Hospital Board Plans New Decorum Rules; Looks to Lower Taxes

By Greg Ritchie

Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY –   The Houston County Hospital District (HCHD) met for a regular meeting Tuesday, Aug. 15 to set their intention for new tax rates and discuss a new system of rules of conduct for board members and the public who attend the meetings. 

Mid-Coast Medical reported a total of 321 calls during the month of July, higher than the same period in the previous two years with 184 patients transported, six flown by EMS – most of them to Crockett hospital (86%) with the rest transported to Huntsville, Lufkin and Palestine. The average EMS response time for the month was logged in at 6:43 within the city of Crockett and 19:27 within Houston County. 

HCHD announced the intended tax rate for the next year, voting 6-3 to set the tax rate one cent lower to 10.7 cents. There was some disagreement about lowering the rate, with some board members wanting to keep a small reserve fund in case of any emergencies and other members noting with the increased property values, many tax payers may end up paying more, even with the lowered tax numbers. 

HCHD Board President Barbara Crowson asked the board to consider using some funds to honor Dr. John Stovall who passed away recently, noting his 25 years of service on the board and to the hospital. 

HCHD can still lower the tax rate when they meet to finalize the numbers at a special meeting Sep. 11 at 5:30 p.m., but once their intentions are announced the rate cannot be increased. 

“In September, we have to vote which tax rate we’re going to adopt, but first we have to declare our intent – and it is not final, it is just an intent,” Crowson explained. “However, by the rules, when you meet in September, you may lower what your intent was, but you may not raise your intent. At the September meeting, we will make it final – whatever the rate is.”

Item 10 on the agenda caused discussion back and forth as HCHD board leadership moved to implement a code of conduct, both for board members and the public attending the meetings. 

The code was sent to board members along with the meeting agenda, causing some board members to say they had not had enough time to fully absorb the proposed changes. 

Crowson said the proposal was worked on by several members of the board along with HCHD attorneys. 

“We looked into what every other organization in our county does regarding that kind of thing,” Crowson said. “And we researched codes of conduct through our lawyer in Austin, who represents multiple hospital districts to see what others have done. We looked at it and came up with our own recommendations.”

The code called for several codes the HCHD board members would need to respect, including:

• Respecting other board members, hospital employees, contractors and the public at large
• Respecting the confidentiality of executive session and confidential information shared by other board members
• Striving to attend all board meetings and be prepared to discuss the topics of each 
• Encourage the board to follow applicable laws, statutes and regulations
• Limiting the board’s ability to deliberate or make decisions to the items on the meeting agenda

A decision on the changes was tabled to give the board more time to study the proposals and will be taken up for a vote at the next HCHD regular meeting. 

The code also presented some items regarding the public participation in the meetings, including:

• Members of the public wishing to speak publicly at the meetings should register no later than five minutes before the start of each meeting
• Limiting public participation to the “public comments” portion of the meeting which should last no more than 30 minutes
• Each person is allowed a maximum of five minutes for their comments (or 10 minutes if a translator is required)
• Each public commenter should remain respectful, non-threatening, non-argumentative and use proper decorum
• Disruption at the meetings will not be tolerated and, if after a warning, the public’s comments continue to be disruptive, ask for the person to be removed from the meeting

Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]