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Commissioner Wheeler agreed with the recommendation, but pointed out that the wording in Attorney Brennan's memo says don't believe" the claim is valid, but "it could be," which would indicate to him that the attorney does not know. Attorney Vitunac advised that we do know what the contract says and what the requirements are. The contract requires us to pay if the initial contract is extended, which it wasn't, or exceeded, which it was through no fault of the architect; so, our only doubt is whose fault was it. Owners Representative "Sonny" Dean, therefore, would have to say the architect was faultless, in which case we would have to pay this $20,000, but if the architect has contributed to this delay somehow, they could be compromised on the amount. Attorney Vitunac confirmed that he had suggested to Mr. Dean that perhaps we should take this out of the retainage from the contractor, but on further review, the law says our liquidated damages, which are $250.00 a day, are our sole recourse, and we would lose that to the contractor if we tried to withhold the $20,000 out of Schopke's money. What Attorney Brennan has recommended, after attending an AIA conference, is to increase our future liquidated damages from $250 a day up to more like $1,500 a day. Obviously, $250 a day for a jail sitting empty is totally inadequate. Our problem is that years ago when the contracts were entered into, the liquidated damages were too lenient. Questions arose regarding our relationship with the contractor and the architect, who hires whom, etc., and Commissioner Bird asked how the fact that the project is delayed by the contractor causes the architect to incur additional expenses. Mr. Dean explained that the architect states he is still administering and having people check on the project, and Attorney Vitunac confirmed that the architect has met with us almost weekly, and he is based over in Fort Myers. His original "I 45 MAR 11988 Boort 71 FH.,E 143