Oma on Board

APS Police ignore MOU with the County Sheriff.

According to the Journal this morning, link, an investigation is being conducted by the APS Police force. Allegedly, a principal bashed a student's head against a wall. If true, it would seem that a felony "may have" been committed. According to NM State Statutes;

Aggravated battery
30-3-5. Aggravated battery .
A. Aggravated battery consists of the unlawful touching or application of force to the person of another with intent to injure that person or another.
B. Whoever commits aggravated battery , inflicting an injury to the person which is not likely to cause death or great bodily harm, but does cause painful temporary disfigurement or temporary loss or impairment of the functions of any member or organ of the body, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
C. Whoever commits aggravated battery inflicting great bodily harm or does so with a deadly weapon or does so in any manner whereby great bodily harm or death can be inflicted is guilty of a third degree felony.(emphasis added)
History: 1953 Comp., § 40A-3-5, enacted by Laws 1963, ch. 303, § 3-5; 1969, ch. 137, § 1.

Any investigation by the APS Police force, of felony criminal misconduct, is specifically and explicitly prohibited by a Memorandum of Understanding between the APS and Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston. The MOU, link, prohibits the APS Police force from investigating felonies.

h. Any report of a crime which may be determined to be a felony offense, excluding property crimes, shall be promptly reported to and investigated by BCSD or APD. (emphasis added)

The ball is in Houston's court; will he enforce his MOU or let them slide?

APS is prohibited from investigating felonies because the last time they investigated their own felony criminal misconduct, they hid the findings from prosecutors. They hide them still.

An additional wrinkle;

APS "spokeswoman" Monica Armenta spoke to the Journal on behalf of the APS.

The Journal for some reason calls her a "spokeswoman" as opposed to using her title; APS Executive Director of Communications.

Armenta shared from the records of an ongoing investigation;

"(APS) investigators who talked with the child at the hospital said there were no visible signs of injury to him."

She and the Journal shared that information in APS' interests. Anyone else looking for public records and information would be told they are sealed because, there is an "ongoing investigation".

APS doesn't tell the truth; not about "ongoing" investigations and not about long closed investigations.

Ms Armenta,

Why will APS not produce ethically redacted public records and findings of investigations into public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS police force circa 2006-7, link?

Not "how" does APS hides those ethically redacted records (legal loopholes, technicalities and weaselry), but "why"? Why will APS not tell the ethically redacted truth to stakeholders about public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS police force?

Why do Kent Walz and the Journal aid and abet?

photos Mark Bralley

Retaliation alleged in APS

KKOB talk show host Billy Cornelius expressed some concern the other night, over a story he had heard. Apparently a teacher was alleged to have taped a student's mouth shut, another teacher reported the incident, was retaliated against, and now is now suing APS. It begs a question or two.

Does the leadership of the APS retaliate against whistle blowers?
Does it make any difference if they do?

To the first; they do. To the second; yes, it does.

Independent auditors from the Council of the Great City Schools, found a culture of fear of retaliation in the APS against whistle blowers and other complainants.

Retaliation is a bad management tool. Powerful people use it to protect themselves from consequences of their corruption and incompetence. Retaliation has no good and ethical use in the administration of the APS. It makes a considerable difference whether there is a culture of fear of retaliation for filing complaints.

Does the leadership of the APS use fear of retaliation as a tool to avoid honest accountability for their conduct and competence?

The answer is easily found. All you have to do is ask. APS employees could be easily surveyed;

Does fear of retaliation discourage you from filing legitimate complaints against administrators or school board members?

A simple anonymous survey of employees would settle the question at once and for all.

If a culture of fear is confirmed, it would need to be eliminated. The issue would be newsworthy.

If the preexisting culture of fear has been eliminated, it would be evidence of a monumental managerial achievement. It would be just as newsworthy.

Kent Walz and the Journal will not investigate and report upon the culture of fear of retaliation in the APS.

Walz is yet to articulate the reasoning that compels him to ignore credible evidence of an ethics and accountability scandal in the administrative and executive leadership of the APS.

I suspect he is in cahoots in the cover up.

APS Supt Winston Brooks will not claim that he has eliminated, or even ameliorated fear of retaliation against whistle blowers, because he has not.

Quite the opposite; he is the subject of numerous complaints that he engages personally in retaliation against complainants.

For as long as the leadership of the APS is enabled by the establishment press, to maintain the culture of fear of retaliation, employees will ignore conduct that should be addressed.

Corrupt and incompetent administrators and school board members will continue to escape the consequences of their incompetence and corruption. APS will continue to flounder.

Brooks' photo Mark Bralley
Walz photo ched macquigg

On "embracing the suck"

Representative Nancy Pelosi is in trouble, link, over her use of the military slang; embrace the suck. In the context, I found it clever. I think it is funny.

Not so, in the political press. It is fair to say that mountains are being made of a mole hill.

People will find its use in that context amusing or they will not. If they do not, then just with any joke, no amount of explaining is going to make it any funnier.

Had she said;

You have to take the bad with the good. You can either embrace the suck or whine about it.

no one would have noticed.

Just sayin'

photo Mark Bralley