Palmdale planning commissioners debate and reaffirm recommendation to move meeting time to 5 p.m.

The Palmdale City Planning Commission on March 13 debated a proposed change to the commission’s meeting time and, after a procedural reconsideration, voted to recommend City Council change the meeting start time from 7 p.m. to 5 p.m. beginning in April. The final recommendation was recorded as passing with three yes votes, one no and one abstention.

The time‑change item (Resolution PC2025-004) was included on the consent calendar. Commissioners initially approved the consent calendar by voice vote; later in the meeting Commissioner Ayesha Jones said she had not understood that “pulling” an item meant removing it from the consent calendar for separate consideration and that she did not realize she had voted to recommend the time change. Jones said she would like to be heard and to reconsider the vote because the earlier action effectively changed an important rule without her understanding of the implications.

Staff reopened the matter under a motion to reconsider. The commission’s parliamentary discussion briefly followed Robert’s Rules‑style guidance explained by staff: a motion to reconsider may be made in the same meeting by a commissioner on the prevailing side of the original vote. Commissioner Jones made a motion to reconsider the consent calendar item and Commissioner Luhan seconded; the motion to reconsider passed 5-0. A motion by Jones to deny the recommendation failed for lack of a second. The commission then considered a motion to recommend City Council approval of the time change; Commissioner Olivares moved and Commissioner Luhan seconded that motion. The final vote was recorded as three yes, one no and one abstention, which the clerk announced as passage of the commission’s recommendation to City Council.

Jones explained her objection on representational grounds. She said the 5 p.m. meeting time would make it harder for working people — including many whom she described as construction or health‑care workers — to attend and said the change “does not accommodate the working people or the working class.” She added that the earlier procedural explanations about “pulling” consent calendar items had not been made clear to her previously and that the item’s passage without her full understanding made her feel “robbed of my opinion.”

Staff and other commissioners explained the consent calendar process: when no commissioner requests removal of an item during the consent calendar portion of the agenda, all conformed items are enacted by a single motion. Staff also described how the newly revised Palmdale 2045 schedule for some city meetings had prompted the change and noted that the Planning Commission recommendation is advisory to City Council, which will make the final decision.

The commission adjourned and scheduled its next meeting for March 13 at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers; the time‑change recommendation will now be forwarded to City Council for a final decision.