They say that timing is everything, and the timing for Palo Alto Measure J couldn't be worse.

In what the City Council believed would be an innocuous measure aimed at streamlining certain noncontroversial items coming before the Planning Commission, Measure J instead has turned into another case of fuzzy thinking.

Measure J would allow the City Council to delegate yet-to-determined decision-making authority to the Planning Commission so that the council itself didn't have to act on every planning item, no matter how minor.

The concept came out of the Comprehensive Plan review process completed in 1998. In July of this year, the city staff brought the wording for Measure J to the commission and the City Council and with virtually no discussion, the council put it on next week's ballot.

There is nothing sinister about Measure J, and at almost any other time it would probably just sail through. But in the wake of the rejection of the storm-drain fee increase, it's not a good time to say "trust us" to Palo Alto voters.

All nine members of the City Council support Measure J and promise that when they implement it, they will provide the public with the right to appeal Planning Commission decisions up to the council. But unfortunately, Measure J doesn't ensure that right of appeal; to the contrary it allows the council to delegate final decision-making authority to the commission.

The current practice of putting noncontroversial planning items on the council's consent calendar is better than giving this and future councils the power to delegate final authority on certain matters to the Planning Commission.

We recommend voting against Measure J, and assume that if it fails the council will develop a specific policy proposal to resubmit to the voters instead of asking for carte blanche to change the planning approval process however it wishes.