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AMEND THE RETENTION LETTER WITH WINSTON & STRAWN LLP, FOR REPRESENTATION OF THE CITY D/B/A GAINESVILLE REGIONAL UTILITIES (CITY) IN THE GAINESVILLE RENEWABLE ENERGY CENTER, LLC (GREC) ARBITRATION DEMAND AGAINST THE CITY (NB)
explanation
On March 10, 2016, GREC filed an Arbitration Demand with the American Arbitration Association ("AAA"), AAA Case No. 01-16-0000-8157, to resolve a dispute between GREC and the City concerning GREC's Planned Maintenance Outage in April 2016. The City Attorney's Office worked with the General Manager for Utilities to select qualified outside counsel to represent the City in the arbitration proceedings. On March 17, 2016, the City Commission approved the retention of Winston & Strawn LLP to represent the City in the arbitration regarding GREC's Planned Maintenance Outage in April 2016, with a maximum cap on fees and expenses of $1,000,000.
On June 17, 2016, GREC submitted a Notice of Claim to the City regarding the City withholding payments to GREC based on (1) Shutdown Charges, (2) Available Energy Payments During Startup, (3) Withholding of Previously Paid Amounts, and (4) Purported Payment Decrease. On July 21, 2016, GREC amended its arbitration claim to add the four (4) additional claims to the ongoing arbitration. As a result, at its August 4, 2016 Regular Meeting, the City Commission approved increasing the scope and maximum fees and expenses for the arbitration up to $2,500,000.
As of the drafting of this agenda item, Winston & Strawn's billings for the arbitration total approximately $1.9 million and expenses total approximately $50,000. Thus, only $550,000 remains before reaching the current cap on fees and expenses. Winston and Strawn were asked to review their current fee and expense estimate in light of ongoing developments in the arbitration - in particular, the scope of the arbitration has broadened substantially as a result of additional claims brought by both parties - GREC is now advancing nine...
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