{"id":2937,"date":"2008-03-03T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-03T17:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/philippou-lawyer-disputes-ag-opinion-king-talks-tough\/"},"modified":"2008-03-03T11:59:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-03T17:59:00","slug":"philippou-lawyer-disputes-ag-opinion-king-talks-tough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/philippou-lawyer-disputes-ag-opinion-king-talks-tough\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippou lawyer disputes AG opinion; King talks tough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>An attorney for developer Philip Philippou is joining the state land commissioner in disputing the attorney general\u2019s legal opinion that finds fault with a controversial Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> land deal. <\/p>\n

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

Just as important, attorney Ben Silva said, is that the AG opinion doesn\u2019t allege any wrongdoing by Philippou.<\/p>\n

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

Meanwhile, Attorney General Gary King<\/a> is beginning to talk tough after first indicating that his office doesn\u2019t plan to try to enforce the opinion in court. In response to Land Commissioner Pat Lyons\u2019<\/a> Friday comments disputing the opinion, King said Saturday that his office will \u201cwait to see what happens next and then decide our next course of action.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>\u201cAgain, if the land commissioner chooses not to take our advice on this matter, he does so at his own risk,\u201d King said in a statement released by his office.<\/p>\n

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

The formal opinion<\/a> states that the issue of whether the agreement between the land office and Philippou\u2019s Solo Investments<\/a> is enforceable would have to be decided by the courts, and King\u2019s spokesman said previously that another party that might have legal standing, such as the City of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, could file suit.<\/p>\n

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

The AG opinion states that the lease agreement\u2019s<\/a> method of compensating Philippou\u2019s company for developing The Vistas at Presidio is \u201cnot comprehended by and in conflict with\u201d a statute that allows developers who improve land for the state to be compensated only for the appraised value of the improvements. In the lease, the land office also agrees to compensate Philippou for other project costs and 40 percent of the change in value of the land as a result of the improvements.<\/p>\n

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

\u2018Not some sweetheart deal\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The change in value of the land is where the profit from the deal is generated for both the land office and the developer, and Silva said there are currently at least eight other land office leases that compensate developers with a percentage of the change in value of the land.<\/p>\n

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

At least one of those deals \u2013 Mesa Del Sol<\/a> in Albuquerque<\/st1:city> \u2013 predates Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 tenure as land commissioner, Silva said. In addition, he said, the 60 percent of the change in value the state gets to keep in The Vistas at Presidio deal is higher than the percentage in seven of the eight other contracts. The eighth, like The Vistas at Presidio agreement, gives the state 60 percent of the change in value.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis is not some sweetheart deal limited to Philip and his companies,\u201d Silva said. \u201cThe contract in question\u2026 provides for the best return for the state of all the contracts that have been done this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Silva said the statutes the AG opinion cites in taking issue with the deal all concern governance of the land office, not private developers.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt does not allege that Mr. Philippou did anything wrong whatsoever, much less violate any law,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is just something that was presented. He signed it. He didn\u2019t violate any law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Silva: City doesn\u2019t have standing to sue<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Silva pointed out that the AG opinion is \u201cbut an opinion of one lawyer\u201d and is \u201cnot legally binding.\u201d He said he agrees with Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 attorneys, who argue that, unless there is a specific law prohibiting an action by the land commissioner, he is given the discretion to do what he wishes with state land to generate money for education.<\/p>\n

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

The Las Cruces City Council<\/a> is expected to discuss the possibility of challenging the land deal. Silva said such a challenge would \u201conly harm the state\u2019s education coffers.\u201d He also said he does not believe the city has legal standing to challenge it.<\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s because legal standing only comes from being a party to the contract or an intended beneficiary, Silva said. The city successfully argued, in a recent legal fight with a water utility, that the utility was an \u201cincidental\u201d beneficiary, not an intended beneficiary. He said the city is now in the same situation \u2013 as an incidental beneficiary \u2013 in the land office agreement with Philippou.<\/p>\n

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

He said a lawsuit by the city \u201cwould be contrary to the position they took just recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The land in question is part of a 6,000-acre development on Las Cruces\u2019 East Mesa that has been controversial in part because of financial contributions from Philippou that went to Lyons\u2019 2006 re-election bid around the same time Lyons bypassed his own bidding process for the land lease and gave the contract to Philippou.<\/p>\n

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

In addition, frustrated residents who believe there wasn\u2019t enough public involvement in city council deliberations about the project, which could double the city\u2019s size within 20 years, overthrew the city council in the recent municipal elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An attorney for developer Philip Philippou is joining the state land commissioner in disputing the attorney general\u2019s legal opinion that finds fault with a controversial Las Cruces land deal. Just as important, attorney Ben Silva said, is that the AG opinion doesn\u2019t allege any wrongdoing by Philippou. Meanwhile, Attorney General Gary King is beginning to […]<\/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-2937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2937","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=2937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}