After hearing what members of the Del Puerto Health Care District had to say about its landlord at March 30 meeting, the man himself had some choice words in return.

The landlord, John Ramos, who has numerous property holdings in the city, painted a picture this week of a manipulative board and staff that led him on for years and now has the audacity to claim he’s trying to leverage $125,000 from them.

“If (the board president) wants to get down in the gutter, tell him come down and see me,” Ramos said.

The conflict has its roots in the district’s plans to move its health care facility from a building at 1108 Ward Ave., which it rents from Ramos, to a larger location in the Keystone Pacific Business Park in western Patterson.

The Patterson Planning Commission approved the move, and the district is in the process of securing loans to purchase the building.

Ramos appealed the commission’s ruling, saying a primary care facility — like the one the district is proposing — is not allowed in the business park. The district countered that because government buildings are an allowed use, they can locate in the park; and because it will provide industrial medical services, another allowed use, the move can be authorized.

The commission unanimously upheld its decision.

Ramos’ next appeal was scheduled to go before the Patterson City Council on Tuesday. The council would have final say on the matter, but council members unanimously decided to table the issue until their next meeting, April 21.

The only action taken was a request by Councilwoman Annette Smith for the city attorney’s opinion on whether the proposed facility would be an allowable use in the business park.

Ramos, who said his legal representative was not available, had requested Tuesday’s delay. The district had opposed a similar request that was ultimately denied by the planning commission, but it did not oppose Tuesday’s delay. It wanted to give Ramos an opportunity to have his lawyer present, district CEO Margo Arnold said.

As the bureaucratic process crawls forward, animosity has risen between the district and Ramos. With obvious agitation and a raised voice Tuesday afternoon, Ramos laid out his side of the story during an interview, something he had avoided until board members aired their opinions March 30.

“(The district’s) not going to have a nice guy give you nothin’ no more,” Ramos said.

He threw a huge roll of architectural plans onto the table and said how, in good faith, he put around $40,000 into design work for the district expansion at his location. He spoke about being led on to believe the district would stay for 10 years, even though the lease only stipulated five.

“Fool that I am,” Ramos said.

An agreement Ramos’ lawyer drafted but the district opted not to sign states that if the district provided a $125,000 property restoration fee, Ramos would drop his appeal of the planning commission’s ruling. The health care board’s president, Ed Maring, referred to the offer as a “hold-up.”

Ramos said the $125,000 is only half of what he spent changing the building to meet district needs and is meant to recoup some of that money. Although the draft agreement states the appeals would go away if the $125,000 is provided, that ship has sailed and the appeals go forward regardless, Ramos said.

With both sides turning to the council this month, the district’s right to relocate should be resolved soon, but the animosity and possible legal action may continue to loom.

Contact John Saiz at 892-6187 or john@pattersonirrigator.com.