Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

End in sight for lawsuit between Library District, Friends

Updated Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008 | 11:34 a.m.

The lawsuit likely is over — and the friendship may survive.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District said Thursday it reached a preliminary settlement with its former non-profit partner, Friends of the Southern Nevada Libraries.

The two sides have agreed in principle to end the lawsuit, said the district's attorney Gerald Welt. Friends' President Mary Barkan confirmed on Monday that a preliminary settlement has been reached.

The Friends will donate $75,000 to the district to purchase children's books and drop its claims the district owes it $23,151. In exchange, the district will forgo its claim the Friends owes it $26,281 and will drop its lawsuit and injunction.

Any remaining funds the Friends have can be disbursed to other charitable organizations.

The district's Board of Trustees approved the deal at its Dec. 11 meeting and instructed its attorneys to proceed with the settlement.

The conflict arose about one year earlier when the district asked the Friends to submit to a financial audit and a contract. Offended, the organization at first refused but eventually agreed to open its ledgers to the district.

The audit recently concluded and was "reasonably clean," Welt said.

However, it didn't fully resolve the nearly $74,000 discrepancy between what the Friends collected in one year and how much it doled out to the district.

The Friends collected $253,862 between July 1, 2006, and June 30, 2007, according to court documents. The Friends only turned over $179,890 to the district. Those numbers don't include the money raised through online sales.

For the better part of the 34-year relationship, the district would donate books to the Friends to sell in the bookstores in the libraries. The district actually collected the money, then cut a check to the Friends, which would hold the money in a dedicated account.

When the district needed money for its programs or new materials, it submitted a request to the Friends, which would either give the funds back or cut a check to the supplier.

Any books that remained would be sold through Amazon.com or eBay and the Friends could keep those profits. The group is comprised entirely of volunteers, but has to pay for warehouse storage.

The district took over managing the bookstores in April and expects to collect $300,000 in the fiscal year ending next June.

The Friends used the disputed funds for its own legal counsel against the district, which caused the district to ask District Court Judge Mark Denton for a quick verdict to prevent it from using any more. Denton declined, saying there were still issues to iron out before he would make such a ruling.

The Friends offered the settlement, Welt said.

At one point, the district believed the Friends would disband and give all its funds, about $329,478 at the time, to other charities. Denton issued an injunction to prevent that.

Barkan said the group never planned to disband. The all-volunteer organization rolled back its operations pending the legal outcome but never intended to stop helping local libraries.

"There's work for us to do. The economy is horrible. Every time I read a paper or watch TV, a librarian or school is worried about cuts," she said. "Low-cost books is always something that we tried to encourage. We're needed more now than ever, really."

During the past eight months, the Friends have held a few book drives with the help of local businesses and have donated materials to projects in the Philippines and Ghana.

The Friends have donated books that didn't sell to other libraries throughout its history, Barkan said, and it plans to keep that mission going. And it probably won't matter what library that is, even the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.

The bigger issue for the Friends now is trying to lure back the volunteers who took their free time to other charities.

The group had about 84 volunteers when the trouble began. There's still a core of about 25 or so, Barkan said.

So the organization is giving free memberships for 2009 to those who paid the $5 annual fee for 2008.

"How many of my volunteers will come back? I don't know," she said. "We have volunteers now but certainly a lot of people, when the bookstores closed, were very discouraged and moved onto other volunteer opportunities."

The hurt feelings and irritation created in the past year may linger awhile longer, but both entities share a common goal of providing books to the community so there is hope for working together again, Barkan said.

"As a non-profit, I don't think we would make any distinction between organizations who would be able to approach us for funds," Barkan said. "Whether or not those funds are approved, that would be up to the board. I wouldn't rule out, and I don't think the Friends would rule out, working with any library here in town.

"It was quite a nice holiday gift that we can move on."

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or [email protected].

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