Regional Assembly Rules Amendment

r3naissanc3r

r3naissanc3r

TNPer
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Regional Assembly Rules Amendment

1. The Rules of the Regional Assembly of The North Pacific are hereby amended to read as follows:

Rules of the Regional Assembly of The North Pacific

Section 1. Proposals

1. Any citizen may bring a proposal for discussion before the Regional Assembly.

2. The Speaker may schedule a vote on any proposal being discussed by the Regional Assembly as permitted by law.

3. If, before a vote on a proposal begins, at least three citizens object to the decision of the Speaker to schedule it, the Speaker must cancel the scheduled vote.

4. If a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one third of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote, including the citizen that introduced the proposal to the Regional Assembly, motion that a vote should be held on a proposal before the Regional Assembly, then the Speaker must schedule a vote on that proposal to begin as soon as permitted by law.

Section 2. Voting

1. No more than two legislative votes may take place simultaneously at any time.

2. Unless otherwise required by law, votes of the Regional Assembly will last for a minimum of three and a maximum of seven days.

3. The Speaker will, at the beginning of a vote of the Regional Assembly, decide its duration as permitted by law.

4. If a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one third of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote object to the duration of a vote of the Regional Assembly decided by the Speaker before the conclusion of the vote, then that vote will last for the maximum duration permitted by law.

5. If at the conclusion of a vote quorum has not been achieved, then the Speaker may extend the duration of the vote to the maximum permitted by law.

Section 3. Deputy Speaker and Vacancies

1. The Speaker may, at their discretion, appoint a citizen as Deputy Speaker. The Speaker may, at their discretion, remove an existing Deputy Speaker.

2. Unless otherwise specified by law, the Speaker may delegate any of their powers and duties to the Deputy Speaker. Delegation under this section does not relieve the Speaker of any of their powers and duties. Any provisions of law related to the powers and duties of the Speaker, when exercised by the Deputy Speaker under the provisions of this clause, shall apply to the Deputy Speaker.

3. When there is a vacancy or absence in the position of Speaker, the Deputy Speaker will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the vacancy or absence, respectively. When there is simultaneously a vacancy or absence in the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker is simultaneously vacant, the citizen who is available, has the longest period of citizenship, does not decline the position, and is not otherwise prohibited by law will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the simultaneous vacancy or absence.

4. A citizen's period of citizenship is defined as the amount of elapsed time since that citizen's most recent approved citizenship application without an interruption.
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Regional Assembly Rules Amendment

1. The Rules of the Regional Assembly of The North Pacific are hereby amended to read as follows:

Rules of the Regional Assembly of The North Pacific

Section 1. Proposals

1. Any citizen may bring a proposal for discussion before the Regional Assembly.

2. The Speaker may schedule a vote on any proposal being discussed by the Regional Assembly as permitted by law.

3. If, before a vote on a proposal begins, at least three citizens object to the decision of the Speaker to schedule it, the Speaker must cancel the scheduled vote.

4. If a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one-tenth of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote, including the citizen that introduced the proposal to the Regional Assembly, motion that a vote should be held on a proposal before the Regional Assembly, then the Speaker must schedule a vote on that proposal to begin as soon as permitted by law.

Section 2. Voting

1. No more than two legislative votes may take place simultaneously at any time.

2. Unless otherwise required by law, votes of the Regional Assembly will last for a minimum of three and a maximum of seven days.

3. The Speaker will, at the beginning of a vote of the Regional Assembly, decide its duration as permitted by law.

4. If a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one-tenth of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote object to the duration of a vote of the Regional Assembly decided by the Speaker before the conclusion of the vote, then that vote will last for the maximum duration permitted by law.

5. If at the conclusion of a vote quorum has not been achieved, then the Speaker may extend the duration of the vote to the maximum permitted by law.

Section 3. Deputy Speaker and Vacancies

1. The Speaker may, at their discretion, appoint a citizen as Deputy Speaker. The Speaker may, at their discretion, remove an existing Deputy Speaker.

2. Unless otherwise specified by law, the Speaker may delegate any of their powers and duties to the Deputy Speaker. Delegation under this section does not relieve the Speaker of any of their powers and duties. Any provisions of law related to the powers and duties of the Speaker, when exercised by the Deputy Speaker under the provisions of this clause, shall apply to the Deputy Speaker.

3. When there is a vacancy or absence in the position of Speaker, the Deputy Speaker will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the vacancy or absence, respectively. When there is simultaneously a vacancy or absence in the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker is simultaneously vacant, the citizen who is available, has the longest period of citizenship, does not decline the position, and is not otherwise prohibited by law will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the simultaneous vacancy or absence.

4. A citizen's period of citizenship is defined as the amount of elapsed time since that citizen's most recent approved citizenship application without an interruption.
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Here are the changes to the RA rules, highlighted with BBcode:
Rules of the Regional Assembly of The North Pacific

Section 1. Proposals

1. Any Regional Assembly member citizen may bring a proposal for discussion before the Regional Assembly.

2. The Speaker may schedule a vote on any proposal being discussed by the Regional Assembly as permitted by law.

3. If, before a vote on a proposal begins, at least three Regional Assembly members citizens object to the decision of the Speaker to schedule it, the Speaker must cancel the scheduled vote.

4. If at least one-tenth of the members of the Regional Assembly a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one-tenth of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote, including the Regional Assembly member citizen that introduced the proposal to the Regional Assembly, motion that a vote should be held on a proposal before the Regional Assembly, then the Speaker must schedule a vote on that proposal to begin as soon as permitted by law.

Section 2. Voting

1. No more than two votes to enact, amend or repeal laws legislative votes may take place simultaneously at any time.

2. Unless otherwise required by law, votes of the Regional Assembly will last for a minimum of three and a maximum of seven days.

3. The Speaker will, at the beginning of a vote of the Regional Assembly, decide its duration as permitted by law.

4. If at least one-tenth of the members of the Regional Assembly a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one-tenth of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote object to the duration of a vote of the Regional Assembly decided by the Speaker before the conclusion of the vote, then that vote will last for the maximum duration permitted by law.

5. If at the conclusion of a vote quorum has not been achieved, then the Speaker may extend the duration of the vote to the maximum permitted by law.

Section 3. Deputy Speaker and Vacancies

1. The Speaker may, at their discretion, appoint a Regional Assembly member citizen as Deputy Speaker. The Speaker may, at their discretion, remove an existing Deputy Speaker.

2. Unless otherwise specified by law, the Speaker may delegate any of their powers and duties to the Deputy Speaker. Delegation under this section does not relieve the Speaker of any of their powers and duties. Any provisions of law related to the powers and duties of the Speaker, when exercised by the Deputy Speaker under the provisions of this clause, shall apply to the Deputy Speaker.

3. When there is a vacancy or absence in the position of Speaker, the Deputy Speaker will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the vacancy or absence, respectively. When there is simultaneously a vacancy or absence in the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker is simultaneously vacant, the Regional Assembly member citizen who is available, has the longest period of membership citizenship, does not decline the position, and is not otherwise prohibited by law will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the simultaneous vacancy or absence.

4. The period of membership of a Regional Assembly member A citizen's period of citizenship is defined as the amount of elapsed time since that citizen's most recent admission to the Regional Assembly approved citizenship application without an interruption.

This bill updates the RA rules to work with the recently enacted Voting Rights Act and the Vacations, Absences, and Succession Act. The only change relating to the Vacations, Absences, and Succession Act is in clause 3.3, which now, in addition to vacancies, also applies to absences. All other changes relate to the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

Some notes and issues to consider:

1) The amendment replaces the wording "votes to enact, amend or repeal laws" with "legislative votes". This is because the VRA introduced a definition for "legislative votes" in clause 6.1.16 of the Legal Code: " A legislative vote is a vote of the Regional Assembly to enact, amend or repeal laws." Rather than repeating the definition in the RA rules, the new wording defers to the Legal Code definition, which is helpful for maintaining consistency.

2) Any references to percentages of the RA members have been replaced by percentages of the number of votes required for quorum.

3) Clause 3.3 allows the most senior citizen to temporarily assume the duties of the office of the Speaker. Given that now that citizen may be inactive in the RA, we may want to add some additional activity requirements in this clause.

4) We may want to reconsider whether it is still necessary to limit the number of simultaneous legislative votes to two. In the past, we did this to make sure people don't lose their RA membership very fast. This is no longer a concern.
 
I like that you're amending the wording of the rules to fit the Voting Rights Act. Full support.
 
I think these rules should be implemented ASAP, since right now the RA Rules are kind of silly (and very ineffectual), referring to Regional Assembly members.
 
There are a couple of issues that we may need to look at, mentioned in my second post. I will leave this open for another day in case there are any more comments, before moving to vote.
 
I disagree with changing 1/10 of the RA to 1/10 of quorum. Quorum being 1/3 of the legislatively active citizens, an appropriate proportion would be 1/10 of legislatively active citizens or about 1/3 of quorum.
 
Eluvatar:
I disagree with changing 1/10 of the RA to 1/10 of quorum. Quorum being 1/3 of the legislatively active citizens, an appropriate proportion would be 1/10 of legislatively active citizens or about 1/3 of quorum.
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I think that makes sense. Eluvatar is right in that 1/10th of quorum could potentially be a ridiculously small number, which would lead to very easy abuse of the immediate voting rule/vote extension rule.
 
Eluvatar:
I disagree with changing 1/10 of the RA to 1/10 of quorum. Quorum being 1/3 of the legislatively active citizens, an appropriate proportion would be 1/10 of legislatively active citizens or about 1/3 of quorum.
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Aye, good catch. I forgot to edit the numbers in the formulae. It was supposed to say "three tenths".

There is a new draft in the OP. To keep things simple, instead of using "three tenths", I replaced that with "one third". As Eluvatar said, the two are very close.
 
This bill is now in formal debate. It will remain in formal debate for five days, after which a vote shall be scheduled
 
Crushing Our Enemies:
I still think we should get rid of quorum laws altogether, but I guess that ought to come later.
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I tend to agree, with the exception of Constitutional Amendments.
 
Quorum is designed to prevent an unusually small number from enacting laws that would not be more widely supported; such occasions were known to be possible during certain times of the year, such as the current seasonal period.

I think the burden would be on those who want to abolish quorum to show that this could not happen, a proof that I am doubtful they can provide.
 
3) Clause 3.3 allows the most senior citizen to temporarily assume the duties of the office of the Speaker. Given that now that citizen may be inactive in the RA, we may want to add some additional activity requirements in this clause.
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In light of that, might I suggest rephrasing Clause 3.3 using "Legislatively Active Citizens" as defined in the Voting Rights Act to add some activity requirement there?

3. When there is a vacancy or absence in the position of Speaker, the Deputy Speaker will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the vacancy or absence, respectively. When there is simultaneously a vacancy or absence in the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker is simultaneously vacant, the legislatively active citizen who is available, has the longest period of citizenship, does not decline the position, and is not otherwise prohibited by law will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the simultaneous vacancy or absence.
 
Presumably the longest-tenured citizen would refuse the duties of speaker if they were not qualified to exercise them. We're not talking about any random RA member - we're talking about the longest-tenured RA member. While longevity does not guarantee qualifications, I think we can trust them to be responsible in their decision to assume the duties of speaker or not.

Also, it will likely be many years before anyone reaches the top of the list who joined the RA after the passage of the citizenship bill - indeed, it may never happen. I think we can put a pin in that concern and come back to it if it looks like it'll ever matter.
 
I'm confused by your response, I'm not worried about the qualifications in this case (I agree that if not qualified they'd probably reject the position wherein I imagine it would go to the next longest-tenured citizen, etc.) but r3n mentioned that this citizen might be totally inactive. The purpose of my little amendment was just to increase the odds that the citizen called upon to become temporary speaker is someone who is at least somewhat active.
 
He said inactive in the RA - an inactive-in-general citizen would be considered unavailable to assume the Speaker's duties. And an active citizen inactive in the RA would probably know that they're not the best one to assume the role and decline it.
 
r3naissanc3r:
Regional Assembly Rules Amendment

1. The Rules of the Regional Assembly of The North Pacific are hereby amended to read as follows:

Rules of the Regional Assembly of The North Pacific

Section 1. Proposals

1. Any citizen may bring a proposal for discussion before the Regional Assembly.

2. The Speaker may schedule a vote on any proposal being discussed by the Regional Assembly as permitted by law.

3. If, before a vote on a proposal begins, at least three citizens object to the decision of the Speaker to schedule it, the Speaker must cancel the scheduled vote.

4. If a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one third of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote, including the citizen that introduced the proposal to the Regional Assembly, motion that a vote should be held on a proposal before the Regional Assembly, then the Speaker must schedule a vote on that proposal to begin as soon as permitted by law.

Section 2. Voting

1. No more than two legislative votes may take place simultaneously at any time.

2. Unless otherwise required by law, votes of the Regional Assembly will last for a minimum of three and a maximum of seven days.

3. The Speaker will, at the beginning of a vote of the Regional Assembly, decide its duration as permitted by law.

4. If a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one third of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote object to the duration of a vote of the Regional Assembly decided by the Speaker before the conclusion of the vote, then that vote will last for the maximum duration permitted by law.

5. If at the conclusion of a vote quorum has not been achieved, then the Speaker may extend the duration of the vote to the maximum permitted by law.

Section 3. Deputy Speaker and Vacancies

1. The Speaker may, at their discretion, appoint a citizen as Deputy Speaker. The Speaker may, at their discretion, remove an existing Deputy Speaker.

2. Unless otherwise specified by law, the Speaker may delegate any of their powers and duties to the Deputy Speaker. Delegation under this section does not relieve the Speaker of any of their powers and duties. Any provisions of law related to the powers and duties of the Speaker, when exercised by the Deputy Speaker under the provisions of this clause, shall apply to the Deputy Speaker.

3. When there is a vacancy or absence in the position of Speaker, the Deputy Speaker will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the vacancy or absence, respectively. When there is simultaneously a vacancy or absence in the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker is simultaneously vacant, the citizen who is available, has the longest period of citizenship, does not decline the position, and is not otherwise prohibited by law will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the simultaneous vacancy or absence.

4. A citizen's period of citizenship is defined as the amount of elapsed time since that citizen's most recent approved citizenship application without an interruption.
Click to expand...

Regional Assembly Rules Amendment

1. The Rules of the Regional Assembly of The North Pacific are hereby amended to read as follows:

Rules of the Regional Assembly of The North Pacific

Section 1. Proposals

1. Any citizen may bring a proposal for discussion before the Regional Assembly.

2. The Speaker may schedule a vote on any proposal being discussed by the Regional Assembly as permitted by law.

3. If, before a vote on a proposal begins, at least three citizens object to the decision of the Speaker to schedule it, the Speaker must cancel the scheduled vote.

4. If a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one-tenth of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote, including the citizen that introduced the proposal to the Regional Assembly, motion that a vote should be held on a proposal before the Regional Assembly, then the Speaker must schedule a vote on that proposal to begin as soon as permitted by law.

Section 2. Voting

1. No more than two legislative votes may take place simultaneously at any time.

2. Unless otherwise required by law, votes of the Regional Assembly will last for a minimum of three and a maximum of seven days.

3. The Speaker will, at the beginning of a vote of the Regional Assembly, decide its duration as permitted by law.

4. If a number of citizens equal to or exceeding one-tenth of the number of votes required to achieve quorum for any legislative vote object to the duration of a vote of the Regional Assembly decided by the Speaker before the conclusion of the vote, then that vote will last for the maximum duration permitted by law.

5. If at the conclusion of a vote quorum has not been achieved, then the Speaker may extend the duration of the vote to the maximum permitted by law.

Section 3. Deputy Speaker and Vacancies

1. The Speaker may, at their discretion, appoint a citizen as Deputy Speaker. The Speaker may, at their discretion, remove an existing Deputy Speaker.

2. Unless otherwise specified by law, the Speaker may delegate any of their powers and duties to the Deputy Speaker. Delegation under this section does not relieve the Speaker of any of their powers and duties. Any provisions of law related to the powers and duties of the Speaker, when exercised by the Deputy Speaker under the provisions of this clause, shall apply to the Deputy Speaker.

3. When there is a vacancy or absence in the position of Speaker, the Deputy Speaker will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the vacancy or absence, respectively. When there is simultaneously a vacancy or absence in the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker is simultaneously vacant, the citizen who is available, has the longest period of citizenship, does not decline the position, and is not otherwise prohibited by law will assume the powers and duties of the office of the Speaker for the duration of the simultaneous vacancy or absence.

4. A citizen's period of citizenship is defined as the amount of elapsed time since that citizen's most recent approved citizenship application without an interruption.
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I agree with the theory, but how are we to know the nuttier denizens of our region won't exploit it and bring up risible and superfluous grievances? I vote against this amendment.
 
@ParksAndRecreation: The worst thing is that without this amendment, I can be as arbitrary and capricious as I want to be.
 
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