Houston County Courier - Local News

Copyright 2012 - Polk County Publishing Company

HCHD schedules closed meeting to discuss lease proposals for hospital
Houston County Courier

By Lynda Jones
Editor-in-Chief

The Houston County Hospital District Board of Directors will hold a special called meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14 in the ETMC Crockett cafeteria. The directors will go into executive session (closed to the public). According to the agenda posted on Thursday, Aug. 9, the board intends to discuss the requested proposals submitted by hospital operators that are interested in leasing the hospital district’s property currently leased by ETMC. This will be the first meeting of the board since the Friday, Aug. 3 deadline for submitting proposals concerning the hospital lease. The HCHD received proposals from Community Health Systems, East Texas Medical Center, LifePoint Hospitals, Inc., Memorial Health System of East Hexas (Community Hospital Corporation), St. Joseph Health System and Trinity Mother Frances Hospitals and Clinics, according to Deborah Porth Blackwell, chairperson of the HCHD Lease Committee. According to the posted agenda, the HCHD’s attorney may or may not be pres- ent at the meeting Tuesday. The specifi c posted agenda item states, “The board will meet in closed session ei- ther with the district’s attorney pursuant to Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code, or without its attorney pursuant to Section 551.072 of the Texas Government Code, to discuss RFP (Request for Propos- als) submittals received from hospital oper- ators interested in entering into a long-term lease for the hospital facility located at 1100 Loop 304 East, Crockett, Texas 75835- 1129.” Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code cited in the board agenda states the following: “A governmental body may not conduct a private consultation with its attorney ex- cept: (1) when the governmental body seeks the advice of its attorney about: (A) pending or contemplated litigation; or (B) a settlement offer; or (2) on a matter in which the duty of the attorney to the governmental body under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Profession- al Conduct of the State Bar of Texas clearly confl icts with this chapter.” The posted meeting agenda does not refer to any litigation or settlement offer being considered. It is unclear at this time if or how the sec- ond condition would apply in this case. Section 551.072 of the Texas Government Code cited in the board agenda states: “A governmental body may conduct a closed meeting to deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property if deliberation in an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position of the governmental body in negotiations with a third person.” The Request for Proposals (RFP) mailed out by the HCHD on July 3 does not prom- ise confi dentiality to those who submitted proposals. The RFP states, “The district gives no as- surance as to the confi dentiality of any por- tion of the response once submitted. Any information submitted in response to this RFP is at the sole risk and responsibility of the party submitting such information.”