Library district’s lawsuit against volunteer group an unnecessary chapter

Something's wrong when the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District feels the need to sue a volunteer group whose sole purpose is to support the library. Yet, that has happened, and it's leaving longtime volunteers with the Friends of Southern Nevada Libraries feeling bitter, unappreciated and strong-armed by library officials.

In the end, the $330,000 at the center of the conflict is likely to end up paying for lawyers instead of helping the library.

I wrote about the ill will simmering between the group and the library district in mid-March before the district sued, making a deteriorating relationship even worse. Since 1971, the library district has provided its unwanted books to the group, which sold them and then used the money to pay for programs and materials outside the district's budget. Last year, the Friends paid for $279,000 of the district's requests.

After the two organizations operated on a handshake for 37 years, Library District Executive Director Dan Walters decided last October a written contract was necessary and asked for an audit of the volunteers' books. When the Friends demurred, Walters used his muscle. In December, he cut off the district's supply of unwanted books to the Friends' bookstores.

Today, unwanted books sit in 10 covered bins sprawled over 13 parking spaces at the branch near Buffalo Drive and Cheyenne Avenue. Countless books just sitting in bins. Unwanted, unread and unsold.

Naturally, the book supply to the Friends' bookstores dried up.

On March 13, the Friends complained to the Library District's board of directors, a group of appointees, that they were running out of books to sell.

When the group said it had hired an attorney, might dissolve and then donate the money to some other nonprofit, the mood turned hostile. Subsequent efforts to agree on a contract between the district and the Friends failed.

On April 14, the Library District sued the group, which has about 100 volunteers and about 500 members. It was an effort to block the Friends from donating the unspent $330,000 to anyone besides the district.

Walters told me there is no evidence of financial impropriety by the Friends. But the lawsuit alleged a $73,000 discrepancy between what the Friends gave out and what they took in during one fiscal year.

So Walters isn't alleging wrongdoing, but says there's $73,000 unaccounted for? Which is it?

I hope when District Judge Mark Denton hears the lawsuit and counterclaim, he's able to get to the root of the money that's in dispute. If no money is missing, then the volunteers' integrity has been cruelly impugned.

Friends' board member Teri Reynolds said there is no missing $73,000. The money is in the bank. "My impression is that this is a power grab. They don't want to have to come and ask for anything. They just want the money."

Library officials insist it's not a power grab or an effort to force out the Friends and divert the money to a foundation the library has formed. We'll see.

But this reminds me of former county hospital administrator Lacy Thomas and the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada Foundation, whose founding board members left when Lacy tried to control it and treated its board members contemptuously.

Walters contended there needs to be transparency and accountability, popular buzz words. "We felt it was time, even though we've had this great relationship. The book sales are generating real money, and there's no kind of contract for appropriate accountability."

Logically, he's right.

Yet it's ridiculous this couldn't be resolved without a lawsuit. The good will that should exist between an all-volunteer organization and the entity it supports is gone. Perhaps some of this is because of personality conflicts between Walters and certain Friends.

Friends President Mary Barkan said that she doesn't even know what the sticking point is any more and that an auditor has been hired. Library district attorney Gerald Welt says he's still willing to negotiate a contract. If a contract and an audit are the real issues, then there shouldn't be any need for a lawsuit.

Las Vegas doesn't need another group of volunteers walking away in indignation like the UMC Foundation board did.

But until this is resolved, I'm donating my extra books to the Friends of Henderson Libraries -- which operates without a formal contract.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275.