Lyons: I did it for the kids

Land commissioner says he shouldn't have signed contract

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons said he made a mistake last year in signing a contract that allows a developer to master plan a state-owned parcel that is being considered for annexation into Las Cruces.

"We did jump the gun," Lyons said Friday. "We should have waited a month."

The state Land Office has been criticized in recent weeks for giving Solo Investments' Philip Philippou a sweetheart deal. The contract was signed Dec. 26, but the notice gave a deadline of Feb. 1 for proposals to be submitted.

Lyons has said he didn't wait until the deadline to see what other proposals might be submitted because Philippou's "was so good and above everybody else's."

He also said the proposal was attractive because it offered to master plan the adjacent plot at no cost.

"We did err, but I thought that if we were going to err, it should be on the side of public school kids in New Mexico," Lyons said Friday.

Comments

[Stephanie DuBois]

This guy is a serious piece of work.He buys a pick-up truck with campaign funds and doesn't think there is anything wrong with that. How could he think Phillipou's proposal was better than all the rest,when the rest never were able to apply by the Feb.1 date he himself set.When he said he did for the school kids, I have my doubt. to me with the contributions he got from Phillipou, I tend to think he did for Patrick Lyons. Stephanie DuBois