Appointment

Grosseschnauzer

Grosseschnauzer

TNPer
In these most recent elections, the office of Vice Delegate was not filled. Consequently, there is a vacancy in the office of Vice Delegate, and a special election will need to be organized and held. Under the schedule provided by Law 26, the voting in the special election will start before the regularly scheduled judicial election.

Regional security requires that it is in the best interests of TNP to have an acting Vice Delegate in place until a Vice Delegate is chosen by a special election. As was the case two terms ago, when I was appointed interim Vice Delegate, I think it best to appoint a member of the TNP Security Council to serve as acting Vice Delegate, and Pasargad, as a sitting member of the TNP Security COuncil has accepted my request to serve during this period.
 
I mean the Security Council is the organization with the power to set that line of succession.

Yes Pasargad is on it, and possibly its only member other than Grosseschnauzer, but I do want us to follow our laws.
 
Apparently, laws are meant to be broken...but only by those in power and only when its convenient for them to do so. Other than that, the law shall be strictly observed at all times without question.
 
Apparently, laws are meant to be broken...but only by those in power and only when its convenient for them to do so. Other than that, the law shall be strictly observed at all times without question.
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Not if you are considered to be "rogue".

Anyway, while I don't oppose this measure in principle, I do agree with Elu. Const. Article V, Section 2, Clause 3 does say
3. From time to time, the Council may, by majority vote, recommend an order of succession to the Delegacy beyond the Vice Delegate among members of the Security Council who are members of the Assembly. The order of succession shall be determined first, by length of current service on the Council, and if necessary, then by influence level, and then by endorsement level of Council members who have equal levels of service and then, of equal influence level. The Assembly shall immediately vote on the adoption of such recommendation by a majority vote.
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So... in this particular case, does this clause not apply, or are we looking at the wrong bit of the legal documents?
 
The key words are "beyond the Vice Delegate." Appointing a Acting Vice Delegate where there is a vacancy pending the coming special election does not set the line of Delegate succession "beyond the Vice Delegate," it merely puts a caretaker in that seat because having even a short-term temporary vacancy until a special election is held is not prudent for regional security.

I have no idea who might decide to run, and Pasargad's agreement with me is only until a new Vice Delegate is elected at the special election; we did not discuss possible candidates. I chose Pasargad because he is a sitting member of the Security Council and his current level of endorsements is within the current range that a Vice Delegate should have relative to my current number of endorsements. In addition, I plan to move forward with a project to encourage other trustworthy high influence residents to seek membership on the Security Council as it was always been intended.

As for precedent, I can point to Blackshear's appointment of myself two terms when as Vice Delegate, he succeeded to the Delegacy, and then asked me to serve in the interim as Vice Delegate until there was a special election. I think it is a stretch to say that such a temporary appointment is setting the succession beyond the Vice Delegate. As I recall no one objected in that instance.

My temporary appointment does not determine who may or may not decide to stand in the special election for Vice Delegate, which I need to begin the process for under Law 26 by Monday. I have no problems with a contested special election and I encourage any of you to seek that office if you meet the candidacy requirements.
 
What is the meaning of that line of succession beyond the Delegate however if not to fill a vacancy temporarily?
 
It says beyond the vice delegate, not beyond the delegate. The succession goes from delegate to vice delegate, that's spelled out explicitly. It's if the delegate disappears and the vice delegate is unavailable to fill in for whatever reason that the security council decides who's next in line.
 
But when looking for who selects an interim Vice Delegate, when an election hasn't been held yet, where should one then look?
 
I avoided using the word "interim" in my appointment of Pasargad as he is an acting Vice Delegate.
I'll be setting up the special election this weekend, I jgot to take care of some thing offline and a couple of the places close at noon.
 
A brief search for the term "vice delegate" in the Constitution reveals no section empowering the delegate to appoint any sort of vice delegate, "interim" or "acting" (and as far as I know, those words are pretty much synonyms anyway). Indeed, the Constitution explicitly says that the Council, with the approval of the Assembly, is responsible for determining a line of succession beyond the vice delegate to be used in the event of their absence. There is a line about the delegate appointing "executive officers", a term which is never defined, but since the term "vice delegate" is defined separately and never stated to be an executive officer it's best to say that the vice-delegate does not count as one for the purposes of that clause. As far as I can tell, this appointment is likely quite unconstitutional.
 
As I've pointed out, Blackshear set the precedent for this with absolutely no objections from anyone.

And some of you were in the R.A. at the time.

So as far as I am concerned, the precedent is valid.
 
Clause 11 of the Bill of Rights is a recognition in the governing documents thst they do not cover all situations, and that a good faith action to cover circumstances that are not covered by express provisions is valid where is hews to as close to the governing documents are circumstances permit.

Not having an occupant in the Vice Delegate's chair creates a risk to the security of the region. The R.A. failed to elect a Vice Delegate at the regularly scheduled election, and the Delegate has the express constitutional duty to keep the region secure. The endorsement ranges for members of the Security Council are tied to those of the Delegate and the Vice Delegate;

If you are seriously concerned that this was not a reasonable, and therefore legal process under the Bill of Rights, propose a law that directly addresses Vice Delegate succession and absence since current law does not so do. And as I've suggested somewhere, ask the SC to adopt an equivalent to the RA rule on the temporary absence of its chair and who acts in such circumstances. Had such a provision been in place then this would not have been an issue with you.
 
I believe that's where there is a difference of opinion. That provision deals with Delegate succession (i.e., if there is no Delegate or Vice Delegate around) and not the situation where there is just no Vice Delegate or the Vice Delegate is not available. As the V.D. chairs the SC, that would be a situation similar to what we faced with the Speaker, but that did not have repercussions for regional security.

It's a odd situation because I am an elected member of the Security COuncil, as is Pasargad, and I'm also the Delegate. Even if we implied Pasargad was acting chair as the only other SC member at the time, we still end up where we're at now (Pasargad as acting V.D. pending the election.)

No matter what, if y'all want to avoid this precedent in the future, then the S.C. needs to adopt a rule itself on the subject (which it can do independently of the line of succession provision because all bodies in TNP can adopt rules for their business) or the R.A. needs to adopt a law dealing with who may act as chair of the Security Council and acting V.D., when the V.D. isn't available. It can be the same test and process as is contained in R.A. Rule 2.)
 
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