{"id":10329,"date":"2009-12-17T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10329"},"modified":"2009-12-17T11:58:41","modified_gmt":"2009-12-17T18:58:41","slug":"ag-auditor-to-probe-white-peaks-land-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/ag-auditor-to-probe-white-peaks-land-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"AG, auditor to probe White Peaks land deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"State

State Rep. Brian Egolf (Photo by Heath Haussamen) <\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Ultimately, I would like to know whether any analysis done by (the State Land Office) was sufficient,\u2019 Rep. Egolf wrote in a letter to the state auditor<\/h4>\n

A lawmaker has asked the state auditor and attorney general\u00a0to investigate a series of proposed land swaps between Land Commissioner\u00a0Patrick Lyons<\/a> and private owners that primarily involves land in the White Peaks area.<\/p>\n

State Rep.\u00a0Brian Egolf<\/a>, D-Santa Fe, who has\u00a0expressed concern<\/a> about the proposed land swaps that involve Stanley Ranches, CS Cattle and\u00a0Express UU Bar Ranches<\/a>, sent the letters to State Auditor\u00a0Hector Balderas <\/a>and Attorney General\u00a0Gary King<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Egolf, who grilled Lyons at a\u00a0Legislative Finance Committee interim hearing<\/a> in November, asked in his letter to Balderas<\/a> that the auditor determine whether the financial terms of the deal meet the land commissioner\u2019s responsibilities to generate income for state land trust beneficiaries — primarily public education.<\/p>\n

Egolf also asked Balderas to consider whether the commissioner had a plan to replace the $200,000 the Department of Game and Fish pays every year to give hunters access to the land that is to be swapped. And he asked Balderas to determine whether the land swaps were \u201cinfluenced in any way by the Commissioner\u2019s personal relationships with the persons swapping the land with the trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, I would like to know whether any analysis done by the Commissioner was sufficient to meet his responsibilities as trustee of state lands with regard to generating income for the beneficiaries (public education) of the trust,\u201d Egolf wrote.<\/p>\n

Land Office spokeswoman Kristin Haase told NMPolitics.net that the land office \u201cwill not lose a penny,\u201d referring to $200,000 from Game and Fish, because those revenues come from statewide trust land.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should note that when Commissioner Lyons took office, he renegotiated the easement fee so the trust would receive more money from hunting fees than it had during his Democrat predecessor\u2019s term,\u201d Haase wrote in an e-mail after reading Egolf\u2019s letters.<\/p>\n

Balderas, who is already conducting a special audit of the land office<\/a>, told NMPolitics.net that he\u2019d received Egolf\u2019s letter, and that \u201ca review of the proposed swaps will be a top priority in my office.\u201d King said he has assigned two of his top deputies to review legal issues surrounding the land exchange.<\/p>\n

In his letter<\/a>, Egolf asked King to review whether the land swaps are \u201cbeing conducted in accordance with applicable federal and state laws.\u201d He also wants the AG\u2019s office to determine if Lyons \u201cmay have violated the Campaign Reporting Act in accepting unreported gifts from persons involved in the transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyons\u2019 spokeswoman: Egolf playing \u2018partisan politics\u2019<\/h3>\n

Egolf is referring to a 2002 bull elk hunt Lyons went on with the previous owner of what is now called Express UU Bar Ranches, Brad Kelly, who is not involved in the current deal.<\/p>\n

What some, including Egolf, say they have a problem with is the fact that the current manager of the ranch — Mike Hobbs — was also manager when Kelly owned the ranch. Hobbs told NMPolitics.net that Lyons has not hunted or been a guest at the ranch since it was taken over by the current owners.<\/p>\n

Haase has accused Egolf of playing \u201cpartisan politics instead of calling us directly so we could have put his mind at ease about these concerns.\u201d She wrote in an e-mail that there is no conflict of interest involved in the White Peaks land swap.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly eight years ago then-Senator Lyons went on a half-day hunt with his FRIEND (emphasis Haase), Brad Kelley, the FORMER owner of the UU Bar who is NOT involved in this exchange. So what?\u201d she wrote in her e-mail. \u201cIf Rep. Egolf is so concerned about the appearance of a conflict of interest, then I assume he\u2019ll be abstaining from every dinner, reception, gift, donut, and cup of coffee paid for by a lobbyist over the course of the upcoming session. It would look a little shady if he voted in line with said lobbyist\u2019s objective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The public should be involved\u2019<\/h3>\n

N.M. Wildlife Federation<\/a> Executive Director Jeremy Vesbach has joined Egolf in questioning the proposed land swaps. He is asking Lyons to \u201ctake a step back and realize the public has a valuable interest and point of view as well, and do the right thing and just scrap the whole deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public should be involved in an open, transparent effort to solutions of any problems the commissioner of public lands wishes to solve at White\u2019s Peak,\u201d Vesbach said.<\/p>\n

Lyons, who was elected to head the land office in 2002 and again in 2006, is term limited from seeking re-election. He\u2019s instead running next year for a seat on the\u00a0Public Regulation Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net has delivered a formal request to inspect correspondence between the land office and all potential White Peaks bidders, and will review those materials later this month.<\/p>\n

St. Cyr is a contributing writer for this site and a reporter at 770KKOB.com. He can be reached at <\/em>peter.stcyr@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lawmaker has asked the state auditor and attorney general to investigate a series of proposed land swaps between Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons and private owners that primarily involves land in the White Peaks area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[147,107],"class_list":["post-10329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-environment","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}