NewMexicoMatters.com

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.

ABQjournal: Gift to PAC Aids Land Boss

ABQjournal: Gift to PAC Aids Land Boss:
LAS CRUCES— A political action committee received thousands of dollars in contributions from a developer who was dealing with the state Land Office last fall, then reported giving similar amounts on the same days to the re-election campaign of Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons.
According to records on file with the secretary of state:

• On Aug. 7, developer Philip Philippou of Las Cruces gave $10,000 to the Santa Fe-based Blue & Red PAC. The same day, the PAC gave $7,500 to the Committee to Re-Elect Pat Lyons.

• On Sept. 8, Philippou gave the Blue & Red PAC a contribution of $10,500. The same day, Blue & Red gave $8,000 to Lyons' re-election campaign and spent $2,142.50 on campaign T-shirts for Lyons.

Lyons signed a potentially lucrative no-bid contract with Philippou on Dec. 26 to master-plan a 4,200-acre tract of state trust land and seek its annexation by Las Cruces.