APS Ethics Scandal; pick a side, cowboy up.

There is a fight going on. On one side is the Leadership of the APS. They refuse to hold themselves honestly accountable to the same standard of conduct that applies to students. They refuse to be role models of the student standard of conduct. On the other side there...

APS senior administrator, APS chief of police

When APS senior administrator Michael Vigil was being arrested for aggravated drunk driving, he sought to escape accountability. He sought to contact a number of influential people, I suspect in the hope that they would use their influence to save him. Why do you suppose,...

APS Public Forum

At the beginning of the Public Forum at an APS school board meeting; the rules are read. Among them; the board does not answer questions. They would like to have you believe that the rules prevent them from answering questions. They write the rules. They don’t want...

APS Ethics Scandal; incompetence and corruption unchecked

Most of what is wrong with public service has to do with incompetence and corruption. More fundamentally it has to do with a system that tolerates incompetence and corruption. Corruption exists only because it can; the system allows it. A system deliberately and...

Trust; a poor substitute for honest accountability.

One system that guarantees accountability is worth a hundred assurances that such a system is unnecessary. “…because you can trust us.” Public service offers no guarantee that in the conduct of that service, public servants will be accountable to a meaningful...

APS board meeting record falsified

A record is kept of meetings of the school board. It is a video tape compilation, normally from tapes from two cameras. I have been assured by Russell Reed, APS videographer, that when he edits the tapes, he combines footage in a manner that preserves the second by second...

The Trib spins the APS Ethics Scandal

Consider the eight ounce glass holding four ounces of water. The pessimist’s spin is that the glass is half empty. The optimist’s spin is that the glass is half full. Both spins are fundamentally true statements from a different perspective. And that is what...

APS Leadership and Moral Courage

For twelve years, I have tried to establish for the Leadership of the APS, honest accountability to the same standard of conduct that applies to students. I left my Character Counts training 12 years ago, believing that Character Counts was the best shot we ever had, ever...

West side “screwing” still on the table

I don’t know why people aren’t more upset. The bond issue passed. And a lot of people think that west side interests would be served by splitting from APS. APS says, if you split, we can keep the bond money. APS Lawyer Art Melendrez explained how it works. The...

APS should clean house…

… wrote Joline Gutierrez Krueger of the Trib. APS has “homework” was the Journal’s pathetic stab at the issue. The thrust of Krueger’s article was that APS should clean house before the next bond election; or face the possibility of losing. The premise is sound....

APS: “Breaking the faith” still on the table.

The APS axis, eight people and their lawyers, sit a top a vast empire. There are at least a few people on the west side, who believe the best interests of their community would be served by a division of that empire. The counter attack to preserve the empire includes the...

APS sleight of hand.

Before the school bond issue election; voters were assured by pretty much everyone that, the election was about kids/buildings, it was not about APS Leadership. Now that the bond issue has passed, 57% of a frighteningly low turnout has apparently endorsed APS Leadership as...

DeLayo and Rowe duck the public forum

It would appear that board members DeLayo and Rowe do not want to look in constituents eyes when the question is asked; will you be held honestly accountable to the same code of ethics that applies to students? So much for modeling courage.

The problem is global, APS is only one example.

The single worst problem in public service is incompetence and corruption. Both of which exist because we have failed to provide for honest accountability to a meaningful standard of conduct. The axis of the school board, administration, and Modrall, fundamentally public...