City, proponents spar over true goals of health center petition

Patterson’s city attorney this week released his title and summary of an initiative designed to allow the Del Puerto Health Center to move to the Keystone Pacific Business Park.

The title and summary give the green light for initiative proponents to begin gathering the signatures of at least 10 percent of registered voters in Patterson — or about 700 signatures — which they would need before presenting the initiative to the City Council for approval. Should the council deny the initiative, it would be placed on a ballot in a special election.

But while this week’s release was a step forward in the process, the Patterson residents behind the initiative — which include former Patterson mayoral candidates Kathy Wright and Luis Molina, the heads of the business park and the Del Puerto Health Care District, as well as retired nurse Mary Pat Thompson — were not happy with the way the summary was written.

The initiative — dubbed by proponents as “The City of Patterson Healthcare Expansion Act” — was titled “The Keystone Development Amendment Act” by City Attorney George Logan. The focus of the summary, as well, was more on Keystone than on health care, and advocates became outraged.

“I can’t say that I’m surprised how this turned out,” said Keith Schneider, executive vice president of Keystone. “I think (Logan) has unfairly summarized our initiative and overlooked the obvious.”

But while proponents of the initiative do not agree with all that is contained in the summary, the group has said that it will not challenge the summary in court.

“We don’t need to delay this process any further,” Wright said. “Our plan will continue with how it has been — to continue moving forward and listening to what the public wants.”

According to Logan, this process could take up to a year. Proponents will have up to six months to collect signatures, and the council will also be allowed six months to consider approving the ordinance or calling a special election to allow a public vote. Wright has said she hopes to gather signatures quickly to keep the process moving.

‘Corporate welfare’

While reviewing the initiative, Logan said many of the proposed changes to the city’s general plan made him speculate if improving health care is the group’s only concern. The summary states the initiative would “allow new uses on (Keystone’s) properties under reduced standards and regulations.”

“If they just wanted to move the (health center) to the business park, they could have done it in two pages,” Logan said Monday. “The extra 100-plus pages (that make up the initiative) are corporate welfare for Keystone at the city’s expense.”

“I just know this is not their only motive,” he said. “They are using this health care focus to benefit a whole lot more than health care.”

Schneider vehemently disagreed.

He said the length of the initiative was necessary to tie up all loose ends between the city’s general plan, its zoning laws and its development agreement with Keystone for the purpose of moving the health center — not for Keystone’s gain.

“All we are doing with the initiative is taking all the documents and putting them into conformity,” he said. “We have to do this in order to make things right. It’s something that has to be done some time to avoid problems in the future. Expanding health care is our No. 1 goal, and we won’t get away from that message.”

Logan said his most significant concerns stemmed from perceived guarantees that the city would pay for water, sewage and drainage services for the business park, as well as the initiative’s plan to create the position of zoning administrator — which would be filled by the city’s planning director by default.

Difference of opinion

The zoning administrator, according to Logan’s summary, would have complete authority over allowed uses and exceptions in the new “flexible business park” district — a zoning district that would allow for medical facilities like the health center while also adding other uses previously not allowed there.

Schneider said he believes Logan’s perception is incorrect.

“The zoning administrator is limited to certain staff approval permits listed in the flexible business park district, and the planning commission decides on the conditional use permits in the district,” he said. “All of these can be appealed to the City Council. It is the very same system that was in the development agreement that no one had any problems with.”

And Schneider and Logan continued to disagree on how the business park’s “key infrastructure” would be paid for.

Schneider said Keystone has fulfilled all its financial obligations to the city for water, sewer and drainage by participating in the Mello-Roos district it is located in, and therefore the city should fulfill its obligations to provide this new infrastructure.

But Logan said because the business park has not yet been built out, the Mello-Roos taxes have not yet been collected — and the possibility exists that they might not fully fund the required infrastructure, which the city would then be on the hook for.

“It’s very dangerous for the city to stick its financial neck out for developers like they’re demanding us to,” Logan said. “No other city in the U.S.A. guarantees these services before the construction is guaranteed. We would be the only suckers in the universe naive enough let them write their own blank check.”

• Contact Kendall Wright at 892-6187 or kendall@pattersonirrigator.com.