Lawmakers sue NM officials over state park transfer

Administration didn’t get legislative approval for property deal, suit claims

SANTA FE — Top New Mexico lawmakers have filed a lawsuit against several officials in Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration, arguing they overstepped their authority by moving to convert a state park outside Las Cruces into a regional Game and Fish Department headquarters.

The suit, filed this week in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, marks the latest legal battle between the Democratic-controlled Legislature and the Martinez administration.

In their lawsuit, lawmakers seek to prevent the Game and Fish Department from taking control of the Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park, a 264-acre property in the riparian flood plain along the Rio Grande that was established as a state park in 2008.

Specifically, the Legislative Council, a group of bipartisan lawmakers, claims that officials with the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department and the Game and Fish Department moved ahead with a transfer deed even though the deal was never approved by the Legislature.

“You don’t get to violate the Constitution because you think you can save money,” House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said Wednesday.

He also said Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department officials never proposed a resolution authorizing the property transfer, even though legislators told them to do so in advance of this year’s 30-day session.

However, EMNRD Secretary Ken McQueen said Wednesday that he believes state law does allow him to transfer the property without legislative approval. He also said the deal is intended to save taxpayers money.

“Once again, the Legislature is showing their blatant disregard

for conserving taxpayer dollars by hiring three outside attorneys to sue State Parks for expanding education, outreach and wildlife viewing opportunities for the Mesilla Valley Bosque Property — a move that is also saving taxpayer dollars,” McQueen told the Journal. “Apparently, the Legislature likes to double-down — wasting public dollars to stop us from saving public dollars.”

In January, McQueen told members of the Capitol Buildings Planning Commission that the transfer would save the agency roughly $266,000 annually. He also said the Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park was one of the least visited state parks and was staffed by only one full-time employee due to budgetary constraints.

New Mexico has spent more than $2 million to promote the state park since 2009 and has taken in only about $159,000 in revenue from it, according to the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit was filed Tuesday after being authorized last month by the Legislative Council in a closed-door vote.

“Absent legislative action, a park cannot be eliminated and state-owned assets acquired with appropriations for the park cannot be transferred to a different executive agency for that agency’s use,” the 13-page lawsuit says.

The lawsuit comes less than three months after the New Mexico Supreme Court invalidated Martinez’s vetoes of 10 bills from last year’s session, ruling the two-term Republican governor did not follow proper constitutional procedures in axing bills that, for the most part, had passed the Legislature with broad bipartisan support.

The latest lawsuit is supported by at least one GOP lawmaker, as Rep. Candy Spence Ezzell of Roswell said Wednesday that the energy department had gone about the property transfer the “wrong way.”

That sentiment was echoed by Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, a Las Cruces Democrat who co-sponsored the original legislation that created the state park.

“Their attitude is they don’t need our approval and they can do what they want to do,” Papen said in an interview. “It’s not the right way to do business.”