The ethically redacted truth

The leadership of the APS has not told stakeholders the truth
about the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the
leadership of the APS (Police Department).

They have the opportunity to surrender an ethically redacted
truth to stakeholders.

They will not.

There is a reason that they will not be candid, forthright, and
honest with stakeholders.

It is because they have something to hide.

Letter to Asst. NMAG Shandler

September 10, 2008

Zachary Shandler
Assistant Attorney General

Sir,

Enclosed please find a copy of a public records request.

Although these are different records from the case, to which you
are assigned, the refusal to accommodate my disability, is the same.

The accommodation that I request; that I be allowed to leave
a cash deposit, and then to take and return the records to their
office, works for taxpayers and it works for me.

Their refusal is completely unjustified except in retaliation for
my request for public records.

I really need some help here. Is the Attorney General going
to sit by and do nothing while APS Modrall litigates their
exception to the law?

Grateful for your time and attention

Charles MacQuigg

REQUEST FOR PUBLIC RECORDS

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

A return receipt was requested (Mr. Chavez will have the opportunity to check a box on the email to let me know that he has received it. He will not because, as he says,

it's just not the way he rolls).

Winston Brooks will be copied.


To: Custodian of Public Records, Albuquerque Public Schools

From: Charles MacQuigg, address ____ phone __

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.

Mr. Chavez,

This constitutes a request for public records surrounding the investigations of the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department in and around January 2007. It includes a request for all public records of any investigations or audits that were made necessary in following through on a complete investigation of APS institutionally and individually.

With Gil Lovato's notice that he is dropping his suit against the APS, it should no longer be necessary for the APS to keep that report secret from public knowledge.

In particular, I am requesting the opportunity inspect the report from the private investigator of the scandal.

In particular, I am requesting any public records of public records that were surrendered to Bernalillo District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, or any other agency of law enforcement as a result of the investigations.

And, I insist that you accommodate my disability in allowing me to inspect and or copy them.

It is not your place to diagnose my disability. You do not have the authority to diagnose my disability.

The accommodation; that I be allowed to surrender a cash deposit, and that I be allowed to take and return the records to your office, is an absolutely reasonable accommodation.

The accommodation saves man hours and tax dollars.
There is no good and ethical reason to refuse that accommodation.
The refusal serves no purpose but to make it more expensive
for tax payers and more difficult for me to exercise my right
to inspect and or copy public records.

Please let me know at your earliest opportunity, if there is anything about this request
that makes it unworthy of your immediate compliance with the request.

cc Winston Brooks, Asst. NMAG Zachary Shandler

Albuquerque Journal(istic) malpractice

In three days, it will be one day too late for anyone to place
their name in the hat for the vacancy in APS school board district 7.

Still, the Journal has made no attempt to inform stakeholders
that the position is open, or the about the process that is being
used to fill the vacancy, with a crony of school board head
honcho Paula Maes Modrall. link link

Edward M. Fouhy, wrote;

Civic journalism is about providing people with the news and information they need to allow them to function as citizens, to make the decisions they are called on to make in a democratic society.

In research into the relationship of newspapers and democracy, a few things become apparent. One is that newspapers are a dinosaur; the internet provides "better news" faster. There are some kinds of news, local human interest stories, that are not likely to be covered as thoroughly by bloggers. But, on stories of more global interest, one can find higher quality articles with more variety by simply googling a topic, than any newspaper is capable of offering.

If one googles "APS school board race", one finds no information that would allow them to participate in the current process, or in the process ever.

After Jon Barela, Modrall lawyer is appointed by the board to bolster their defense against an audit of APS Modrall, the editors of the Journal will lament the fact that only one candidate applied.

And after the February School Board Election of four of the seven seats on the board, the Journal editors will lament the fact that nobody showed up for the election.

Either they can see the connection between the Journal's decision not to inform stakeholders about what is going on in the school board elections, or they just want to point the finger of blame in a different direction.

There is overwhelming evidence that the Journal is covering up the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS. If I could afford a lawyer, I would be inclined to sue the Journal for "journalistic malpractice", if for no other reason than to force them to articulate their refusal to provide stakeholders with the information that they need to participate meaningfully in a decision that affects their interests.

The person, whomever s/he is at the Journal, who has
decided to protect the corrupt and the incompetent in
the leadership of the APS, deserves a front row seat in
the special hell for corrupt journalists;

and be forced to read nothing but the Journal
for the rest of eternity.

The Albuquerque Journal continues cover-up of board vacancy.

According to promises made on the APS website, the Journal
has been told about the vacancy in APS school board district 7.

A process is underway to fill the seat that Gordy Rowe is finally
formally vacating.

In a two page spread on "schools", which begins with a report
on testing, link sub req, stakeholders are informed about the
important and the unimportant clear down to what schools
will be serving for lunch this week.

But readers are not informed of a vacancy on the board, or
about the process by which another stakeholder might put
their name in the hat; a process which closes in three days.

The fewer people that know about the vacancy, the fewer
people will pay attention, and the easier it will be for the
board to install Modrall lawyer, Jon Barela, who will join with
the board in obstructing an impartial audit of the relationship
between the APS and school board head honcho, Paula Maes'
husband's law firm, the Modrall, which makes millions of dollars
litigating against the public interest and protecting APS
administrators from the consequences of their incompetence and
corruption, and from accountability even to the law.

Winston Brooks ignoring complaint against Rigo Chavez

I "filed" a complaint against APS Custodian of Public Records.
Rigo Chavez, with Winston Brooks, c.o. "superintendent(at)aps.edu."

The complaint, that Rigo Chavez is ignoring a reasonable
request for an accommodation of a disability, in the
examination of pubic records, is going ignored.

Winston Brooks did not answer the complaint with any defense,
explanation or even acknowledgment; he simply ignored it.

All of which illustrates my point; that there is no venue for
filing a complaint against an APS administrator where a
principled resolution of the complaint is guaranteed, or even
suggested.

The leadership of the APS is a good ol' boys club, and they
cover each others asses.

And if you don't like it, you can sue them. You will find yourself
in court fighting against the most powerful law firm in the state,
Modrall, who enjoys a virtually unlimited supply of tax dollars
that they can use to litigate against the public interests by
providing exception to the law for APS administrators.

cc Winston Brooks, @ superintendent(at)aps.edu.

Gil Lovato drops lawsuit against APS

In the Journal's Around the Metro Area section; link sub req.

Former APS Chief of Police, Gil Lovato has announced that he
is dropping his lawsuit against the APS.

Lovato's career in the APS ended after allegations of public
corruption and criminal conspiracy surfaced in the APS
police department almost two years ago.

Actually it ended six months after the allegations became
public. He was kept on paid leave until his contract expired;
a move which cost taxpayers about $35K, and kept Lovato
out of a courtroom where he said he would spill the beans on
the leadership of the APS. He and his attorney Sam Bregman
had announce that if Lovato ever got to court and told the
truth about the corruption and incompetence in the leadership
of the APS, there wouldn't be a single senior APS administrator
left standing.

In fact, two of APS most senior administrators, Beth Everitt and
Tom Savage both ended their careers in the APS shortly after
the many problems in the leadership of the APS came to the
attention of stakeholders.

Two senior administrators down, who knows how many to go?

An impartial audit would answer that question, but school
board head honcho Paula Maes, and the new superintendent
Winston Brooks say that audit will never happen.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg is
apparently of the same persuasion; two years later and she
is stilling sitting on the evidence of public corruption and
criminal conspiracy, trying to decide if a crime was committed.

Mesa del Sol and the APS continue to dance.

In the Journal this morning, link sub req, we read that;

Mesa del Sol really doesn't want to have anything to do with
the APS. They have to promise their clients good schools, and
good schools are a promise that APS cannot keep in its own
schools.

It will cost about $140M to build schools in Mesa del Sol.

Fees collected from each house built, coupled with bonding
capacity cover all but about $35M, that either Mesa del Sol
or the APS is going to have to make up.

Mesa del Sol would like to have their cake and eat it too;
they would like to have decent schools that are not possible
if they are run by the APS, so they want to run them themselves
but they would like to have APS pay to build them.

Mesa del Sol says it can come up with the $35M on their own.

So why are they still dancing?

Marty Esquivel's real motive is in question.

APS school board member, Marty Esquivel is concerned by
the behavior that he has witnessed at APS athletic events.
He is justifiably concerned.

So he has written himself a set of rules to be enforced upon
students and parents.

Every behavior that is prohibited or expected as a result of
his rules, is already prohibited and expected under the
existing student standards of conduct.

If adult visitors were simply told, you are expected to set
an example for your children; if they were simply told,
you are expected to be role models of the student standard
of conduct, every behavior that Marty Esquivel says he
wants to prohibit or encourage, would be prohibited or
encouraged.

The only difference is, under his plan, no one is required to be
honest.

When an official asks a fan, child or adult, did you throw
that plastic bottle at a player?

neither the adult nor the child has to answer candidly,
forthrightly and honestly.

Marty Esquivel cannot afford to bring attention to the
existing student standard of conduct because he cannot
afford to bring attention to the Pillar of Trustworthiness
and the obligation he shares with the rest of the leadership
of the APS to model and promote honesty.

He has invented a new set of rules in order that when you
ask him a legitimate question about the public interest,
he will not be accountable to any standard of conduct which
requires him to answer candidly, forthrightly and honestly.

He will not allow himself to be held honestly accountable as
a role model of the student standard of conduct,
not even for the measly few hours a day that he enforces
that standard upon 89,000 of our sons and daughters.

cc Marty Esquivel upon posting.

Are the APS top heavy?

If you ask the leadership of the APS if it is top heavy,
if it employs more administrators and staff than it really needs,

they will tell you that, the administration of the APS is
statistically similar, or better than, the other statistically
similar districts to which they are statistically similar.

But what if Tucson, and the other statistically similar
school districts, are also top heavy.?

Is there any good reason not to suppose that
all school districts are top heavy?


The only way the you will determine if the APS is top heavy,
is to do an audit of the business model.

Surely there are "experts" who can come into an enterprise
such as a school district, and look for sound business practices;
adequate standards of conduct and competence, and
actual accountability to those standards.

And then they would report back to the public record.

Winston Brooks would have you believe that he has the
skill set and the determination to do such an audit on his own
administration.

Winston Brooks would argue that he, himself, can do what
any impartial auditor could do.


We will give Winston Brooks the benefit of the doubt.
We will assume that he has the skill set and the determination
to do an accountability audit on the administration of the
public trust and treasure, by the leadership of the APS.


The only difference then, between an honest impartial audit
of the administration of the APS, and Winston Brooks' audit
of the the administration of the APS,

will be that the results of Winston Brooks' audit will remain secret;

even in violation of the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

Their exception to the law will be litigated at taxpayer expense,
at great tax payer expense, by the lawyers from the school
board head honcho, Paula Maes' husband's law firm, the Modrall.



cc. superintendent(at)aps.edu upon posting.

APS elementary school bucks the odds.

The Journal's Andrea Schoellkopf has a headline article in the
paper this morning. link sub req.

Eubank ES, "against all odds", has seen some real success in
dealing with an economically impoverished student body.

Schoellkopf's article credits the success at Eubank to five
traits that are apparently common to all schools that beat
the odds;

1. teacher collaboration,
2. community involvement,
3. focus on student work,
4. effective use of instructional time, and
5. teacher professional development.

It is worth noting that a burgeoning administrative staff
at the Uptown Administrative Center is not listed among
the influences credited in the success.

Despite the recurring evidence that delegating decision making
power and resources to the educational interface, (where
students and the system come face to face) is responsible for
real success, that delegation never seems to make it into
district policy.

The leadership of the APS in fact, stands foursquare against
the delegation of power and resources which they enjoy
spending personally.

In fact, Winston Brooks lists among his cures for a failing school
district, the re consolidation of the district's decision making
power and resources back into the Uptown Complex.

The misdirection of decision making power and resources is
enabled by the fact that the leadership of the APS will not
allow itself to be put into a position where they have to defend
anything that they do.

They refuse to put themselves in a situation where they can
be expected to answer all legitimate questions candidly,
forthrightly and honestly.

They refuse to put themselves in a position where they have
to explain why all schools in the district are not benefiting
from the movement of power and resources to the place
where they are most needed.

Which unfortunately, makes Eubank ES a fluke, and not
a sign of a changing dynamic in the APS in general.

Winston Brooks good with 5 of 6 Pillars of Character Counts!

The student standard of conduct in the APS consists of
accountability to the six Pillars of Character.

APS' senior most administrative role model of the student
standard of conduct; Winston Brooks has no problem with
5 of the 6 Pillars.

If you asked Winston Brooks to hold himself honestly accountable to the Pillars of Respect, Responsibility, Citizenship, Caring and Fairness, he would likely agree.

However if you ask Winston Brooks if he is willing to hold himself accountable to the Pillar of Trustworthiness;
he will not even answer the question.

Winston Brooks will not allow himself to be held honestly accountable to any standard of conduct that requires him to respond to legitimate questions candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

None of them will.
Not Paula Maes/Modrall,
not Mary Lee Martin,
not Berna Facio,
not Delores Griego,
not Robert Lucero, and
not Gordy Rowe/Jon Barela.

Not even Marty Esquivel.



Because they have something to hide.



cc "superintendent(at)aps.edu" upon posting

Real reform in government

Each of us has an interest in the outcome of decisions on; pork barrel spending, ethics reform, the war in Iraq, gun control, abortion, education, governmental corruption, foreign policy, …

None of us has any individual effect on the outcomes of decisions on any of those issues.

At best we vote for a candidate who agrees with our positions on the most issues; at the expense of a vote cast against our position on every other issue.

There is no legitimate agenda that does not move forward
on the day that every citizen's personal agenda makes a
difference in the final decision.

It if fair to ask then, not only which candidate agrees with you most, but also which candidate offers the greatest likelihood of reforming government in a direction that pays attention to your individual interests?

The choice appears clear; McCain/Palin.

Do you really believe that Obama/Biden is more likely to
go to Washington to shake things up, and put you in charge
of your government?

Single issue politics

I have always believed that single issue politics is mistaken.

I have rethought the premise and now offer;

the candidate(s) that promise reform of the system
are the ones we must support.

I really don't believe that any of us
has a seat at the table where decisions are made.

Without a seat at the table, our opinion on any single issue
will remain nothing more than our opinion.

Governmental reform is a tide that lifts all boats.

There is no legitimate political agenda that does not move
forward on the day that, our individual opinions on issues
actually make a difference in the decision about the issues.


McCain/Palin promises reform more convincingly than
Obama/Biden promises, real honest to God governmental reform.

imho

This is what Winston Brooks actually said;

in response to the question;

Why is there not an impartial full scale
accountability audit of the entire APS
already underway?

"Until such time as I determine that
there are improprieties with the District systems
or individuals, there is no reason to spend
additional tax payer money
in doing a full scale audit of the District."
Moreover,
I am in the process of turning over every single rock
within the District and where I see the need for
change, change will be made.

Background; when Winston Brooks sent that response to me,
I emailed him back, and asked him if he would like to discuss
my objections to his answer, before I wrote about them here.

He chose not to respond to the offer.

Therefore his response stands and I am at liberty to point
to the flaws.

1. The response is a one way street. As usual, APS says what
it wants to say and then declines any follow up questions. It
is a dishonest way to communicate. There is no reason to hide
from follow up questions, if he has nothing to hide.

2. Winston Brooks wrote;

"Until such time as I determine that there are
improprieties ... there is no reason ... (to do)
a full scale audit of the District."

Winston Brooks is implying that he has found no improprieties.

The premise is patently absurd.
He found no improprieties in the APS Finance Division?
A division which according to the Meyners Audit was
spending a billion tax dollars a year;

1. without adequate policies and procedures, and
2. without adequate accountability to policies and procedures, and
3. without keeping adequate records on the spending of those tax dollars.

Those are not improprieties?

Two subordinates who should have blown the whistle on the problems in the Finance Division, but did not, have since been promoted to two senior positions in the repair/cover up of the problems in the division.

That is not an impropriety?

Every impartial audit ever done on any division of the administration of the APS has revealed serious administrative shortcomings.

Those are not improprieties?

The only division of the APS that has never been audited
is the Leadership Division.

Former APS Police Chief Gil Lovato said; if they ever are
audited, there won't be a single APS senior administrator
left standing.

And that does not point to any improprieties?

No one has ever looked at the conduct and competence of
board members, the superintendent,
the deputy superintendents, and the deputies' deputies.

There has never been an impartial audit of the leadership of the APS. And APS school board head honcho Paula Maes Modrall says; there never will be.

3. Winston Brooks wrote;

"I am in the process of turning over every single rock
within the District ..."

and he has found no improprieties?


4. Winston Brooks wrote;

"... where I see the need for
change, change will be made (trust me).

Winston Brooks has no right to ask us to trust him.
Winston Brooks has even less right to demand that
we trust him, and expect no other corroboration.

How can we trust a man who admits accountability to
no standard of conduct that requires trustworthiness?

By his own deliberate choice; he is not honestly accountable
to the student standard of conduct, and most particularly
he is not accountable to the Pillar of Trustworthiness.


By his own deliberate choice! !!

cc. Winston Brooks upon posting.

Community questions for candidates for the District 7 seat on the APS school board.

According the APS board office

Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 6:30 p.m.;
Location: La Cueva’s Performing Arts Center, 7801 Wilshire NE Facilitated community forum. Process will include a professional facilitator. Community members may submit questions to candidates. The number and length of questions asked will be determined by the format of the meeting. The format of the meeting depends on the number of applicants and will be predetermined and communicated to candidates in the confirmation letter; however, each applicant will have a set time to make an opening statement and a closing statement. Input from the community will be tabulated and provided to the Board of Education for their consideration prior to Friday, September 26. (emphasis added)

This will be interesting.

The last time the leadership of the APS promised community members the opportunity to ask questions, during the superintendent hiring process, community members did not actually get to ask specific questions.

The questions that were submitted by attendees were filtered,
to weed out potentially difficult questions;

questions like;

As the senior most administrative role model of the student standard of conduct, do you intend to be held honestly accountable to that standard?

No candidate heard that question asked.
None were required to respond to it on the record.

Although they did read the question on a fairly large poster
less than 10 feet from their faces.

No candidate responded to the question.

Winston Brooks still has not responded to the question.
Nor has any member of the school board.
Nor has any other member of the administration of the APS.

It will be interesting to see what "professional facilitator" means.
The last time I saw an APS meeting facilitated,
it was by an APS administrator.

It is not the qualifications as a facilitator that play here,
it is their impartiality.


Update;I have heard from the school board office that;
their facilitator reserves the right to reword questions
to suit her needs. There is no guarantee, and apparently
very little likelihood, therefore, that the board's candidate will
have to answer any question specifically regarding their
willingness, or not, to be held honestly accountable as
a role model of the students standard of conduct; even
for the few hours a day that they are public servants and
enforcing that standard of conduct upon students.

In other words; same old, same old.

Time line for filling the District 7 seat on the APS school board

In particular, I would like to call you attention to Wednesday September 24.

Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education
District 7 Board Member Appointment Plan
August-October 2008
Plan approved by Board of Education on August 22, 2008.

Date Action
Friday, August 22, 2008 Board approval of appointment process, timeline, resolution, notice, application questionnaire, and interview/voting process.

Week of August 25, 2008
(Notice: August 26)
(Web Info: August 22)
(Chambers:
Greater ABQ Chamber Monday News – Aug. 25;
ABQ Hispano Chamber –
TBA for newsletter)
(All other, such as schools in District 7: Sept 2 - 5)
Notice of Vacancy published in the Albuquerque Journal. Information for Applicants, Notice of Vacancy, and District 7 map published on website. Notice of vacancy sent to government officials, chambers, media, and schools in District 7.

Applications and information posted online and available at the reception desk for walk-ins.

Board Duties and Responsibilities. According to Section 22-5-4, NMSA, the authority and duties of the Board are:
• Develop educational policies for the school district,
• Employ a local superintendent for the school district and set the superintendent’s salary,
• Review and approve the annual school district budget,
• Acquire, lease and dispose of property,
• Have the capacity to sue and be sued,
• Acquire property by eminent domain pursuant to the procedures provided in the Eminent Domain Code (42A-1-1 NMSA 1978)
• Issue general obligation bonds of the school district,
• Provide for the repair of and maintain all property belonging to the school district,
• For good cause and upon order of the district court, subpoena witnesses and documents in connection with a hearing concerning any powers or duties of the local school board,
• Except for expenditures for salaries, contract for the expenditure of money according to the provisions of the Procurement Code (13-1-28 NMSA 1978),
• Adopt rules pertaining to the administration of all powers or duties of the local school board,
• Accept or reject any charitable gift, grant, devise or bequest. The particular gift, grant, devise or bequest accepted shall be considered an asset of the school district or the public school to which it is given,
• Offer and, upon compliance with the conditions of such offer, pay rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction or other appropriate disciplinary disposition by the courts or juvenile authorities of offenders in case of theft, defacement or destruction of school district property. All such rewards will be paid from school district funds in accordance with rules promulgated by the Public Education Department, and
• Give prior approval for any educational program in a public school in the school district that is to be conducted, sponsored, carried on or caused to be carried on by a private organization or agency.


Friday, September 12, 2008
Applicant Letters of Intent, Application Questionnaires, and Resumes that include references are due by noon in the Board Services Office.
Saturday, September 13 Copies of all Application Questionnaires will be hand-delivered to Board members in Board packets on Saturday, September 13 along with the usual board business.

September 15, 16, 2008
Checks performed on candidates to ensure qualifying status. Applicant addresses and voter registration will be confirmed. Applicants must be registered to vote by date of application. The person to be appointed must be at least 18 years of age, a registered voter in New Mexico and a resident of the Board of Education District 7 and not a convicted felon.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Confirmation letter sent to candidates confirming that the application questionnaire has been received and that they have met the qualifications to be a board member. Details of the two applicant interviews will be included in the confirmation letter: 1) the community forum in District 7 on Wednesday, September 24, 6:30 p.m., at La Cueva’s Performing Arts Center, 7801 Wilshire NE, and 2) the interview with the Board of Education on Friday, September 26, 7 a.m., DeLayo Martin Community Board Room, 6400 Uptown Blvd NE. Letters of Regret will be mailed to any applicants who do not meet the qualifications.
September 12, notice of Special Meeting on September 26.
Deadline to submit notice of Special Meeting when Board of Education interviews the applicants.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 6:30 p.m.;
Location: La Cueva’s Performing Arts Center, 7801 Wilshire NE Facilitated community forum. Process will include a professional facilitator. Community members may submit questions to candidates. The number and length of questions asked will be determined by the format of the meeting. The format of the meeting depends on the number of applicants and will be predetermined and communicated to candidates in the confirmation letter; however, each applicant will have a set time to make an opening statement and a closing statement. Input from the community will be tabulated and provided to the Board of Education for their consideration prior to Friday, September 26.

Friday, September 26, 2008
(7-9 a.m.)
Location: DeLayo Martin Community Room At 7 a.m., the Board will conduct interviews of all applicants who are registered to vote in New Mexico, 18 years of age, residents of District 7, and who returned application questionnaires on time. The Board president will provide an overview. Applicants will be interviewed one at a time in alphabetical order. The Board will ask each applicant the same questions.
At the end of the interviews, the Board president may recess the interview session for a break, if desired.
Board members will reconvene immediately following the interviews or the recess for the Special Board Meeting. Roll Call will be taken and the meeting resumed to discuss the board membership vacancy for District 7.
Public speakers will not be permitted on this agenda item. Board members will vote to appoint a new Board member for District 7 by a majority vote. The Board President will invite the new Board member to make comments and confirm that the Board member is required to take the oath of office at the October 1 Regular Board meeting.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 5 p.m. Regular Board Meeting The new Board Member will take an oath of office and join the Board of Education.

Monday, October 20, 2008, through the week Board of Education training.

Winston Brooks' email address

From APS' "School Matters" August 2008.
"A message from the Superintendent." (impossible to link)

Winston Brooks has published an email address at which
he promises attention to problems brought to his attention.

I understand that there are problems associated with publishing
actual email addresses on the internet. Apparently there are
programs which search for email addresses and then begin
spamming them. Therefore I have replace the "@" symbol
with the word "at". Should you care to correspond with APS
Superintendent Brooks; you will have to make that change in
addressing your email.

Straight from the horse's mouth then;

I welcome your input, too. Drop me a line at
superintendent"at"aps.edu and let me know
how I can help. Thank you, and I look
forward to working with you.

I will test the water for you by forwarding a link
to the following post detailing Rigo Chavez' misconduct.

And I will of course, let you know if the request
receives any attention beyond being ignored.

APS' RIgo Chavez, Records Custodian/mental health expert

I have a number of public records requests filed with the APS.

I have asked that a recognized personal disability be
accommodated in the exercise of my right to inspect and/or
copy those records.

If Rigo Chavez accommodated my request, it would save the
District many man hours, and would save taxpayers money.
There is no downside for the district.

Instead, Rigo Chavez admits that he ignored as many as four
requests for accommodation based on his personal opinion of
the validity of my disability.

He told me, "... if you can show up at board meetings,
you must not be disabled."

Even if showing up a board meetings, which are public,
recorded on video tape, and witnessed by many impartial
individuals, were the equivalent of sitting alone in some
administrative space for hours on end, which they are not,

refusing to accommodate my disability serves only one purpose,
to make it more difficult for me to exercise a statutorily
protected right.

Again, the accommodation of my disability would actually
make it easier for the District, and less expensive for
taxpayers.

Even if Rigo Chavez' argument carried any weight,
is ignoring the request, rather that responding to it,
the manner in which he should be conducting himself as
a public servant?

There is no excuse for Rigo Chavez' behavior; it is shameful.

It reflects badly on the district at a time when people like
Winston Brooks are trying to convince stakeholders that they
are interested in "communication" and service to their
community.


cc Rigo Chavez, Winston Brooks upon posting.

"Trust me"

Woe is the citizen who accepts that statement from a public servant in lieu of transparent accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

There is only one reason for a public servant to hide their standards and accountability.

It is because their standards and accountability need to be hidden.

There is no need to hide accountability. On the contrary
there is every reason to make accountability as transparent and
public as it can be made. They should be proud of it.

They wouldn't be hiding from an impartial audit,
unless there is a reason to hide from an impartial audit.
They don't what their standards and accountability exposed
to the light of day. For a reason.

If you are looking for competent and honest public service,
"trustworthiness" runs a far distant second to
honest accountability to meaningful standards
of conduct and competence.

There is no need to have to "trust" a public servant,
if you know that that public servant is accountable to
meaningful standards of conduct and competence
by an impartial system
powerful enough to hold them accountable even against their will.

If a public servant, denies you transparent and honest
accountability, and instead offers you "trust me",
you should turn down the deal. They are hiding something.

The terms of public service are the prerogative of the public
not of the public servant.

It is not OK for a senior public servant to insist that you
trust him to look under every rock; if he then refuses to
tell you what he found under those rocks,
and what he did with what he found.

The unwillingness to offer real transparency in the clean up
of the leadership of the APS, reinforces the perception that
it is at best, a Chinese fire drill of the incompetent and the
corrupt.

An impartial audit is the only solution on the table that
guarantees transparency and honesty;
"trust me" does not.

An impartial audit is the only thing that the leadership of
the APS can do that would actually prove that
they are actually holding themselves accountable
to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

There is no equivalent gesture.

Either they audit, or they are hiding something.