Oma on Board: September 2013

The idea that the APS board could be embarrassed, humiliated, or ashamed, "is ludicrous".

APS School Board President Marty Esquivel argues by and through his lawyers;

The idea that the powers that be are concerned
about Mr. MacQuigg speaking about the importance
of Character Counts! is ludicrous.

"The powers that be" ought to be concerned.

Imagine you are a member of the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education. As such, you are one of seven of the senior-most role models in the entire APS, of student standards of conduct.

If you cannot imagine the premise,
you should not imagine sitting on the school board.

A guy stands up at public forum every two weeks and challenges you to actually role model honest accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!; APS' current and for nearly a score of years, student standards of conduct.

The guy suggests that the only reason you won't hold yourself honestly accountable to higher standards of conduct, is that you lack the character and courage to hold yourself honestly accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law.

The guy asks you to point to any other good and ethical reason to justify removing the role modeling clause from your own standards of conduct.

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

The guy asks you to explain in words that any student can understand, why they are expected to hold themselves honestly accountable to higher standards of conduct than senior administrators and school board members.

And you, Marty Esquivel, a board member, are being asked
these questions in public and on the record, and you are
"not concerned"?

Now that, is ludicrous.

photo Mark Bralley

Brooks to ask SuperSAC what they think about dual standards of conduct in the APS

I made that up.

I mean really, can you imagine
APS Supt Winston Brooks asking the
Super Student Advisory Council, SuperSAC,

What do they think about students being expected to hold themselves honestly accountable to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct, and their senior-most role models are accountable only to the law.

For how much longer can the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV refuse to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS?

For as long as good women and men do nothing.

School Board Meeting and public forum next Wednesday at 5:30.

I am kept away by a publicly funded private police force;
a Praetorian Guard in every sense, enforcing an unlawful
restraining order.

And you are kept away by ...

photo Mark Bralley

The Constitutionally protected human right to express anger against the government and government officials

The First Amendment to the Constitution provides protection for people who want to petition their government for redress. And by extension it protects people who want to petition their governmental officials for redress.

What if the government, or government official's response makes the petitioner feel anger?

Does the First Amendment protect a human right to feel angry? Does it then protect a human right to express that anger in the tone of their voice, and the look in their eye?

Is there a human right to express anger *in the face of government?

*In an aside; My right to free expression has been limited by government lawyers. I find now, I have to qualify anything I write, lest its meaning be misconstrued in their litigation against us.

When I used the phrase in the face of government, it will be written;, see, he thinks it's OK to get in people's faces.

I never have, I do not now, nor will I ever, get "in their face" except from the podium during my two minutes during public forum.

We're talking about what people are allowed say and express from the podium when they have the floor.

And the question is; if a petitioner feels disrespect for their government, does the First Amendment protect their right to express it, in a public forum?

The law is the only legitimate limit on liberty.

The only legitimate limit on the free exercise of human rights protected under the First Amendment is the law. If a politician or public servant needs to be further protected than they are by the law, from anger and disrespect of those they serve, they need permission to provide it. They have to ask the people first.

For as long as it is; government of, by and for the people,
the people hold the only legitimate authority to limit
the free exercise of their Constitutionally protected human rights.

The terms of public in-servitude are the prerogative of the people, not of their servants.

It is up to the people to further protect public servants
from the justified and legally expressed wrath of those they serve, if they need it.

Allowing public servants to limit criticism and free expression
is rather like allowing convicts to tell the judge
what they will or will not accept as sentences.

If the relationship between government and the people
is not one of servant and master, what is it?

What two other words describe the relationship?

Who decides which two words they are,
the government or the people?

The leadership of the APS is using operational funds
(money that could and should be spent in classrooms instead)
to argue that it is they; Marty Esquivel, Winston Brooks,
Steve Tellez, and Monica Armenta who will decide
what are the limits on emotions that the people may express
at public forum.

Their sworn testimony leads us to believe;

It will be "OK" to express emotion if you are happy,
but not OK if you are not happy, and in particular,
if you appear angry.

They spend on this litigation without limit and, without oversight.

They get away with it because
the establishment's media is in cahoots.

People like Journal Editor
Kent Walz. and the people
like him, at KRQE, KOAT
and KOB TV; not one of
whom will identify themself
as the person most responsible
for letting these people slide.

photo Mark Bralley

Legal weaselry; Juris Mustelidae

Using the law, the loopholes, weaknesses and technicalities
to escape the earned consequences of conduct prohibited
by higher standards of conduct than the law, the standards of
conduct that all higher standards are higher than.

It represents a failure of character and of courage.

... if you ask me.

APS Defendants argue, I don't want to participate in the public forum

The unjustifiably expensive, intrusive and abusive legal defense taxpayers are providing for Marty Esquivel, Winston Brooks, Monica Armenta, and Steve Tellez, noticed that I stopped coming to public forum after the November 4, 2009 meeting.

They argue that because I stopped coming, they didn't take anything away from me when they banned me from public forums. I am banned until I kiss Esquivel's and Tellez' rings; admit doing what I haven't done, and assure them I will not continue doing what it is I have never done. Driving me away from public forums and then saying I'm not there because I don't want to be, is a little like a bully punching a kid in the stomach until the kid gives up his lunch money, and then saying,

I didn't "take" it from him, he "gave" it to me.

It is likely "legal" for Esquivel et al, to argue such ridiculousness.

Just like it's legal to claim that in this photograph such as this, I am scaring the crap out of everybody in the audience, by asking the leadership of the APS to answer questions they don't want to answer, in public or anywhere else. Questions like;

Why won't you produce the findings of investigations of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS? Findings that former Chief of Police Gil Lovato, won't leave a single APS senior administrator left standing.

Their conduct is specifically prohibited by the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students;

People of character, people who are accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law, are expected to do more than the law requires, and less than the law allows.

The are specifically prohibited their "legal" weaselry.

The Defendants are no more accountable to higher standards of conduct than the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV
are accountable for helping them in the cover up, by hiding the truth from their readers and viewers,

the universal abdication of the entire leadership of the APS,
as role models of student standards of conduct.

photo Mark Bralley

"When the truth gets out, there won't be a single senior APS administrator left standing"

Those are the words of a former APS Chief of Police; Gil Lovato and his lawyer Sam Bregman.

It was their reply to those in the APS who were thinking about firing Lovato when the public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS Police force was exposed in a lawsuit against now APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez.

The firing would result in litigation, and in court, the truth would come out and no APS senior administrator would be left standing.

What if they were telling the truth?

There is a considerable amount of evidence and credible testimony to more than substantiate Lovato's boast.

There is overwhelming evidence, incontrovertible evidence.

And the establishment media, the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV are in cahoots to hide it from public knowledge. They are part and parcel in the cover up.

If Lovato and Bregman's boast was all hot air, if the truth leaves everybody standing, why are they spending so much money to keep it hidden?

Why would APS hide it?
Why would the establishment's media hide it?

Why would anyone hide it?

A more important "why", is why are they still getting away with it?

It is because too many good women and men are doing nothing to expose them.

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

I'm not saying these people are evil, but when Edmund Burke wrote those words,
these are the kind of people he was writing about, and you are the kind of people he was writing to.

email somebody

photo Mark Bralley

Trybus' actual words

From APS Assist Supt of Human Resources Andrea "Andi" Trybus' sworn testimony in deposition;

Q. So my final question then is, do you have any recollection of APS police conducting its own investigation related to Mr. Lovato?

A. I have no information that they did.

Q. As the human resources -- as the head of human resources for APS, is it correct that the report that was prepared in relation to Mr. Lovato is a matter of opinion that is in Mr. Lovato's personnel file?

A. It is a matter of opinion, yes, it is.

Q. ...

A. Because it is an internal investigation, and the practice is not to release them.

If the APS Police force did not investigate itself (they claim they did, despite Trybus' denial) then no agency of law enforcement ever investigated anything, and all the evidence is internal and not for release; even to the District Attorney.

No heads will roll.

photo Mark Bralley

APS Modrall Melendres making stuff up

From the deposition and sworn testimony of APS Lead Counsel Arthur "Art" Melendres of the Modrall;

Q. Have you seen him (me) do anything violent to anyone?

A. I have personally not seen him do anything. I have seen his agitated behavior, but it has been reported to me that he has pushed and shoved people, and got in their face, but this only reported to me. You would have to ask others about the specifics.(emphasis added)

Interestingly enough, both APS Supt Winston Brooks and APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez were asked about the specifics and, testified under oath that they had no reports of me actually touching anyone. No one does; I never did.

Chatter among the leadership of the APS via emails and texts; they all want to file a criminal complaint against me, or that, they want to get a restraining order against me. They all agree, unfortunately they can't until I actually batter someone. And here they are, with supposedly just the evidence they're looking for, and Melendres doesn't share it.

So either Tellez and Brooks are lying; they had reports of me actually battering someone but denied under oath, having seen or heard of them. Despite that they both were dying to have one, these (several) did not fill the bill somehow?

Could it be; Melendres is just making up crap?
He is the only witness among them all, to testify into the record that, he had knowledge of reports of actual batteries; multiple batteries.

So here he is, their lead counsel, knowing they're crying for something real to use against me; he hears about something real, some misconduct that would justify a real restraining order to replace the banning letter, and doesn't tell them.

How much did that legal advice cost taxpayers?

He also testified to an internal investigation of the APS Police whose finding had missing pages.

Q. Have you read any other documents in this case, in preparation for today's hearing?

A. Yes, I asked Ms. Andi Trybus -- Andrea Trybus, if she would provide me with a copy of an investigation that was done relating to MR. Gil Lovato, and she did that. And I -- how do you describe this? Maybe to say I perused it, or I speed-read it.

Here are the investigative findings of an investigation of felony criminal misconduct, the production of which is part of this litigation, and he sped-read them on our behalf?

Did speed bill us for his speed-reading?

There is his testimony that he advised them to document things;

Q. You didn't think to bring that (... the need for a governmental entity to crate a proper record ...)up during the course of giving advice?

A. I've given advice on the subject, but I've given advice on many, many subjects.

Q. Does that mean this it wasn't followed?

A. No, it doesn't mean it wasn't followed. I'm telling you, I don't know. ... I do training sessions on documentation. I can't disagree with you.

He continues;

And I was told by Mr. Allen (their lawyer), in connection with that investigation, that the police -- or the investigative report had some missing pages. (emphasis added) And so I did, on my own, follow up with a gentleman by the name of Carl Wiese, W-I-E-S-E, and I asked him if he still had a copy of the report, because he's the individual who had it.
He responded yes, and he said he would send it to me, and he did. And I will tell you that I did essentially the same thing, which was to peruse it.

And again, speed bill us?

photo Mark Bralley

The Journal and Walz, complicit or complacent?

Hint; it's not complacent.

The success of any endeavor, the APS for example, depends on two things;

standards and
accountability

Are APS standards high enough; is accountability honest?

The standards that apply to APS senior administrators and board members are either

adequately high, or
they are not.

That is a statement of fact.

It is my repeatedly expressed opinion that;
The standards of conduct to which the leaders of the APS are held begrudgingly accountable are not high enough to protect the public interests in the APS. They are not high enough to protect our power, our trust and our treasure from abuse.

Their record shows; the standards to which they actually, honestly accountable, are the very standards that every other higher standard, is higher than; the law.

The law and an unlimited budget for litigation and
no oversight except from underlings.

Unless you wade in APS, you, a Journal reader, don't know anything at all about the actual, honest to God standards to which the leadership of the APS will pledge their allegiance. You have no idea whether complaints see due process, or whether whistleblowers are routinely subject to retaliation over their complaint.

Why not?

Why won't the Journal investigate and report upon APS' administrative and executive standards of conduct and competence? If the standards are a high as they would like interest holders to believe they are, wouldn't Journal readers be comforted by that knowledge. It would be newsworthy.

Wouldn't readers be more likely to vote in favor of bond issues and mill levies if they knew there is honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence in the leadership of the APS?

So why won't Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz stand up and assure the parents of nearly 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters in the APS that; the standards of conduct to which the leadership of the APS are willing to hold themselves honestly accountable are even in any way, adequate to the need?

Hint; it is because the standards of conduct to which they are accountable, and only after whatever cost is no object, win at all cost legal defense they need, are manifestly, ridiculously inadequate.

OK, so let's say that Walz knows the standards of conduct are inadequate, and further that he knows that there is no due process for complaints filed against senior administrators and board members. That would be newsworthy too, right?

So why won't he report on that either?

Kent Walz cannot report credibly on the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS unless and until, he reports credibly on his relentless refusal to report on credible evidence and testimony regarding the cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, for the last six years.

The truth is in their depositions, sprinkled amongst the slander and libel; defamation by the pound; not one bit of it supported by one second of videotape, nor one bite of audio, and not by one photograph in six years.

For the record and as an aside;

I emailed the news departments at KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV. I asked for the name of the person at that station who is deciding to not investigate and report upon credible evidence and testimony regarding a cover up of felony criminal misconduct.

Not one of them would tell me the name of the person whose hand slapped the table and said,

we are not going to investigate this,
we are not even going to read the depositions, and
we are sure as hell not going to report upon it!

Now get back to work.

photo Mark Bralley

Journal editorial board meets with Brooks and Winter

In a Journal story, link, a couple of days ago, an editorial board meeting was mentioned;

"APS Superintendent Winston Brooks and APS chief operations officer Brad Winter said during a Journal editorial board meeting Monday that ..."

I have know idea what "editorial board meeting" means at Journal headquarters. The Wikipedia, wikilink, suggests there was a meeting of the editors and the leadership of the APS, in order that the editors can determine the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take. In this case, the editorial tone and direction on the subject of the traffic loop at Jefferson Middle School.

OK, I can't help but wonder the subject of the editorial tone
and direction on the ethics and accountability scandal in the
leadership of the APS came up.

I am wondering if there was a single editor who said;
"we owe the people the truth" or words to that effect.

Or maybe I'm just watching too much Newsroom, link.

APS deposition transcripts are public records

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

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

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

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

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

Ben Franklin, derived.

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

They don't, unfortunately, really want to.

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

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

photo Mark Bralley

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

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

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

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

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

That I have worn out my welcome.

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

to explain in words any child can understand,

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

That'll be the day.

photo Mark Bralley

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

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

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

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

Q. What is Character Counts! exactly?

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

Josephson, circa 1989

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

Brooks has some experience with Character Counts!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A. No

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

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

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

Brooks on Character Counts! districtwide;

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

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

Q. The six Pillars?

A. Whatever -- whatever the name is.

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

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

The still binding 1994 Resolution, link, reads;

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

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

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

They really are.

photos Mark Bralley

Why is Dan Houston ignoring Steve Tellez' misconduct?

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

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

Why won't Houston do anything?

Why is he just sitting there doing nothing?

photo Mark Bralley

Brooks' knowledge of corruption "sketchy"

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

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

Brooks replied;
It is sketchy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Journal Managing Editor Walz

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

photos Mark Bralley

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

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

I wrote;

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

I asked,

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

I haven't heard back.

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

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

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

KRQE exposes Brooks' character

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For once, Brooks and I
are in total agreement.

photo Mark Bralley

APS board ratifies contract with teachers

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

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

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

Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein said;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

photos Mark Bralley

Brooks details his part in OMA violation

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

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

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

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

"by invitation only"

and further that; he

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

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

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

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

photo Mark Bralley

First annual; APS SuperTAC Survey of Teachers

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

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

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

A survey of teachers, by teachers and for teachers.

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

Because that's the way teachers roll.

Brooks listens to teachers, or not.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which begs a fair question;

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

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

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

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

Walz will not survey teachers either.

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

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

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

Brooks has earned an A as APS Chief.

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

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

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

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

photos Mark Bralley

The Albuquerque Journal to survey APS teachers

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

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

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

On that same day;

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

monkeys will fly out of my ass.

Adynatons; wikilink

photo ched macquigg

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

Walz gives Lucero 15 inches to polish Brooks' apple.

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

He used all fifteen inches
singing his praise for Brooks.

The editors added an inch of their own;

"Brooks works hard for APS"

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

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

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

Board to meet in secret to evaluate Brooks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

photos Mark Bralley

Yet another OMA Violation by NM FOG VP Esquivel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

photos Mark Bralley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

we will have gone through
all of this for nothing.

photos Mark Bralley

Trybus drops bombshell

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

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

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

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

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

photo Mark Bralley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They don't; they won't.

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

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

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

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

I dare them; I double dare them.

photo Mark Bralley

Sent to Journal Letters to the Editors, upon posting

Tellez was put in charge of his own coverup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bill Reed became APS Police Chief in October 2007.

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

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

Reed took over cover up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Expect Kent Walz to
continue his aid and abet.

photos Mark Bralley
Kent Walz is mine

APS Dress Code back in the news

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

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

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

According to the Journal, link,

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

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

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

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

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

“Maybe baggy pants have gone out of style.”

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

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

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

Really? Is she kidding?

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

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

Hiding (from) the truth?

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

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

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

Tellez photo Mark Bralley

Brad Winter joins APS' merry band of liars

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

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

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

His affidavit reads in significant part;

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

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

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

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

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

I did not whisper in his ear.

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

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

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

The tape has been deliberately destroyed by APS.

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

Imagine that.

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

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

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

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

photo Mark Bralley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marty Esquivel is an "unethical lawyer"

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

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

Marty Esquivel is a lawyer
Marty Esquivel is unethical, ergo

Marty Esquivel is an unethical lawyer.

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

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

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

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

Ergo; Marty Esquivel is an unethical lawyer.

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

Is Kent Walz an unethical editor?

1. Is he an editor?

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

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

Ergo, Walz is an unethical editor.

photos Mark Bralley