Slow pace not likely to change JPS bond needs

Whenever a group of elected officials names a “blue-ribbon committee” to study an issue before making a decision, it’s not because it’s a mystery to them how that decision should go.

It’s because they won’t make that decision without political cover.

That’s what Tarrant County commissioners are doing on a bond election for the JPS Health Network. Not only will they name a blue-ribbon committee, but they’ll also hire not one but two consultants to produce studies about JPS facilities.

A proposal for an $809 million bond package was moving full speed ahead last year before it was blocked by people who raised objections at community meetings, primarily Tea Party types who gathered in Arlington.

The skeptics had some good points. JPS officials conducting the meetings were not prepared for their protests and couldn’t convincingly answer their probing questions.

The bond proposal went on the back burner. Commissioners are moving it forward again, but they’re slow-walking it.

“Realistically, I think we’re looking at a two-year process,” Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley told Star-Telegram reporter Bill Hanna.

Tarrant County Administrator G.K. Maenius said the county wants to look at the entire JPS Health Network and where healthcare is headed in the next 20 to 30 years.

That’s ironic, because it’s been 30 years since the last JPS bond package was approved by voters.

Meanwhile, the county’s population has nearly doubled and now stands just shy of 2 million.

There’s been some growth at the main JPS campus south of downtown, but the needs are great. It’s the county’s only public hospital and has its only Level 1 trauma center and only psychiatric emergency center.

Visit JPS and you’re likely to see surgical patients in beds hooked to all sorts of medical equipment being wheeled through an overpass over South Main Street because treatment facilities and patient rooms are on separate sides of the street.

It works, but it’s not good.

The psychiatric facilities, staffed as they are by dedicated professionals, are dreadfully inadequate for a county this size.

The commissioners want to know more about the future role of the 40 JPS clinics across the county. That’s great, but there’s no doubt that the hospital on South Main needs attention.

The JPS board of managers is even raising private donations to help with the future costs.

Have no doubt that however long this evaluation process takes, at the end of it should be a bond election for JPS.

This story was originally published August 17, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Slow pace not likely to change JPS bond needs."