WACO, Texas, (ABP) – Baylor University's previously quiet campaign to bring the proposed George W. Bush Presidential Library to campus might get a whole lot louder if one Dallas attorney has his way.
Gary Vodicka is suing Southern Methodist University, one of the three other universities contending for the presidential library. While the suit doesn't target Baylor, it does require all four competing schools to reveal their building plans for the libraries.
The lawsuit charges SMU with fraud and intimidation of residents of a condominium complex located on land SMU reportedly has targeted for the Bush library. Baylor officials announced Feb. 23 they plan to fight the subpoena.
“Baylor is seeking a protective order from the McLennan County District Court because it believes the documents sought by subpoena are irrelevant to the lawsuit,” a statement from university spokesman Larry Brumley said. School officials declined to make any further comment on the case.
Baylor has worked behind the scenes for years to garner support for the library. Last November, formal proposals to the selection committee were presented in Washington, D.C. Committee members expect to make a final decision sometime this year.
Gary Vodicka, the attorney who filed the suit, owns a condo near the SMU campus. In a Feb. 24 interview with the Waco Tribune-Herald, he said he chose to subpoena Baylor in particular because “Baylor has been upfront about where they'd put the library. SMU's done it under a cloud of deception.” The University of Dallas and Texas Tech University also received subpoenas.
“I mean, don't tell 70-, 80-, 90-year-old people that you want their property for student housing when we know it's for the library,” Vodicka told the paper. “We're not going to take the railroad job.”
Vodicka said SMU officials failed to maintain the property so residents would have to sell their units at low prices. SMU officials maintain their stance that they plan to use the space for “educational purposes and not for profit.”
“Mr. Vodicka was an investor-owner who is now seeking an unreasonably and unrealistically high payment from SMU, even though SMU paid above-market prices to him and other owners and investors at University Gardens,” said a statement from SMU to Associated Baptist Press. “He is occupying a unit he does not legally own, since SMU now owns the entire complex. Further, he rented three units to unsuspecting tenants who did not know the complex is owned by SMU, had been declared obsolete because of physical problems, and is scheduled for demolition.”
Most experts believe SMU and Baylor have the closest ties to the Bush family and therefore the best chance of winning the library bid. Laura Bush graduated from SMU in 1968, and campaign advisor Karen Hughes graduated from SMU in 1977. Vice President Dick Cheney and former President George H. W. Bush have also received numerous honors and speaking opportunities from the Methodist school in Dallas, which has 6,489 undergraduate students. What's more, many expect the Bush family to live in Dallas after the president finishes his second White House term.
Baylor, on the other hand, sits only 20 miles from the Bush family ranch in Crawford, Texas. Plus, with the George H.W. Bush Library in College Station and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, a presidential library at Baylor would make a triangle of national libraries within 90 miles of each other, Baylor officials pointed out in 2003 when they formed the 50-person presidential library steering committee.
Houston Astros owner and former Baylor regent chair Drayton McLane Jr. heads the committee, which directs planning and fund-raising for the library project.
Upon learning of Baylor's motion for a protective order, Vodicka told the Herald he was not surprised, but he may file a motion in the next few months to force Baylor to show planning documents. Officials have yet to name a judge to hear the case. The original choice, Judge Karen Johnson of the 95th State District Court, left because of personal ties to SMU.
In the meantime, SMU officials continue to weigh their action in the suit.
“I can tell you that we are right now considering our response [to the subpoena],” said Patti LaSalle, associated vice president and executive director of public affairs.
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