APS and TIG; KRQE, KOAT, KOB and the Journal know

The following email was sent to the appropriate news tip destination at the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV.

Recently, Technology Integration Group was raided by the FBI.

APS and TIG have been business partners for a long time with very lucrative contracts.

TIG has been investigated in other communities.

At one time, APS was audited by Meyners & Co.
You can get a copy of their findings from Rigo Chavez, APS’ custodian of public records. The findings are immediately available; he should produce them rather immediately.

In them, you will find, the auditors found a lack of standards, accountability, and record keeping – a perfect opportunity for corruption.

You will find APS’ records on their interactions with TIG wanting. In fact, you’ll probably remain wanting to see them; I believe they’ve been lost, destroyed, or maybe never created.

One of Meyners’ findings was that APS senior administrators were spending up to $50K at a whack “without involving purchasing”. A lot of that money went to TIG.

It would be interesting to know if APS is involved in the FBI investigation.

It would be interesting to know what records the Meyners auditors found missing.

Newsworthy?  I guess we'll see.

When TIG was throwing parties for APS, KRQE found it newsworthy, link.

One could argue it's newsworthy, regardless of whether APS is getting phone calls and emails from FBI auditors, or not.  Wouldn't good news about APS bookkeeping and procurement be newsworthy?

What if APS' Executive Director of Communication Monica Armenta could actually stand up some where, some time, and assure taxpayers that APS was not likely the victim of some scam, nor is APS about to be accused of being up to their eyeballs in some scam involving one of their longer standing and largest vendors?

How could that not be newsworthy?



photo Mark Bralley

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Brad Winter's Distinguished Service Award - service to whom?

APS COO Brad Winter has received a good ol' boy award from the Council of the Great City Schools.  They call it a Distinguished Service Award,  link.  According to APS Supt Winston Brooks;

“Brad Winter has been committed to APS for more than three decades as a teacher, track coach and high school and district administrator,”

What Brooks is most impressed with is, when Winter was asked if he would provide a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd, he was able to look into people's eyes while promising he would deliver, though he hadn't any such intention, link.

So while Winter may have served students and the community for decades, his primary allegiance is to the leadership of the APS and helping them cover their sins - even at the expense of truthtelling to interest holders.

Service, not as distinguished as they would have us believe.




photo Mark Bralley

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APS Open Meetings Resolution tabled.

The APS School Board met last light.  Their agenda, link, was to pass an open meetings resolution that provided only 24 hours notice on public meeting agendas.  It is fair to wonder, why?  Why stand in front of an idea whose time has clearly come; there will be 72 hours notice given for public meetings in the State of New Mexico.

The likely to be signed into law, HB21, link, ends the APS board's past practice of providing only 24 hours and about ten minutes notice for every meeting they ever had.

Even if the APS School Board could hang on on to their advantage for a few months longer, why, at such a ridiculously high cost?  I mean, it looks bad; very, very bad, even to be considering policy that flies in the face of new law.  How far out of the loop are these folks?

There seems to be some confusion over the videotape records of school board meetings.  Some people think that links are posted on APS' award-winning website, that will allow visitors to watch archived board meetings.  If you go their "meetings, minutes and archives" page, link, and scan down the list, you will find a stray link that reads; video.  Click on it, and theoretically, you can watch the meeting.  I say theoretically, only because I have so much trouble personally, to get any APS video records to play reliably.

In any case, I can't wait to see the videotape of  the board discussing and finally tabling the resolution.

Speaking of watching APS video play reliably.  I tried everything I could last night, including reloading Microsoft Silverlight, the program APS uses to stream their live cast, in a futile effort to watch the live stream of the board meetings.  The most I could get it to do, was to play for a second, pause for a few, play for one, pause for a few and then lock up.  Sounds like a buffering problem, but then I'm not a computer expert.  I asked APS if anyone else was having trouble, and haven't heard back.

From what I could barely make out from the fractured stream; it seemed like open government lawyer, school board enforcer and defendant in a federal civil rights lawsuit, and recently again elected APS School Board President Marty Esquivel was trying to pass the resolution in spite of its disregard of the public interests.  Nobody ever said "open government lawyer", meant working on the side that's trying to open it up more.  I mean, the people trying to shut down transparent accountability in government, need all the lawyers they can get.  That's how you keep the lights from actually being turned on.

As far as I can tell, the Journal didn't report upon the stalling effort they almost passed.  It isn't even reported on Journal education reporter Hailey Heinz' blog.

But then the Journal really doesn't investigate and report upon Esquivel's deviousness.

Esquivel thought he was being sneaky; ended up creating more evidence.

I have long argued that the reason the Journal won't investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, is because Esquivel and Journal editor Kent Walz are cronies.

They once teamed up to get the NM FOG to give APS Supt Winston Brooks, their Dixon Award for heroes of transparency, while the three of them together hid, or abetted the hiding, of public records, of felony corruption in the leadership of the APS police force (the Caswell Report and the findings of at least two other investigations), from public knowledge.

If there is another explanation for the Journal's apparent complicity in, or complacency about the cover up of a cover up; in particular, a good and ethical explanation, for the Journal's ongoing failure to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS,

I cannot imagine it.

And anybody else, is yet to suggest it.




photos ched macquigg

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