Cal City installs four new planners
Six candidates were recommended; councilmember casts dissenting vote
CALIFORNIA CITY — Four new Planning Commissioners for California City were sworn into office during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Mariah Dodson, Carolinda Fleming, Jay Dunham and Kim Welling took their oath of office and were appointed Planning Commissioners by a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Kelly Kulikoff dissenting.
Mayor Jeanie O’Laughlin and Councilmember Jim Creighton interviewed six candidates and recommended four candidates to the Council for approval. Nine letters were submitted, but two were withdrawn and one did not respond to emails sent out by the City Clerk.
“I am pleased to have such a nice group of people that are interested in serving our city,” O’Laughlin said.
California City resident D.J. Twohig stressed the importance of this recommendation because the Planning Commission is one of the most important components in the city.
“This is a really important appointment,” he said. “In the past, we have really messed up. Our planning department, our planning commission has not taken the bull by the horns to create attractive land uses throughout the city.”
The city’s Planning Commission is made up of five members that serve a two-year term which begins on May 1 and ends on April 30. However, there was only one seated member of the commission.
“We got out of sync,” O’Laughlin said. “Right now there’s only one commissioner, Carla Conry.”
After Creighton was elected to the City Council in the November General Election, he resigned from the Planning Commission
leaving Conry as the only sitting commissioner with four vacated seats on the commission.
“We had people that expired last year but were never reappointed,” O’Laughlin said.
Dodson will serve out the rest of Creighton’s term, which will expire this year in April along with Conry’s term. The other three terms will expire in April 2022.
The city will post a vacancy notice in March for the two seats set to expire in April.