Dan Coffey is right: The UEA is not City Hall’s ATM.

The little birds this morning are singing songs of betrayal and treachery, and the Green Mouse says: Today may be the day for City Hall to move against the Urban Enterprise Board and its director, Mike Ladd.

Ostensibly, the bit of carrion currently stuck in City Hall’s throat is the disposition of the former grocery and tavern building at the corner of 8th and Culbertson, the back part of which collapsed a few weeks ago after years of neglect by an unregulated slumlord.

Part of the “deal” (aren’t they always?) proposed by City Hall at the behest of preservationists to save the building from demolition involves a substantial tithe from the UEA, long regarded by the current administration as little more than a convenient ATM to be debited when necessary, often for purposes more politically oriented than any which actually pertain to the UEA’s state-mandated mission.

I say all this without flinching because I am a former member of the UEA board, and have observed on a number of occasions the phenomenon of City Hall’s strong arming. Consequently, readers should understand that the story goes much further back than this week’s impasse.

None other than council person Dan Coffey gets it, and has been stating it aloud at the last three council meetings. Coffey, who this year became the council’s representative to the UEA, has done what others (most prominently, the somnolent Steve Price) didn’t, which is try to understand why the UEA exists, where it derives its revenue stream, and how it responsibly administers real programs addressing specific needs within the territory of the zone.

Coffey has grasped that the UEA’s board is top-flight, populated by experienced, capable local business people Dan Meyer, Al Goodman and Larry Brumley.

Coffey sees that the UEA’s monies, while diminished compared to previous eras as the zone concept itself undergoes yearly “reform” scrutiny at the state level, have the maddening appearance of forbidden fruit to those in the community who are frustrated by the UEA’s relative independence from partisan politics, who know that its organized, do-something board precludes easy pickings.

I join Dan Coffey in saying this: The UEA does not act to protect its fiefdom. It acts to implement its mission, does so adeptly and efficiently, and you can take that to Main Source, board member Brumley’s bank.

Someone else besides Coffey needs to say this aloud: The current 8th and Culbertson crisis is pure chicanery, a form of last-gasp desperation foisted on the public by an administration that sees its lame duck options dwindling in the aftermath of Irv Stumler’s fix-is-out defeat in the May primary.

It’s another in a series of attempted power plays, a desired feather for City Hall’s cap using someone else’s money, and it needs to be stopped in its tracks. By all means, save the decrepit building. Just don't demand handy financing from an entity whose objectives and budget don't account for such projects.

I encourage the local newspaper to devote scrutiny to the issue, and in all sincerity, I thank Dan Coffey for his insight and willingness to take the UEA’s case. Strange bedfellows, indeed, but as the political death rattles continue to increase in intensity these final six months, it's something you’ll be seeing more often.