{"id":3379,"date":"2008-06-12T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-12T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/lawmaker-no-longer-seeks-audit-of-lyons-dealings\/"},"modified":"2008-06-12T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-12T22:30:00","slug":"lawmaker-no-longer-seeks-audit-of-lyons-dealings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/lawmaker-no-longer-seeks-audit-of-lyons-dealings\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmaker no longer seeks audit of Lyons’ dealings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A special audit of the dealings of the State Land Office begins today, even as one of five lawmakers who requested the review has withdrawn his support for it. <\/p>\n

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

The land office announced today in a news release that Democratic state Rep. Ray Begaye<\/a> of Shiprock has withdrawn his name from the letter<\/a> that sought the formal involvement of state Auditor Hector Balderas<\/a>. In an interview, Begaye said he has come to respect Land Commissioner Pat Lyons<\/a> and his staff and is concerned that the controversy that has ensued over Lyons<\/st1:city>\u2019 dealings with a Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> developer is costing the state money that could help fund education.<\/p>\n

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

Begaye said that, until the controversy began, Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was increasing the amount of money the land office was making for education, which \u201ctells me that Pat Lyons and his office staff are doing a pretty good job.\u201d The controversy, Begaye said, caused the land office\u2019s business and planning lease revenue to drop during the 2007 fiscal year by about $400,000 from the previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n

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

Asked if he believes the controversy is politically motivated, as Lyons<\/st1:city> has alleged, Begaye said there \u201cis some internal strife\u201d in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> but he doesn\u2019t know a lot about it.<\/p>\n

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

Balderas announced in May<\/a> that he will conduct the audit. The letter requesting the review was also signed by Democratic Reps. Nate Cote<\/a> of Organ, Mimi Stewart<\/a> of Albuquerque, Elias Barela<\/a> of Belen and Thomas Garcia<\/a> of Ocate and followed an opinion by Attorney General Gary King<\/a> finding fault with a land lease in Las Cruces.<\/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> is proceeding with those deals and King has taken no action to stop him.<\/p>\n

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

In today\u2019s news release announcing that Begaye had changed his mind, Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said he welcomes Balderas\u2019 audit and is confident it will confirm the findings of the agency\u2019s last five audits, which found no problems. The special audit will look specifically at policies and procedures the land office follows in the sale, exchange and leasing of trust lands.<\/p>\n

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

On Wednesday, Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> spoke about the land office\u2019s dealings before the Legislative Education Study Committee<\/a>. Begaye is a member of that committee and was present for Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 presentation, which he said was impressive. In the news release, Ly<\/st1:city>ons<\/st1:city> complained that Cote<\/st1:place> and Garcia, who are also members of the committee, were absent from the meeting. He said they \u201cwill remain in the dark and continue to make unsubstantiated allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Land office says Garcia also changes mind<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Lyons<\/st1:city>\u2019 news release made one additional claim \u2013 that Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia<\/a>, D-Do\u00f1a Ana, has also changed her mind on the controversy in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. It was Sen. Garcia and Cote who requested the formal AG opinion on the legality of Lyons\u2019 deal with Philippou<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

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

At Wednesday\u2019s meeting, Sen. Garcia \u201cadmitted on the record that she got caught up in a \u2018political nightmare\u2019 and she has withdrawn her name from that letter (to the AG),\u201d the land office news release alleged. \u201cShe said, after speaking with Commissioner Lyons and meeting with the developer of a Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> project that sparked the letter, she feels confident that the commissioner is working in the best interest of the trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

In an interview, Sen. Garcia refused to say whether that\u2019s true, but said she did speak with Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> about the situation.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI prefer not to make any statement at this time because my statements are always misinterpreted,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI\u2019m not after Patrick Lyons. I\u2019m not after the developer. I\u2019m not after anyone. I\u2019m just going to run my campaign and that\u2019s all the information I\u2019m giving out at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A special audit of the dealings of the State Land Office begins today, even as one of five lawmakers who requested the review has withdrawn his support for it. The land office announced today in a news release that Democratic state Rep. Ray Begaye of Shiprock has withdrawn his name from the letter that sought […]<\/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-3379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379","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=3379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}