New Mexico Land Commissioner Pat Lyons is in Las Cruces today to defend his decision to lease land on the East Mesa to a developer who has been very friendly with him in the past.
Lyons explained the deal and chastised those who have criticized him this morning on The Morning Show with Michael Swickard.
“They’re trying to connect some dots here that just doesn’t make sense to me,” Lyons said.
Lyons and developer Philip Philippou have come under fire in recent weeks because Philippou gave $20,500 last year to a political action committee that gave most of it to Lyons’ re-election campaign. Then Lyons bypassed his own process for seeking bids to lease 3,200 acres of land on Las Cruces’ East Mesa by giving the contract to Philippou in December, before the announced time to submit proposals had ended.
In addition, Philippou has given another $6,000 to Lyons this year, and lobbyists tied to Philippou, who run the PAC in question, gave at least another $3,600 in cash and in-kind contributions to Lyons last year. And Lyons flew on a plane chartered or owned by Philippou in March to a basketball game in Washington, but says he didn’t know until after the fact that Philippou paid for the flight.
In the interview with Swickard, Lyons said he sought bids to lease the land because a number of developers expressed interest in it. He said he wanted to take pressure off the development of farm land in the Mesilla Valley by helping develop the desolate East Mesa, and also pointed out that his mandate is to make money off state lands for education.
“We don’t get anything for open space,” Lyons said.
Lyons recently told the Las Cruces Sun-News that he made a mistake in accepting Philippou’s bid before the process had ended, but he seemed to back off that comment today. He said Philippou’s master plan was so good that it was worth signing a lease before the end of the announced bidding process.
Lyons said the state estimates that it will make $27,000 per day off the land under the agreement with Philippou, and waiting another month for the end of the bidding period would have resulted in a loss of more than $800,000.
He said he also wanted to hire a local builder to develop the land.
“We didn’t even have to put it out to bid. We just did that to do it,” Lyons said. “We acted on the bids as they came in.”
‘We’re not for sale’
Lyons defended his ride on Philippou’s plane to see the New Mexico State University Aggies play in the NCAA tournament in March, saying it’s not unusual for public officials to be invited to attend such events. He said “there happened to be an open seat” on the plane, and the university president invited him.
“Who paid for it? I don’t know,” Lyons said.
His spokesperson told me yesterday that, at the time, Lyons believed the university was paying for the flight, but he found out after the fact that Philippou did.
Swickard asked whether gifts and campaign contributions from developers influence his actions. Lyons said they don’t.
“They’re trying to pull up stuff from the campaign a year ago,” he said of journalists, including me, who have reported on the contributions. “You know, campaign’s over in November. We don’t care anymore.”
Lyons said he opposes public financing of campaigns and said candidates have to raise money. He said donors “invest in you because they believe in what you can do.”
“We’re not for sale. We never have been, never will be,” Lyons told Swickard, adding that “how you deal with situations like this is what defines what kind of person you are.”
“Our job is to raise money for education, is to take care of our beneficiaries,” Lyons said. “… We’re going to leave a legacy where we did a great job in the State Land Office.”
Lyons plans to speak later today to the Rotary Club and the Sun-News editorial board.
New Mexico Land Commissioner Pat Lyons is in