APS deposition transcripts are public records

The transcripts of the depositions of the leadership of the APS are public records.  They are in electronic format, and they are immediately available.

Eeezy peezy; all you have to do is to get APS' Custodian of Public Records and Director of Communications Rigo Chavez to send them to you

More likely instead, you will receive snail mail from him, explaining that the records will be produced within the 15 days "allowed by the law".

The spirit of the law does not allow immediately available records to be held for 15 days, in fact, it specifically prohibits it.

But if you have all the lawyers, guns and money,
the "legal" misinterpretation of the law
shites on the back of the spirit of law.  

Ben Franklin, derived.

This means of course, that the establishment media could get their hands on the transcripts if they really wanted to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

They don't, unfortunately, really want to.

There are Vietnam vets who wear patches that read;
if you weren't there, don't talk about it.

Anyone who hasn't read the transcripts, shouldn't talk about
whether or not there actually is, an ethics and accountability
scandal in the leadership of the APS.




photo Mark Bralley 

How many times can you exercise Constitutionally protected human rights, before you forfeit them?

I have petitioned the leadership of the APS for redress of a grievance;

The 89,000 of our sons and daughters in the APS have no senior administrative or executive role models of APS student standards of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!

I have offered the petition a number of times and
in a number of different ways.

So many times in fact,
and in so many ways
that APS School Board
President Marty Esquivel
thinks that I have
petitioned him "too much".

That I have worn out my welcome.

That I no longer have the right to ask him and them ever again,

to explain in words any child can understand,

why students are expected to hold themselves honestly accountable
to a  nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct, link.
and
senior administrators and school board members, the senior-most "role models" of students standards of conduct, 
are not.

That'll be the day.




photo Mark Bralley

Brooks slanders Character Counts! founder; says the Pillars of Character Counts! are just for students.

APS Supt Winston Brooks, in sworn testimony during his deposition, revealed a lot about how little he knows about APS Student Standards of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts! link.

He doesn't know for example, that the standards of conduct that School Board Policy establishes for students, are called the Pillars of Character Counts!  He thinks they are call "points" or something.

He thinks the Pillars are "student" standards of conduct, not their role models', and not his.

Q.  What is Character Counts! exactly?

A.  It is a program developed and devised by an individual -- I can't remember his name right now. that is a program that is implemented in the schools regarding student character.  There are certain points about Character Counts! that people -- students try to live by.  It is a systemic program that this gentleman put out on the market, and I think was quite successful at until he got caught for embezzlement or something. (emphasis added)

Josephson, circa 1989

Character Counts! founding father Michael Josephson has denied Brooks' slanderous allegation "unequivocally".

Brooks has some experience with Character Counts!

Q.  Did that school district (Wichita, Kansas) adopt Character Counts! ...?

A. (in Wichita Kansas) We did not do a district wide adoption and subsequently have not done one here in APS. (emphasis added)

Brooks doesn't know that Character Counts! was adopted in the APS long since and, district wide.

Brooks doesn't know that the Pillars of Character Counts! are the student standards of conduct and have been since 1994!  The senior-most administrative role model of student standards of conduct, doesn't know that every year, the Student Behavior Handbook, an extension of school board policy, reiterates the expectation that students will model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!.

His failure as the senior-most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts! he would have us believe, is due to the fact that, nobody ever told him that the Pillars are the current student standards of conduct, the standards he establishes and enforces upon students every year.

As to why APS has never adopted Character Counts! district wide;

A.  .... I pretty much always thought that that (adoption of Character Counts! as part of the curriculum ) was -- should be a site-based decisions, and not necessarily a district wide decision.

Has Brooks ever considered adopting APS student standards of conduct, on a districtwide level?

Q.  Have you ever formally considered, as superintendent, the adoption of Character Counts! on a districtwide level?

A. No

Could Brooks adopt APS student standards of conduct districtwide if he wanted to?

Q. ... If Character Counts! was to be adopted as a districtwide program, is that something that has to be done by the board, or can you do it as Superintendent?

A.  Well, some board members may disagree, but I think I have the authority to do that as Superintendent.

Brooks on Character Counts! districtwide;

Q.  So what bits and pieces (of Character Counts!) were being used that you recall, in the district?

A.  (When I got here) I don't recall.  I just know some schools referred to the -- I forget what it's called.


Q.  The six Pillars?

A.  Whatever -- whatever the name is.

Q.  So sitting here today, is it -- am I correct that Character Counts! does not presently exist in the APS school district as a curriculum based program?

A.   No, I don't think that would be correct.  I think that Character Counts! exists in some of our schools, in a variety of different forms.

The still binding 1994 Resolution, link, reads;

... the core curriculum should continue to give explicit attention to character development as an ongoing art of school instruction;

I will forward a link of this post to the establishment media.

If they still refuse to investigate and report upon the ethics and
accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, 
they are scoundrels.

They really are.




photos Mark Bralley

Why is Dan Houston ignoring Steve Tellez' misconduct?

The only reason APS Police officers, including their Chief, can wear badges is because Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston certifies them.

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez is part of a cover up of felony criminal misconduct.

Why won't Houston do anything?

Why is he just sitting there doing nothing?




photo Mark Bralley

Brooks' knowledge of corruption "sketchy"

APS Supt Winston Brooks was testifying under oath during his deposition.  He was being asked questions about the public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS Police force; the scandal that created the vacancy that he filled.

When asked;
As the superintendent, are you aware of the circumstances that let to Mr. Lovato's departure from the APS?

Brooks replied;
It is sketchy.

Brooks should have more than a "sketchy" command of the facts.
He is willfully ignorant or mind numbingly incompetent.

"Mr. Lovato" is Gil Lovato, the APS Chief of Police who was exposed in a Journal investigation, six years ago, link.

At the time, Steve Tellez was Deputy Chief of the APS Police.  If he was unaware of the corruption and incompetence swirling around him he was incompetent.  If he had guilty knowledge, which he most certainly did, he was corrupt.

The leadership of the APS put Lovato on paid leave, and promoted Tellez to Acting Chief.  They put the Deputy Chief in overall charge of investigating the corruption he should have known about and acted upon.

APS Supt at the time, Beth Everitt couldn't weather the storm and was sent packing.  Her departure created the vacancy that Winston Brooks filled, literally only months after the scandal was exposed and while investigations were still underway.

The APS wanted to fire Lovato, but Lovato let them know that if he ever got to court, he would spill his guts; his testimony would not leave a single senior APS administrator left standing.

The only agency of government that has ever investigated the felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators has been APS.

Tellez now claims the criminal investigation conducted by APS police, disappeared when an interim Chief Bill Reed left APS.

Recently, Brooks promoted Tellez to Chief.  He did it in secret and without interviewing a single other applicant.

Q.  In other words, did you seek applications (for the Chief of Police opening)?
A. No, we did not.

... we had a number of people from Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office, and the APD, that (sic) inquired about the job ...

Q. Why did you make Chief Tellez and acting chief of police?
A.  ... it seemed to me that the timing was off and we really needed to get somebody in there pretty quick.

Brooks promoted the guy who should have reported the corruption and did not, to Chief of Police.  A Chief whose prime directive is; keep MacQuigg from getting a hold of the public records of felony corruption in the leadership of the APS, even if you have to defame him, even if you have to scare administrators and board members out of their minds.

Journal Managing Editor Walz

He gets away with it because of establishment media and their relentless refusal to investigate and report upon an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.




photos Mark Bralley

I offered KRQE, KOAT and KOB the truth; I haven't heard back

I communicated yesterday by means of links on their websites, with the news departments of KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV.

I wrote;

I have a copy of Winston Brooks' sworn deposition, and in it, evidence of his incompetence and corruption. (or words to that effect)

I asked,

if I gave it to you, would you even read it?

I haven't heard back.

When you ask someone if they intend to tell the truth,
any answer except yes, means no.  Saying nothing at all,
means no.

No, they do not intend to investigate and report upon
the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Either because it is not newsworthy,
or for some other and yet to be articulated reason.

KRQE exposes Brooks' character

KRQE's recent coverage, link, of the spat between the leadership of the APS and the city, over a proposed loop drive around Jefferson Middle School, produced a couple of nuggets and insight into the character of APS Supt Winston Brooks.

KRQE reporter Tina Jensen, link, gave Brooks the opportunity to respond to an email she was given in which it appears Jefferson staff were encouraged to allow a traffic jam in support of a presser that Brooks was holding at the end of school.

In the email, the assistant principal tells staff, -"If you are (on) duty in the front today, please do not worry about traffic support."

Jensen reported that when she challenged Brooks with the email, "... Brooks denied the district was trying to make the traffic situation look worse for the media.

"I guess that's one way to read this," Brooks said. "The other way to read it is that, you know, instead of traffic support today, be present for the press conference.

Why would that be any more acceptable as a justification to endanger students?

Why would taking staff off student safety assignments in order to create a crowd for a press conference be any better or different than pulling them off their assignment in order to create a traffic jam?

“It's really sad that we are sacrificing kids’ safety ..." said Brooks.

For once, Brooks and I
are in total agreement.




photo Mark Bralley

APS board ratifies contract with teachers

The Journal reports this morning that the APS School Board voted Wednesday night to ratify the district's contract with teachers and provide them a 1% raise.

To ease the sting of a 1% raise, "the teachers union contract also included some new, non-monetary provisions. For example, it includes,

a provision that the district superintendent will have sack lunch meetings with teachers."

Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein said;

“We can’t do what we need to do for the employees in contract negotiations, because we get no money from the state."

Come on, the guy's willing to have sack lunches with teachers.  What more could they ask for, I mean really?

Brooks goes through a lot of machinations to appear to be listening.  If it's not holding input meetings or riding by schools on a bus tour, it's sack lunches with a handful of teachers.

Brooks has been at this for 38 years; three years as a teacher in an elementary school classroom and 35 years as an administrator.
He knows, or should know it all; there is no new left to learn.

He can't come out of any of these experiences claiming he learned anything new, because the next question is; how is it that he didn't know that already?

If Brooks cared to hear what teachers really think, he would respect their combined 100,000 years of current and ongoing teaching experience by offering them a full blown survey, link, and the opportunity to speak up without fear of retaliation.

Seriously, can you honestly imagine a teacher at a sack lunch, telling Winston Brooks (an alleged misogynist and bully with a number of pending lawsuits over his anger management issues, link) that;

her job sucks because the administration (from her principal to the Superintendent) cannot, or will not, deal with student discipline issues and especially chronically disruptive students?

There was a time when the teachers union fought for a seat at the table where decisions are made.

Now they're settling for a seat a table
where sack lunches are served.




photos Mark Bralley

Brooks details his part in OMA violation

On August 19, 2010, the APS District and Community Relations Committee held a meeting.  The meeting was held at Eldorado High School, link.


It was a "public meeting" as is meant in the New Mexico Open Meetings Act, link, (compliance guide) which reads in significant part;

All meetings of any public body except the legislature and the courts shall be public meetings, and all persons desiring shall be permitted to attend and listen to the deliberations and proceedings.

During his sworn testimony, APS Supt Winston Brooks testified that the reason he denied me entrance was that meeting was

"by invitation only"

and further that; he

"had enough to do with (creating) it (the list) to know that I wasn't on it.

Brooks has admitted under oath, he was part of a deliberate decision to violate the Open Meetings Act.

But OMA violations are nothing new for the leadership of the APS.

Nor is the establishment media's relentless refusal to investigate and report upon them.




photo Mark Bralley

First annual; APS SuperTAC Survey of Teachers

APS Supt Winston Brooks has formed, according to his own interests; a SuperTAC; a Superintendent's Teacher Advisory Council.

What if the SuperTAC advised Brooks to survey teachers every year?

What if they told him; teachers will write the questions?

A survey of teachers, by teachers and for teachers.

They would of course, accept the "advice" of the superintendent, should he have a survey question or two to ask, that teachers have not asked already.

Because that's the way teachers roll.

Brooks listens to teachers, or not.

APS Supt Winston Brooks spent Monday afternoon, link, listening to teachers - 20 of them.

He has had formed, a SuperTAC; a Superintendent's Teacher Advisory Council.

No indication is given, on how or by whom the relative handful of teachers were selected to represent every other teacher in the APS.

The SuperTAC follows, give or take a year or two, on the heels of the SuperSAC; the Superintendents' Student Advisory Council.  Teachers should not lose sight of the fact that the SuperTAC does in fact follow the solicitation of advice from every other stakeholder group.  Dead last.  Don't think that doesn't mean something.

Beyond that, key to understanding what is going on, is the word advisory.  Brooks has no intention to allow teachers to decide anything.  Despite their combined 100,000 years of ongoing APS teaching experience, teachers still have no seat at the table where decisions are being made.

They will sit instead at a table where their "advice" will be sought.

Which begs a fair question;

Should teachers have any control over the destiny of public education?  Should they have a seat at the table where decisions are made?

That they now have absolutely no seat at the table,
is manifest in the fact they have no voice.
Winston Brooks will not allow teachers, every last one of them,  to be surveyed on any substantive issue; student discipline and chronically disruptive students, for one.

Brooks will not allow any opportunity for teachers to respond candidly, forthrightly, honestly and without fear of retaliation, to legitimate questions about the failure in schools.

He gets away with it, because he has friends in the "media", not the least of whom is Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz.

Walz will not survey teachers either.

What he will do, is to publish a letter from former school board heavy hitter, Paula Maes.

The letter, link, as you may imagine, gave Brooks high praise.

The title, written by an editor, gave even higher praise, it read;

Brooks has earned an A as APS Chief.

If teachers were surveyed, Brooks would not earn an A.

If Brooks thought for a moment, that he would earn an A,
he would be falling all over himself to have a survey done.

If Walz thought a survey of teachers would cast the leadership of the APS in a good light, he would be surveying teachers in a heartbeat.

Brooks won't, a survey wouldn't, and teachers will continue to take the heat for institutional and systemic failure over which they have no control.




photos Mark Bralley

The Albuquerque Journal to survey APS teachers

Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz intends to take full advantage of the nearly 100,000 years of teaching experience  shared by APS teachers,
by means of a survey.

He will survey teachers and provide for them, an opportunity to respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly to questions about what is keeping nearly half of students from acquiring a top notch education.

He will give them an opportunity to respond without fear of retaliation.

On that same day;

• pigs will fly,
• fish will speak,
• rocks won't sink,
• snakes will smoke,
• frogs will grow hair,
• hell will freeze over,
• chickens will grow teeth,
• fish will climb poplar trees,
• grapes will grow on willows,
• the sun will rise in the west,
• white crows will fly upside down,
• crayfish will whistle on the mountain, and

monkeys will fly out of my ass.

Adynatons; wikilink




photo ched macquigg
 
Submitted to Journal Letters to the Editors upon posting,
who then thanked me taking the time to share my opinion.

Walz gives Lucero 15 inches to polish Brooks' apple.

In the Journal this morning,  
link,you will find 15 inches
of OpEd from former APS
School Board Member
Robert Lucero.

He used all fifteen inches
singing his praise for Brooks.

The editors added an inch of their own;

"Brooks works hard for APS"

The editors chose to not publish my letter, link, daring them to survey teachers on whether they think Brooks works hard for APS.

The Journal could email a survey to every teacher in the APS at practically no cost at all.

Except to Brooks and the rest of the leadership of the APS when the results are finally published.

Board to meet in secret to evaluate Brooks

The APS School Board will meet in secret this morning, link, to evaluate Superintendent Winston Brooks' "Progress for the District."

Past practice is; after a meeting like this, the board votes to re-inflate Brooks' golden parachute for another year.  The value of Brooks' parachute fluctuates between $1M and $1.25M.

Some part of Brooks' evaluation should be considered in secret for a variety of good and ethical reasons.  The rest should take place in public for as many and more good and ethical reasons.

The fact is, no part of his evaluation will take place in public.  No effort will be made to gather data from interest holders in the APS; no forums, no surveys, no nothin'.

Brooks, School Board President Marty Esquivel and the gang think everyone else, teachers included, are just too damn ignorant to offer any useful input.

Teachers between them, have around 100,000 years of current and ongoing teaching experience.  Most hold advanced degrees and national certifications.  Not one of them has been asked to evaluate their boss.

All of which comes as no surprise to even one of them.




photos Mark Bralley

Yet another OMA Violation by NM FOG VP Esquivel

APS' Executive Director of Board Services and Government Affairs Brenda Yager has testified under oath;

APS School Board President and open government expert Marty Esquivel had her take a vote off of the public record, soliciting board members support for his banning letter.  She testified I believe, that she had contacted "all" of the board members, and that they all voted in approval.

Former Board Member David Robbins once said the same thing; the entire board had approved the letter.

The information was compiled off the record, lest some "knucklehead" seek them out later by means of the Inspection of Public Records Act.

It is illegal for the APS School Board to vote in secret on anything.

Why did Esquivel take a vote off the record and in manifest violation of the Open Meetings Act?

We will never know, because it his policy to not answer questions about his conduct and competence.  And because it is his policy to station his Praetorian Guard; people with badges and guns, a publicly funded private police force, in between him and anyone who might insist that he do.


And because it is his crony Journal
Managing Editor Kent Walz' policy
to not ask him to answer questions
like that anyway.




photos Mark Bralley

A jury of my peers will come to believe ...

there is an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, and further that I had a Constitutionally protected human right to expose that scandal in a public forum.

I can't wait for a jury of my peers to listen to them talk about;

• their abandonment of their obligations as the senior-most role models of student standards of conduct, or about,
• their cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, or about,
• their use of scant public resources to fund legal defenses beyond our oversight, including but not limited to litigation against the public interests to provide exception to the law for corrupt and incompetent politicians and public servants.

Their long time lawyer, Art Melendres testified that the Modrall law firm contract with APS is so lucrative he couldn't remember how much he was making. 

He finally settled on a number north of a million dollars a year.  And without our oversight.






A jury of my peers
will come to believe;
that there is an ethics 
and accountability 
scandal  in the leadership 
of the APS, or,

we will have gone through
all of this for nothing.




photos Mark Bralley

Trybus drops bombshell

APS Superintendent of Human Resources Andrea Trybus, link, swore under oath today, that the APS Police force never investigated the public corruption in the APS Police force circa 2006-7.

The corruption and incompetence was first reported by the Journal, link.  APS gave reassurances that their police force was investigating allegations of felony criminal misconduct; however ridiculous it was to be investigating their own corruption.

Trybus testified today, that the APS police force definitely did not investigate the allegations because it would be wrong to have people being investigated by their subordinates.

This means that no agency of law enforcement ever investigated the corruption.

This means that the criminal misconduct was investigated only by the leadership of the APS.  And they are hiding all of the findings.




photo Mark Bralley

Despite 36% approval rate, Brooks is good to go.

According to the Journal this morning, link, APS Supt Winston Brooks enjoys a 36% approval rating.

Brooks attributes the low rating to the ignorance of those who were polled;

"... city voters who aren’t parents may not follow education closely or know much about his performance."

APS School Board President Marty Esquivel was quick to jump on Brooks' bandwagon;

"... he is pleased with the progress APS has made under Brooks’ direction, of which some voters might not be aware."

Esquivel has to justify giving Brooks a quarter million dollar golden parachute every year.

I will grant that the survey surveyed the wrong people.  Brooks thinks parents, not voters, should have been surveyed.  I disagree.

Mark Twain once observed (derived), people who don't read APS' award winning website are uninformed, while people who do read APS' award winning website are misinformed.  Parents are misinformed by the leadership of the APS as a matter of course.  Where, for example, is the PowerPoint presentation on student discipline, link?

If the Journal, or anyone else wants some meaningful survey results, they should survey teachers.

They don't; they won't.

If anyone ever asks the nearly hundred thousand years of ongoing teaching experience what they think of Brooks, he will be lucky if he gets a 3.6% approval rate.

I dare the Journal to survey teachers on their approval rating of Brooks.

I dare them to survey teachers on student discipline and the effects of chronically disruptive students.

Hell, I dare them to survey teachers on Marty Esquivel and the School Board, and on the APS Police force under Steve Tellez.

I dare them; I double dare them.




photo Mark Bralley

Sent to Journal Letters to the Editors, upon posting

Tellez was put in charge of his own coverup

In late 2006 there was a scandal in the leadership of the APS (police force).  The Journal finally reported on it in early February 2007, link.

APS Chief of Police Gil Lovato was put on administrative leave in early January 2007 over allegations that he;

• misappropriated evidence (money) from the evidence room
• misused district resources
• harassed and intimidated employees
• showed favoritism toward employees, and
• engaged in an extramarital relationship with a fellow employee

Lovato never made it to court.  By keeping him on leave rather than firing him, APS was spared the airing of a bunch of dirty laundry in court.  Having been the Chief of Police for 17 years, Lovato had quite a body map.  He and his lawyer claimed, if they ever got to court, there wouldn't be a single APS senior administrator left standing.

Lovato was never fired; he remained on administrative leave until his contract expired and was not renewed.  In the interim, he was on full pay collecting around $35K for doing nothing.

There were additional allegations of the misuse of a federal criminal database.

The misappropriation of funds is a felony under state law.  The misuse of the NCIC database is a felony under federal law.  No one, not one single person, has ever been charged with a crime.

Steve Tellez was appointed Acting Chief on the day Lovato was put on administrative leave.

Bill Reed became APS Police Chief in October 2007.

In the ten month interval, Tellez remained Acting Chief.  He was in charge of the supposed "investigation" of criminal misconduct in his own department.

The conflict of interest is bone crushing, but satisfied the interests of the leadership of the APS.  No outside agency of law enforcement was ever asked to investigate the misconduct, though that would have been an easy and straightforward solution to the appearance of a conflict of interests.

Reed took over cover up

The APS "investigation" continued for more than three years, until statutes of limitation had expired on felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators.

The results of their investigation, and the results of at least two other investigations, are still secret from public knowledge.

Tellez now claims; the investigation "went away" when Bill Reed resigned in August 2010.  Tellez was later promoted in secret, to Chief.  If you search APS' award winning website for any mention of Tellez being made Chief, you will find none.   If they were so proud of their selection, why hide it?

APS Supt Winston Brooks admitted in his sworn deposition that he made the decision to promote Tellez without considering any other candidates, though there were a number of (qualified)  people who had expressed their interest in being considered for the job and who were not fruit of the corruption filled tree.

Nearly simultaneously with the Journal's last investigation and exposure of the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, I first began asking for the public records of the findings of what would become at least three investigations into the scandal.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was asking Tellez himself to hand over the public records of his incompetence and corruption in failing to expose the criminal misconduct before it came out in a lawsuit filed against him personally.

Tellez was Chief and responsible for investigating his own failure to report the scandal before it was exposed.

It was a bad time for me to be asking for the records which will destroy him.  I mean they must be hiding the record for a reason, right?  You don't go to all this effort and expense to hide the truth unless it really, really needs hiding.

Since I wasn't doing anything I didn't have a Constitutionally protected human right to do, Tellez took it upon himself to make sure nobody was listening to me.  Tellez began a years long effort to defame me with malicious slander and libel in an effort to keep me from finding and reporting on the truth.

Tellez doesn't want the truth to get out, nor does he want me anywhere near where it is being hidden, nor anywhere close to the people who are hiding it.

One of the reasons APS School Board President Marty Esquivel cites in his effort to justify banning me from public forum, is because I have insisted "too many times" at public forum, that Winston Brooks tell the truth about the scandal in the police department and the subsequent cover up.

Tellez has defamed me massively with his slander and libel, and all the time, he wasn't protecting the board from me, he was and still is protecting his public record from me, and immediate public knowledge.

Tellez admitted under oath, that the responsibility to set up a meeting between him, Esquivel and me was his responsibility, though he and his lawyers would rather have the judge believe it was I who dropped the ball.

Why would he not set up the meeting except that he did not want it to happen?  Why would he not want it to happen except that he is afraid that I might end up back at a public forum looking for the truth about his incompetence and corruption?

Expect Kent Walz to
continue his aid and abet.




photos Mark Bralley
Kent Walz is mine

APS Dress Code back in the news

According to APS Administrative Procedural Directives, link, students are specifically prohibited from "sagging".

"Sagging", or the wearing of pants below the waist and/or in a manner that allows underwear or bare skin to show, and "bagging", or the wearing of excessively baggy pants with low hanging crotches. 

If you drive by any APS middle or high school, you will see students sagging; openly, brazenly.

According to the Journal, link,

This year, the boys at Madison Middle School have pulled up their pants.

That's good news; that is progress; only 26 middle schools, 13 high schools, and 11 alternative schools to go.  Disclaimer, I have not visited those schools, perhaps one or two of them are enforcing the dress code; I will bow as always to controverting evidence.

The success at Madison Middle School is unique enough that the Journal found their success newsworthy.  The underlying theme; boys are in compliance at Madison, the girls are not, is not comforting.

Who is in charge in APS schools, the adults who write the rules, or the students who ignore them?  It is an important question.  Students who refuse to obey rules are by definition out of control.  Students who deliberately break rules are "in charge" at their schools.

Oddly, the principal doesn't see the compliance of boys as the result of adult influence, but rather;

“Maybe baggy pants have gone out of style.”

The boys, all of them, were rewarded for their compliance.  The girls, even the ones who comply every single day, were punished.  Imagine the upset that caused among the compliant girls.  The Journal reports that parents as well, are upset by the blanket punishments and rewards.

One quote from the principal is simply too bizarre to let slip by;

“Girls this age probably don’t realize that their bodies are changing a lot and that what they’re wearing is a bit more revealing than they think.”

Really?  Is she kidding?

There are serious student discipline problems in the APS.  They are so serious that APS Supt Winston Brooks refuses to discuss them openly and honestly, link.

There is no longitudinal record, and no (honest) contemporaneous record is being created.

Hiding (from) the truth?

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez has admitted under oath, that even criminal misconduct does not necessarily create a record, link.

The "administrative solutions" he and his police force employ as a matter of policy create a false record of criminal misconduct in schools.

All of the establishment media outlets; the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB, were told about Tellez' testimony and have decided, apparently, to ignore the disparate treatment and record keeping of criminal offenders by APD, the BCSO, and APS' publicly funded private police force.




Tellez photo Mark Bralley

Brad Winter joins APS' merry band of liars

Updated; below
APS COO Brad Winter has reason to retaliate against me; I have published a number of posts regarding his unwillingness to offer a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

I have filed a complaint against him over that failure, link.

And he has retaliated, by filing a false affidavit under penalty of perjury.  The setting is the August 25, 2010 Audit Committee meeting.  Mark Bralley and I had been expelled consequent to a decision made in blatant violation of the Open Meetings Act, link.  And now, suddenly, it appears that more than three years later, Winter has finally remembered that I "threatened" him that day. 

His affidavit reads in significant part;

I was standing near the entrance of the room as Plaintiff left the room.  There was plenty of room for plaintiff to pass by me without invading my personal space.

However, Plaintiff walked up to me and deliberately entered my personal space, coming within inches of my face, and whispering (sic) something to me.

I could not understand what Plaintiff whispered, but I took his invasion of my personal space as a threat.

I did not come within inches of Brad Winter's face for the same reason I don't come within inches of the faces of any one of these people during any meeting - they might make up some crap about me "invading their personal space".

In the entire time, years and years, that they claim I've been invading their personal spaces, not one shred of evidence that I ever have, has ever been produced;  not one photograph, not one spec of videotape.

I did not whisper in his ear.

I spoke out loud to him.  I was standing outside the room at the time.  He closed the distance between us.  I could not have closed the distance without reentering the room, which I did not, for obvious reasons.

Having closed the distance between us himself, he ordered me to leave the room (or words to that effect) and I pointed out to him, I was in fact standing in the hallway and not in the room (or words to that effect).

The proof about whether I invaded his space or he mine, would be in the form of security camera footage of the hallway outside the DeLayo Martin Room.

The tape has been deliberately destroyed by APS.

• Just like the tape they claim they had of me sneaking into a side door. 
• Just like the videotape they would have of me "assuming a fighting stance" in front of then Deputy Supt Tom Savage, had I done that.
• Just like the videotape of me "assuming a fighting stance" in front of APS Supt Winston Brooks, had I done that.

Imagine that.

Update; in an email that Marty Esquivel assumed would be kept secret from prying eyes but wasn't, he wrote about my conduct at the Audit Committee Meeting;  MacQuigg was

"... standing outside the meeting room at the threshold of the door and saying he was "outside".

Now if Esquivel could hear me say that, from 10 or 15 feet away, and in a noisy room, how can Winter seriously expect anyone to believe I whispered it in his ear too faintly for even him to hear?

And if we can't believe him on that, why should anyone believe him when he says I closed on him, rather than he on me?  Or anything else he says?




photo Mark Bralley

NM FOG VP Esquivel caught in yet another bald faced lie.

This isn't the first time he's been caught in a bald faced lie, link.

How many lies do you get to tell, before you're a liar?

In his Response, APS School Board President Marty Esquivel writes (by and through his team of lawyers);

When Mr. MacQuigg and Mr. Bralley returned to the meeting after the closed session, Mr. Robbins questioned them about his concern that they had deliberately left recording equipment behind in the room in an attempt to record the executive session.  When Mr. Bralley gave what Mr. Robbins took to be an admission that he had not turned off his recording device at the time he had been instructed to do so, Mr. Robbins ejected both him and Mr. MacQuigg from the meeting.

Anyone who watches the actual videotape, will see that Mr. Robbins announced his intention to eject us before any discussion took place over why he was ejecting us.



Furthermore, it is the sworn testimony of APS Supt Winston Brooks, that while the board was still in executive session, the board discussed us and decided to eject us.  David Robbins himself, a moment later, admitted having "discussed" the issue.

This is of course a blatant violation of the Open Meeting Act, and when David Robbins gave the statement regarding closed discussions about what had been discussed in the secret session, he lied when he said;

"... the discussion was limited to only those items specified."  

And when each and every board member later answered by name, affirming the discussion was limited to only those items specified, they committed what amounts to perjury.

I suppose it is probably "legal" to lie in a Response in Opposition to a Motion for a Preliminary Injunction, but it's not right.  I suppose with enough lawyers, guns and money, it is "legal" for board members to swear they didn't discuss something they clearly did discuss.

It is prohibited by the standards of conduct for which these people are the senior-most role models in the entire APS, but not by the law.

It is criminal misconduct to deliberately violate the law; even the Open Meetings Act.

Count on Esquivel's crony Kent Walz,
to continue cover it up for as long as he can.

Marty Esquivel is an "unethical lawyer"

During his sworn deposition, APS School Board President Marty Esquivel says he doesn't care what I call him; he doesn't read my blog and he doesn't care what I write.

The exception according to Esquivel, was when I called him an "unethical lawyer".  I have searched my blog for the expression "unethical lawyer" and found nothing.  I have no record or recollection of using the phrase,
until now.

1. Marty Esquivel is a lawyer
2. Marty Esquivel is unethical, ergo

Marty Esquivel is an unethical lawyer.

1.  Marty Esquivel by his own admission and representation, is a lawyer.

2.  Marty Esquivel is the senior-most role model of ethical standards of conduct, the Pillars of Character Counts!, APS student standards of conduct.

He will not hold himself honestly accountable as a role model.  There is no due process in APS for holding him accountable as a role model.  He will not even admit that he is a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!

I would argue that it is unethical for a role model of ethical conduct, to not hold themselves accountable to ethical standards of conduct.

Ergo;  Marty Esquivel is an unethical lawyer.

He is a coward and he is corrupt.  He is a coward because he is afraid to hold himself honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!, and corrupt because he doesn't want to, even if he was able to summon the moral courage to be a role model, he wouldn't.

Is Kent Walz an unethical editor?

1. Is he an editor?

2. Has he ever investigated and reported upon credible evidence of the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, though he has know about it since 2007? link

Has he ever made any effort at all to expose the cowardice and corruption of his good friend Marty Esquivel?

Ergo, Walz is an unethical editor.




photos  Mark Bralley

APS Conspiracy Theory - near final rev.

About two decades ago, the APS School Board unanimously adopted a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct as the student standards of conduct.

To this day, through their Student Behavior Handbook,
the school board expects students to "model and promote
the Pillars of Character Counts!".

About a decade ago, the APS School Board voted, again unanimously, to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct.  It used to read;

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

They had to remove it, because at about that time, I was trying to hold them actually, honestly accountable as role models of student standards of conduct.

I would suppose, their abdication in policy offers them some protection from representations that they are in fact, "legally" accountable as role models of the Pillars of Character Counts!.

Morally of course, they are as bound as they ever were, by the obligations and responsibilities of the mantelet they put on when they stepped into the role of (senior) role model.

What to do?  Here was a guy coming to public forums and demanding that they explain why students are expected to hold themselves accountable to higher standards of conduct than adults, and they have no answer.

No answer except that they, personally and collectively, lack the character and the courage to hold themselves honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!, link, even for the few hours a day they hold students accountable to those standards.

If there is another reason they will not step up to honest accountability to higher standards than the law, I have not been able to imagine it and they have never articulated it.  Ever.

They could conceivably, lower students standards to a point that is finally low enough that the leadership will accept honest accountability, but not without drawing even more attention to their problem.

The truth is, they won't hold themselves honestly accountable even to the law.

The leadership had two options and two options only;

1. keep me from speaking at public forums, and
2. make sure no one listens to me if I do; in particular, the media.

Evidence, unless they have destroyed it, is in the form of recordings made of board meetings.  Any meeting except the ones they hold in secret, is recorded.  There is at least an audio record; regular board meetings have video records.

The record is that they did everything they could to keep me from being seen at public forums.  At one point, they even moved the public forum out of the public meeting, in order that no recording was made, and the broadcast version didn't show the public forum at all.

Their record, what part of it they have not deleted, is one of relentless slander and libel.  According to Monica Armenta, her friends in the media think I'm a "creep".

At this point it is worth pointing out that reporters have witnessed most of the "incidents" in question and have never see anything "newsworthy".  Even the elephant mask Esquivel wants people to believe was "disruptive", warranted no notice from them at all.  The only photographs of it are mine.

I have been accused of intimidating them, invading their personal space, assuming a fighting stances, stalking, and harassing them.  Nearly all of the incidents they "remember" but cannot recall the specifics of, happened in full view.  Not one photograph, not one scrap of videotape, not one audio recording backs up their sworn testimony.

Any recording they haven't destroyed, of any board meeting I ever attended, will show me standing up at public forum and demanding a candid, forthright and honest response to my legitimate questions about standards, accountability and role modeling in the Albuquerque Public Schools.  The record will show me standing my ground against politicians and public servants who were abusing the power entrusted to them.

There is no physical record of intimidation, invasion of personal spaces, stalking or harassment.  There is no record because the allegations are groundless; the "incidents" never took place.

The leadership of the APS is about it still;

• I am not allowed to speak at public forum,
• I am still on the establishment media's blacklist, and
• Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks don't have to answer any questions about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

The establishment media is part of the cover up of an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

I submit as "proof"; the abject absence of any coverage at all of ethics, standards or accountability in the leadership of the APS since the Journal last reported on the lack of ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS more than six years ago, link.

No reporter has ever asked anyone of them to explain why there are two standards of conduct in the APS; among the highest of standards for students, and the absolute lowest standards for board members and senior administrators.

No reporter ever asked them to explain the removal of the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct.  No reporter ever asked them to explain why they won't put it back.

Journal editor Kent Walz

No reporter ever will.
Their editors and news directors
will see to that.

I will bow as always,
to any real evidence
to the contrary.




photos Mark Bralley

In defense of a headline

APS School Board President Marty Esquivel, by and through his team of lawyers, have offered up his Response in Opposition to my Motion for a Preliminary Injunction.

In it, he argues that I wrote a headline;

First, we need to kill all the PIOs, link

in "... wilful blindness and contempt for decorum ... (in)... "that after sitting through seven hours of powerful testimony in which Ms Armenta recounted the terror Mr. MacQuigg inspires in her through his intimidating actions... " he defiantly posted a blog entry titled; First, we need to kill all the PIOs.

On my honor, when I read Trip Jennings post, link, commented on it, and wrote a post of my own on the problem with the loyalties of Public Information Officers, it never occurred to me that APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta would consider it a personal threat.

Any more than when I wrote; game on!, School Board Member Kathy Korte would consider that a threat, link.

I thought and I still think, no reasonable person would believe, honestly believe, either the headline or the statement was a threat.  No reasonable, normal person.

Ms. Armenta testified that she never reads my blog and therefore would know nothing about the headline.  The only reason she would have found out is if one of her "friends" told her about it.  What for, to whip up her already unreasonable hysteria?

Ms. Armenta, during her sworn testimony, expressed her concern that she could not "control my thoughts".  Wouldn't the first step in her plan to control my thoughts be, to insist upon editorial rights over my headlines?

I consider myself a political pamphleteer albeit in a digital age.  I have a right to write the words I want to write.  I cannot be reasonably expected to filter the most important sentence in every post, past the feelings of every politician and public servant I annoy.

Any connection to Monica Armenta was tangential and inadvertent. Ms Armenta was not personally identified in the post, and easily could have been, as an example of a highly paid Public Information Officer whose job it is to make the leadership of APS look good, and not to keep the people candidly, forthrightly and honestly informed about the wielding of their power and the spending of their considerable resources.

This is all a diversion; None of them want to explain to students, in words students can understand, why they are expected to model and promote personal accountability to higher standards of conduct than the law, and adult role models, even the senior-most role models of the Pillars of Character Counts! in the entire APS, are not.

That's why they don't want me at school board meetings.

It has nothing to do with the fear that Esquivel, APS Police Chief Steve Tellez, Winston Brooks and the guys, have stirred up in Ms. Armenta's head.

Where is their evidence? After years of hardening their castle keep at enormous public expense, after installing more video cameras than you can shake a stick at, after assigning as many as two APS Police officers to "stalk" me whenever I set foot on APS property, after specifically assigning APS personnel to take photographs of me misbehavin' even out of town, and after six years of surveillance and investigation they don't have a single photograph, audiotape, or videotape of me actually doing the things they swear I have done.

Either I was very good at stalking people when nobody was looking, striking fighting stances invisibly, and plastering myself against walls when the video cameras swept by, or

I really didn't do the things they swear I did.

Not one of the people who insist that my banning is not based on the question I keep asking, have ever actually answered the question.

I doubt they even know what it is.
To them, and by Esquivel's own admission,
I'm just "... like so much background noise".

What is the point in protecting the right to petition one's government if the petition can be "legally" dismissed as "background noise" by someone like Marty Esquivel?

Marty Esquivel doesn't want to come clean on his abdication from the obligations of the senior-most role model of APS' student standards of conduct.

Nowhere in his response, did Esquivel mention the Pillars of Character Counts! are actually the APS student standards of conduct.

Nowhere did he mention, that except for his willful abdication, he would be, the senior-most role model in the entire APS of the Pillars of Character Counts!

Nor did he indicate any intention to hold himself accountable to them and as a role model, any time soon.

And he complains over and over and over again; Mr. MacQuigg ... will engage in conduct regardless of a rule prohibiting it, as long as, in his mind, it is honorable and legal.

Esquivel has lower standards than mine.  Forget about honorable; he will freely ignore the rules and his obligations as the senior-most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts! as long as it's "legal".

"Legal" is the lowest standard of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

"Legal" is the standard of conduct that every  
higher standard of conduct,
is higher than.




photos Mark Bralley

APS ignoring MOU with the BCSO

APS and the Bernalillo County Sheriff  Dan Houston are signatories on a Memorandum of Understanding.  Their understanding, link, includes an understanding about the reporting of criminal misconduct.

There is evidence that the "understanding" the Sheriff thought they shared, is not shared at all.

There is a philosophical difference of opinion between the Sheriff and APS' Chief of Police Steve Tellez, around the handling of students who commit crimes.

The kids arrested by APD and the Sheriff's Deputies face the criminal justice system and create statistics.  Catch and release is the SOP for the APS Police Force.

Students who have broken the law see an "administrative solution"; a solution that co-incidentally creates no record of criminal misconduct.  A solution that co-incidentally makes the administrator who makes that decision look like s/he's running a crime free school.

Tellez solution is to do it his way; which is to say APS COO Brad Winter's way; which is to say APS Supt Winston Brooks' way; which is to say the Board's way.

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez testified about what happens to students depending on who arrests them; (spelling corrections in parentheses)

3  A. Well, this is where the sheriffs
4  department and our department differ. In their SOP
5  it states, if there is a crime, then the person
6  committing the (crime) will be arrested. And we don't
7  always arrest the people that commit (crimes). We deal
8  with students, and the students, a lot of (time) we
9  don't need to make a physical arrest. In our
10 department, a physical arrest is a last resort.
11 So we -- a lot of (times) we do a book and
12 release, where the student isn't physically (arrested).
13 The student is -- paperwork is done, and the student
14 is released to their parents.
15 There is a lot of these sections that are
16 in the MOU, but the sheriffs department doesn't
17 comply with them. 

County Sheriff sez, say what?




photos Mark Bralley

Brooks clueless about Character Counts!

Again, this is neither the time nor the venue to discuss the propriety of the Pillars of Character Counts! as student standards of conduct.  The simple fact is; the Pillars are the student standards of conduct of record, and have been since 1994.  They will continue to be until the board rescinds or amends the resolution by which they adopted the Pillars of Character Counts! as APS student standards of conduct.

As far as school board policy is concerned, the Pillars were the adult standards as well, until they struck the language that read;

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

Since, students have been expected to hold themselves accountable to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics, and adults have been accountable, in their estimation not mine, only to the law.  The law is the standard that every "higher standard" is higher than.

Current School Board Policy is expressed in the APS Student Behavior Handbook, link. The board approves the language in the handbook every year.

Students are expected to;

model and promote the pillars of CHARACTER COUNTS! (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship

The administration is charged with administering school board policy.  APS Supt Winston Brooks is the senior-most administrative role model of the standards they establish and enforce upon students.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship; someone has to show them what they look like.  The Superintendent has to show them what it looks like; it is his job more than it is the job of anyone else in his entire administration.

Winston Brooks doesn't even know the Pillars are called "Pillars".  He thinks they are points, or something, of character.

Brooks as senior-most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!, should at least know what they are called.  Most students, who don't know nearly enough, know more about Character Counts! than Winston Brooks.

If he ever gets around to reading them, link, he will find such as;

Ethical people show Responsibility by being accountable, and
responsible leaders, lead by example.

By personal example.

How does the senior-most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!  "model and promote" them?

Forget for the moment, "promoting" the Pillars.
How does one "model" the Pillars?

One models the Pillars by holding them self honestly accountable to them.

Brooks is not modeling accountability to the Pillars.
He will not model accountability.
He will not hold himself accountable, honestly accountable,
to the Pillars of Character Counts!  He can't even name them!

If there is any other way at all, that he can satisfy his obligations as a role model of accountability, than to actually model accountability, I cannot imagine it.  And he is yet to articulate it.

Honest accountability means due process for every complaint.
If you really want to end misconduct, all you have to do is provide due process for every complaint, including real protection for whistle blowers.

Honest accountability means a process free of the appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety.  It means a process beyond the undue influence of even the most powerful respondent.  It means a process powerful enough to hold even the most powerful accountable, even against their will.

It is possible.  A man earning a quarter of a million dollars a year, ought to be able to figure out a way to protect the people's power and resources from incompetence and corruption.

Even if it is only to provide an independent determination of the facts, a truth telling that becomes the property of the complainant and of the people.

The ethics and accountability
scandal in the leadership of the APS
continues to be kept secret from
stakeholders, by people like
Albuquerque Journal Managing
Editor Kent Walz.




photos Mark Bralley

NM FOG VP sends odd message

NM Foundation for Open Government Vice President Marty Esquivel has begrudgingly produced email records in response to discovery requests.  I can see why.

In the middle of an email in which the School Board President and Defendant Esquivel was indicating his desire to share and collect information by "direct contact" (as opposed to creating a public record - my words not his), he urges Director of Board Services Brenda Yager to;

Remind all to be careful in email communications because the knucklehead will turn around and make IPRA requests.

That seems like an odd message for FOG leadership to be sending; urging politicians and public servants to conduct public business but to be careful about creating public records of their public service. 

Does their record warrant the hiding?

It would appear it does.




photo Mark Bralley