Baylor pulled into SMU/W library suit

[Pony Up]

Baylor swept into suit involving SMU, Dallas condo owner

By Mike Anderson Tribune-Herald staff writer

Monday, February 20, 2006

Baylor University's efforts to keep details of its bid for the George W. Bush Presidential Library from going public just got a little more complicated.

The university has received a subpoena from Dallas attorney Gary Vodicka for documents related to its library proposal, Baylor officials confirmed Monday. The subpoena is part of a lawsuit Vodicka has filed against Baylor's top rival in the library selection process, Southern Methodist University.

The suit claims SMU violated its legal obligation to residents of the neighboring University Gardens condominiums by not maintaining the property in a deliberate ploy to drive residents out of the complex so the university could locate the Bush library there. Vodicka says he is one of the few remaining complex residents who has not sold his condominium.

The first hearing on the suit takes place today in a Dallas courtroom.

Like Baylor, SMU has said little about its proposal. However, university spokesman Brad Cheeves last week told the New York Sun the effort to obtain the condominiums is unrelated to efforts to land the library.

Vodicka said he subpoenaed Baylor and the other two library hopefuls – the University of Dallas and a West Texas group headed by Texas Tech University – in an effort to pressure SMU to come clean about its intentions for the site.

"If all the other universities have proposals saying where they are going to put the Bush library, SMU can't say it doesn't," Vodicka said. "SMU has got to pony up and be forthright and honest and say, yeah, they plan on putting the library on my home."

The only problem: Baylor has been just as tight-lipped about its plan for the Bush presidential library as SMU.

Vodicka acknowledges he expects some of the universities to fight the subpoenas.

Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley said Monday that university officials are "analyzing options" and have a meeting planned for later this week to discuss how to respond to the subpoena.

"Obviously we'd prefer not to release it because we've been pretty vigilant about keeping the details of our proposal tightly held," he said.

Brumley said he doesn't know if legal squabbling related to SMU's bid will boost Baylor's chances.

"We are not looking at it in those terms," he said.

Baylor and its three competitors presented their library proposals to members of the library selection committee in Washington, D.C., in November. Don Evans, former U.S. commerce secretary and head of the selection committee, has said a decision on the library's location will come this year.

Brumley said Baylor officials have not heard of a date when the selection will be announced.

manderson@wacotrib.com