Esquivel and his much ado about nothing

Defendant Marty Esquivel would like people to believe that I once wore an elephant mask to a board meeting and scared the living hell out of everyone in the room.

In fact, there were two masks and two wearings.  Upon the first wearing, I was the victim of their derision, link.  Upon the second wearing they arrested me. No charges were filed because of course, I hadn't broken any law.  According to the judge, it was they who broke the law when they arrested me.

Standing silently and civilly against a wall wearing a poster about the elephant in the room, the double standard of conduct, the message was being ignored; by the board and by the media.

Neither of them want to begin a discussion about the double standards of conduct that bind students and their senior-most adult role models; school board members and the superintendent.  This because that discussion cannot help but end with school board members being held accountable to higher standards of conduct that their own character and courage can support.

Holding up a poster, if the message on the poster is found "threatening" by a school board member or senior administrator, is against board member law.  They will dispatch members of their publicly funded private police force who will follow their orders to interfere with a constitutionally protected human right to petition your government by any legal means.

Posters didn't work, maybe the elephant in the room (rev 2) would.

I'm sorry, but it is against our law for you to hold up a Character Counts!
poster while standing silently in the back of a public meeting being held
in order to gather public input. You and the folks with you are going to
have to stand down with your posters or be arrested.

OK then, you and your friends who won't put down
their posters, are under arrest.

The first rev of two.

Frankly I don't give a damn what anybody thinks I should or should not have done eight years ago. 

The point is; not only was what I did legal; free expression under the first amendment, but it was ethical in every sense.  I would not be in the least ashamed if any one of the thousands of students to whom I tried to teach Character Counts!, watched a videotape of my peaceful, civil protest and arrest.

Whether people who were not there, and who cannot begin to imagine much less comprehend what I was up against, and who, most importantly, have never done anything themselves to expose the double standards of conduct in the APS, agree with or support what I did is of no consequence to me.




photos Mark Bralley

Can Marty Esquivel produce any evidence ...

aps "image" of Esquivel

• even one public record;

• meeting minutes perhaps, or

• one second of video, or

• one second of audio, or

• any evidence of any kind,

that proves the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education supported in any way; his spending of nearly a million dollars on a non-viable defense of his ego?

Can Esquivel prove by means of any evidence whatsoever, that any lawyer except Art Melendres and the Modrall law firm,

( on the hook to taxpayers for their bad legal advice)

ever told Esquivel and the board, that Esquivel ever had even a snowball's chance in hell of getting away with his videotaped violations of my civil rights?

Let's see.

Journal, KRQE, KOAT, or KOB TV;
which of you is going to be the first of you to IPRA APS?

Which one of you will be the last?

Will Mary Lynn Roper and
KOAT TV ask ever?

Let's see.




photos Mark Bralley

APS Board knowingly permited or negligently allowed the squandering of $865,000

If the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education did not negligently allow former school board president Marty Esquivel to spend $865,000 on a non-viable defense* of his ego, they knowingly permitted it.

*There is yet to be offered, a learned opinion from anyone not in Esquivel's employ, who believes Marty Esquivel ever had a case; the money was squandered.

If the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education did not negligently allow this money to be spent; if it was not spent without their knowledge, then there are minutes of meetings where they gave their willing permission.

If there are no minutes; no public records of any kind that demonstrate the board's knowing approval, then they did not give that approval except in violation of both the Open Meetings Act and the Inspection of Public Records Act.

When and where did the board agree that the complaint would not be settled for $20K and decided to spend $100K to prevent it.  When and where did they agree to go $200K, then $300K ... and finally $865K?!  Can they even prove they were listening to the lawyers?

They either agreed to Esquivel's spending, or didn't know he was doing it.

The one no less reprehensible than the other.

The one no less irresponsible, no less indefensible;
no lesser a breach of the trust placed in them. 

The first ethic in the school board's own code of ethics, link, reads:

Make the education and well-being of students 
the basis for all decision making.

How was Esquivel's spending even remotely in the best interests of students and their well-being?

Fortunately for the board, their code of ethics is utterly unenforceable.  If we did not know it was unenforceable by their own free admission, it is unenforceable in its face.

KOAT President and General
Manager Mary Lynn Roper

Worth noting; alone among local media, KOAT TV refuses still, to let their viewers know that APS has wasted another few hundred thousand of their dollars.

Unclear at this point, how it is in Mary Lynn Roper and KOAT's interests to refuse even to publish APS' press release, which is basically all KOB TV did.  KRQE offered coverage so biased that I have a whole new group of their trolls insulting me.  The Journal coverage amounted to letting Marty Esquivel repeat all the allegations that the federal judge had soundly dismissed and as the proximate result, sicced all of their trolls on me.

KOAT viewers trusting Roper and KOAT to inform them in anticipation of an upcoming quarter Billion dollar bond issue election, don't even know they've been screwed, again.

After all, what could spending nearly a million dollars irresponsibly  possibly have to do with likelihood that they will spend 270 million dollars just as irresponsibly?

ABQ Free Press was the first and remains alone among the heavy hitters in local news in informing the democracy about what really happened, link.




photo Mark Bralley

Tour the twins!

The leadership of the APS is concerned that recent Journal coverage, link, of the spending of $850,000.00 on fancy furniture and other accouterments for top floor offices.  It is unclear from the Journal report, whether Don Moya spend the $850K on his own suite or on the whole floor of suites.

It really doesn't make that much difference; if there were ten offices renovated at $85,000.00 a piece, would it be any less unacceptable?  "Unacceptable" or "outrageously unacceptable" is a distinction without much difference in so far as neither is tolerable.

Taxpayer relief or a money pit?  Any answer but the truth
means; money pit.

APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez, according to the Journal, said he couldn’t locate documents on cost.

Seriously?!

That is exactly the kind of record keeping is characteristic of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

A recent audit of APS spending in the twins, found the trifecta of embezzlement and fraud;

1. inadequate standards, and
2. inadequate accountability and
3. inadequate record keeping.

The tour will be hosted by the $110K a year, APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta.

She will guide members of the press and public on a tour of the twins in order that they can report on how frugal they have been with the money entrusted to their stewardship over the last bond issue.

On the 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,
• white crows will fly upside down,
• crayfish will whistle on the mountain, and
• monkeys will fly out of my ass.

Adynatons; wikilink





photos Mark Bralley

APS punishes whistle blowers

A story in the Journal this morning, link, supplied the Journal's quote of the day;

“Albuquerque Public Schools has shown by their actions 
that they will punish you if you are a whistleblower.”

I took the opportunity to post a comment.
I urge you to do the same.
Demand an investigation and report on the fate of APS whistle blowers; mostly good and decent people with the temerity to stand up for what's right.

I wrote;

“Albuquerque Public Schools has shown by their actions that they will punish you if you are a whistleblower.” Journal quote of the day

Is this allegation true?

If it is, wouldn't it be worthy of investigation by the Journal?

If it isn't true, wouldn't be worthy of a report in the Journal, just to inform and reassure the democracy in anticipation of a bond issue election worth a quarter of a billion dollars?

The allegation is true. It isn't news, because the Journal is up to its eye balls in a cover up of the truth about what APS does to whistle blowers. The felony criminal misconduct I keep referring to, was APS senior administrators doing NCIC background checks on WHISTLE BLOWERS!

Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz,
as manifest in his record, would
rather cover the asses of his friends
in the leadership of the APS than
whistleblowers'.



photo Mark Bralley

KRQE yet to refute, rebut or repent allegations of bias

That their coverage, link, of my "settlement" paints me in a negative light is manifest in the animus their bias engendered in "backside" comments.

The motive for the bias is to continue to discredit me and more importantly, my message;

KRQE (and KOAT and KOB TV) are complicit in the cover up of an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

KRQE is yet to disclose their professional relationships with Marty Esquivel, the primary defendant in the complaint.   If Esquivel is not today their lawyer, he was until very recently.

I think it's fair to say that whomever it is at KRQE ( KOAT, and KOB TV stations) that does not want the truth to be known about the cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, has that want because they have no other choice.

As soon as any one of them admits to

the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS, 

they are all going to have to explain why they knowingly permitted or negligently allowed the democracy to remain ignorant of the crisis for all these many years.

Not to sound whiney but, Honestly, I find it more than a little upsetting ...

... that there will never be an issue of the Journal for me to fold up and save until my grandchildren are old enough to read about how their "poppop" stood up for what he believed in.



And how, somehow, against enormous odds, he managed a win.







Instead, they will read if they ever the pick up the Journal, link, that I was some kind of maniac who got away with disrupting public meetings, threatening and endangering people, and then ran off with a bunch of money that should have been spent on children.

Never pick a fight with people
(who know people)
who buy their ink by the barrel.

Mark Twain 

photos Mark Bralley

Why won't the Journal report on Esquivel's other suits?

The Journal knows full well that my complaint against their editor in chief's good friend Marty Esquivel, is not the only one that has been filed against him in the federal district court and may also be nearing settlement.


The Journal is supposed to publish information like that;
taxpayers have chips in the pot. They will not.
This though they claim to be a newspaper of record.

My complaint was not the only one over

• the same issues, with

• the same defendants

• spending the same unjustifiable amounts of money,

• on enough APS lawyers, litigation and legal weaselry,

• after meetings in secret, of which no recording is ever made,

• spending from an unlimited budget and

• without any real oversight

• using tax dollars to pay for enough litigation and legal weaselry

• to hide public records of a cover up of a cover up felony criminal misconduct and

•  to buy them all "admissions of no guilt" in settlements so large

• they would shake public confidence in them

• if only the establishment's media was about the truth and informing the democracy.

It falls upon stake and interest holders to connect the dots and demand change. 

Start by demanding the truth from the Journal, KRQE, KOAT and KOB TV;

the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the ethically redacted truth
about the ethics,standards and accountability crisis
in the leadership of the APS;

Ask yourself, Larry suggested, what you did right.

The Journal ran some coverage of my settlement which, as was intended, has cast me in the light of someone who did something wrong and then somehow managed to screw "children" out of 863,000 dollars.

People who know nothing really about the facts or about me, are making judgements about me based on the version of the story the Journal is still selling.  The version that includes;

• a recitation of all of the false allegations Marty Esquivel wants people to still believe,  and then 

• an abject absence of any mention that a federal court judge found the allegations baseless; that a federal court judge ruled that Marty Esquivel violated my civil rights.

Because that point is never made clear by the establishment's media, people get stirred up.

When I argued that I had done nothing wrong, one of the detractors they stirred up was Larry.  He offered

Ask yourself what you did right.

And I responded;

OK, I did.

I went to federal court, enduring obstacles you cannot begin to fathom, to secure an order from a federal court judge, to protect your Constitutionally protected human right to go to a school board meeting, sign up for public forum, and criticize their public service individually and by name, without being arrested and banned from public forums for life; should you decide to get off your ass and go to a public forum and confront the people who are really wasting your money; who are betraying your trust.

I did not sue for $863K. I sued to protect my (and your) right to petition my government. The APS school board chose to, or negligently allowed the investment of $863K in defense of a school board member's ego.

A simple thank you would be nice.

What did taxpayers get for their $863,000?

Not a damn thing.  The next school board member who decides to squander a million dollars on a non-viable defense of his ego, will have no more trouble doing it that Marty Esquivel did.  The board was asleep at the switch; they knowingly permitted or negligently allowed nearly $863K to be wasted and have made no concrete change that will keep it from happening again.

It is still their policy, and will continue to be their policy, to

• meet in secret
• with recorders turned off
• to spend from an unlimited budget for litigation
• without any real oversight*.

*Subordinate oversight is not oversight;
it is an oxymoron.

Another thing that hasn't changed is the establishment's media's willingness to ignore what they are doing, help them cover it up, and help them defame anyone with the temerity to speak out against them.

Well, not exactly "not a damn thing".

If any of this pisses off anyone enough that they might want to go to a public forum and criticize board member's incompetence and corruption individually and by name, they have have that right protected by rulings from a federal district court judge.

Luxury digs for APS top brass; $850,000 remodel?! seriously?

The Journal reported yesterday, link;

"... report said investigators also were told by “several different individuals” that “Mr. Moya had spent over $850,000.00 on a remodel and furniture for his own suite of offices.”

The report said Moya’s furniture “seemed to be nicer than even that of the superintendent’s office.”

(APS Director of Communications Rigo) Chavez said he couldn’t locate documents on cost, but he said any remodeling involved more than just Moya’s offices, possibly including those of the superintendent. (emphasis added) 

Though the Journal has the entire report, they can't see the need apparently to inform the democracy by means of a simple link.

• $850K spent on re-remodeling the top floor

• can't locate the records

Stake and interest holders, voters, taxpayers will never see for themselves, what the tax dollars they invested in their children's education have been spent on instead.



You will never see the fancy nests they've feathered because APS' Praetorian Guard; their publicly funded private police force, are "just following orders" to keep you out.

APS COO Brad Winter was asked to tell the truth about spending here.
He never did; they never will.

When the leadership of the APS talked taxpayers into buying the "twins", they sold them on the idea by promising to rent out one of them out and make money for taxpayers.

They didn't.  Instead, they went on a spending spree on fortification and renovation.  Spending untold millions of dollars like water, and during a time when auditors were pointing to the trifecta of public corruption, embezzlement and theft

1. inadequate standards and
2. inadequate accountability and
3. inadequate record keeping

In what has to be one the greatest of ironies, the hundreds of thousands of dollars they spent on state of the art video equipment was their undoing in federal court.

Every bit of their videotape corroborated my testimony
and directly contradicted Defendant Marty Esquivel's
baseless allegations.

Nothing has changed.  Nearly a million dollars has been spent again on fancy offices for APS bigwigs, and oops!; there aren't any records.

Before they ask voter for another quarter of billion dollars to spend on schools (and $1,000 chairs for superintendents and school board members) stake and interest holders, and especially tax payers should DEMAND;

a taxpayer tour of the top floor of their humble abode.

Make them show you what kind of stewards they are and will be, of your trust and treasure.




photos Mark Bralley

Is this about the message, or about the messenger?

A federal court judge cleared the messenger of wrongdoing, and ruled against Marty Esquivel numerous times.  The rulings are clear.

1. I did not disrupt meetings, and 
2. Esquivel violated my civil rights by banning me as if I had.  

That's all that needs to be said about the messenger.
I am not guilty and he is.

So why the continued attention and abuse of the messenger?

The attention and abuse from the local media;

• the Journal, 
• KRQE (Esquivel is their lawyer and they still haven't disclosed the conflict to their viewers, 
• KOAT (who is yet to even cover Esquivel's squandering of $863,000.) and 
• KOB.

comes in the form of endlessly repeating false allegations and letting people run wild with them.

As far as KOAT's on going refusal to inform the democracy goes, I blame Mary Lyn Roper for their relentless refusal to expose the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS, 

She's been covering for their asses for a long, long time, link.

The "media" (they are not the "press" in any honorable use of the word) keep repeating Esquivel's allegations even though a judge has rejected them and he is able to offer no evidence to the judge to convince her otherwise.

As a result, people commenting on the backsides of their reports are clearly drawing the wrong conclusions from the reports.

Why?

In the first place, they're really pissed at me because I keep writing about their aid and abet in the cover up of the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

On top of that, the heavy hitters in APS and media are all good friends.

Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz and Marty Esquivel have been besties for a long time.

They got together a few years ago, to bamboozle NM FOG's board of directors to giving their most prestigious hero of transparency award to former APS Supt Winston Brooks for working together to hide public records of findings of investigations into allegations of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.


Former APS school board president Paula Maes is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the New Mexico Broadcasters Assoc.  The appearance is that her affiliate stations are dancing to her tune too.

Maes doesn't want any of them reporting that she once said, she would never agree to any audit that individually identified incompetent or corrupt senior administrators (or for that matter, school board members).  The quote isn't exact. The meeting in which she said it, was videotaped - see Rigo.

It was at the same meeting that the good Marty Esquivel requested an administrative audit.  After Maes, response, his interest in administrative audits waned precipitously.

Interestingly, she and the president of the APS family law firm Modrall, were actually married to each other for a great deal of the time Modrall sucked at the teats of APS and taxpayers.  Currently, Modrall is taking in more than a million dollars a year from the operational fund*.

*The "operational fund" is money that would be spent in classrooms if it were not being spent instead on litigation and legal weaselry in order to allow school board members and senior administrators to escape the consequences of their incompetence or corruption.

Ridiculously large amounts of money are being traded for admissions on no guilt.  In my case, taxpayers spend $863,000 in order that Marty Esquivel could "admit no guilt" in denying me the free exercise of my rights under the First Amendment.

All that, and, they (the leadership of the APS and the media) want to distract you from the message;
the lack of oversight over the spending of public resources is so egregious that one school board member can spend $863,000 and nobody was paying enough attention to stop him.  His non-viable defense of his ego has been non-viable since the day this whole thing could have been settled without any litigation at all.

Keep your eye on the message;
the messenger has been exonerated of wrongdoing.




photos Mark Bralley

Marty Esquivel really is a liar

Within the Journal coverage, link, of the settlement of our complaint, comes a bald-faced lie from Defendant Marty Esquivel;

"The ban would have ended if MacQuigg had sat down to discuss his conduct, Esquivel said, but MacQuigg canceled a scheduled meeting.

No meeting was ever scheduled, therefore no meeting was ever cancelled, and certainly not by me.  A time was proposed for a meeting, in conflict with another appointment.  A second meeting was never offered.  During sworn testimony, former and now disgraced APS Police Chief Tellez admitted that the failure to schedule a meeting was his responsibility.

The bigger lie in his statement is that the ban would have ended had I sat down to "discuss" my conduct.  The terms of the banning letter state quite clearly, that

1. the illegal ban would continue until I admitted that what I was doing at public forum was wrong, and
2. promised to stop doing it.

Esquivel insisted that I had to admit wrongdoing though there was none, and promise not to engage in wholly legal and ethical activities during public forum.  Ergo, the ban was for life.

If you would like to see the evidence that Esquivel tried to convince the judge was evidence of my disruptive behavior, you can view them here, link.  Included in that set, but especially noteworthy is the Nov. 4, 2009 public forum, link.

Marty Esquivel really is a liar, and he really did squander $863,000 in an effort avoid the consequences of violating my Constitutionally protected human right to petition my government.

Esquivel and APS' friends in the media are happy to keep the attention on the messenger and off the message; an ethics, standards and accountability crises in the leadership.  Nearly a million dollars were squandered in defense of Marty Esquivel's ego because spending decisions like these are made in meetings in secret and without real oversight.

They are enabled by the Journal's steadfast refusal to investigate and report upon the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in leadership of the APS.

KRQE censoring my comments

KRQE's report, link, on the squandering of $833K has generated some interest.  A number of people who are unfamiliar with the facts are saying some pretty unflattering things about me.

Someone at KRQE is censoring my responses including my rebuttals of the false allegations they repeated; deleting them entirely.

Co-incidentally Marty Esquivel is their lawyer.

Here's what Esquivel calls disrupting a meeting

The number of people expressing opinions on the settlement of my complaints against Marty Esquivel and the board, greatly exceeds the number of people who have actually viewed any of the evidence.

Here then, is Marty Esquivel preventing me from "disrupting" a meeting while I have the floor.

And that's why we prevailed in our complaint.

I call your attention to Journal coverage of the settlement

The Journal weighed in this morning, link, with it's version of the squandering of $833,000.  I posted a number of comments.

Journal coverage was certainly fairer than KRQE's, but they're still printing Marty Esquivel's allegations with making it absolutely clear to readers, that he is really is unable produce any evidence to prove them.

Did they ask Esquivel to product his most damning evidence.  Has anyone at the Journal actually watched the videotapes?  Apparently not.

Esquivel does have on his side, and apparently believes he could have won with, conflicted testimony from the likes of Winston Brooks, Steve Tellez, Monica Armenta, and NM Secretary of State Brad Winter.

APS is still hiding the truth about Winston Brooks.  Steve Tellez has left in disgrace, and Monica Armenta's testimony is tainted by her record of slander and libel.

SOS Brad Winter's previos perjury is in the record, link.

Can a perjurer serve as Secretary of State?

They can in New Mexico.  And especially with the aid and abet Kent Walz and the Journal.




photo Mark Bralley

KRQE comes with more slander and libel

KRQE came tonight with an ethically indefensible report on the settlement of my federal complaints.  Co-incidentally the complaints were filed against their own lawyer Marty Esquivel.  A fact they conveniently forgot to disclose when they wrote the story.

As far as I know, I've never met the "reporter" Lysee Mitri, and I certainly didn't talk or meet with her before she filed the story.

She or someone else wrote;

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – An Albuquerque man just won a half-million dollar settlement from Albuquerque Public Schools, but he says he is not happy about it.
At an Albuquerque School Board meeting on Tuesday, Charles MacQuigg sat silently in the back, but don’t let that fool you.
“I have been at odds with the leadership of APS for nearly two decades,” MacQuigg said.
APS said MacQuigg doesn’t follow the rules that are in place to maintain order and safety.
“I think he’s really disrespectful,” said School Board Treasurer Steven Michael Quezada.
Once, MacQuigg wore an elephant mask to a meeting and refused to remove it.
More than once, he was kicked out. Eventually, he was banned from all meetings indefinitely and APS cited safety concerns.
However, MacQuigg responded with a federal lawsuit.
“The evidence is clear,” he said. “My civil rights were violated.”
While APS denies violating MacQuigg’s rights to freedom of speech and due process, they settled for $575,000. In addition, APS said its attorney fees came to $288,000. APS said insurance will be used to handle part of the payout.
“I’m not happy at all,” Quezada said. “I don’t think that we should settle with people who come to disrupt meetings and use that kind of format to make a living or make money.”
MacQuigg has sued before.
“I’ve sued them now three times over their retaliation that they’ve released on me for trying to hold them accountable for their conduct,” MacQuigg said.
There is one thing MacQuigg and APS can agree on.
“They shouldn’t have been wasting taxpayers money on this,” MacQuigg said.
“We’re wasting our funds fighting this,” Quezada said.
At a time when the budget is already tight, no one is happy to see part of it spent this way.
“It is just not right,” Quezada said.
“I think it’s outrageous,” MacQuigg said.
He said the settlement is not gratifying because nothing has changed in terms of accountability within APS leadership.

By sitting quietly in the back, I was just fooling everybody.  At any minute I might jump up and break a rule supposed to maintain order and safety.

• If the reporter has shown the simple courtesy of interviewing me, she wouldn't have written that "once", I wore an elephant mask to a meeting and refused to remove it.  That's not accurate, I played the elephant in the room on two occasions; quietly, up against the farthest wall.  Esquivel testified under oath that he thought I was a mouse.  Monica Armenta testified under oath, that she thought I was playing Chucky Cheese, link.  In fact, they were so embarrassed by the mask the first time I wore it, they decided to arrest me if I did again.

• Even if the reporter had talked to me, she probably still would not have pointed out that the federal court judge ruled that; not only did they violate my civil rights when they removed me from a meeting for wearing an elephant mask, but that that they doubled down on the violation when the used the mask as an excuse to ban me for life.

• I would have told her before she wrote that I "don't follow rules", every "incident" was videotaped and the videotapes were viewed by the judge who didn't buy their claim that I was breaking any rules.  There is no evidence that I broke rules.

• "More than once, he was kicked out" (of meetings) she wrote.  Had she asked me, I would have told her that the leadership of the APS had their Praetorian Guard either removed me or deny me access to more than a dozen meetings all told.  And every one of them was illegal; a violation of my Constitutionally protected human rights to petition my government and to be the press; ever vigilant as it is supposed to be, of incompetence and corruption in government.

• "... and APS cited safety concerns."  Had she asked, I would have told her that the "safety concerns" materialized after the complaints were filed; a cheesy bit of weaselry that is the signature of APS' response to complaints; destroy the complainant.  The incidents in question occurred in a place where there are more cameras and cops per square foot than any other building in the APS, and yet no evidence was ever produced that showed me creating any safety concerns at all; not one photograph, not one audio bite, not one word of unconflicted testimony.

• "MacQuigg has sued before." she wrote.  Had she asked, I would have told her that though I was the plaintiff in those cases, I was in fact defending myself against their relentless retaliation for my efforts to expose the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.  The fact that I won the suits speaks to their legitimacy and necessity more than to my interest in filing lawsuits.

• "He said the settlement is not gratifying because nothing has changed in terms of accountability within APS leadership.  Had she asked me, I would have said

Bingo! You got one right!

Steven Michael Quezada speaks out on settlement

aps image

Actor, comedian and school board member Steven Michael Quezada stepped up tonight for an interview with KRQE, link, regarding the very expensive settlement of my complaints against Marty Esquivel and the board.

He became the first one of them, as far as I can remember, to accuse me of suing them for the money;

“I don’t think that we should settle with people who come to disrupt meetings and use that kind of format to make a living or make money.”

In the first place, I never came to a meeting to disrupt it.  Ever.  If a meeting was disrupted, it was not by me, it was by some board member's reaction to whatever lawful and ethical act I was engaging in.

As far as being in it for the money; if I total just the hours I've spent blogging about their steadfast refusal to hold themselves honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, and divide $95,000 dollars by that number, the "format" paid considerably less than minimum wage.  Never mind the hours I spent preparing for and participating in, public forums at APS school board meetings.

As far as "making money"; if someone had offered to pay me $95,000 to spend a third of my life fighting against some of the most powerful people in Albuquerque in a fruitless effort to hold them accountable for their public service, I would have declined.  It was, and is, a fool's mission.

Quezada thinks I am "disrespectful".

Whether I am or not is moot; disrespectful isn't illegal.
His feeling "disrespected" doesn't justify (in any Constitutional sense) banning me from school board meetings for the rest of my life.

Quezada admitted to KRQE;

“We’re wasting our funds fighting this."

Damn right they are.  Quezada and five other board members knowingly permitted or negligently allowed Marty Esquivel to squander $833,000.00 on a non-viable defense of his ego.


Quezada is disturbed when I walk up to the podium at a public forum and tell anyone who is listening that;

• he and the board are spending operational dollars covering up felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of their publicly funded, private police force. and that

• he and the board  are covering up an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS. and that

• he and the board are shirking their responsibilities as role models of student standards of conduct.

He probably didn't like it when I wrote about the number of school board meetings he misses, link.

And what he really, really doesn't like, is when I stand up at the podium and ask;

Is there even a single one of you who can summon the character and the courage to hold yourself honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct that you establish and enforce upon students?

They don't like it because it makes them feel ashamed. 
They can't summon the character and the courage
to hold themselves actually, honestly accountable
to student standards of conduct,
even for the few hours they are serving as the senior-
most executive role models of student standards of conduct;
ethical standards of conduct.

If we really want APS students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what they look like.  That obligation falls first on leadership; the board and their superintendent.

Not one of them has answered the question, yes.

Ever.

And, they find the questioning "disruptive".

When the question is;

are you willing to step up as a role model? 

any answer except yes, means no.

When asked to step up as a role model,
Steven Michael Quezada's response means no.

Steven Michael Quezada is a coward.

I could not give one shit less what he thinks are my motives.

APS press statement lacks, candor, forthrightness and honesty - not surprisingly

In a statement from APS' million dollar a year public relations department and released by their marketing manager, we find;

“The Albuquerque Public Schools has settled ongoing litigation with Charles MacQuigg who was removed from attending APS Board meetings based on disruptive behavior and not the content of his speech. Due to some adverse court rulings, continued costs of taking this matter to trial and the unavailability of certain witnesses, a difficult decision was made to settle the matter with a majority of the funds coming from insurance proceeds and not from APS operating funds.

MacQuigg will receive $480,000 for his attorney fees and $95,000 for alleged damages after a federal court mediation. APS attorneys’ fees were $288,000, which are counted toward the $350,000 deductible on its insurance policy. Therefore, APS will pay the remaining $62,000 of its insurance deductible toward the settlement, with the remainder of the settlement ($513,000) to be covered by the district’s insurance policy.

The APS Board welcomes input during the public forum of its board meetings to hear from its stakeholders. It welcomes all input but encourages individuals such as MacQuigg to conduct themselves respectfully during Board meetings.”

There are some specific issues;

• my supposed misconduct; A federal court judge watched the videos of my supposed misconduct and ruled in our favor.  There is no videotape, no audio tape, and not one photograph of me being any more disruptive than truth ever is when it is spoken to power.  They don't want to explain, defend, deny or even acknowledge their abandonment of their duties and responsibilities as the senior most role models of student standards of conduct.

• adverse rulings of the court - they were losing.  All they had was a non-viable defense of Marty Esquivel's ego and all the money in the world wasn't going to help.  They did by the way, have all the money in the world to spend in meetings in secret and without real oversight.

• "alleged damages" The damages stopped being alleged when they paid me $95K in compensation for them.

• The "unavailability of certain witnesses".  Who, Winston Brooks and Steven Tellez, both of whose reputations are in tatters?  They're still available and so are their sworn depositions.

• "the majority coming from insurance proceeds" Like the district (taxpayers) aren't going to pay for it in increased premiums.  Insurance companies are not in the business of underwriting million dollar defenses of board member egos.  APS (taxpayers) have already had their premiums raised as the result of inordinately expensive litigation engaged in by the district.

A more candid, forthright and honest statement would have read;

Former APS School Board 
Member Marty Esquivel, 
as the direct result of the 
abject lack of any real 
oversight over the money 
he was spending to avoid 
the personal embarrassment
of being convicted of 
violating my civil rights, 
wasted nearly a million dollars.

It doesn't make a rat's ass worth of difference out of whose pocket the money finally came.

They weren't Marty Esquivel's.




photo Mark Bralley

NM Secretary of State Brad Winter - seriously?

NM Governor Susana Martinez could have appointed any one of a number of highly qualified and honest people.  She choose instead, former APS good ol' boy and city councilor Brad Winter.

For as long as he was APS' COO, Winter hid the truth from stake and interest holders about at the very, very least, two significant issues.



Brad Winter was behind the wheel when the leadership of the APS decided to hide the truth about their squandering of public resources when they fortified and renovated their castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

When the buildings were purchased by taxpayers, the purchase came with a promise;

one of the towers would be rented out to pay for the other. 

The purchase, they promised, was going to save taxpayers' money.

Did Winter spend more than $800 a piece for board member chairs, link?

Instead, there was a stampede, link, that filled both buildings to the gunwales.

The leadership of the APS went wildly over budget making both towers "livable" for senior administrators and school board members.

This during a time when Meyners & Co. auditors found in their finance department, the trifecta of embezzlement, theft and fraud;

1. inadequate standards and
2. inadequate accountability to any standards there were, and
3. inadequate record keeping.

Winter kept the spending under wraps, link.  Deliberately.

If anyone just can't accept that fact, all they have to do to disprove it is to produce a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the squandering of the public trust and treasure in the money pit at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

They can ask Brad Winter for a copy; see what he says.

The other cover up led by Winter, was of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators and the leadership of the APS Police; a public funded private police force; a Praetorian guard if ever their was.  The Journal reported on the scandal in 2007, link.

The leadership of the APS and the APS Police, self-investigated the public corruption and incompetence of their leadership.

They hired lawyers to investigate and keep the truth secret.

They never turned over  to the District Attorney for prosecution;

• evidence of administrative felony criminal abuse of the FCIC database to harass whistle blowers, or

• evidence of administrative felony misappropriation of money in evidence.

The leadership of the APS covered up the scandal by promoting the deputy chief to chief.  This though the deputy chief was fully aware of the corruption and incompetence and never did anything about it.

photo by macquigg

The investigation was conducted by a sergeant who turned over his findings to the corrupt chief, did not keep a copy of his own, did not file a copy anywhere where it still exists, and who is now the Chief of APS Police Steve Gallegos.

He makes nearly $110K double dipping, and keeps his mouth shut about his investigation of the felony criminal misconduct of his chief and deputy chief.

Brad Winter covered it up.  He was there when a decision was made to spend operational dollars, not in classrooms as they were intended by the folks whose dollars they used to be, but spent instead on lawyers and legal weaselry in a, so far, successful effort to hide the truth from stake and interest holders.

He got away with it because the Journal steadfastly refused to investigate and report upon it.

Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz relentlessly refuses investigate and report upon the ethics, standards and accountability crises in the leadership of the APS.

He and his like at the NMBA affiliate stations KRQE, KOAT, and KOB have given aid and abet to the cover ups for as long as I have been trying to get them to expose them.

Walz and the owner/news directors have an obligation as the press (not as the media, as the press) to inform the democracy.  In particular, they have an obligation to inform the democracy in anticipation of elections; elections like the upcoming APS Bond Issue election.

They have chosen another path.

They need to be held accountable.

Who will hold them accountable?
When?
Where? and
How?




photos Mark Bralley

Who is the Equity Advisory Council, and why do they want to lower APS student standards of conduct?

Ever since 1994, APS students have been expected to "model and promote" the Pillars of Character Counts!. The Pillars represent a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

For as long as they have been the student standards of conduct, they have been the standards of conduct for their adult role models as well.  That's how role modeling works.

School board members and superintendents are the senior most administrative role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students. That's what "role modeling" means.

Ten years ago, after about a decade of relentless pressure hold themselves actually and honestly accountable as role models accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!, they abdicated. By unanimous vote, the board struck their role modeling clause from APS School Board Policy. It had read;

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

That reprehensible act created double standards of conduct in APS; one for students and one for board members and superintendents.

• Students are expected to hold themselves honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!; higher standards of conduct than the law; or else forfeit their good character.

• School board members and superintendents are expected to hold themselves accountable only to the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings.*

*In fact, they are not even accountable to the law. They routinely spend fortunes in operational dollars settlements including "admissions of no guilt"; even for those among them who are guilty beyond any reasonable doubt.

The board is about to eliminate the shameful double standard. But not my raising their own. They will not show students what it looks like to hold oneself honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct.

Instead, they intend to lower student standards of conduct. The mention of Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Caring, Fairness and Citizenship will stripped from the student behavior handbook.

No longer will students be expected to model good character;
only that they will be "good members of the community".

The board hasn't the courage to publicly rescind the unanimous resolution to adopt higher standards of conduct for students. They haven't the character and the courage to admit that they haven't the character and the courage to hold themselves honestly accountable as role models honest to God accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!

Or for that matter, will that be held accountable to any standards of conduct that require candid, forthright and honest answers to questions about the public interests and about their public service.

There will be no public comment allowed tomorrow in the District Equity and Engagement Committee Meeting when the board follows the recommendation of the "Equity Advisory Council" the membership list of which is not posted on APS' award winning website, and I cannot find.

Public comment will be "limited" the following day at the public forum during the regular board meeting where the board will administer the coup de grace to any district wide effort to teach students

• not only that there are higher standards of conduct, but that 
• it is in their (and our) best interests that they establish some allegiance to them.

Does "character" count in the leadership of the APS?

The APS School Board is taking another run at removing the Pillars of Character Counts! from their own standards of conduct.

In a meeting of the District Equity and Engagement Committee, link, Tuesday night, the board will attempt again to resolve the problem of double standards of conduct and hypocrisy in the APS, by lowering student standards closer to their own.

Their act is one abject moral cowardice.

Moral cowardice is not new to the board.
The board has a code of ethics of their own, link.
Which is by their own admission, utterly unenforceable.

The APS student standards of conduct are the Pillars of Character Counts!, link.  Because they are the student standards of conduct, they are the standards of conduct of their adult role models.  Else, is naked hypocrisy.

The leadership of the APS would like stake and interest holders to believe that they are accountable as role models.  They are not.  There is not one of them who will use the phrase Character Counts! and role modeling in the same breath.

This isn't so much about Character Counts! as it is about character education in general.

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

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.

If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance. Children must learn to identify the forms and content of those traits.  - William J. Bennett, author and former U.S. Secretary of Education (b. 1943)

If we want students to hold themselves honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct, someone has to show them what (self) accountability looks like.

In 2006, the board voted unanimously to strike 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.

Ever since, there have been two standards of conduct in the APS;

1.  Students are expected to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics.

2.  The record of school board members and senior administrators is that they are demonstrably unaccountable even to the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings.

In July of this year, then Supt. Luis Valentino tried to remove mention of the Pillars in the APS Student Behavior Handbook.  He wanted the Pillars, which have been in the Handbook for two decades, simply erased without discussion, link.

The board thwarted him, link, but have apparently changed their minds in some meeting somewhere sometime that I, who pays close attention to their meeting agendas, never saw on a. to be stricken again.

Now, they're about try it again.

In a meeting where no public input will be allowed, they intend again to strike the Pillars from mention in student standards of conduct.

The change will be approved, apparently, in a meeting the following night, link, depending on the meaning of the word "matters".

They must strike the Pillars from mention because there is not one of them with the character and the courage to hold them self honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students.

I wish there was more public outrage.

I think there would be, except for the Journal's willingness still, to cover up the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

I blame Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz personally, though he can't be alone among editors turning a blind eye to the leadership scandal.

I can't help but notice that the Journal is yet to cover the settlement of lawsuit against the leadership of the APS.  One wonders; why not?




photo Mark Bralley

Should the APS' bond issue be denied?

In fewer than three months, voters will decide whether the leadership of the APS will become the stewards of hundreds of millions more tax dollars.

There are at least two ways to look at it.  First; will the tax dollars benefit the nearly ninety thousand of our sons and daughters in the APS?  A collateral benefit, though one they don't seem ever to want to admit, is the shot in the arm for River City's big builders, and ultimately the entire economy.  Is that enough of a reason to support the issue?

Another way to look at the issue is whether, regardless of all of the good reasons to pass the bond issue, there is trust in the stewardship of the leadership of the APS?  Can they, will they, be good stewards? 

Can we give them hundreds of million dollars to spend on worthy projects and expect them to spend them effectively and efficiently?

The sad truth is that stake and interest holders cannot trust the leadership of the APS to be good stewards of their resources.  They have not been before, they are not now, and there is no reason to expect that they will ever be, good stewards.

The allegation is easy to prove.  The capacity of the leadership of the APS to effectively steward more than a billion tax dollars every year is easily measured;

1.  Are the ethics, standards and accountability that govern the wielding of power and the spending of resources high enough to protect the public interests in the public schools? and

2.  Are school board members and administrators actually, honestly accountable to those standards?

Before the leadership of the APS and the local construction industry ask for another penny, it is reasonable to expect them to

1.  point to ethics and high enough standards that protect the public interests and then to

2.  point to their honest to God accountability to them.

The truth is they have few ethics and high standards.  And even those all but unenforceable.  There isn't one whit of difference between the highest and lowest standards unless there is actual, honest to God accountability to them.

The leadership of the APS is not actually, honestly accountable to any standards of conduct at all; not even the law*.

*Accountability to the law, the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings, can be avoided by school board members and superintendents spending utterly unjustifiable amounts of money on litigation and legal weaselry in order to "admit no guilt" when they break the law.

I cite as but one example;

• the APS Board of Education has a Code of Ethics, link.

• to which they are, by their own admission, utterly unaccountable.  It was unenforceable the night they adopted it and they have done nothing to rectify the situation.  They provide no venue in which any complaints can be filed against them for even the most egregious violations of their own code of ethics.

Stake and interest holders remain uninformed.  In particular, voters remain uninformed about the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

They remain uniformed in no small part, because the heavy hitters in the local media have relentlessly refused for many years, to inform stake and interest holders about the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

The simple proof of that allegation lies in the fact that;

• neither will any one of them report that there isn't an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Not even in the face of a bond issue election worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and where that information could not be more germane.

I believe it is fair to lay blame on Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz, though the news directors (and or owners) of NM Broadcasters Association affiliates KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV are equally worthy of blame.  And all of whom put personal and professional interests before the public interests.




photo Mark Bralley

Coverage of APS settlement begins in ABQ Free Press

in a report by Dennis Domrzalski, link.

APS settles lawsuit

APS has settled three years long litigation over my federal complaints of civil rights violations.

That's all I can say.

Except to extend my
deepest gratitude to
the many people who
offered me their support
at one point or another,
and especially to those
whose support I have
enjoyed throughout.




photo Mark Bralley

Reedy habilitation continues; bond issue promoted

aps photo

Interim APS Supt. Raquel Reedy has posted on APS' award winning website, link, her reaction to the habilitation piece recently provided for her in the Journal, link.

Her reaction included a self assessment;

"I’ve always been a behind-the-scenes kind of person ..."

In previous Journal coverage, link, Reedy admitted;

"I don't have the whole picture, nobody does."

Logically, one can't see "the whole picture" from "behind the scenes".

In that article, Reedy revealed that, in order to mitigate her ignorance of relevant data, she was going to instigate "reviews" of a handful of APS departments.  The issues that the reviews will address remain secret, as do the findings of at least one of the reviews.

The review of APS HR is done.  The findings are not posted on APS' award winning website.  Nor will they be, ever.  They will be made as hard to see, as is "legal".

They are "available for inspection" in APS Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez' office.

You will have to make an appointment.

He will not scan and email them to you.  He claims to not have electronic versions of the records and cannot be compelled under the law (short of litigation) to "create a record".*

*Update; I am now informed that some of the records are available electronically - meaning he will cause them to be written to a CD he is willing to sell me.

Chavez answers to APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta.  Armenta answers (ultimately) to Reedy.  Some one of them decided to make the truth harder to find.

The buck stops on Reedy's desk.

She is knowingly permitting Rigo Chavez to obstruct the production of public records, or is negligently allowing him.

However well Reedy performs behind the scenes, there is no such thing as behind the scenes leadership.

Behind the scenes, behind closed doors leadership is why the leadership of the APS is in the  mess it is.

Right now, Reedy's record is of commissioning a "review" of the spending of public power and resources and then hiding the findings.

She is doing what the leadership of the APS has always done; gather what data you must and the hide it.

Nothing has changed.  Nothing, likely, will.




photos Mark Bralley

APS' Reedy gets Journal blessing; interim superintendency to be short lived

aps photo

If APS interim Supt. Raquel Reedy is going to be APS' next full time superintendent, there seems to be little point in prolonging the process by which that will happen;

• an effort will be made to make stake and interest holders think they have had "input" in the selection, followed by

• a few meetings in secret, after which

• Raquel Reedy will be appointed Superintendent.

If for no other reason than to insure that she be compensated appropriately.

The board would like "the people" to be on board with their next choice and that creates a need.

They can't just outright hire a public relations team to habilitate their selection and, their own public relations team,  Monica Armenta et al, are otherwise engaged.

Enter the Journal, link, feature status; front page, top of the fold support for the board's apparent selection.

This is not about whether Reedy is qualified, a good choice, or perhaps even the best choice, save one aspect; role modeling.

The Journal, let's say Editor in Chief Kent Walz, is on board with the cover up of Reedy's ugliest wart; her abdication from her duties and obligations as the senior most administrative role model of actual, honest to God accountability to the same standards of conduct that the board establishes and she has enforced upon students.

She has not once, any where, any time, stood up and said;

Students (and staff), this is what it looks like to be held honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence*.

*The standards in question happen to be a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.  They are called the Pillars of Character Counts!, link.  Good, bad or indifferent, they were adopted by the board in 1994 and the adoption has been renewed every year since, including this.

There is no such thing as an inconspicuous role model.
The concept is oxymoronic.  If she has never, not once drawn attention to herself (holding herself honestly accountable to ethical standards of conduct), she has never role modeled honest accountability.  None of them have. 

Not since they adopted ethical standards of conduct for students, has a school board member or superintendent showed students what it looks like to be held accountable to ethical standards of conduct.  The school board's own code of ethics, by their own admission, is utterly unenforceable.

It is an important question; if we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what they look like.  That obligation begins at the top, with the school board and their superintendent.

There are those who would rather not consider the question of ethics, standards, accountability and role modeling in the leadership of the APS.  They include every single school board member and every single superintendent they have hired since 1994.

Is Reedy ready to become the senior-most administrative role model of student standards of conduct?

Is she willing to answer the question?

When the question is are you willing to be held honestly accountable as a role model, any answer except yes means no.

No answer means no,; stonewalling means no.

FYI, I have inquired  with APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez;

Is it written anywhere that

The superintendent is a role model for students and their standards of conduct?

By those words or any others, is the superintendent expected to role model accountability to the same standards of conduct established for and enforced upon students - I am talking about of course, the Pillars of Character Counts!.

He had the entire day to respond, and did not, for reasons unknown; he refused to even acknowledge that he had received my email.

Any answer except yes, means no.




photo Mark Bralley