Time for multiple offices?

Fellow Citizens,

We may be facing a population decline in the coming months. Many of our citizens have been teleported away to a far away place you might call the 3rd dimension of the 4th incarnation, by the mystical beings called Taketooians and Firaxians. Others are muttering incantations to the powers of Radeon, or calling upon the geForce to Transform and Light their new world.

I call this to your attention because the outlook for completely filling all offices of our government with willing and interested leaders is not good. Has the time come to consider allowing individuals to perform more than one function? I know this goes against principles we have held dear for a long time. Before it's too late, let's at least consider this possibility or find another solution for the problem.

Personally I prefer to finish what I have started, but the lure of new horizons is obviously strong. The curse of "please insert correct CD-ROM and restart application" is however stronger.

So, IF we allowed multiple offices how best to do it?

Option 1: Any 2 from them all
Option 2: 1 Judiciary, 1 other either executive or governor
Option 3: 1 Governor , 1 other (allows Gov+Gov, Gov+Jud, Gov+Exec)
Option 4: 1 Governor, 1 Executive or Governor (keeps the Judicairy separate)

This is not every possible combination and restricts it to 2 positions but it gives options ranging from a free for all to keeping the Judiciary separate.

Option 1: Any 2.
This is the free for all option. It gives the greatest flexibility but you could end up with President and Defence for example as the same citizen. This could lead to too much influence in the hands of one individual, and alienate those that do not believe their opinions were taken into account.

Option 2: Judicairy + either Exec and Governor
This allows the Judicairy members to take another office (but not 2 Judiciary offices). It would however only free up 3 people but shouldn't we keep our judiciary separate?

option 3: Governor and 1 other
This allows 2 offices to be held, as long as one is a Governor. It therefore prevents the concentration of power that holding 2 executive offices would give. It also allows the Judiciary to take another office as long as it is a Governorship. The second office could also be another Governorship, so someone could run 2 cities if they wished.

Option 4: Governor and Executive or Governor
The most restrictive. Keeps the Judiciary separate, allows only 1 Executive position to be held.

There is also the question of whether people would be allowed to run in the election for multiple offices or could only be appointed to second office that was otherwise unfilled. Appointment only would allow the filling of empty offices without some candidates ending up with none while several had two.

My preferences would be option 4, with 3 in second place. I would also prefer the second office to be appointed to fill any empty positions.

There is another option that would mean we would not have to allow multiple offices. Already the Ex-pat governor is shortly to be in charge of 2 and will eventually be in charge of 6 cities. We could therefore put all the 5 core cities under the control of 1 Governor. This would make for a contested election! It would also however remove positions for someone with very little time, and stop the individuality between cities (what little there is anyway).

We do need to think about this as we would need to change the law prior to the next election cycle (Nominations start 23rd - Wednesday next week).

Gah - meant to respond to this earlier.

Yes, it's time to consider this.

What to do: Option 4. Just in case there is a problem, keep the judges independant.

How to do it: Remove Article I from the Constitution entirely. Strike it. Delete it. Add the language for the change to the Code of Laws in Section H.1.

-- Ravensfire, President of Fanatikos

Here are the proposed changes. Please feel free to offer suggestions or corrections to the language.

Article I, old text

Article I, new text

CoL, new text

Since we have an excessive number of people who are in love with the letter of the law and not its intent...

Proposed poll:

Do you accept the attached amendments to the Constitution and Code of Laws? Yes/No/Abstain

Article I, old text Article I, new text CoL, new text

This will do the job. And as the second office is by appointment and citizens can still only accept one nomination the elections themselves will be unchanged. This means that there is no panic to get it approved by the start of the nominations and we should have plenty of time to get it in by next term. As long as there are enough peple still here to vote on it that is .

I'll third this proposed poll. CoL Section I. Multiple Offices works just fine. Good work!

Both the 24 hours for the proposed poll and the 48 hours of discussion for the amendment have passed, so these amendments can be submitted at any time.