esquivel. The APS Audit Committee, though required to do so by School Board Policy, has not reviewed the administration of a single complaint.

The union leadership has endorsed the candidacy a man who is denying due process to their membership.

In stark contrast, I offer teachers and other stakeholders due process of their complaints.

Oddly; this represents my greatest threat to union leadership.
A significant part of what a union offers is grievance processing. I offer a grievance process that guarantees transparent and impartial adjudication of every complaint. I offer a grievance process under which the least powerful stakeholder in the APS, can file a complaint against the most powerful person in the APS, and be guaranteed due process.

The union stands to loose a little "business".

Another area where is sensed some distance, was the subject of collective bargaining. I offer every stakeholder a seat at the table, and the union, I suspect, would like more.

My sense is that they want to be deal makers rather that taking a seat at the table just like everyone else.

There is not a legitimate agenda for teachers or education, that does not move forward on the day that stakeholders become privy to the truth and take their rightful seat at the table.

There is no legitimate agenda that does not move forward on the day that politicians and public servants in the APS are held honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

The union leadership abandoned Character Counts!.
Though the union was instrumental in bringing the
nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of
ethical conduct to the APS; I was told more recently
by Union President Ellen Bernstein that,
Character Counts was Don's (Whatley) thing.

Whatley, the former Union President, was a Founding Father of the Character Counts! movement and instrumental in the school board's unanimous adoption of the Pillars of Character Counts! as the APS Student Standards of Conduct.

If the union has something against Character Counts! as the student standards of conduct, then they should move to replace it with something more to their liking; a standard perhaps that doesn't place quite so much emphasis on truthtelling and accountability.

Even they would have to admit, no matter what the student standards of conduct are, they are at once the adult standards of conduct as well.

Teachers are arguably the most important role models in education. And by "teachers", I don't mean just teachers, I mean; all public servants who teach; who spend their working day with students at the educational interface; where the student and the system make contact.

Teachers are not the only ones who need to be held accountable as role models of accountability to the standards they enforce upon students. Leadership starts at the top.

Character is taught by role modeling;
character is taught only by role modeling.
The proof of accountability is accountability;
it is not proven by simply claiming to be accountable.

Marty Esquivel will not hold himself honestly accountable as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!; though he will hold students accountable, and though he will hold teachers accountable as role models.

Marty Esquivel cannot point to a single legitimate standard of conduct to which he can be held honestly accountable even against his will. Even in the court system, he is shielded from accountability to the lowest standard of conduct at all, the law. He is shielded by the most powerful law firm in the state, and an unlimited budget for litigation.

The hero of transparency, right now, is allowing the results of an independent investigation into felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, link, to be hidden from public knowledge by legal weaselry and Modrall Law.

There is no legitimate meaning of the word accountable that applies to Marty Esquivel's public service, not one.

If I am elected, there will be a public meeting, at which any legitimate questions will asked and answered. We will decide what the student standards of conduct really are. And we will decide what obligations attach to people who are being paid to step up as role models for at least the few hours each day, they hold students accountable to "higher" standards of conduct.

As part of that discussion, I would advocate as strongly as I have a right, restoring the role modeling clause to the adult standards of conduct; the one they took out, 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 a student.

Marty Esquivel is opposed to restoring the role modeling clause. He just won't admit it on the record.

Mr "Accountability" does not want to be held accountable at election, for the lack of character and courage he has shown, in abdicating from his obligations as the senior most role model in the entire APS, of APS' student standards of conduct.

He once told me that he is not accountable as a role model because he is not really "an educator".

Clearly, I am disappointed in the action taken by the leadership of the Alb Teachers Federation; an action against the interests of all teachers, members or no.

Board of Education Meeting tommorrow, agenda not yet posted.

It will be, usually. But only at the very last minute.

Check his record, see how many agendas went up at the last minute, and how many didn't get posted at all.

According to the letter of the law, agendas need to be posted 24 hrs in advance. Though there is no good and ethical reason to not post the agenda as soon as it is written.


School Board President,
Open Government Lawyer,
and school board candidate,
Marty Esquivel has had every
opportunity to make APS a
model of open government.

He knows what open
government looks like,
he has made a really
good living suing people
over the real meaning of open government;
its just not what he chooses for himself;
not when it is he who is wielding our power and spending our resources.

Instead, he is still posting his agenda according to technicalities, loopholes and legal weaselry.

The standard of conduct to which he will not hold himself accountable, the APS student standards of conduct, reads differently. It reads; men and women of character are often called upon to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows.

The student standard of conduct is that you publish your agenda as early and as widely as you are able.

My commitment is to giving stakeholders a seat at the table where their interests are being decided. His is to keep the meeting details secret for as long as he can without being sued.

The choice is yours.




photo Mark Bralley

APS frozen pipes excuse doesn't hold water

Every time the weather turns bad, APS taxpayers are on the hook for a few hundred thousand dollars in repairs.

No one else in Albuquerque seems to have nearly as much trouble. Sandia Labs doesn't have to re-roof every time it rains. UNM didn't have a have million dollars worth of frozen pipes to begin the new year.

Pipes don't freeze spontaneously; they have to be allowed to freeze.

In the Journal this morning, link, we find that one in four schools suffered damage from the cold. Albuquerque Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter said Monday, ...,

"When you get a cold snap that lasts for three or four days, you get a little bit of wind and that's what causes some of these pipes that are in these ceilings to burst."

No, Mr. Winter, that is not what causes pipes to burst. Allowing them to fall below freezing is what causes pipes to burst.

I suspect that if we ever were to learn the truth, it was someone's responsibility to look in the ceiling to see if there were any pipes there that were likely to freeze. And it was some else's responsibility to make sure that the inspections were made and remediation completed. That chain of command runs to Brad Winter's desk. Only by the time it got there, it had morphed into "shit happens" and taxpayers have another half million to cough up.

In a particularly disingenuous moment, Winter offered,

"... the estimated cost of the damage, which includes overtime labor and materials, should be mitigated by insurance payouts."

Yeah, except that they way insurance works, if you are careless in protecting the assets the insurance company is insuring, if you're letting your pipes freeze and expecting the insurance company to pick up the slack, your premiums go up. Tax payers will pay for these repairs in the end, it is as certain as it is inevitable.

As an ongoing indicator of Winter's candor, forthrightness, and honesty, he still refuses to release the total cost of the million dollar board room he built, despite lack of any real justification for the extravagance.

There are oversight issues in the leadership of the APS.

Until those issues are resolved, APS roofs will continue dissolve in the rain, pipes will continue to freeze, and nearly half of students who enroll in the APS will not graduate.

4 days and a wake up til voting begins in the school board election

The Journal is certainly placed to contribute effectively to voter education in anticipation of the School Board Election. There is no good and ethical reason that the Journal not begin investigating and reporting upon issues in the election.

So why has it not?

With 4 days to go, the Journal has not even contacted candidates with a list of basic questions to answer and then have published for voter perusal.

It is fair to wonder what the Journal's intentions are. Are they going to cover the election at all, or will their coverage be limited to the day after election whining of editors over the failure of voters to even show up?

There is a direct correlation between Journal coverage and voter turnout. Surely Journal editors know that. So why no coverage?

A simple answer is that coverage will not work to the advantage of the Journal's favorite candidate Marty Esquivel. If the Journal offered the coverage it should, on the denial of due process to APS whistle blower complaints, the corruption and cover up in the APS Police Department, and/or the abdication of Marty Esquivel as a role model of the student standards of conduct, Esquivel's public support would drop like a rock.

In the absence of Journal coverage, voters have only the spin from APS' million dollar Communications Department, and it's all good for Esquivel.

There seems to be a split in the evaluation of the Journal; some see it as a right wing rag, others as left wing; the result of reading between the lines. But if there are no lines to read between, how is that not simple abject failure of a newspaper of record to live up to the trust that has been placed in it by its readers.

No matter how you slice it, the Journal's failure to cover the school board election in support of voters, is journalistic nonfeasance on its face.