{"id":3308,"date":"2008-05-30T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-30T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/05\/balderas-to-conduct-audit-of-land-offices-dealings\/"},"modified":"2008-05-30T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-30T15:00:00","slug":"balderas-to-conduct-audit-of-land-offices-dealings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/05\/balderas-to-conduct-audit-of-land-offices-dealings\/","title":{"rendered":"Balderas to conduct audit of land office’s dealings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The State Auditor\u2019s Office<\/a> will conduct a special audit to review the policies and procedures the State Land Office<\/a> follows in the sale, exchange and leasing of trust lands. <\/p>\n

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

State Auditor Hector Balderas formally informed Land Commissioner Pat Lyons of the audit in a letter he sent Thursday<\/a>. In the letter, he thanked Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> for having his staff provide \u201ca summary of SLO land sales, land exchanges, closed and ongoing land lease transactions, and SLO administrative rules.\u201d Balderas also informed Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> that his office needs access to additional information.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 spokeswoman, Kristin Haase, said the land office \u201cis cooperating fully\u201d with the auditor.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe look forward to the auditor\u2019s findings that will undoubtedly show that the leases, exchanges and land sales facilitated by this administration are in the best interest of the trust,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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

The audit comes at the request of five state representatives \u2013 Nate Cote<\/a> of Organ, Ray Begaye<\/a> of Shiprock, Mimi Stewart<\/a> of Albuquerque, Elias Barela<\/a> of Belen and Thomas Garcia<\/a> of Ocate. They wrote a letter<\/a> to Balderas in April asking him to scrutinize the land office\u2019s dealings<\/a> in light of an opinion by Attorney General Gary King finding fault with a land lease in Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

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

The AG\u2019s formal opinion<\/a> related to The Vistas at Presidio land deal on Las Cruces\u2019 East Mesa states that the lease agreement\u2019s<\/a> method of compensating Philip Philippou\u2019s company for developing the land 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

There are a number of other leases for land in Las Cruces<\/st1:city>, Albuquerque<\/st1:city>, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> that contain similar provisions. Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> briefly put all land deals on hold several weeks ago while he met with King about the situation, but he has since decided to proceed and said he suggests that \u201cthe attorney general work with us, not against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u2018A necessary first step\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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

In an interview, Cote<\/st1:place> said he\u2019s pleased that Balderas has agreed to scrutinize the land office\u2019s dealings.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think as a result we\u2019re either going to clarify any misperception of wrongdoing or mismanagement, or we\u2019re going to find something that\u2019s inappropriate, but probably most important of all is that we\u2019ll probably, from this, be able to look at what might be needed for future legislation\u2026 to ensure we\u2019re doing what is right and appropriate for public education and the children of our state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Barela agreed.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI believe this is a necessary first step for the citizens of New Mexico to determine if their state trust land is being managed for their maximum benefit and solely with their interest in mind or for the benefit of special interests and the politically well-connected,\u201d he said. \u201cI trust State Auditor Hector Balderas will be fair to all concerned and deliver the facts to all New Mexicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Stewart pointed out that state lands are put into trust to fund public education.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s important that the policies and practices of the SLO are designed to maximize funding for our publicly funded educational systems,\u201d she said. \u201cThis audit will help the public have faith in our state systems. If policies need to be changed, we will have sound reasoning and documentation for those changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The first phase of the audit, Balderas wrote in his letter to Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, will be to document any written land-office policies and procedures \u201cthat support the SLO decision-making process underlying state trust land transactions.\u201d The auditor wrote that he will also \u201cattempt to independently verify the completeness of summaries provided by the SLO to ensure that your office can account for all state trust land transactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

In addition, the auditor will examine the monetary terms of closed land deals and, in the case of pending deals, will \u201creview and test SLO\u2019s policies, procedures and internal controls to ensure that the SLO has systems in place that track and account for the land transactions,\u201d Balderas\u2019 letter states.<\/p>\n

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

Balderas gave no timeline for completion of the audit in his letter to Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The State Auditor\u2019s Office will conduct a special audit to review the policies and procedures the State Land Office follows in the sale, exchange and leasing of trust lands. State Auditor Hector Balderas formally informed Land Commissioner Pat Lyons of the audit in a letter he sent Thursday. In the letter, he thanked Lyons for […]<\/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-3308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308","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=3308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}