{"id":1729,"date":"2007-05-16T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-16T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/on-trip-to-las-cruces-lyons-defends-land-lease\/"},"modified":"2007-05-16T10:32:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-16T16:32:00","slug":"on-trip-to-las-cruces-lyons-defends-land-lease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/on-trip-to-las-cruces-lyons-defends-land-lease\/","title":{"rendered":"On trip to Las Cruces, Lyons defends land lease"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>New Mexico Land Commissioner Pat Lyons<\/a> is in Las Cruces<\/st1:city> today to defend his decision to lease land on the East Mesa<\/st1:place> to a developer who has been very friendly with him in the past. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> explained the deal and chastised those who have criticized him this morning on The Morning Show with Michael Swickard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to connect some dots here that just doesn\u2019t make sense to me,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 re-election campaign. Then Lyons bypassed his own process for seeking bids to lease 3,200 acres of land on Las Cruces\u2019 East Mesa by giving the contract<\/span><\/a> to Philippou in December, before the announced time to submit proposals had ended.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In addition, Philippou has given another $6,000 to Lyons<\/st1:city> 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<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> last year. And Lyons<\/st1:city> flew on a plane chartered or owned by Philippou in March to a basketball game in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, but says he didn\u2019t know until after the fact that Philippou paid for the flight.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In the interview with Swickard, Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> 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<\/st1:placename> Valley<\/st1:placetype> by helping develop the desolate East Mesa<\/st1:place>, and also pointed out that his mandate is to make money off state lands for education.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t get anything for open space,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> recently told the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> that he made a mistake in accepting Philippou\u2019s bid before the process had ended, but he seemed to back off that comment today. He said Philippou\u2019s master plan was so good that it was worth signing a lease before the end of the announced bidding process.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> 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.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He said he also wanted to hire a local builder to develop the land.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t even have to put it out to bid. We just did that to do it,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said. \u201cWe acted on the bids as they came in.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re not for sale\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:city> defended his ride on Philippou\u2019s plane to see the New Mexico<\/st1:placename> State<\/st1:placetype> University<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> Aggies<\/a> play in the NCAA tournament in March, saying it\u2019s not unusual for public officials to be invited to attend such events. He said \u201cthere happened to be an open seat\u201d on the plane, and the university president invited him.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWho paid for it? I don\u2019t know,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

His spokesperson told me yesterday that, at the time, Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> believed the university was paying for the flight, but he found out after the fact that Philippou did.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Swickard asked whether gifts and campaign contributions from developers influence his actions. Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to pull up stuff from the campaign a year ago,\u201d he said of journalists, including me, who have reported on the contributions. \u201cYou know, campaign\u2019s over in November. We don\u2019t care anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said he opposes public financing of campaigns and said candidates have to raise money. He said donors \u201cinvest in you because they believe in what you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not for sale. We never have been, never will be,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> told Swickard, adding that \u201chow you deal with situations like this is what defines what kind of person you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to raise money for education, is to take care of our beneficiaries,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re going to leave a legacy where we did a great job in the State Land Office.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> plans to speak later today to the Rotary Club<\/a> and the Sun-News<\/a> editorial board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729","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=1729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}