{"id":4766,"date":"2009-07-30T18:22:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-31T00:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/07\/controversial-developer-philippous-problems-grow\/"},"modified":"2009-07-30T18:22:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-31T00:22:00","slug":"controversial-developer-philippous-problems-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/07\/controversial-developer-philippous-problems-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial developer Philippou’s problems grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The problems for controversial Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou are growing.<\/p>\n

A new lawsuit accuses Philippou of fraud in promising a company he hired to help build a golf course in Las Cruces that water would be available for construction, when in fact it was not, the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> reported today.<\/p>\n

You can read the lawsuit, filed by Golf Works, Inc.<\/a>, by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Albuquerque Journal published an article<\/a> about the City of Las Cruces taking steps to force Philippou to pay outstanding utility bills and deal with an exposed sewer line in one of his developments.<\/p>\n

The new issues come weeks after the city filed a lawsuit<\/a> alleging that Philippou has failed to comply with building requirements in several of his subdivisions and asking a district court judge to force Philippou to complete the work he started. In addition, last month, Philippou had to pay the city more than $200,000<\/a> for an outstanding water bill after the city placed liens on his properties.<\/p>\n

The Golf Works lawsuit accuses Philippou of one count of fraud in the inducement and one count of loss of economic opportunities for falsely leading the company to believe water would be available, the Sun-News reported. The lawsuit also states that Philippou refused to pay the company for work it had completed, which has reduced the company\u2019s bonding capacity by $5 million.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit seeks $1.2 million in damages. A Philippou representative could not be reached for comment by the Sun-News.<\/p>\n

The Journal reported that the city has obtained a court order requiring Philippou to deal with the sewer line and has cut off utility service to undeveloped lots owned by Philippou until he pays more than $63,000 in overdue bills, most for street lights.<\/p>\n

Philippou\u2019s attorney, Kyle Moberly, was quoted by the Journal as saying he did not want to comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Philippou) does not want to jeopardize the progress he has made by discussing these matters publicly,\u201d the newspaper quoted Moberly as saying. \u201cHowever, if these matters are not settled, then I expect that Mr. Philippou will want to tell the public his side of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant City Manager Rober Garza told the Journal the city is not trying to make Philippou \u201cgo under.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to ruin a businessman,\u201d the newspaper quoted Garza as saying. \u201cWe want to resolve these matters so that our citizens can go on about their happy lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

A long history<\/span><\/p>\n

Philippou has a long history of controversy. In 2007, it was revealed that then-District 1 City Councilor Jos\u00e9 Frietze had failed to disclose land donations<\/a> Philippou made to a non-profit Frietze runs. But Philippou\u2019s most visible controversy relates to his dealings with the State Land Office.<\/p>\n

Pat Lyons<\/a>, the state land commissioner, bypassed his own bidding process and agreed to lease thousands of acres of public land in Las Cruces to Philippou in 2006. Around the same time, Lyons received approximately $30,000 in campaign contributions from Philippou and a political committee and lobbyists tied to the developer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a land deal Attorney General Gary King<\/a> has said is flawed. The AG\u2019s formal opinion<\/a> states that the lease agreement\u2019s<\/a> method of compensating 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.<\/p>\n

The controversies surrounding the land office and Frietze helped fuel public outcry over the city\u2019s growth policies and helped lead to the overthrowing of the city council<\/a> in two elections held in late 2007 and early 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The problems for controversial Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou are growing. A new lawsuit accuses Philippou of fraud in promising a company he hired to help build a golf course in Las Cruces that water would be available for construction, when in fact it was not, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported today. You can read […]<\/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-4766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766","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=4766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}