Alerus Center compromise

Just a quick update on that $175,000 the city says VenuWorks owes the city: Company President Steve Peters was in town yesterday to explain why the company doesn't owe that much money.

Basically, he's saying whatever the city attorney's office says about the contract is wrong. The contract never included the concert fund in the first place so losses from the concert fund doesn't affect the concert fee calculation.

The city attorney's office says no way: The contract says if you lose money you gotta pay.

Anyway there's two ways to settle this: Law suits or compromise.

Steve chose compromise. The Alerus Center is his company's flagship client and a lawsuit would just cost him a client. So until VenuWorks gets bigger clients, he'll have to play the city's game. And he ain't gonna get bigger clients if the Alerus Center keeps performing the way it does.

The poor guy said to me as he left City Hall: "Contractually, we're adamant we don't owe the city anything. Politically, we understand that in these economic times, things are tough. We're willing to explore ways we can reduce our fees over the next five years to help with that."

In case you're wondering why I'm not blaming VenuWorks for screwing up the contract, it's because I've negotiated contracts before. Part of the way you interpret a contract when both sides can't agree what it says is you look to past practice and what's spoken in negotiations. VenuWorks negotiated and worked with the commission, and it thought it understood the rules of the game. It didn't realize that the City Council governs all and it's the council that ultimately makes the rules at the Alerus Center because it has oversight over the commission.

The commission is far cozier with VenuWorks than the council.

Posted by: Tu-Uyen on 11/05/2009 at 12:29 AM | Comments (18) | Permalink

Tags: alerus center, budgets and taxes, gf and egf, gf city council, venuworks