Above The Fray, In Beijing

Let's start at the top.

To get control of much of the 20 acres of land in Southeast near the Navy Yard where the stadium is being built, the city invoked its powers of eminent domain against several landowners, who challenged the city's financial settlements in court. The cases are proceeding.

Venable has been assisting the city. But according to a report from Nichols this week, the "amount of expenses incurred with Venable alone totals approximately $2.4 million as of February 28, 2007, and significantly exceeds the $1.87 million initial budget."

That would threaten to put the total costs for the stadium project above the cap, Nichols said.

A bigger problem is this: Nichols said the city must find alternative funding sources to continue paying Venable and to recoup any excess money paid to the law firm.

And the eminent domain cases are far from over. They could last months, according to attorneys for the landowners who have been kicked out.

So how did Venable come to be paid more than the budget would allow by law? That's tricky. It appears the company had a contract originally worth $800,000. As costs rose, however, the fees went up -- to nearly $1.2 million in the first year alone.

All contracts worth more than $1 million must be approved by the D.C. Council. However, it appears the Venable contracts were renewed several times without the matter ever appearing before the council, Nichols's report found.

The report goes on to explain all the machinations in greater detail, but the upshot is that city leaders will have some scrambling to do to figure out how to keep fighting the eminent-domain cases -- with or without their friends from Venable.