Racino settlement in question

Those awaiting a decision on a sixth horse-racing license in New Mexico will be waiting for a while longer.

A settlement announced Wednesday of a lawsuit that had held up a license announcement for months was thrown into uncertainty when license applicants from Tucumcari and Clovis objected to the agreement in an Albuquerque courtroom Thursday. Because of the objections, the judge won’t make a decision on the settlement for several more weeks.

Warren Frost, one of the principals for Coronado Partners that wants to build an $80 million horse-racing track and casino in Tucumcari, also said he and other applicants anticipate the governor soon will fire the New Mexico Racing Commission and appoint new commissioners, delaying a license decision even more.

The New Mexico attorney general’s office and Hidalgo Downs LLC, one of the applicants for a license in Lordsburg, announced late Wednesday a settlement had been reached. Hidalgo Downs filed a request for an injunction in late November to stop the license process, days before the state racing commission planned to award one. Hidalgo Downs said a feasibility study from New Orleans-based Convergence Strategy Group that graded the applicants was flawed and that racing commission chairman Ray Willis had a conflict of interest with one of the Clovis applicants.

Instead of the settlement clearing a hurdle for the license, it threw up new ones. Frost, a Logan attorney, and lawyers for the three Clovis applicants objected to the agreement in court Thursday.

“We didn’t have any input into that,” Frost said of the pact during a telephone interview Thursday. “There shouldn’t be one applicant making decisions on how the racing commission is going to proceed.”

Frost said he and the other applicants asked Judge Carl Butkus to allow them to intervene in the case and participate in any settlement discussions. Butkus gave them 15 days to respond with filings. That likely would keep the racing commission from making a license decision during its regular April 18 meeting.

The two-page proposed settlement states the commission will “take all steps it deems appropriate to fully and fairly assess all candidates” for the license and won’t rely on recommendations in the Convergence feasibility study. The study cost the commission between $56,000 and $60,000, executive director Izzy Trejo said in an earlier report.

According to an Associated Press report from the courtroom Thursday, attorneys said the agreement was negotiated in secret and may have violated open-meetings laws.

The AP also reported Frost told the judge he has learned of a second study that was not voted on by the commission and not made public.

Frost told the Quay County Sun he holds concerns about Willis’ potential conflicts of interest with a Clovis applicant: “He owns horses with the Hubbards.”

“The problem with this current racing commission is there’s so many potential conflicts, they’re not in a good position, in our view, to be making this decision,” Frost said.

Trejo was in California during the hearing Thursday. He stated in an email he would decline comment until he discusses the case with attorneys.

Matt Baca, a spokesman for the state attorney general, declined to comment.

Chairman weighs in

Willis, during a telephone interview Saturday with the Quay County Sun, denied any role with the settlement with Hidalgo Downs.

“I didn’t have anything to do with negotiating any type of settlement,” he said. “I instructed the attorney general’s office I wanted everything above board. The attorney general’s office instructed me to sign that — and I did — under their supervision to get the suit settled, get it over with, so something could be done.

“If someone says I helped negotiate that settlement, I will tell them anywhere they are lying,” he added.

Willis denied any of his racing commission actions over licensing could be construed as a conflict of interest because he frequently refrains from voting.

He revealed he was a tiebreaking vote in allowing the license process to continue; other commissioners were deadlocked on whether to award a license at all.

“I have no intention in voting unless there’s a tie vote for me to break,” Willis said. “I have used that one time five months ago. I voted ‘yes’ to keep the process going when there was a tie to continue to issue the license or not. If I had not done that, it would have been over with five months ago, and no license would have been issued.

“During my many, many years with the commission, I have recused myself many times voting if I had a horse in the race. I have voted against my co-owners. I have voted against a guy who was training for me. I have even told one of my people which my horse is involved, ‘I’ve recused myself.’”

Commission fired?

Attorneys during the court hearing Thursday entered into evidence a January letter from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to the commission that expressed her concerns about Convergence’s study.

“While I have no opinion on the veracity of the petitioners’ claims, in my view, additional study would be prudent. Indeed, further inquiry will provide an opportunity for salient allegations to be corroborated or otherwise deemed inaccurate, thereby promoting ‘public confidence in the administration of horse racing,’” she stated in the letter.

While Butkus considers concerns from Tucumcari and Clovis applicants over the settlement, Frost said he anticipates Lujan Grisham will fire the commission during that time.

“It’s our understanding that at some point in the near future, the governor is going to appoint a new racing commission, and there’s going to be a new study done,” Frost said.

When asked about the prospect of restarting the license-application process from scratch, Frost replied: “If we have to, we have to.”

Willis acknowledged he could be fired, and he dismissed speculation that any governor has held sway over the commission’s decisions.

“I will tell you: I’ve been on the commission since 2006. There’s been three governors in that time. I’ve never received any direction on what to do,” he said.