By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
The New Mexico State Game Commission on Friday postponed action on five pending applications from landowners seeking state certifications that rivers crossing their property are non-navigable and closed to the public.
Commission Chair Sharon Salazar Hickey announced that she was postponing action on the applications until Aug. 12. She said the delay will give the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office time to investigate whether she or any commissioner has a conflict of interest in hearing the applications.
Salazar Hickey said one of her daughters has accepted a job starting this fall at the Modrall Sperling law firm, which represents the five landowners with pending applications. The landowners recently secured a federal court order forcing the commission to vote on them.
The Associated Press on Thursday reported, “Questions also have been raised about whether the commission chairwoman has a conflict of interest in the case. Some critics say she should recuse herself from voting on the applications due to a family connection to a law firm that is representing the landowners.”
Without mentioning the AP story directly, Salazar Hickey said Friday that her daughter recently graduated from law school and is set to start work at Modrall Sperling this fall.
“It’s not a delay tactic,” Salazar Hickey said of postponing action on the applications. “I take integrity very seriously. And if somebody like a member of the press is going to call me and question our integrity, mine, or any other commissioner’s, I wouldn’t stand for it. That’s why I’m looking to the Attorney General for facts and conclusions and an opinion.”
Other commissioners said they were blindsided by Salazar Hickey’s announcement.
“I”m kind of flabbergasted today as to what’s transpiring here at a public meeting at the Roundhouse,” said Commissioner Tirzio Lopez of Rio Arriba County. He noted that people had driven across the state for the hearing in Santa Fe.
Commissioner Gail Cramer of Otero County said she agreed that delaying action on the applications was the best course.
“I apologize to the landowners,” Cramer said. “I just can’t even imagine being in their shoes. My heart just goes out to you. I’m so sorry it’s come to this. I’m so prepared and I really want to vote. I don’t see any way around it at this point.”
Marco Gonzales, the Modrall Sperling lawyer who’s been pressing the landowners’ applications, said he opposed any delay.
“There is no conflict since she has not yet begun to work at the firm,” Gonzales said, referring to Salazar Hickey’s daughter. He said he didn’t know her.
The game commission will reopen the public comment period on the pending applications before the August hearing.
The delay could allow time for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to appoint a new commissioner to the seat formerly held by Commissioner David Soules of Las Cruces who died in March. Without a replacement, there are only six commissioners, a situation that could allow a tie vote.
The New Mexico Wildlife Federation and other groups filed a lawsuit in the New Mexico Supreme Court early last year seeking to overturn the state’s “non-navigable” certification program. The NMWF and other groups hold that the program violates the state Constitution by blocking the public from accessing public waters.
The New Mexico Supreme Court has yet to rule on the groups’ request to invalidate the game commission’s non-navigable rule.
The game commission had called a halt to considering landowner applications for non-navigable certifications after the NMWF and other groups filed their legal challenge. The landowner applicants secured a federal court order in March directing the commission to act on the applications.
Before it called a halt to acting on applications last year, the game commission had granted five other applications from out-of-state landowners certifying waters as “non-navigable” on New Mexico waterways including stretches of the Rio Chama and Pecos River.
The five additional applications pending before the commission that are set for consideration in August are the following:
_ Canones Creek Ranch, on the Chama River and Rio Chamita in Rio Arriba County. The application states that the ranch is owned by a Texas limited liability company.
_ Fenn Farms, on the Hondo and Berrendo rivers in Chaves County. The application states that a New Mexico company owns the property.
_ Rancho de Oso Pardo, on the Chama River in Rio Arriba County. The application states the property is owned by a New Mexico company.
_ River Bend Ranch, on the Upper Pecos River in San Miguel County. The application states that a Texas company owns the ranch,
_ Three Rivers Ranch, on Three Rivers Indian Creek in Lincoln and Otero counties. The application states that a New Mexico company owns the property.