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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
AG Seeks Help of Supreme Court
By Phil Parker
Journal Staff Writer
New Mexico Attorney General Gary King has gone to court to stop the White Peak land exchanges in the northeast part of the state.
King bypassed lower courts Monday and directly petitioned the New Mexico Supreme Court, asking the justices to rule on whether State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons is constitutionally allowed to go through with the trades, which have become controversial in recent months.
King also wants an emergency order stopping Lyons from continuing with the land swaps. “We're asking them to give an order to the land commissioner that says this deal was not done correctly and we want you to undo it,” King said.
Lyons wants to trade 14,000 acres of trust land — most of it in the White Peak area north of Ocate, but also including 3,600 acres near Española and 40 acres in Albuquerque — for 9,600 acres now owned by four White Peak ranches.
Lyons and the ranchers say the trades will create easily managed boundaries in what is now a checkerboard jumble of private and trust lands, to deal with trespassing, vandalism and poaching problems. But many hunters say Lyons is giving away prime elk hunting zones for less desirable property.
The deal is supposed to include four separate transactions with private land owners. The first transaction, with rancher David Stanley, has already been closed.
King said that if the Supreme Court determines Lyons has exceeded his constitutional authority, then the swap with Stanley could be reversed. Another exchange, with UU Bar Express ranch, has already gone to public auction and been agreed upon, though not closed yet.
At issue is the validity of the constitutionally required auctions that the Land Office held to dispose of the state-trust land up for trade. King maintains the auctions in the White Peak trades are illegal because the Land Office had predetermined the winners — the ranchers the Land Office wants to trade with.
Trades called 'shams'
In a statement sent to the Journal, Land Office spokeswoman Kristin Haase said Monday the auctions met state requirements. “Not only did the Land Office receive more than fair market value, consolidating holdings will enhance the value of state trust land exponentially,” she said.
King's suit calls the public auctions for the state trust land around White Peak “for all practical purposes, shams.”
The New Mexico Enabling Act, which dates back to this state's founding, mandates that an auction for any trust land be advertised weeks ahead of time in newspapers. The Land Office did advertise each piece of the White Peak trades.
But King said by the time notices were running in the papers, a deal had already been worked out with specific land owners giving up parcels that exactly conformed to the office's plan to consolidate the White Peak private and trust land holdings.
“They precluded everyone else from bidding except the one preselected bidder,” King said.
Rules disputed
In the case of the Stanley trade, for example, King said any other interested bidders could only have put up land worth at least $6.4 million, the value at which Stanley's parcels were appraised.
The Land Office disputed that.
“Anyone could have bid land, cash or a combination of both and the bid that was in the best interest of the trust would have won,” Haase said.
Lyons argues that the swaps will increase the value of the state's holdings around White Peak. “All exchanges are designed to bring maximum benefit to the trust,” Haase's statement says. Trust lands generate revenues for schools and other state services through grazing or mineral leases or other activities.
King said he understands that Lyons' post authorizes broad authority over state trust land, but that management problems involving private owners shouldn't be of concern to the Land Office. He questioned whether the trades fit the Land Office's stated purpose: to maximize revenues generated by the land for beneficiaries like schools.
King called his petition before the Supreme Court a “good case.”
“Instead of arguing whether the trade is good or bad, let's get guidance from the court,” King said. “This is how the dispute should be resolved.”
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