Given the ruling by the High Court that the position of Deputy Chair is vacated upon resignation and, presumably, recall of the Chair, and given some other issues with administration of the Assembly, I'm proposing the following amendments to the Charter and to the Legislative Procedure Act. Credit to @Roavin for the language related to revocation of legislator status.

What these amendments do:

1. They explicitly allow the Chair to appoint deputies and to publicly delegate any powers, responsibilities, and special projects of the Chair to these deputies. The amendments also remove all instances of "or their designated deputy" from the Legislative Procedure Act, as that language will no longer be needed.

2. They clarify that during an interim period in which the Chair is not in office prior to election of a new Chair, the previous Chair's deputy will serve as Acting Chair. In the event of more than one deputy, the most senior deputy will serve as Acting Chair. In the event of no deputy being appointed, the Cabinet may designate a legislator as Acting Chair.

3. They clarify that the Chair may remove legislator status for failure to maintain a nation in TSP as well as the activity requirements we recently implemented. They also change the language from simply "residents of the Coalition" to "residents of the Coalition with nations in The South Pacific," because the former language is just crying out for a Legal Question.

4. They clarify that the Chair may decline to revoke legislator status under reasonable extenuating circumstances. Currently, the Chair may only decline to revoke legislator status if someone missed the voting threshold but participated in legislative debate, which does not allow the Chair to decline to revoke the legislator status of new legislators admitted to legislator status late in the month or legislators who have requested a leave of absence.

Assembly Administration Amendments
Amendments to clarify procedure for the administration of the Assembly

1. Amendment to the Charter of the Coalition of the South Pacific

(1) Article IV of the Charter of the Coalition of the South Pacific will be amended as follows:

3. The Chair may appoint a deputy or deputies, to whom the Chair may publicly delegate any powers, responsibilities, or special projects of the Chair, subject to all regulations and restrictions imposed upon the Chair by law. The Chair may dismiss such deputies.

4. During an interim period in which the Chair is not in office prior to election of a new Chair, a deputy appointed by the previous Chair will serve as Acting Chair to exercise all powers and responsibilities of the Chair, subject to all regulations and restrictions imposed upon the Chair by law. In the event that more than one deputy was appointed, the most senior deputy according to order of appointment and availability will serve as Acting Chair. In the event that no deputy was appointed or is available, the Cabinet will designate a legislator to serve as Acting Chair.

Legislator Eligibility

3. 5. All residents of the Coalition are eligible to attain legislator status through application with the Chair, predicated on the Chair ensuring they have a nation in the South Pacific, are not seeking membership in bad faith, are not attempting to obscure their identity, are not attempting to join with multiple nations, and the Council on Regional Security does not declare them a significant risk to regional security. Any member of the Assembly legislator may publicly petition the Chair for or against a prospective legislator’s admission. Anyone admitted to legislator status during a forum election in which only legislators may vote, from the time nominations begin until the conclusion of forum voting, may not stand for election nor vote in that forum election.

4. 6. Within the first week of each calendar month, the Chair will remove legislator status from any person no longer maintaining a nation in The South Pacific, or absent for more than half of all votes finished in the previous calendar month, if a minimum of two votes occurred. The Chair may exercise their discretion and not remove legislators who have participated in assembly debate, but are below the voting threshold under reasonable extenuating circumstances.

2. Amendments to the Legislative Procedure Act

(1) Article 1, Section 1 of the Legislative Procedure Act will be amended as follows:

(1) A bill, resolution, or appointment will, unless otherwise mandated by these rules, be moved to vote upon a motion by a legislator and a second by another legislator, unless the Chair or their designated deputy determines that the debate period has been insufficient. A legislator may withdraw a motion to vote or second prior to the Chair moving the matter to vote.

(2) Article 1, Sections 7-8 of the Legislative Procedure Act will be amended as follows:

(7) The Chair or their designated deputy is responsible for creating voting threads and recording votes. In the event that the Chair or their designated deputy does not or cannot perform these duties in a reasonable time frame, any legislator may create voting threads and record votes.

(8) The legislative history of each law will be recorded by the Chair or their designated deputy. Legislative history will include reference to debate threads, voting results, and amendment history.

(This post was last modified: 05-10-2017, 07:52 PM by Cormac.)

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I agree with the Amendment to the Charter, I would also add a simple majority confirmation vote for deputies since we would be giving them the full powers of a chair.

In terms of the LPA, I think we need those simply because there have been times where the deputy is basically the chair, this seems like it would remove their ability to help out.

-Griffindor/Ebonhand
-Current Roles/Positions
-Legislator 2/24/20-
-High Court Justice 6/7/20-
-South Pacific Coral Guard 11/17/20-
-Minister of Engagement 6/17/22-

-Past Roles/Positions
-Legislator 7/3/16-4/10/18
-Secretary of State 4/3/20-2/24/21
-Chair of the APC 9/24/16-5/31/17
-Vice-Chair of the APC 6/1/17-4/10/18
-Local Council Member 7/1/17-11/17/17
-Citizen 5/2012-12/2014 and  2/26/16-7/3/2016

Reply

I agree with the Amendment to the Charter, I would also add a simple majority confirmation vote for deputies since we would be giving them the full powers of a chair.

In terms of the LPA, I think we need those simply because there have been times where the deputy is basically the chair, this seems like it would remove their ability to help out.

I'm not sure a confirmation vote is necessary, in that we allow Cabinet Ministers to appoint deputies and to delegate just about anything to them without a confirmation vote. But I'm not completely opposed to a confirmation vote if it's something a lot of people want; I'd like to hear from more people on that. If so, I'm wondering if we should do a vote for all deputies, as we do for the CRS, or only a disapproval vote if the Assembly disapproves of deputies, as we do for the Permanent Justice. Thoughts from everyone?

In regard to the "or designated deputy" language, it would no longer be needed because the new Article IV, Section 2 of the Charter would allow the Chair to publicly delegate any of his powers and responsibilities to deputies. That saves us from having to add "or designated deputy" to anything we want deputies to be able to do, in that the Chair would just decide, upon appointing them, what deputies can and can't do. That way if we forget to add the "or designated deputy" language to something, that doesn't create a situation in which a deputy can't do something they should be able to do.

Reply

-Snip-

In regard to the "or designated deputy" language, it would no longer be needed because the new Article IV, Section 2 of the Charter would allow the Chair to publicly delegate any of his powers and responsibilities to deputies. That saves us from having to add "or designated deputy" to anything we want deputies to be able to do, in that the Chair would just decide, upon appointing them, what deputies can and can't do. That way if we forget to add the "or designated deputy" language to something, that doesn't create a situation in which a deputy can't do something they should be able to do.

Oh! Okay! After I posted that, I figured that was what was meant.

-Griffindor/Ebonhand
-Current Roles/Positions
-Legislator 2/24/20-
-High Court Justice 6/7/20-
-South Pacific Coral Guard 11/17/20-
-Minister of Engagement 6/17/22-

-Past Roles/Positions
-Legislator 7/3/16-4/10/18
-Secretary of State 4/3/20-2/24/21
-Chair of the APC 9/24/16-5/31/17
-Vice-Chair of the APC 6/1/17-4/10/18
-Local Council Member 7/1/17-11/17/17
-Citizen 5/2012-12/2014 and  2/26/16-7/3/2016

Reply

This seems more than reasonable. I will vote in favor of this draft as written should it go to a vote. However, I doubt we will be able to keep this as is in the next 5 days of debate...

Above all else, I hope to be a decent person.
Has Been
What's Next?

 

CoA: August 2016-January 2017
Minister of Foreign Affairs: October 2019-June 2020, October 2020- February 2021

Reply

I've decided not to go with any confirmation process for the Chair's deputies. I think it would unnecessarily complicate things, and this is basically just codification of what has already been standard practice prior to the High Court's recent ruling. There is nothing new here in what deputies can do, and we have not had confirmation of deputies up until now. I appreciate the intent behind the suggestion though.

I have added language to the draft barring any legislator admitted to legislator status during a forum election from standing as a candidate or voting in that forum election. This would stop the week or more delays in admission to legislator status while elections are ongoing, but still prevent legislators admitted during an election from being candidates or voting in that election, which has been the intent behind freezing applications.

3. 5. All residents of the Coalition The South Pacific are eligible to attain legislator status through application with the Chair, predicated on the Chair ensuring they are not seeking membership in bad faith, are not attempting to obscure their identity, are not attempting to join with multiple nations, and the Council on Regional Security does not declare them a significant risk to regional security. Any member of the Assembly legislator may publicly petition the Chair for or against a prospective legislator’s admission. Anyone admitted to legislator status during a forum election in which only legislators may vote, from the time nominations begin until the conclusion of forum voting, may not stand for election nor vote in that forum election.

(This post was last modified: 05-08-2017, 07:14 AM by Cormac.)

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The Coalition is both the in-game region and the forum. Please don't change that.

Reply

The Coalition is both the in-game region and the forum. Please don't change that.

That doesn't make any sense for the residency requirement. What even is a resident of the forum? Just someone with a forum account? I think we can, at minimum, expect people to have nations in the South Pacific in order to be in the Assembly of the South Pacific. Every other region does.

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The Coalition is both the in-game region and the forum. Please don't change that.

That doesn't make any sense for the residency requirement. What even is a resident of the forum? Just someone with a forum account? I think we can, at minimum, expect people to have nations in the South Pacific in order to be in the Assembly of the South Pacific. Every other region does.

What Glen means is that the language already means that, because the Coalition is the region.

Founder of the Church of the South Pacific [Forum Thread] [Discord], a safe place to discuss spirituality for people of all faiths and none (currently looking for those interested in prayer and/or "home" groups);
And The Silicon Pens [Discord], a writer's group for the South Pacific and beyond!

Yahweo usenneo ir varleo, ihraneo jurlaweo hraseu seu, ir jiweveo arladi.

Salma 145:8

translate

The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.
Psalm 145: 8

Reply

The Coalition is both the in-game region and the forum. Please don't change that.

That doesn't make any sense for the residency requirement. What even is a resident of the forum? Just someone with a forum account? I think we can, at minimum, expect people to have nations in the South Pacific in order to be in the Assembly of the South Pacific. Every other region does.

What Glen means is that the language already means that, because the Coalition is the region.

The Court could very easily reach the interpretation that a "resident of the Coalition" is either someone with a nation in TSP or someone with a forum account, rather than both. We have to stop leaving these ambiguous phrases in the laws. This is how we end up with rulings on Legal Questions that annoy people because we're asking the Court to interpret vague wording.

Article II of the Charter will still exist. There's no reason to use poor, ambiguous wording in Article IV for symbolic purposes.

II. SOVEREIGNTY

Outlining the sovereignty of the Coalition and the origins of legitimacy.

1. The sovereignty of the region lies with the Coalition of The South Pacific. No other group claiming legitimacy will be recognized. The integrity of the Coalition, in its forums and the region, shall not be challenged or violated by any government official, internal dissidents, or other regions.

2. Authority and legitimacy is held jointly by the region and the forum, and the union between the two is what defines the Coalition. No illegitimate invader or usurper of the region shall be recognized.

(This post was last modified: 05-08-2017, 10:04 AM by Cormac.)

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