The Richmond Free Press has provided extensive coverage of a lawsuit former City Councilman Sa’ad El-Amin has filed against Virginia Union University in a bid to prevent the demolition of the former Richmond Community Hospital.

The question is why.

The extensive publicity cannot paper over a major flaw in this legal action: El-Amin has no standing to sue the university.

Courts require a genuine controversy, in which the person suing has a direct interest that would be harmed or has suffered damage and has targeted an allegedly responsible defendant.

But El-Amin simply has a policy disagreement and is attempting to get the Richmond Circuit Court to intervene in support of his point of view, which is not supposed to be how our court system works.

El-Amin cannot claim any direct interest that a court could consider. He is not a graduate of VUU, a member of the school’s board or even a contributor, and even if he were, it is not clear he would have any right to challenge in court a policy decision that was properly voted on by the board.

Thus, this suit is just another arrow in the advocacy playbook and likely would be dismissed out of hand if it were actually to be scheduled for a hearing.

If the Free Press has reported accurately, El-Amin has even included a false claim in his suit, that VUU as a nonprofit cannot sell property for a for-profit purpose. This is flat out inaccurate. A private citizen; in any case; has no authority to enforce Internal Revenue Service rules, and it would be up to the IRS and not a Richmond court or a Richmond resident to determine if something was amiss.

But yes, nonprofits can sell personal or real property as they please, with the approval of their board of directors. The 990, the IRS report that nonprofits must file each year, provides a section to detail an organization’s sale of property.

So as long as any money received does not go into the pockets of the board members or executives and is used for the purpose of the organization—in this case scholarships or support of the organization—the sale would be perfectly legitimate.

It is quite clear what is happening here: VUU is attempting to create a fresh stream of income beyond tuition, alumni donations and corporate and government grants. It is doing so by creating a plan to add value to an underused portion of its campus, with the direct aid and support of a private company that is willing to risk its capital to develop the land for housing and share some of the projected proceeds with the school.

You would think this was the devil’s work instead of a praise-worthy transaction. The announcement brought out people like Viola Baskervile caterwauling about a vacant building to which they had paid no attention until VUU and its partner came up with a plan to replace it with new homes and apartments.

Just like El-Amin, Baskerville and her advocacy group have not shown any willingness to put up a dime to rescue the vacant building, which has been available for reuse for decades.

When the Capital Area Health Network opened a health clinic on the VUU campus, did these fine folk offer to redo the old hospital so it could be CAHN’s home? No. Did they work with the state or Richmond-Henrico health departments to see if the building might be reusable for a public health purpose? No.

Did they generate any funds so they could persuade VUU to sell the building so it could be used for a community benefit? No.

Remember, the great Sarah Garland Jones and other physicians engaged with that hospital received tribute only after Bon Secours, the Catholic health system that purchased Richmond Community Hospital, took the initiative to do so in Church Hill. Baskerville and El-Amin were not advocates for that.

Keeping a portion of a building’s façade to pay homage to the past has been done at the State Capitol and in a Highland Park apartment project. Proper markers on the site could detail the contributions of the physicians who founded and practiced there and of the people served.

Why VUU is putting up with all the noise and confusion is unclear, but the school has the right of it and should proceed with its plans.

Jeremy M. Lazarus

Richmond