Responding to lawmakers’ reform bills, Lyons says ‘anti-growth’ agenda includes electing Steinborn as land commissioner in 2010
State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons says a trio of Doña Ana County lawmakers proposing to reform his office have an “anti-growth” agenda and a plan to carry it out that includes electing one of them to replace him next year.
Lyons, a Republican who term limits prevent from seeking a third term in 2010, said in an interview that several people have told him Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, plans to run for land commissioner next year. Lyons said he believes the legislator plans to run, and the reform bills Steinborn is proposing along with Rep. Nate Cote, D-Organ, and Sen. Steve Fischmann, D-Las Cruces, are designed to help make that happen.
“Part of it is Steinborn running for land commissioner; the other part is their anti-growth agenda,” Lyons said.
The legislators, who introduced their reform package earlier this week, say it would improve accountability and transparency in the land office’s dealings. The bills come in response to the land office’s handling of a controversial land deal on Las Cruces’ East Mesa, which they all represent.
Steinborn’s name has been tossed around in progressive circles as a potential 2010 land commissioner candidate. While acknowledging that, Steinborn said in an interview that he has “never really seriously contemplated running for that office.” He said his only interest in pushing reform is dealing with the controversy that has played out in his own legislative district.
The allegation about the 2010 election is not the only one Lyons is tossing at Steinborn. In the interview, the land commissioner accused Steinborn and the other lawmakers of going after one developer’s controversial project in Las Cruces so more state land would be available to Steinborn’s father, another developer.
An escalating fight
The attacks from Lyons are the latest escalation in a fight over growth and development on the East Mesa. Many area residents, in part because they are fed up with growth policies, have replaced more conservative lawmakers in recent years with Steinborn, Cote and Fischmann and overthrown the Las Cruces City Council to give it a more progressive bent.
In that context, Cote made a request to Attorney General Gary King last year for an opinion on the legality of a lease agreement between Lyons and Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou, who agreed to develop thousands of acres on the East Mesa in exchange for being paid the value of the improvements, other project costs and 40 percent of the change in value of the land as a result of the improvements. King’s formal opinion on The Vistas at Presidio land deal said state law allows developers who improve land for the state to be compensated only for the appraised value of the improvements.
Among the bills the lawmakers have introduced is one that would make that opinion explicit in law.
In his interview, Lyons pointed out that Steinborn’s father, David Steinborn, has a lease with the land office that similar to but smaller than Philippou’s. David Steinborn, a former Las Cruces mayor who is a developer, is a partner in a company that has leased several hundred acres from the land office for development.
Lyons questioned whether the lawmakers want to stop Philippou’s development because it would “mean more business going to (David) Steinborn.” He suggested that helping his father’s business is Jeff Steinborn’s “ulterior motive.”
Jeff Steinborn called the allegation “laughable” and said he has “zero, zero, zero financial interest in my dad’s business.” He pointed out that his father has a state land lease similar to Philippou’s, and one bill in the legislative reform package would make such leases illegal in the future. Another bill, he pointed out, would require a competitive bidding process before such leases can be awarded to a developer.
Because of that, he said, Lyons’ “logic is faulty, to say the least. … It’s a low blow with me and a low blow with my dad.”
Opportunity for compromise?
Lyons takes issue with most of the reform bills being proposed by the lawmakers but said he would probably support, with one minor change, one that’s sponsored by Steinborn: House Bill 606, which would require the land office to issue development leases only following public notice and a competitive bidding process. Lyons said he wants an exemption for smaller projects, and cited a one-acre parcel in Eunice on which a convenience store is being built as an example.
“This doesn’t bother me that much,” Lyons said of the bill. “… It would probably be better for future commissioners.”
Lyons said he would also be more open to Cote’s House Bill 607 and Fischmann’s Senate Bill 474, which would make clear that developers can be compensated for tangible improvements to the land but nothing else, if the legislation also allowed developers to take a profit of 8-10 percent of the appraised value of the land.
That’s far short of what Philippou’s arrangement allows but more than what Cote and Fischmann are proposing.
A lack of communication
Steinborn said he’s willing to consider any amendments that are proposed. But there’s no communication between the land office and the legislators about any of the bills.
Lyons complained in his interview that Steinborn, Cote and Fischmann didn’t talk with him before introducing their bills but are now saying they would appreciate the land commissioner’s support.
“If they want to work with me, why didn’t they bring them to me beforehand so we could work something out?” Lyons asked. “Obviously, they came up here with an agenda.”
Steinborn said they didn’t contact Lyons because, since the controversy over East Mesa development erupted, Lyons has been hostile and often not returned phone calls. In response to Lyons’ lack of communication with the lawmakers and others in the community, Steinborn said, the bills are designed in part to “create a statutory, professional, collaborative process with communities.”
“We wish we had a better working relationship with the land commissioner too, but I think when you look at all the smears he’s leveling against me personally, you’ll understand that the communication issues are not coming with us,” Steinborn said. “… I have consistently said in every interview I have done that we hope to work with the land commissioner, and the same remains true right now.”
Lyons said his office is open to communication and has done a good job of promoting economic development and funding education. He pointed out that the University of New Mexico is about to break ground on a branch campus in Rio Rancho in a deal that was worked out with the land office.
“We don’t have any problems anywhere around the state, except down there (in Las Cruces),” Lyons said.