Creation of Government Subdivisions?

To make Neualtenburg into a more productive nation, we should create a few subdivisions of the Government.

Some of my Ideas -

1. Department of Commerce - Neualtenburg Economy
- Elected by RA

2. Department of Tourism - Attract visitors to Neualtenburg.
- Elected by RA

3. Bureau of Aesthetics - Keep the theme of Neualtenburg. Enforce the building laws for the Valley Area.
- Elected by the Guild

Any other ideas?

All three you mention are already the Guild.

Oops...

What role does the Guild play in the Economy? What aspects is the guild concerned with? Is it the Guild's role to make sure we have a balanced budget (i.e. cover tier)?

Just wondering, so the RA doesn't overstep it's role by accident, thus stifling the creative juices of the guild and causing a work stoppage (which we can't afford to do in this stage of the project).

From Article II section I of the neualteburg Constitution:

"Section 1 - Artisanal Collective

The Artisanal Collective (AC) is group of productive citizens
who provide revenue through sales and infrastructure support.
Its governmental role is to act as treasury and its service role
is to provide goods and infrastructure."

(my emphasis)

Thanks! So to be clear, Sudane is participating as the Treasurer through the Guild.

Yes, but this may have to change. Technically, The Gildemeister is supposed to act as treasurer, though the role of treasurer was delegated to Sudane in behalf of the Guild.

I'm not sure whether or not, in her new role, as leader of the RA if it is constitutionally permissable for her to continue to serve as treasurer. This may need to be decided by the SC. I'll abide by their decision.

Leader of the RA? Sorry, I recall only an alphabetical listing, but I may have missed something.

Sudane

Even being on the RA is a potential conflict, for the very same reason I am ineligible to run for RA.

According to the Constitution the Gildemeister serves as treasurer, your position of treasurer on the Guild was delegated to you, as you have a clear talent for the office.

My problem at the moment, that I need a decision of the SC on -- is can a member of the RA fulfill a leader function on the Artisinal Branch (such as Treasurer) while serving on the RA?

Well, I'm not sure that the Constitution says exactly that.What I do know is that the "role" of "treasurer" was delegated to me by default; someone had to do it, and I certainly did have strong ideas about how to do it. There was no RA action, or any other kind of action except discussion between myself, Ulrika and Gwyn, who at that time (April/May) were the only three Neualtenburgers active. The ONLY thing we did firmly agree about is that the "role" would last at least a year, since the "role" of "treasurer" is closely associated with the very specific Linden Labs role of Estate Owner, meaning, specific and personal responsibility for paying the $195 monthly fee. Since LL charges $100 to transfer that role to another person, the three of us felt that the term of service of that person should be longer, and a year was agreed upon.

So, quite frankly, I basically agree with you. There urgently needs to be defined a financial system and roles for Neualtenburg. I have often mentioned my desire to work with a budget committee, or a financial committee. At this early stage, financial matters are entirely taken up by the problem of meeting the monthly obligation, and keeping the financial records in good order; hopefully looking for the time at which the bonds can be repaid. When this phase concludes, and the city government can initiate more assertive financial policies, my function as a single, un-appointed person, with no structure to work with, will be woefully inadequate.

However, I'm not really sure that the SC is the place to come to these decisions. That entity must make judgements based on the constitution and existing laws, and this is really a topic addressed by none of those. Perhaps the community as a whole, perhaps in the form of a constitutional ammendment to add needed material, would be the right manner to get these really important definitions.

I'd refer at this point to the analyses that Dianne is doing in her two threads.

/103/cd/56937/1.html

/103/66/56936/1.html

Hopefully that will lead to a system of clarifications, of which these financial matters might be a part.


Sudane

Being one who is more concerned with the facts of getting things done than the technicalities, I think having some continuity in the treasurer job is important. That said, making it official and legal ASAP as an amendment would be a good idea. I don't think - provided the job is limited solely to direct handling of day-to-day financial matters - there's enough opportunity for abuse to really make it an issue.

Even so, any such amendment should make clear it is a *temporary* measure, to end at some appropriate time - either a hard length, or until the finances show a positive net income for X months in a row, etc.

EDIT: to make clear, at which point a permanent position/committee in accordance with the principle of nto serving in the RA, etc, should be made.

I am posting here as the SC. Because of my unique familiarity with our constitution and its original philosophy, I'm well suited to comment on its application to this current discussion. Let me know if I make a mistake.


One of the issues creating confusion, as we are currently seeing, is that neither the internal structure of the branches nor the divisions between branches are well defined (with a few important exceptions). This was done by design. The constitution only provides a framework, beyond that it is up to individual branches to self organize and to compete among themselves, using the constitution as a guide, for responsibilities.

With respect to the treasury, the Guild is unambiguously defined as the source of the treasury. This was done to place a barrier between elected officials and spending, instead entrusting the treasury with the group responsible for the productive city work. Beyond that the constitution does not and should not specify more.

It's up to all the members of the Guild to decide which avatar will act as treasury and how, as a collective, they will approve or reject city budgets. Any Guild members that have positions in the RA, lose their ability to vote in the Guild, even if that member is the treasury (this is from the constitution).

Things that are in the constitution concerning the tax rate and city budget:

1. The RA sets taxation rate and the city budget.
   
2. The RA can seek impeachment of members of the Artisanal branch for failing to support the city fiscally.
   
3. The leader of the AC (Guild) may veto a revenue bill or resubmit a modified revenue bill for vote.
   
4. The AC can seek impeachment of members of the Representative branch for failing to act with fiscal responsibility.
   

It is one of the fundamental tenets of the constitution that the Guild control the treasury. As a member of the SC, I can tell you that is very unlikely to change. Instead, I recommend learning to work within the system to affect change (that's the point of government and politics).


As an aside, one of the things we should do is take the next step in organizing the Guild. We should come up with formal rules for voting on budgets submitted by the RA and whether or not we should strike. We could either meet biweekly or even just hold meetings here in the forums where we discuss the budget and take votes using the forum tools. Since we're an infrastructure group, it might be fun to explore hybrid in-world and forum tools for maximizing efficiency (as I never seem to have much time to log in anymore).

~Ulrika~

Thankyou, Ulrika. That clarifies things for me considerably.

As I understand it then, Sudane may continue as treasurer. That is good news.

Sure!

Although, I recommend that the Guild keep an eye on modifications to the current budget. Once we're solvent, I imagine we'll start modifying the cost of land, paying for events held in the city, supporting existing infrastructure, and paying for new structures. Right now we're in barely-breaking-even-mode so things on the budget front aren't very interesting.

~Ulrika~

I admit that I have discussed this in-world for a long while with Sudane It is no secret that I'm a member of all branches of Government However, I cannot make (or contribute to) any decision at the Guild nor at the Scientific Council while I hold a seat at the RA. This is surprisingly clear from the Constitution (I mean "surprising" because many other things are liable to interpretation -- but I don't see any problem with this one ).

Of course, I do completely agree with Ulrika's analysis of the Constitution on that issue The Office of the Treasury is created (delegated?) in dependency of the Guild, because only the Guild can deal with the City Finances, namely, the accounting system - the Constitution does not leave us any other choice (and I'm glad it doesn't!). This means that only the Guild can nominate a Treasurer, or appoint a new one after the current Treasurer's term (one year, as Sudane mentioned) is over.

In the mean time, since Sudane also holds a seat at the RA - I even suspect she won the most votes - it means that she can't participate in any decision taken at the Guild's level. This means not being able to vote or be voted for Gildemeisterinn; and, at the current Gildmeisterinn's discretion, she may not even be invited to any internal Guild discussion/meeting at all (neither will I for the same reason!).

From the Constitution, we can clearly see that the Treasury is not able to be influenced directly by any political faction neither by the RA as a whole. It's solely in the hands of the Guild. Of course, the RA does approve the budget, but that's a different story. In a sense, the Treasurer is much more like the Federal Reserve or the Central European Bank (theoretically apolitical) and much less a "Finance Ministry" (appointed by the winning party of the elections). So, Sudane will keep her place as Treasurer, independently of her faction and of the fact she holds a seat at the RA.

I may remind you that the only case when the SC vetoed a bill from the RA in the last term was when the RA tried to pass some laws to create a new "department" dealing with the finantial aspects. Ulrika then made a similar comment to the one posted here: /103/0b/37898/1.html#post414701 This is a precedent The RA cannot pass bills that try to wrench the Guild's constitutional powers of dealing with all finantial aspects of Neualtenburg

However, something else entirely is setting up a "finance committee" which has no power except as acting as an advisory board to the Guild and its Treasurer. I think that the SC could review any bill proposed in this context and probably allow the "finance committee" to exist, by making sure their reports are neither binding nor mandatory.