A conceptual drawing of Spaceport America. (Courtesy photo)
Spaceport America’s attorney knew then-Director Steve Landeene was trying to buy a ranch adjacent to the spaceport earlier this year, e-mails show. The attorney reviewed the purchase agreement and wanted to discuss it further with Landeene.
“As a purchase agreement protecting the buyer, I’m fine with it,” attorney Steve Amland wrote to Landeene in a Feb. 14 e-mail. “… I can certainly see the ways this avenue is preferable to the cumbersome direct public purchase, but let’s get together and discuss the long term some more when you can.”
I filed a public records request in May for documents related to the deal Landeene was working out to purchase the 30,000-acre ranch in his personal capacity. Even though the land deal was a private transaction, I figured the Spaceport Authority possessed such records because Landeene claimed last month that he had consulted with Amland – and was told there was no conflict in him personally purchasing the ranch “so long as there was no profit motive.”
Steve Landeene
The agency did possess records. In addition to providing a copy of the purchase agreement between Landeene’s company – KSL Management LLC – and ranch owners Robert and Barbara Brown, the agency provided a copy of an appraisal of the ranch and e-mails relating to Landeene’s attempt to purchase it.
The Feb. 14 e-mail is the last communication between the two provided by the Spaceport Authority. There’s nothing in the e-mails to back up Landeene’s claim that Amland told him there was no conflict if there was no profit motive – which doesn’t mean that didn’t happen during an in-person conversation or another means of communication that didn’t create a public record.
Like Landeene, Amland no longer works for the agency.
A critical time
Landeene’s proposed land deal has created a scandalous situation at a critical time in which the spaceport is finally getting off the ground. Officials are building a massive runway in the desert near Upham and doing other work, and Virgin Galactic is nearing completion on the spacecraft it plans to use to ferry paying passengers into space.
Landeene submitted his resignation from his $156,000-per-year job on April 16, a day after a personnel hearing was called to investigate whether he had a conflict. His resignation was effective May 15.
Michael Moxey, spokesman for the state’s Economic Development Department, which includes the spaceport authority, said he doesn’t know whether Landeene is moving forward with the purchase of the ranch. Though the ranch appraised for $2.3 million, the agreement had Landeene purchasing it for $2.5 million.
That appraisal was conducted for the Spaceport Authority in December. The agency opted against buying the ranch. It’s not clear when the purchase agreement between the Browns and Landeene’s company was drafted, but it states that Landeene’s company was to deposit $200,000 on or before Feb. 15.
The ‘best intentions’
Landeene told the Albuquerque Journal last month that he had the “best intentions” in agreeing to buy the ranch, saying he was trying to give state officials more time to consider buying the land.
In the interview with the Journal, Landeene said the purchase agreement was to be completed in mid-July, and he said he would have “backed out of the deal or transferred it the state at no profit to himself if the state had decided to move ahead” before then.
I and others have said the situation represented a conflict of interest. Landeene disagreed in an interview with The Associated Press:
“Everything has always been done with the best intent for the state and the spaceport in mind,” the news service quoted him as saying. “It’s laughable that a conflict or those concerns could even be raised.”
Landeene told both the Journal and AP the land could have been used as a future expansion for the spaceport or as a dude ranch or other commercial venture.
“The board had no interest in purchasing it, so my buying a piece of property, what’s the harm in that?” the Journal quoted Landeene as asking.