City Mayors? How can that work?

[disorganizer]

donsig proposed to implement city-mayors...

personally, i think the idea is good, but we need to get the rules and responsibilities clear...


here are my thoughts:

* mayors should be voted for and should live in the city they controll
* there should be s sticky thread for all cities with mayors. there the citizens of THIS city (and only them) can comment on the actions to be taken by their mayor and discuss with him what has to be done on the next chat.
* the mayor is responsible for posting the next turns orders in the first post of his city-thread.
* he is responsible for citizen and build controll
* he can request workers from his governor

* the governor takes the city-thread's proposals for the cities of his province and chooses which actions he has to take in the next chat
* the governor is the one who has the final decision over the mayor's orders and requests (like in real life). he will bring his conclusions for all his cities (big picture) in the chat and discuss it
* the governor should post his decisions minimum 2hours before chat in his thread.


the only thing i see is that we maybe need 3 days between chats with this
your opinion?

 

[eyrei]

I think, for the time being, that this is too much power for the mayors. Most of what you have suggested falls within the realm of the governor. For the time being, I believe mayors should simply provide updated and accurate information about their city in the thread I started called "City Production Summaries". At some point in the future, they may be given some limited control, but right now we are trying to simplify our government, not complicate it.

 

[disorganizer]

but what about giving information (1st post) and a kind of action-proposal (2nd post) for the governor?

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by disorganizer
but what about giving information (1st post) and a kind of action-proposal (2nd post) for the governor?

OK. The mayor is free to make comments in his information post, at the bottom, if he wishes. This could be helpful for a busy governor. I want that thread to have one post per city, and no more, so that it is easy to find information there. This could be very helpful to the cabinet during a turn chat, as well.

 

[donsig]

The mayors I suggested would have an advisory role only. The basis of the idea is that since we have two days to examine our position and lots of citizens we can micromanage quite a bit if we can break the information gathering up among many people. The info would be passed up the chain of command with each higher link have more actual descision making powers.

"Information gatherers" could gravitate towards the areas they are interested in: city management, military affairs, trade issues, etc. It's another way for some of us to have fun.

I would be careful about making too many rules if we do have mayors. I do think mayors should live in their city but other than that let the governors do things as they want. After all, the mayors will be assisting the governors, who in turn are assisting the domestic leader.

 

[SKILORD]

how about mayors being kindof a cabinet for the governors? maybe that wqould work.

 

[donsig]

Eyr has already put out a call for mayors and outlined what is expected of them in the City Summaries thread. His idea is excellent and since he's the domestic advisor this all falls under his authority. He has appointed himself mayor of Eyr - appropriate since it was named for him! There are still 6 cities left and we have a settler to build another one so if you want to be a mayor get moving!

I'm staying in the capital until I can move to a city we have conquered. Then I might run for mayor!

 

[Immortal]

we really should have our turns less often then every second day, were already in 980BC and its been 2 weeks. I recommend we move to 3 or even 4 days to reduce clutter in the forums, and allow more time to dialogue. I think a huge reason a lot of our needed goals are being lost is that there simply isnt enough time to talk about everything. By the time we get home from work after the round is played, we have lost 24 hours of discussion not to mention with all the different viewpoints, there is far too much to discuss in 24 hours. But thats up to higher authorities then myself.

Also, about mayors, I think they severely cripple the usefulness, if not eliminate the need for governors. Governors are the ones who are supposed to discuss the build orders and everything specified above, adding 5 additional government people per province makes it so basically everyone has a government position. What happens next election? probably no change in cabinet or president because everyone is already in the government, so why risk a change?

The mayors really should have been delayed until we have a governor so there can be ample dialogue, also, if people arent allowed to discuss build queues outside there own city, where is the democracy part? Personally, Id prefer if the mayors werent even made, everything they are supposed to do was already part of the governors job, it eliminates the need for the governor.

 

[donsig]

Sounds like Immortal just got elected governor. The idea was for the mayors to help the governors out not take any power from them. The govs look over the data supplied by the mayors, listen to the mayors comments and pass on what is relevent to the domestic leader. Eyrei has set up a good looking city summary thread that could prove very useful during turn chats.

Those in government are citizens, too, and are free to express their opinions like 'ordinary' citizens. Eyrei has asked that only mayors post in the city summary thread and has set up a format for the mayors to follow. That thread is meant to be a reference thread not a discussion thread. What goes on in provinces and cities can still be discussed by all of us in other threads.

Govs can always ignore mayors if they really want to...

... I really like eyrei's idea of a reference thread and that idea might prove useful for other things. How about a 'hot' thread with a post from each cabinet member where he or she posts the BIG things for the President to be aware of in the turn chat. The thread would be super clean and for reference only. Such a thread would function as the administrative assistant to the president. I'm just full of ideas...

 

[Immortal]

nah, I havent been elected, myself and Skilord are stuck in a tie for the last 12 hours or more. The only reason I was skeptical about the mayors is because as you said they would be an "advisory" for the governor, very acceptable. But isnt it just as effective to have all citizens be in "advisory" roles, for instance: At the chat, recently it was myself, you, Greyfox and Sike (as I recall) when we were attempting to make spot decisions, all of us were invited to give our comments. I guess I misinterpreted the meaning as mayors as "speaking for the citizens" which Im sure most of the citizens wouldnt agree with.

I suppose Im just really into small and efficent government, I see where your coming from with having the chain of command as follows:

Citizen--Mayor--Governor--Domestic Advisor--President

Im just more accustomed (because I was briefly involved in the civ 2 game, before my comp had to go into the repair shop for a month). IM more used to having the chain of command as this:

citizen--Governor--Domestic Advisor--President

 

[donsig]

I suppose Im just really into small and efficent government, I see where your coming from with having the chain of command as follows:

Citizen--Mayor--Governor--Domestic Advisor--President

Now you're unleashing the poly sci guy in me again. Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting that citizens funnel their reccomendations, opinions, etc through their respective mayors. Citizens could certainly do that if they wanted to but they could also go straight to the top if they choose. I envisioned a mayor as someone who would become the expert on their city - someone who could throw out a red flag if something was amiss. Eyrei took it a step further making it a duty of the mayors to post specific info about their cities.

I'm seeing a bunch of people playing the same game with breaks in between rounds where we can really examine what is going on. I'm trying to urge more people to get involved in the information gathering aspect. The more info we have the better our country will do - assuming our governmental organization is set up to process the info we amass.

When I play Civ I just play. Not much micromanaging. Here we can micromanage to a greater extent. Heck, I even started a test game as the Persians to see how long it takes a worker to road, mine or irrigate different terrains! I like the democracy game format because I'm learning more about the game and having fun doing it. I hope everyone else is enjoying this as well!

 

[disorganizer]

i see the governors position more as a "speaker of the mayors".
the mayors can evaluate the situation of their city in detail and collect opinions of the citizens. they give the governor infomation and advisories, but THE GOVERNOR has to evaluate them and choose which to bring up to the government (he is the only one to attend the chats in representation of his mayors)...

 

[Shabbaman]

Wouldn't it be great to have a thread for each city, with the mayor as modifier and the citizens as 'members'? This way the mayor has a task as to bring subjects under the attention of his citizens. Citizens of each city could form uniform opinions on this forum under presidium of the mayor. Besides that, the citizens can socialize (after all, they're neighbours so they gotta tell each other lotsa gossip...)

Okay, I admit this could go through chat and all, but hey, it's just an idea. I'd like it for PDX...(GO CRABAPPLE!)

(By the way, I'd like some defence for PDX please. What am I supposed to do when those pesky americans show up? Throw rocks at 'em? Suppose I'd knock 'em on the head with a stick, but that's what warriors are for aight? Anywayz, I'm not qualified for that...)

 

[crabapple]

Yes that would be a great idea if every city that has a mayor have its own thread. To discuss important things about the city and what I should post as suggestions in the city summering thread. And lots of other things

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by crabapple
Yes that would be a great idea if every city that has a mayor have its own thread. To discuss important things about the city and what I should post as suggestions in the city summering thread. And lots of other things

Feel free to start a thread for PDX if you like. I must warn you that for a while, decisions will be made on a more empire wide level. This will probably be the case until we are done expanding and begin building numerous improvements in cities. At this point it would be quite useful to the domestic leader and governors to have a thread analyzing and discussing the appropriate build queues for each city. Right now it would probably serve more in an entertainment aspect than a functional one, which is fine, as we are all here to have fun.

In fact, you could start the thread with a discussion of what on earth PDX stands for.

 

[Immortal]

Immortal=Mayor of Khatovar