{"id":24525,"date":"2010-12-21T12:05:33","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T19:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=24525"},"modified":"2010-12-21T12:05:35","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T19:05:35","slug":"rep-cote-blasts-lyons-over-audit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/12\/rep-cote-blasts-lyons-over-audit\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Cote blasts Lyons over audit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Nate Cote<\/p><\/div>\n

State Rep. Nate Cote<\/a>, who initiated the request from lawmakers that led to a damning audit of the New Mexico Land Office<\/a>, says he\u2019s concerned about potential criminal activity and hopes the attorney general will look into the allegation that the land office interfered with the audit.<\/p>\n

Cote and several other state representatives requested the audit<\/a> in 2008 following an opinion from Attorney General\u00a0Gary King<\/a> finding fault with Land Commissioner Pat Lyons\u2019<\/a> leasing of land in Las Cruces to Philip Philippou for development.<\/p>\n

Cote, a Democrat from Organ who lost this year\u2019s election and leaves office in a few days, has also been involved in efforts to reform<\/a> the land office. He has often been at odds<\/a> with Lyons.<\/p>\n

In an e-mail, Cote cited the state auditor\u2019s concern about \u201ca large number\u201d of transactions in which land deals were made \u201cin close temporal proximity\u201d to campaign contributions from the applicants who received the deals. While the auditor recommended better disclosure but did not allege that the transactions were made in exchange for campaign contributions, Cote used harsher language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an obvious conclusion and very serious if not criminal pay to play behavior,\u201d Cote said. \u201cIt is what a person in a position of public trust should not be doing. \u2026 This is especially true with someone in a position entrusted with millions of dollars of the public\u2019s resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cote said campaign contributions given by Philippou created a negative perception among his constituents. Cote represents some of the areas at the center of the Lyons\/Philippou land deals.<\/p>\n

In its response to the audit, the land office didn\u2019t directly address the concern about campaign contributions. It instead pointed the finger back at State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/a>, accusing him of a partisan witch hunt against the only Republican statewide elected official while ignoring \u201cthe prominent, public and private reports of the \u2018pay-to-play,\u2019 bribery and kickback culture of the Auditor\u2019s own political party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cote also expressed concern about findings that found numerous issues with land sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen dealing with public lands and revenue sources, processes need to be tight, transparent, and to the benefit of the people of New Mexico,\u201d he said. \u201cAny less should be considered negligence in the most brazen form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cote noted Balderas\u2019 allegation that the land office \u201c\u201cinterfered throughout the audit process,\u201d withholding some documents and redacting others.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterference in any kind of audit or investigation is never \u2018legally\u2019 acceptable regardless of the ethical connotations,\u201d Cote said. \u201cI would hope that the AG look into this finding under state statute and file appropriate charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balderas referred the audit to the state attorney general and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Rep. Nate Cote, who initiated the request from lawmakers that led to a damning audit of the New Mexico Land Office, says he\u2019s concerned about potential criminal activity and hopes the attorney general will look into the allegation that the land office interfered with the audit.<\/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":[138,107],"class_list":["post-24525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-growth-and-development","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24525","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=24525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}