Our existing Sunshine Act is less than ideal: - The timing is ... odd. A release cycle every 8 months, but vague on if that includes the past 8 months or not, etc.
- There is no provision for audits. Basically, we have to trust the peeps that they do it right and have no way to check.
- There is no requirement for forum documentation at all, so a completely Discord-run ministry, while convenient, won't have the persistence that it should.
- The way it's written doesn't allow for easy expansion from just the Cabinet and Court forums to other areas where this may be appropriate (for example, the ministry forums)
- The language is generally wonky
So I've considered ways to improve on this, and I decided to just completely rewrite it from the ground up, with helpful suggestions from my comrades in SPP.
Quote:Sunshine Act
An act to periodically publish threads in private government forums
1. Documentation
(1) Discussion within a government institution that leads to a motion or a decision by that institution into taking deliberate action or inaction is to be considered substantive discussion.
(2) All substantive private discussions of government institutions must be documented on the regional forums for the purpose of persistence and posterity.
(3) Substantive discussions occurring via real-time communication methods may be quoted verbatim or reasonably summarized on the forums, as deemed most reasonable by that institution. If the communication via such a method cannot be saved, meeting minutes must be taken of that discussion.
2. Publishing of Discussions
(1) The substantive discussions of an institution shall, in due time, be released for public archival accessible to all members of the South Pacific.
(2) The release of discussions shall occur at the following times:
a. For a Cabinet term, discussions from the Cabinet and all ministries shall be released no later than 6 months after the completion of that term.
b. For a High Court case, they shall be released as soon as reasonably possible after the period for appeal has passed without an appeal being filed, or if an appeal was filed, after the final ruling has been announced.
(3) Discussions may be withheld from release if they are ongoing or directly related to another ongoing discussion, or if the public release of information contained therein threatens the security of the region or an ally.
(4) A discussion may be released in a redacted form by copying the discussion and censoring information not intended for public consumption. The normative copy of the discussion thread must then remain in the private forum.
(5) If reasonably possible, the institution should strive to release discussions containing classified information in redacted form, rather than withholding them. Any personally identifiable information must always be redacted upon release.
3. Audits of Discussions
(1) The assembly may appoint an individual to audit the discussions of an institution to evaluate compliance with the provisions contained herein, either with a simple majority and approval of that institution, or a three-fifths supermajority. The Council on Regional Security or the Legislator Committee may veto the appointment of such an individual for reasons of regional security. An individual appointed thusly will be granted access to all relevant forums and other considerably used communication platforms for no longer than 2 weeks.
(2) The High Court, as part of a case, may compel an institution to grant the Court insight into related discussions.
![[Image: XXPV74Y.png?1]](https://i.imgur.com/XXPV74Y.png?1)
(This post was last modified: 03-01-2018, 09:15 AM by Nakari.)
Reply
I would like the Court to get similar deference as the Cabinet regarding its discussions. There are times that tempers can run high, and it wouldn't do good to release private discussions, which tend to be more candid, immediately after a case is resolved. A reasonable period to let the heat of the moment subside would be ideal.
That seems absolutely reasonable. What timeframe do you suggest?
Well, why did you pick 6 months for the Cabinet?
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I considered the 8 month precedent, which is equivalent to 2 terms. So if this were a rolling release, the threads from Cabinet X would be released during the term of Cabinet X + 2. So I considered formalizing that part, but I didn't want to have the situation that these threads would be rushed out near the end of a term with elections and the associated recency bias, so I set it at 6 months after the end of Cabinet X - that's the middle of Cabinet X+2's term.
Since the requirement is a maximum, rather than an exact prescribed moment for release, I wonder if that 6-month limit wouldn't be adequate.
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I'll have to read thru all this when I have a few extra moments. Until then, I support the idea of a full redraft 
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Kris, sounds good, I'll pencil that in for the next draft.
So long as this will be enforced I have no qualms with the bill.
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(02-09-2018, 12:33 PM)Omega Wrote: So long as this will be enforced I have no qualms with the bill.
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Well, the draft does include several things to help with enforcement, so..... 
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