{"id":18477,"date":"2010-06-14T22:22:35","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T04:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=18477"},"modified":"2010-06-16T22:16:04","modified_gmt":"2010-06-17T04:16:04","slug":"landeene-discussed-ranch-deal-with-spaceport-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/06\/landeene-discussed-ranch-deal-with-spaceport-lawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"Landeene discussed ranch deal with spaceport lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

Spaceport America\u2019s<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a purchase agreement protecting the buyer, I\u2019m fine with it,\u201d attorney Steve Amland wrote to Landeene in a Feb. 14 e-mail. \u201c\u2026 I can certainly see the ways this avenue is preferable to the cumbersome direct public purchase, but let\u2019s get together and discuss the long term some more when you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> that he had consulted with Amland \u2013 and was told there was no conflict in him personally purchasing the ranch \u201cso long as there was no profit motive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Steve Landeene<\/p><\/div>\n

The agency did possess records. In addition to providing a copy of the purchase agreement between Landeene\u2019s company \u2013 KSL Management LLC \u2013 and ranch owners Robert and Barbara Brown, the agency provided a copy of an appraisal of the ranch and e-mails relating to Landeene\u2019s attempt to purchase it.<\/p>\n

The Feb. 14 e-mail is the last communication between the two provided by the Spaceport Authority. There\u2019s nothing in the e-mails to back up Landeene\u2019s claim that Amland told him there was no conflict if there was no profit motive \u2013 which doesn\u2019t mean that didn\u2019t happen during an in-person conversation or another means of communication that didn\u2019t create a public record.<\/p>\n

Like Landeene, Amland no longer works for the agency.<\/p>\n

A critical time<\/h3>\n

Landeene\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Michael Moxey, spokesman for the state\u2019s Economic Development Department, which includes the spaceport authority, said he doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That appraisal was conducted for the Spaceport Authority in December. The agency opted against buying the ranch. It\u2019s not clear when the purchase agreement between the Browns and Landeene\u2019s company was drafted, but it states that Landeene\u2019s company was to deposit $200,000 on or before Feb. 15.<\/p>\n

The \u2018best intentions\u2019<\/h3>\n

Landeene told the Albuquerque Journal last month that he had the \u201cbest intentions\u201d<\/a> in agreeing to buy the ranch, saying he was trying to give state officials more time to consider buying the land.<\/p>\n

In the interview with the Journal, Landeene said the purchase agreement was to be completed in mid-July, and he said he would have \u201cbacked out of the deal or transferred it the state at no profit to himself if the state had decided to move ahead\u201d before then.<\/p>\n

I and others have said the situation represented a conflict of interest<\/a>. Landeene disagreed in an interview with The Associated Press:<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything has always been done with the best intent for the state and the spaceport in mind,\u201d the news service quoted him as saying. \u201cIt\u2019s laughable that a conflict or those concerns could even be raised.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board had no interest in purchasing it, so my buying a piece of property, what\u2019s the harm in that?\u201d the Journal quoted Landeene as asking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spaceport America\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-18477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-spaceport-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18477","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=18477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}