Land exchanges could be 'political suicide'

"People have told me it would be political suicide to try and solve the problems up there," Lyons said about the Whites Peak land exchanges.

by Peter St. Cyr

Commissioner of Public Lands Patrick Lyons invited elected officials, the media, and the public to his office, at the State Land Office, on Thursday, to discuss a controversial four-way land exchange that he previously agreed to make with private ranchers.

He had planned to use the meeting to discuss the benefits of the state land swaps, but spent most of his time being grilled on the details by state Reps. Thomas Garcia and Brian Egolf, and fending off hunters and guides who were upset the meeting was being held the same day as one of the exchanges was closed -- with Stanley Ranches.

Listen to Lyons' presentation and Q&A here, or by clicking the play button on the bar below.




Making the case

Lyons, who claims the deal will increase the value of state lands in the Whites Peaks area alone by over $12 million, used a slide presentation and maps to illustrate long standing issues such as checker boarded land plots, deteriorating public access roads, trespassing, poaching, and boundary distinctions, to try and make his case.

He told the crowd of about 50 people he intended to solve problems that have existed in the region for decades and "four commissioners before me."

Sensing the unhappiness of hunters and some Democrat leaders, Lyons told this reporter before the public meeting, "people have told me it would be political suicide to try and solve the problems up there."

His advisors may have been right.

Lyons did not get a warm reception from most people in the crowd, which included Mike Anaya and Sandy Jones -- both Democrat primary candidates seeking to succeed Lyons, the only Republican state office holder.

One hunter, Angelo Archuleta, from Mora, accused Lyons of putting the private landowners' interests over the interests of northern New Mexico's hunting community.

Listen to Archuleta confront Lyons, who call's him a "wise ass", at 51 minutes into the audio tape. Later, after Archuleta insisted on expressing his opinion on the swaps out of turn, Lyons told the crowd, "this is why we don't have public meetings in Mora," and requested staffers call the police. Archuleta was allowed to stay after Rep. Garcia told Lyons that he had yielded the floor to Archuleta and that no threats had been made.

Rattlesnakes, antelope, and Bambi...

Professional outdoor guide Alberto Goke, who appeared disgusted with the Stanley Ranch deal being closed without public meetings, told the crowd that the only thing they'll find on lands being traded with Express UU Bar Ranches, will be rattlesnakes and antelope. He claimed all the prized bull-elk will be behind fences and fears ranchers will begin charging thousands for private hunts saying, "we'll be left with Bambi."

Lyons disagreed, and said none of the ranchers have plans to build fences big enough to trap the preferred bull elks on the private lands.

Lyons appeared confident when he claimed wildlife will migrate to water at ponds the state will acquire in the deals.

“We're getting prime elk hunting land," Lyons said. “They'll be at water during hunting season, and that's what we're getting,” Lyons said specifically mentioning archery season.

'It's turned into a political free-for all'

Rep. Egolf, who grilled Lyons about the value to beneficiaries, told Lyons he didn't think the land should be exchanged because some landowners have complained about trespassers and vandalism.

He wants Lyons to leave enforcement to the sheriff and park rangers, reminding Lyons that his job "is to maximize revenue for education -- the primary beneficiaries of state trust lands."

But Lyons said that the beneficiaries he's talked to support the exchanges and that revenues from the Game and Fish Department have doubled during his seven years in office.

In fact, Lyons said by eliminating most of the checker boarding the value of the land will be increased and allow him to make more money for New Mexico off grazing leases and through camping, hunting, recreation and other activities.

But Egolf said, after reviewing the financial summaries, it appeared there would only be a net increase of $1,700 from new grazing leases, and offered to split the amount with Rep. Garcia if it would halt the remaining three deals with UU Bar, Galloway, and CS Ranches.

Meanwhile, two representatives with the state's attorney general's office, who have been investigating the land appraisals and other aspects of the deals, said that once the deals have closed they may be forced "into litigation" and are concerned about the "lack of transparency in the deal."

Lyons said that there has been no secrecy surrounding the swaps, and State Land Office Attorney Robert Stranahan told the group that his office has "always been open for anyone who wanted to come and ask questions."

For now, both the governor and attorney general want the three exchanges, which have still not closed to be halted, but a spokesperson for Lyons' said they will continue as planned.

At the end of the meeting, Kristin Haase told a Journal North reporter, “It's turning into a political free-for-all." She said, “it's disappointing they don't see the merits of the exchange.”

Lyons insists the remaining three deals will move forward on their merits.

In the meantime, he's preparing to campaign for a seat on the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.

Is NM Land Office making deals behind closed doors?

Rep. Brian Egolf
by Peter St. Cyr

Tuesday is the the final day to submit a bid at the State Land Office to acquire thousands of state land near Whites Peak in Northern New Mexico.

“We’re losing 4,000 acres of prime hunting and fishing land in exchange for scrub brush along a desolate highway,” State Rep. Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe) said. “It’s not a fair trade to give up timber, wooded areas and incredible water resources on the mesa top. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

The first-term representative believes the only way to stop a deal planned by New Mexico State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons and two private ranchers is for the state public schools (which are the beneficiaries of state lands) to file a lawsuit.

Egolf told us he believes the deal between Express UU Bar Ranches, LLC, Stanley Ranches, and the state land office has been in the works for months, if not years.

So on Friday, Egolf grilled Lyons, at a Legislative Finance Committee hearing in Santa Fe, about the land office’s plan with the ranchers.

“There has been no public process up to this point,” Egolf said. “It has all been done behind closed doors which is the opposite of the way we need to be doing things with our public lands.”

Land Commissioner Pat Lyons

A complicated deal defines boundaries

Lyons told 770KKOB News that the land swap includes four different exchanges and his detractors shouldn’t analyze just one. He insists the four land swaps need to be looked at as a group.

“It’s been very controversial area for about 50 years because it’s all checker boarded,” Lyons said. “It has private land mingled in with state land, and state land mingled in with private land. So it’s always been a contention of private property rights versus access.”

The land commissioner said after the deal is completed “it’s going to be continuous acres of 25,000 acres on one side and 18,000 acres on the other side with the state land being in the middle and that way we’ll know where the definite boundaries are.”

Still, Egolf wants to know how the deal helps public school children. At the hearing, Egolf asked Lyons to provide the benefits.

“I’m very sad to say that I learned that he can present no justification whatsoever for doing this land transfer,” Egolf said. “I asked him explicitly -- ‘how does this land transfer benefit the school children of the State of New Mexico?’ -- and he couldn’t answer the question.”

But, Lyons is defending the deal, which he said has been advertised, as required by law, for 10-days.

“The state trust always has to receive benefits,” Lyons said. “We make at least 10%. We only exchange surface for surface. We always keep our subsurface, because we don’t know what the value of the mineral is underneath there. ”

The land commissioner, who is term-limited, and is not running for re-election in 2010, also insists the land office benefits on the appraised value of each exchange.

Is the deal really a win-win?

“The major thing about it is we’re going to improve the wildlife habitat so much up there. And it’s going to improve the quality of the hunting up there,” Lyons said. “We’re going to close some roads that are eroded that aren’t good for the environment. At the same time we’re going to try to get one good all-weather road in there for all familes to have access. It’s a win-win situation.”

But it’s hunting and fishing that have Gov. Bill Richardson and Egolf concerned. They fear once fences and gates are put up the ranchers will be “in a great position to open private hunting camp with pristine land.”

“Once its private land the regular folks can’t hunt on it anymore, because it’s not public property, so UU Bar and Stanley Ranches will be able to fence this land off and keep people out,” Egolf said. “People from the North who traditionally have used this as prime hunting and fishing land they’re not going to be able to go there anymore. White Peaks is not some anonymous random piece of property. This is an important area culturally for the Northern part of the state.”

The issue of access began to emerged six years ago when the ranchers from Oklahoma put up a barrier — which prevented sportsman from crossing through the ranch on a public road to access the state lands.

After litigation in 2003, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled against UU Bar and the road was reopened.

“You take land people have enjoyed for generations and because one person decides it’s a good idea it’s going to be gone forever,” Egolf said. “The governor and legislature can’t do things like that. We’ve got constituents to answer to and we’ve got public meeting requirements and all these things to make sure that there’s huge amount of public input to every decision we make. At the land office it’s the opposite. They’re doing everything they can to keep it secret.”

Lyons claims nothing was done in secret and said public comment remains open until 4pm on Tuesday.

“The bid process closes Tuesday for one of the first part of the exchange. The second one is on December 8th, and the third and fourth haven’t been advertised yet, so we don’t even have a bid in the office yet," Lyons said. "They don’t even come in until the last day. When the come in we’ll evaluate all of them and see what’s in the best interest of the trust and then we’ll go from there.”

More public hearings proposed for land deals

But Egolf, who couldn’t find any maps on the land office’s website finally received maps and other documents after filing an inspection of public records request, doesn’t believe the process has been open at all.

In fact, he believes the land office “wanted as little attention as possible because they know that this is a bad deal for New Mexico.”

“You would expect if that’s true they wouldn’t know every inch of property that they are swapping for because they haven’t received a bid yet, but they have this map that is incredibly detailed that shows not only all the land the state land office has put up, it also shows all the land they are anticipating getting and each parcel that they expect to get has been appraised and measured. So how do they know what’s coming if they haven’t gotten the bid yet?” Egolf asked.

Now Egolf is proposing more oversight, review and public hearings on state land exchanges.

“The State Land office is the most powerful office you’ve never heard of,” Egolf said. “He’s got no oversight, no review, and no public process. So as long as he publishes a notice in a newspaper that he wants to dispose of this property he can sell it to anybody he wants to for any price that he thinks is appropriate. He doesn’t have to show any analysis about what makes this a good deal for the school kids of New Mexico.”

Egolf said he’s considering introducing legislation to make future land deals follow the same open meeting rules that the government agencies and the legislature follow.

“I will be pursuing legislation to require that these land swaps and distributions and distributions of public land be done after public hearings and after a proper analysis of the economics of these kinds of swaps,” Egolf said. “I believe everything can be done through legislation. I don’t think you need a change in the constitution to add to some oversight to the process.”

For now, Egolf believes the only way to stop the proposed land deal is to file suit.

“Public scrutiny is critical in this process. He [Lyons] needs to understand that people are paying attention,” Egolf said. “hopefully we won’t have these kinds of bad deals done in the future.”