{"id":16690,"date":"2010-04-30T08:28:07","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T14:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=16690"},"modified":"2010-05-01T10:30:35","modified_gmt":"2010-05-01T16:30:35","slug":"outgoing-director-had-private-land-deal-near-spaceport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/04\/outgoing-director-had-private-land-deal-near-spaceport\/","title":{"rendered":"Outgoing director had private land deal near spaceport"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A conceptual drawing of Spaceport America. (Courtesy photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Resignation came after Landeene was suspended pending an investigation into the land deal<\/h4>\n

When Steve Landeene resigned from his job as executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority earlier this month, he and state officials failed to mention that he had been suspended from his job pending an investigation into a private deal he\u2019d entered into to buy a ranch right next to Spaceport America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, Landeene said in a news release from the spaceport authority that he was resigning to \u201cregain some work\/life balance.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

But Landeene had, indeed, entered into a private deal to buy a ranch neighboring the spaceport, the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> reported today. State officials confirmed the truth to the Journal \u201conly after it had learned of the land deal from other sources,\u201d the article states.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Landeene had told the Journal in December that the family that owns the ranch offered to sell it to the state for $2.5 million. The Journal quoted Landeene as saying the ranch was being appraised \u201cto see if it\u2019s affordable and what we might use it for.\u201d Landeene entered into the deal to buy the ranch after the spaceport authority declined to do so.<\/p>\n

From today\u2019s Journal article:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Landeene planned to do with the ranch isn\u2019t known. Also not known: whether he planned to personally profit from owning the property. It isn\u2019t clear whether Landeene still plans to purchase the ranch. Sierra County records show it hasn\u2019t yet changed hands.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ranch is right along the road that goes from Truth or Consequences to the spaceport \u2013 the primary access road for the facility.<\/p>\n

An appearance of impropriety<\/h3>\n

To be clear, since we don\u2019t know what Landeene planned to do with the land, we don\u2019t know whether there\u2019s actual wrongdoing here. But there\u2019s certainly an appearance of impropriety. His entering into a deal to buy the land was a huge conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

Imagine a state lawmaker convincing his peers in the Legislature to approve tax increment development district funding for a chunk of land so tax dollars would pay the initial costs of roads and other infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Then imagine that same legislator buying up the land in that area to sell for development. Totally inappropriate.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Imagine the governor pushing the state to spend $200 million to build a spaceport in the middle of nowhere because a combination of factors make it the ideal place to launch vehicles into space. Imagine the state securing studies that show that such a project could turn the area around Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences into the center of the commercial space industry in America.<\/p>\n

Huge development potential. Huge tourism potential. A financial boon to the area, which means some people could get very rich.<\/p>\n

Then imagine the governor personally buying a ranch adjacent to the spaceport to turn it into a resort and hotel so he could make money off all the rich people paying $200,000 a piece to fly into space from the facility he pushed the state to build with public money.<\/p>\n

Again, totally inappropriate.<\/p>\n

No matter what Landeene\u2019s intent was for the land, the fact that he was responsible for moving the spaceport from concept to reality \u2013 and that he succeeded in doing so \u2013 meant he had no business privately buying adjacent land that he could potentially use to make a great deal of money if the spaceport project succeeds.<\/p>\n

You would think someone with such intelligence and responsibility would understand that.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502 Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502 Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don\u2019t know what Steve Landeene planned to do with land he agreed to buy adjacent to Spaceport America, but his entering into an agreement to buy it was a blatant conflict of interest since he’s head of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[107,141],"class_list":["post-16690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-roundhouse","tag-spaceport-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16690","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}