In implementing a 9% property-tax rollback triggered by the Florida legislature this spring, Broward County commissioners have run into a significant roadblock: the county’s six-year-old joint-use agreement with Nova Southeastern University to share the collections and services of the NSU Davie campus’s Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center. Instead of agreeing to BCL Director Robert Cannon’s request that the county’s $5.5-million annual support of Sherman be reduced by $575,000, NSU has asked for $940,000 more per year because library records indicate that more than 50% of its patrons are not affiliated with the university.
Opened in December 2001, the $52 million in construction costs to build the Sherman Library was split between Broward County and NSU. At the time, the county signed a 40-year contract giving NSU ownership of the facility and its collections, and supervision of the library staff, Cannon told American Libraries. In return, Broward County residents received patron privileges at the university library, which includes a very popular children’s collection, Cannon said.
However, Cannon explained, his budget-reduction request was followed by “a perfect storm” of misunderstandings between the county commission and university officials over parking-lot leasing and several commissioners’ public disapproval of the university’s reaction to the unionization efforts of campus custodians. The final straw came when an attorney for NSU told the commission that the university would need until the end of the year to conduct its own library usage study—despite the fact that Broward County begins its new fiscal year October 1.
“We walk away from this, you are going to get sued,” warned Broward County Mayor Josephus Eggelletion Jr. in the August 21 Miami Herald. “We’ve got 35 years to work it out,” Cannon quipped to AL, referring to the remainder of the public/private contract at the crux of the conflict.
Posted August 24, 2007; revised August 27, 29, 2007.