To decide whether Harris Health has “feasible and prudent” alternatives to condemnation, the County Commissioners must review Harris Health’s recent facilities studies and reports. 

Several of these studies exist. For example, at a 2020 Board meeting, in response to a request from board members for a facilities analysis, Dr. Porsa said that “The future facilities, the master plan facilities work is ongoing. We do have a report on Ben Taub.” 

In 2021, Harris Health retained two consultants, Health Management Associates and Jones Lang LaSalle, “to perform detailed Hospital Facility Master Plan assessments and provide recommendations”, including “Sustainability of existing hospitals, Specific recommendation on expansion and optimization of inpatient capacity (beds, services and sites), Expansion of existing facilities or development of new facilities, and Identification of preferred campus locations.” 

We asked for  these studies via Public Information Act requests, but Harris Health has refused to provide them.

The Facilities Master Plan consultants presented their findings at a meeting on December 1, 2020. Although Harris Health’s website includes video of every other board meeting that year, video of that meeting is missing.

We filed a Public Information Request for the video, but received no response. Finally, 20 business days after the request (ten days after its required reply deadline), Harris Health wrote, “No video recording exists for the December 1, 2020 Special Called Board meeting. The meeting was conducted in person, and because no board members attended by videoconference, a video recording was not required.”

However, the meeting was held virtually and was videotaped.

Harris Health's 2026-2030 Strategic Plan (p. 19) states that "A report entitled “Strategic Planning Stakeholder Feedback Analysis” provides a comprehensive analysis of the stakeholder engagement process and findings and is available as a supplement to this Strategic Plan."

We requested a copy of this report on March 6th, but Harris Health again refused to provide it, referring the request to the Attorney General’s office. It admitted that it was “not raising any exceptions to disclosure of the requested information.” It was simply refusing to release it.

The County Commissioners and public are entitled to see these reports and discussions so they can decide whether Harris Health has “feasible and prudent” alternatives to condemning parkland.