Hello Aurora! Since we're getting a few more people and people are starting to inhabit the Terraces, I wanted to formally announce and lay out the goals and methods for the Continuity of Government Initiative I am working on at the moment. The ultimate goal is to put the government of the Auroran Republic back firmly on constitutional grounds, as set out by the Second Charter of the Auroran Republic.

Why should we bother with this? Continuity of government! This one vote keeps all the laws and relevant court decisions from 2.0 and 3.0 in effect at once and closes up any loopholes there. It also lets us talk about how we're on year 7 of a continuous government which will be a great recruiting point.

There are two main pieces of the Continuity of Government Initiative: electing a new Chancellor and reforming the Auroran Planning Commission.

1. Upcoming Elections

When we decided to bring Aurora back into existence, the last elected Chancellor of the Auroran Republic was no longer with the group or even clearly on CivClassics. This constituted a resignation. Pursuant to Article II, Clause A of the Second Charter of the Auroran Republic (Charter.II.A), as Pantarch of the Republic I served as Acting Chancellor. Additionally, pursuant to Charter.II.D.v the Chancellor may declare extraordinary circumstances which require a change in the election dates. Since no elections had been held for months, clearly these extraordinary circumstances existed. At this time, I am officially declaring extraordinary circumstances and moving to set the date for the next elections at the normal times for next month. A referendum thread will follow, and will require 3/4 of the votes cast to be in favor of the new dates in order to succeed.

2. The Planning Commission

As some of you may remember, Charter.VII.B lays out the existence of an Auroran Planning Commission that will focus on

overseeing construction, beautification, and dereliction within the claims of the Auroran Republic.

The Commission is self-governing to ensure independence and reduce bureaucracy, but of course as with pretty much everything it can be vetoed by the General Assembly to ensure oversight. This Commission is actually a fairly important institution, as having people directly focused on builds does tend to help bring up the quality of the builds and get things done. In 3.0 the APC did manage to create some solid general regulations such as the Dereliction Code.

However, since the APC is self-governing we run into a fairly large problem with the Continuity of Government Initiative: the current Commissioners. One of the current commissioners (me) is now the Pantarch, who is the "neutral political arbiter" of the Republic pursuant to Charter.II.A and who therefore really shouldn't be on a political body where he has the tiebreaking vote. Another is stuck on an ice island after a plane crash and shows no sign of escaping. The membership can't simply be re-elected, however, due to the self-governing requirement, so we'd need an amendment vote threshold to wipe the membership clean and start over.

In order to ensure the continued success of the APC, I will submit a referendum to the General Assembly which wipes the current membership of the APC and tasks the Pantarch with appointing the first new set of Commissioners. Functionally, I would only put in place 2 Commissioners who are clearly active to ensure the Commission runs well. Also, note that being a Commissioner does not preclude holding other elected office within the Republic, a precedent set in Civcraft 3.0.

EDIT:

• Elections Referendum Posted Here
• APC Referendum Posted Here