Oma on Board

CACoC invited to APS meeting

The Citizens Advisory Council on Communication has been invited to APS' public meeting on how they engage families and the community. I have been invited as well.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 pm, Monday October 8th. It is likely to take place in the Martin-DeLayo Room, though that information is not part of their release, link.

They make it very clear, the purpose of the meeting is to "gather public input", The word communication, much less two-way communication is no longer in their communications lexicon.

They're not there to engage in actual two-way communication about the lack of opportunity to engage in actual two-way communication about the public interests and their public service.

So far, they will only commit to "engage" with those whose power they wield and whose resources they spend. So far, no mention of real two-way communication; questions followed by answers followed by more questions, and so forth, until all the questions have been asked and answered.

The meeting will follow the they talk, we talk, meeting over/they'll get back to us, model;

"The meeting will include presentations about what schools and the district are currently doing, as well as gather suggestions for new procedures that can be put into place.

The meeting will be run by Kristine Meurer, APS' new Executive Director of Student, Family and Community Supports.

photo Mark Bralley

Chanting "Mayor Berry is quite contrary"

protestors outside the Dixon Award ceremonies challenged the decision of the NM FOG to give Mayor Richard Berry a Dixon.

Being a Hero of Transparency is not about how much low hanging fruit can be hung on a website, it is about how hard you make it to get to the records and meetings, they don't want you to see. Records and meetings that enjoy no ethical exception under the NM IPRA or Open Meetings Act.

Those records should be easily and immediately available. If you make them so, you're a hero, maybe. If you don't; you are no hero and there is no doubt about it.

The last time a couple of NM FOG board members got together, Marty Esquivel and Kent Walz, gave APS Supt Winston Brooks a Dixon Award for bunch a data dump; data that doesn't include spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd, or the findings of any of several independent audits of their character and competence.

Brooks, Esquivel and Walz are covering up a cover up of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators. And using a Dixon Award for cover. There seems to be more than a little evidence that the Award is being given to people who don't deserve it.

In principle, there are only two kinds of public records and meetings, those the IPRA and Open Meetings Act explicitly and specifically shield from public knowledge, and those they don't. In practice there is a third; records and meetings that are not excepted from transparency laws, but that politicians and public servants want to hide. Again back to APS, for an illustrative example;

APS, Brooks, Esquivel, Maes, et al are holding in their hands, findings of three investigations of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators. The findings are public records and ethical redactions of them enjoy no exception under the law, yet they refuse to surrender them to public knowledge.

In his acceptance of the Dixon, Berry acknowledged the protestors and the importance of the First Amendment; specifically in regard to freedom of speech and the press.

Yet when push comes to shove, Berry has no problem denying the free exercise of press rights of modern day political pamphleteers; bloggers.

I hold Richard Berry personally responsible for my city government's refusal to recognize our First Amendment right to be the press. The right was articulated with the political pamphleteers of the day in mind. Berry either cannot or will not see that bloggers are the political pamphleteers of the digital age and fully deserving of Constitutional protection of their human right to be the press; even the pain in the ass press. Especially the pain in the ass press.

And yet, Berry, according to an unidentified handful of FOG Directors, is a Hero of Transparency.

I know a Hero of Transparency.

Richard Berry is no hero.

During her part of the ceremony, Diane Diamond argued that members of the media sometimes tell "the inconvenient truth". They do, sometimes. And when they do, they become the "inconvenient" press and their access is restricted.

Berry thinks he can restrict the access of bloggers because as a rule, they tend towards in-convenience.

Richard Berry is no hero.

photo Mark Bralley

APS leadership comes out of hiding

It deserves more than two column inches buried deep in the Journal. It is worthy of more than "brief" mention.

Board members and senior administrators have opened a door they can never close.

For nearly two decades I have been asking the leadership of the APS to point to a time, a day, and a place where they will engage in open and honest public discussion with the community members they serve. Finally, they have.

They have pointed to time, 6 pm,
a day, Monday, October 8th, and
a place, 6400 Uptown Blvd, link.

This is not the meeting where there will actually be open and honest public discussion with community members, except with respect to establishing the rules that will ultimately result in those open and honest public discussions of specific issues of interest to stakeholders some time in the future.

Not Monday, but some day, I will be able to ask them;

why they won't surrender the findings of investigations into felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators? and why haven't those findings been surrendered to the DA?, or
why are whistleblowers being denied due process for their complaints?, or
why are board members and senior administrators are not honestly accountable as role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students?

and they will respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly, or be actually accountable for not doing so. That day will not be Monday, but it will be some day.

Monday, we need begin a process that cannot be stopped.

Monday, we need to establish a beachhead.

Monday, they say their purpose is to "gather public input" from families and the community.

They say

they “... want to expand our efforts to make sure we are providing ways to get input and engage the Albuquerque community,...” ... "in the education of students"

Note that there is already qualifying language; "... in the education of students ..." to narrow the scope of the discussion. By what logic are citizens and taxpayers entitled to communicate their concerns about "the education of students", but not about the spending of their power and resources?

Look what they have already done to mitigate your influence by means of parent advisory councils. Read their old and new ideas on our value in their decision making process; notice the back tracking on empowering citizens to participate in advisory councils.

The old K.01, link, and the new K.01, link.
Notice the use in the chronology of the directive , of the word "reviewed" rather than "revised" August 14, 2012, to describe their obvious revision of the policy.

The Monday meeting will begin in earnest, a process that will end when interest holders have a place where they can ask any legitimate questions, and expect candid, forthright and honest responses from APS politicians and public servants.

There are those who will resist moving the line on transparency; board members and senior administrators with corruption and incompetence to cover up.

They will show up at the meeting, and
they will try to change the subject.

There are those who think the truth about the spending of power and resources belongs to the people. And who think they have a right to ask questions in search of that truth, and with very few exceptions, as granted specifically and explicitly in the law, who believe they have a right to expect candid, forthright and honest responses in reply.

They need to show up and speak up.

People don't get the government they deserve,
they get the government they're willing to fight for.