Nobody in the whole APS said a word.

The Meyners Audit
An impartial audit was done on APS' Financial Division.
The Finance Division spends well over a billion tax dollars
every year.

About one fifth of that amount is accessible to graft;

"the acquisition of money, gain, or advantage by dishonest, unfair, or illegal means, esp. through the abuse of one's position or influence in politics, business, etc." link

And has been for a hundred years.

Auditors pointed out that;

1. policies were inadequate and financially unsound,
2. there was not honest accountability to such policies as there were
3. and that records were not being kept, accurate and complete enough to send anyone to jail.

Do the math.

How many millions of tax dollars have been wasted by corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS?

Who knows? And they aren't saying.

The 82 issues identified in the Meyners Audit,
did not pop up the day before the audit.
They have been there for a hundred years.

The point is;

there are people who worked in the APS Finance Division
who knew about the problems and understood the implications.
Not one of those people blew the whistle on the problems.

And now two of them have been promoted to positions from which a cover up could be mounted.

One is now their Chief Financial Officer, and the other
is now the Director of Internal Audits.

Neither will answer the question;

Did the Meyners auditors uncover any criminal misconduct?

Not, who are the criminals, just, did you find any?

I submit as certain;
there is no reason not to tell the (ethically redacted) truth,
except that you are damned by that truth.


The leadership of the APS refuses to just stand still and tell the truth.
They spend a million tax dollars a year on a Monica Armenta version of the truth instead.


If they have nothing to hide,

why won't they name a time, a day, and a place,
where they will sit and answer legitimate questions?

... candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

Journal reports; "APS Offices Can't Be Called Luxe"

There is plenty to be upset about in the report by Journal
reporter Jolene Gutierrez Kruger. link

Among them, several properties which were supposed to have been sold to cover the cost of the $12.45M building purchase, and the $7.2M in remodels, but which are still owned by taxpayers.

Most upsetting, is the story Gutierrez Kruger did not tell;
the story about the new APS board room.

1. Taxpayers still don't know the truth about the cost of the board room. APS big wigs, like COO Brad Winter have a two year long record of refusing to disclose the true cost of the room. I suspect that it was close to a million dollars.

2. Winter and others, have a two year history of refusing of offer any justification at all, for building the room in the first place. Not only does the school board have access to Smith Brasher Hall on the CNM campus, a site they used for years, but, there is a lecture hall in every high school in the city, large enough for board meetings.

It should be pointed out that when the board was actually rotating their meetings among the HS lecture halls, they were much better attended by stakeholders who had only to make their way to their neighborhood school.

Now that the meetings are at the Uptown digs, and begin during the work day, the only people attending board meetings are administrators who are still in the building at 5 o'clock.

3. Gutierrez Kruger also did not write about the other scandal surrounding the board room. At the time a million dollars was being spent on the yet to be justified new board room, students at Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary School were being rained on in portable classrooms that were being used to three times their life expectancy.

Worse still, Winter was part of a plan that ended fire safety inspections in schools, to save hundreds of thousands of dollars that were being spent to remedy fire code violations that were being revealed during those inspections. Hundreds of thousands of dollars that were then spent to pay for the board room.

Gutierrez' story in incomplete. Stakeholders still do not know the truth.

The leadership of the APS still refuses to name a time, a day, and a place where they will respond to legitimate questions, candidly, forthrightly and honestly.

They still refuse to simply tell the truth.

There is only one reason to hide the truth.
The worst thing that any public servant can do
is anything they have to do in secret.

NMRP Chair, Vice Chair, and Rules Committee Chair, avoid ethics inquiry

Allen Weh, Jon Barela and Lou Melvin will not be
the subjects of any ethics investigation over the quashing
of a credible complaint filed against Jon Barela, link.

Basically because none of them is accountable to anyone
who actually gives a rat's ass about their ethical misconduct.

Huge tax savings possible.

We spend a lot of money on education.
The truth is, probably, we are not spending enough.

The problem is not that we are spending too much already.
The problem is that too much is being wasted.

Not just in education, but in every aspect of government.

All waste flows from two wells; incompetence and corruption.

Some part of every one of your tax dollars is wasted because of
the corruption and incompetence in government.

Let's say; 20 cents.

If we decided not to waste those 20 cents, it would be the same
as having 20% more tax money to spend,
without having to raise taxes even one dime.

Government tolerates and enables corruption and incompetence.

It can be made impossibly difficult to be corrupt or incompetent.

All we have to do is to insist upon meaningful standards
of conduct and competence for government employees
from the least powerful to the most.

All we have to do is to insist up honest accountability
to those standards.

Accountability according to a system that is beyond corruption,
and powerful enough
to hold even the most powerful, accountable,
and even against their will.

All we have to do in to insist upon an impartial audit;
every year.

An audit of corruption and incompetence,
an audit of the incompetent and of the corrupt.

An audit that reports directly to the public record.

It can be made impossibly difficult to get away with corruption and incompetence.

If the courthouse project were subject to intense and inevitable forensic auditing,
and everyone knew that up front,

there would not have been tax dollars wasted and
stuffed by handfuls, into people's pockets.

It can be made impossibly difficult to get away squandering the public truth and treasure.

The good ol' boys will not be the ones making it impossibly difficult to get away with being a good ol' boy and sharing in the good ol' booty.


Not without our insistence.

Not without first feeling the heat of our torches, or
the points of our forks.


We have lost control over power and resources that are fundamentally our own.

That control will not be simply given back.

It will have to be taken back against their will.

Torches and pitchforks.
What has deposed a tyrant ever,
except a popular uprising?

NMFOG looks dirty.

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, lists
APS School Board Member, Paula Maes as a director. link

Yet in her capacity as a public official, Paula Maes stands in steadfast opposition to "open APS". She has forbidden any accountability audit that would name names. She stonewalls legitimate questions about the public interests in the APS.

Current APS Board Member Marty Esquivel is also listed as a board member of the NMFOG. In fact, the NMFOG site lists him as a past president.

Yet, Esquivel also stonewalls when the question is asked;

Will you name a time, a day, and a place where you will respond honestly, candidly, and forthrightly to legitimate questions about the public interests in the APS?

Leonard DeLayo, former APS board member, who has his own APS secrets to hide, admitting once being the target of NMFOG inquiries; is now the Executive Director of NMFOG. DeLayo reports that Paula Maes was instrumental in his movement in to the directorship of the NMFOG. link

One of APS' biggest secrets is the relationship between APS and the Modrall law firm. Modrall lawyer Patrick Rogers sits on the Executive Committee of the NMFOG; a position from which NMFOG's assistance, in compelling the surrender of the public records of the APS Modrall relationship, can be withheld.

Since when does "open government" not include telling the ethically redacted truth?

How exactly does this work? How do public servants who refuse to surrender the truth to public knowledge, get to run a Foundation for Open Government?

How do they get away with such egregious hypocrisy?

Perhaps because Journal Editor Kent Walz,
who steadfastly refuses to report on the ethics and
accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS,
also sits on the board of the NMFOG.

Perhaps because TH Lang, publisher of the Journal, is also a member.

KOB, KOAT, and KRQE, are all NMFOG members in some capacity.

From the NMFOG website;

NMFOG was created to fill a specific need because public officials and public agencies in New Mexico were--and some still are--often disdainful of the public's right to know and of the laws intended to insure public access to government decision-making.(emphasis added)

unless of course, those officials happen to work for the APS/Modrall;

an apparently exempt public agency.

The first time you stand up at a public forum

Your knees may wobble, your voice may crack,
you will feel very intimidated.

You will be looking up into the eyes of your servants,
they will be looking down at you.

In more ways than one.

The second time will be easier.
The third time will be easier still.

A few simple facts

In no particular order

1. Winston Brooks will not tell the truth; he refuses to set a time, a day, and a place where he will sit and respond to any legitimate question; candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.
2. Winston Brooks will not allow an independent standards and accountability audit of the APS.
3. An independent audit would reveal a widespread and deeply rooted lack of accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.
4. An independent audit would reveal that likely millions of tax dollars are wasted in the APS annually. And that, that waste flows from corruption and incompetence.
5. The Meyners Audit revealed that a billion tax dollars a year have been spent

   • without adequate written financially sound policies,
   • without adequate accountability, and
   • without keeping records accurate and complete enough to send anyone to jail.

6. Council of the Great City Schools audits revealed that;
   
   
   • administrative evaluations in the APS were subjective and unrelated to promotion or step placement, and that
   • anyone who tried to hold any of them accountable for their misconduct or incompetence would fall victim in a "culture of ... retribution and retaliation".
   
   
7. An independent audit would reveal self exception from accountability even to the law. Their record is of taxpayer funded litigation against the public interest, and in defense of their self exception to the law.
8. Winston Brooks, the senior most administrative role model of the student standard of conduct, refuses to be held actually accountable as a role model.
9. There is not a single senior administrator in the entire APS, who will stand up as a role model of the student standard of conduct.
10. There is not a single member of the APS board of education, who will stand up as a role model of the student standard of conduct
    
11. They struck language from their code of conduct which read;

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

12. The school board's "code" of ethics" is by their own admission, completely unenforceable.
    

No one in the entire leadership of the APS has ever refuted
even one of these facts.

The Journal, a newspaper of record,
steadfastly refuses to report even one of these facts
to voter stakeholders.

Larry Barker has not investigated even one of these facts.

One "fact" is in dispute.
I would argue that it is a fact that
stonewalling is unethical because it is dishonest.
There are those who would argue otherwise.
But not on the record.

Everyone, that I have ever accused of anything,
has, and has always had,
the opportunity to refute anything that I have ever written.
They could not, and they will not, because they cannot.

As for myself in these matters;
I will respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly to
any legitimate question, that anyone cares to ask.

APS Director of Communications, ignorant

Rigo Chavez would have us believe that he doesn't know
the name of the private investigation firm that did an independent investigation of the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS Police Department.

When asked, repeatedly, for the name of the firm, Chavez
repeatedly dodged the question. Now he has acknowledged
the question but claims the need to do time wasting research;

"With regard to your request for information on a contract with a private investigation firm that conducted an investigation into the dealings of the APS Police Department in 2006-07, I have asked the APS Risk Management to gather that information and will let you know when it is ready for you to inspect."

The whole idea here, is to keep everything secret until statutes of limitation have expired, and APS good ol' boys can no longer be prosecuted for their misconduct, including felony criminal misconduct.

When given repeated opportunities to assign any other explanation for the almost two year delay in getting evidence of felony criminal misconduct to the DA for prosecution,

Winston Brooks continues to stonewall.


cc Winston Brooks upon posting.

A new test for APS' Director of Communications, Rigo Chavez

APS Director of Communications,
Rigo Chavez,

What was the total cost to tax payers
for the entire Celebrate the 8! effort?

And, what specifically did we learn that justified that investment?



cc Rigo Chavez upon posting.
The following email was sent to Rigo Chavez

Mr. Chavez,

Please respond to the following.

http://ched-macquigg.blogspot.com/2008/11/new-test-for-aps-director-of.html

You may respond directly to the record by posting your response as a comment on this post.

ched macquigg

He will or will not respond by comment on this post.
Likely, he will not.
Readers can, and should, draw their own conclusions
about what Rigo Chavez' stonewalling of this request
really means.

What did we learn from the Celebrate the 8! tour?

APS Supt Winston Brooks expended a great deal of time and public resources to underwrite his recent tour of the district.

At a time when he is so far behind the 8-ball in his office
that he doesn't even know if he has

"... too many administrators, too many teachers,
or too many custodians ..." on the payroll.

He heard a lot of things that he already knew; things we all
already knew.

And he heard some things that came as a surprise to him
and millions of dollars worth of senior APS administrators.

Which begs a question;

What is the single most important thing that Winston Brooks learned on tour, and was it worth the expense of finding it?

At a time when he and those same administrators could have
been in their offices trying to figure out if the APS have

"... too many administrators, too many teachers,
or too many custodians ..."

A test; I will ask Rigo Chavez to tell the truth about the overall cost to tax payers for the tour including administrative and staff salaries, handouts and cookies, and
I will ask APS' Director of Communication what new thing we learned for our investment.

Readers can follow up here link.

A schmoozing we will go, a schmoozing we will go, High-ho the dairy-oh, a schmoozing we will go.

Fresh off his Celebrate the 8! tour,
Winston Brooks is off on the Brown Bag Tour.

Under different circumstances, this would be alright.
A school district superintendent should be out schmoozing;

"Conversing casually,
especially in order to gain an advantage or
make a social connection." link

Schmoozing is only acceptable if it is honest.

Winston Brooks is trying to create an image with stakeholders;
he wants to look open and accessible, and honest.

The truth is that he is hiding the ethically redacted truth about a number of scandals involving the highest ranking members of the leadership of the APS.

The truth is that, Rigo Chavez won't reveal even the name of the private investigation firm that gathered evidence of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators in the scandal in their Praetorian Guard; the APS Police Department.

And that secrecy is just fine with Winston Brooks.

As is the secrecy surrounding the likely missing millions of tax dollars revealed by the Meyners Audit.

As is the secrecy surrounding the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, and their steadfast refusal to allow any audit that names names.

As is the secrecy surrounding the administrative role modeling of the student standard of conduct scandal.

A schmoozing we will go, a schmoozing we will go,

High-ho the dairy-oh, a schmoozing we will go.

cc Winston Brooks upon posting.

The elephant in the room at the NMRP

Somebody flipped on the light switch and Jon Barela
and Allen Weh are standing there with their pants down.


Jon Barela, left, allegedly broke the rules of the NMRP.
Although it seems silly to use the word "allegedly" at this point.

Barela has had more than a month to explain, defend, deny, or even acknowledge his "alleged" violation of the rules; running against other republicans without vacating his state office in the NMRP.

There is only one reason to stone wall.
Stonewalling is the only defense of an indefensible position.

Colonel Allen Weh, right, is in command.

His obligation to enforce the rules has gone unmet.
The trust placed in him to protect the interests of stakeholders
has been betrayed.

Barela will not be held accountable for breaking the rules.

Weh will not be held accountable for not holding Barela accountable.



If this is not good ol' boys covering each others asses, what is?

If this is not corruption, what is?



photo by Mark Bralley link

The New Mexico Educators Ethics Bureau; not.

I once filed a complaint with the NM Educators Ethics Bureau.

The complaint was against Beth Everitt.

I argued that her deliberate refusal to be held honestly accountable as a role model of an ethical code of conduct,

was unethical.

I was told that

APS has lawyers; So I am sure they are not doing anything wrong.

among other things;
link State Auditor Balderas' mettle will be tested in a fight with Maes Modrall.
link New Mexico Educator Ethics (Shmethics) Bureau
link NMPED investigation; corrupt, incompetent, or both?
link So what ever happened to Elsy Fierro?
link APS Official Seeks Ethics Hearing
link the face of corruption and incompetence?
link Did Beth Everitt escape the NMPED "investigation" due to juice in the Governor's Office? and
link Gradegate; Final Score

NM State Statute 10-16-3. Ethical Principles of Public Service

NM State Statute 10-16-3 reads in significant part;

B. Legislators, public officers and employees shall conduct themselves in a manner that justifies the confidence placed in them by the people, at all times maintaining the integrity and discharging ethically the high responsibilities of public service.
(emphasis added)

and is available in it's entirety at link

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education,
"public officers", one and all, refuse to tell the truth*.

That refusal is unethical.

It is unethical by any reasonable definition of the concept of ethical behavior. It is unethical according to the standard of conduct that the board established for, and enforces upon, students in the Albuquerque Pubic Schools.

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education is not discharging ethically the high responsibilities of public service; in blatant and egregious disregard of the law.

A writ of mandamus, link, ought to compel them to tell truth.


It would be nice if a lawyer would help me prepare, pro bono,
a writ of mandamus.

It would be nice to have some help with the filing fee ($120)
as well.

*They steadfastly refuse to name a time, a day, and a place where they will stand up and answer legitimate questions, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

I once asked the clerk at the NM Second Judicial District Court, how many prosecutions have been pursued under
the, at least 40 year old law.

Her reply;

"None. I guess it has never been necessary."

What a hoot.

Jon Barela has a snowball's chance in hell

of becoming the next Chairman of the Republican Party
of New Mexico.

His only interest, at this point, in avoiding a rules committee hearing, stems from his unwillingness to take his "perp walk". wikilink.

He would rather his record not reflect that
he was removed from state office for breaking the rules.

And good ol' boys don't do perp walks anyway.

It's just not the way they roll.

Allen Weh too, would like to avoid the perp walk
for failing to enforce the rules in his command.

He too, would like to see the hearing take place after he leaves.

Or, even better, no hearing will take place at all.
Some good ol' boy will say the words that substitute for
accountability for the good ol' boys;

Let's forget about the past and look to the future.

In other words, no accountability for the good ol' boys;
they will slide, consequence free.

Self exception to the rules is the privilege of the privileged class.



It is important that we stop letting good ol' boys continue to
self-except themselves from accountability to the rules, and
from the consequences of breaking the rules.

Ignoring their misconduct just encourages more of it.

What the hell, and while were at it.

Why not call for the immediate resignation of
APS Superintendent Winston Brooks?

Superintendent Brooks

Either give us a time, a day and a place where
you will respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly
to legitimate questions about your steadfast refusal to
be held honestly accountable as a role model of
the Student Standards of Conduct

or;

resign.

cc Winston Brooks upon posting, at superintendent(at)aps.edu

Is it fair to hold Winston Brooks responsible?

APS' Custodian of Public Records, Rigo Chavez
has a record of obfuscating the surrender of public records
to public knowledge.

He has a record of ignoring simple requests for information.
I have asked three times now, for the name of the private
investigation firm that conducted the investigation of the
public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership
of the APS (police dept). He is yet to surrender the truth.

So is Winston Brooks ultimately responsible for this effort to hide the truth from stakeholders?

I would argue that he is. It is difficult to imagine Rigo Chavez as rogue administrator trampling company policy and state law,

in order to cover the asses of the likes of Beth Everitt,
Tom Savage, and Gil Lovato.

And Darren White.

So is it Winston Brooks' will, that
Rigo Chavez hide the truth from public knowledge?

I think it is.

It would be consistent with Winston Brooks' steadfast refusal
to stand still and answer legitimate questions about the public interest, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

Winston Brooks is totally responsible for APS' failure to be honest with stakeholders.

The buck stops on Winston's Brooks' desk.



cc Winston Brooks upon posting, at superintendent(at)aps.edu

REQUEST FOR PUBLIC RECORDS

The following request was just emailed to APS' Custodian of Public Records, Rigo Chavez.

He will ignore my request for a return receipt because that's just not the way he rolls.

To: Custodian of Public Records,
Albuquerque Public Schools

From: Charles MacQuigg, (address)

This constitutes a request for all documents, papers, letters, books, maps, tapes, photographs, recordings and other materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, that are used, created, received, maintained or held by or on behalf of any APS and relate to public business, whether or not the records are required by law to be created or maintained and excluding any records whose request is prohibited by any agreement between myself and APS.

1. All recordings of the regular school board meeting of 2/07/07
2. All recordings of the regular school board meeting of 11/5/07

My preference is that these be furnished in the form of a CD/DVD.

3. Any public record which contains the name of the private investigation firm that conducted an investigation of the APS Police Department in late 2006, and or early 2007. (one page will suffice)

4. any pages from the contract with that firm (item 3), that describe any stipulations regarding confidentiality, and or, dissemination of their findings.

cc Winston Brooks upon posting

"The most important decision any group can make, is their decision about how decisions will be made.

It should also be their first." unk

The Republican Party of New Mexico is about to regroup.

Apparently those who were driving the bus when it left the road
intend to be the ones who pick the next driver.

Will the game begin before the rules of the game are written?

Where in the process, is any respect for the opinions of the
great unwashed? Is this to remain the party of the few?



It is too early to make any decisions at all,
except for the decision about how decisions will be made.

Allen Weh; the call for his immediate resignation

Blogger Monahan reports link that Allen Weh is looking for
character and integrity in his replacement as
Chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico.

In the meantime, he and Lou Melvin, NMRP Rules Committee
Chairperson, are up to their eyeballs in the cover up of a complaint filed with the Rules Committee of the NMRP over the apparent misconduct of NMRP First Vice Chair, Jon Barela.

It is time for Allen Weh to demonstrate that there is
character and integrity in the leadership of the NMRP
already, by acknowledging the complaint against Jon Barela.

In the absence of any acknowledgment of the complaint from
Allen Weh, Lou Melvin, or anyone else in the leadership
of the NMRP, I would argue that there is not enough
character and integrity and moral courage in the leadership
of the NMRP, for them to participate in the selection of
their replacements.

In the interests of the party, they should give the legitimate
complaint its due process or resign.


cc Allen Weh upon posting.
He will be allowed, of course, to post any rebuttal he might
have, as a comment on this post.




Important update from Peter St. Cyr's site link