Notice of candidacy - Patroklus Murakami

[Patroklus Murakami]

I plan to stand for the RA this term. I'll pop inworld to give Soro a notecard and will post a platform shortly. I am not a member of any faction (any more) and am standing as an Independent Liberal.

[Patroklus Murakami]

"That government is best which governs least" Thoreau (and possibly Jefferson and a few others too).

I'm standing for election to the Representative Assembly as an Independent Liberal. I think we do too much 'government' in the CDS and I want to reform and streamline it, get it out of the way of independent activity by our citizens and put money back in our citizens' pockets where it belongs.

REFORM
We require too many people to get involved in 'politics' in order to run our small community. It's overkill for a community our size and a diversion of useful energy. We should reform and streamline our institutions so that most activity takes place outside the government not because of it. And let's establish safeguards so that the government can't turn into an 'elective dictatorship'.

• 1. Set the size of the RA at 5 members.
  2. Reform the Scientific Council and set it at 3 members.
  3. Referenda to ratify all Laws and Constitutional Amendments.

CIVIL SOCIETY
We have incredibly talented, artistic and enthusiastic citizens but it's often hard to get anything done. The CDS government should exist to enable, not stifle, independent activity by our citizens. Nor should we confer monopoly rights on private organisations e.g. the New Guild.

• 4. Encourage diverse activity by Non-Governmental Organisations.
  5. Abolish the New Guild monopoly on building.
  6. No more 'quasi-governmental' roles for NGOs.

MONEY
The real world economy is in a mess with economies teetering on the edge of further recession. The SL economy is not immune from this. We need to think carefully about whether expansion makes sense at this time and only build new sims if we can cover our costs. Let's put money back in our citizens' pockets and let them decide how to spend it.

• 7. Abolish payment for civil service positions.
  8. Abolish the events budget.
  9. Set realistic prices for land and cut back tier payments to the minimum necessary to balance the budget.

This is what I will try to achieve in collaboration with the other elected representatives. (And, by the way, I'm not *that* fond of Thoreau but the quote is a pretty good summary of my proposals).

[Cindy Ecksol]

Wow! A declared liberal with a classicly conservative platform!

This might turn out to be the best CDS election in years! Can't wait to see the rest of the candidate platforms

Cindy

[Patroklus Murakami]

Wow! A declared liberal with a classicly conservative platform!

This might turn out to be the best CDS election in years! Can't wait to see the rest of the candidate platforms

Cindy

Hi Cindy

As a Brit and a European I tend to use 'liberal' to mean 'in favour of free and open trade, less government intervention and socially liberal and tolerant'. I understand 'liberal' can mean something different in other political contexts i.e. much more left-of-centre. As for 'classicly conservative', I have been called much worse and, if the cap fits why not wear it? Hehe.

[Trebor Warcliffe]

Pat,

As a proponent of responsible fiscal management I take very seriously the financial affairs of the CDS. Three of your proposals deal directly with our government funds; salaries, events, and land prices along with tier. In no way am I trying to be disrespectful but I have to ask, have you researched and performed any calculations on your 3 proposals before incorporating them into your platform for election to the RA, specifically the land and tier prices?

This past term the CDS has placed money back into the pockets of its citizens to the tune of a 23 percent reduction in tier. As a citizen I took the initiative at the beginning of this year to perform extensive research and calculations to see if tier reduction was a possibility. Not only was I able to reduce the tier by an impressive 23 percent I was also successful in having our Full Sims per prim tier to be the same across the board. Along with this savings to our citizens we are also one of the most competitively priced communities on the grid. On a single prim parcel, NFS and CN, our tier is only US$ 3.25 per 512sqm and on our double prim sims, AM and LA our tier is only US$ 6.50 per sqm. Before the tier reduction we only needed 65 percent of our parcels collecting tier to cover our cost to Linden Labs. With our new tier structure our breakeven point is just under 80 percent. Any further reduction in tier would clearly not benefit our budget.

Our current Chancellor, Tor, enacted two reductions in land prices this past term. If I’m elected Chancellor I will keep our sale prices of land intact. We are currently selling land at the rate of L$ 1.50 per sqm for single-prim land and L$3.00 per sqm for double prim land. At the current exchange rate of US$1/L$250 for a 512sqm parcel the sale price is L$768 and L$1,536 respectively. I will also state that as we expand my intentions are to keep these sale prices the same for our new sims. We are financially stable enough where we can purchase a Full or Homestead sim, preferably used, develop the sim and not have to pre-sell any of the parcels. The CDS is not in Second Life to be a land baron and our bills are not paid by the purchase and sale of land. Our tier is what allows us to pay our bills and an empty parcel of land with a high sale price doesn’t collect any tier.

It is also my opinion that abolishing the events budget would be very counterproductive. When I pay tier to the CDS I’m paying for the total package. I’m paying for the landscape, theme, builds, community, interaction, events and entertainment and the experience of Second Life. If I want to live in Second Life just to say I’m in Second Life I’d own a Linden Home. The CDS is obligated to create an experience for its customers, to make people want to live, love, laugh and play in the CDS because if we don’t do that and they don’t feel their getting their money’s worth they’ll take their business elsewhere.

This year has seen responsible fiscal management in terms of events. Those in charge went the extra mile to find some of the best talent at the most affordable cost. October marks the third month where our citizens have saved 23 percent on their tier and they chose to do other things with their money besides hosting events on their own. The CDS government needs to continue the funding of events, responsibly of course, along with encouraging and helping its citizens to host their own events if they are so inclined.

The salaries of the civil service positions in the CDS are the Caretaker $2,600, the PIO $2,600, the Assistant PIO $1,000, the Content Archivist $2,500, the Treasurer $2,600 and currently the Assistant Treasurer/Commerce Coordinator $2,600. On the CDS Financial Statements these are listed as Professional Fees $13,900. This last term I was the AT/CC and I can say without a doubt I spend at least 20 hours a month working on CDS only work. I’d say US$ 10.40 a month is a mere pittance for the amount of work these positions perform. Please remember not one of us in the CDS profits from the existence of the CDS. Unlike other communities such as Caledon, Fruit Islands, RGF Estates and New Toulouse we are not owned by an individual or small group that places the profits they make from their community into their own personal bank account. The long hours they put into their community are reflected by the amount of money they make. The long hours all of us either volunteer or are paid a minimal amount for are reflected in the fact that our community still exists.

Trebor

[Patroklus Murakami]

Hi Trebor

I've followed the tier reduction proposals this year at a distance. I agree that the government (broadly defined) has made efforts to make tier affordable and remain fiscally responsible. But, to take one example, the limited civil service salaries we initially brought in have multiplied over time (not hugely but there has been an expansion). I agree that they are not huge amounts but there is a fairness issue here. Why recompense some people who contribute and not others (like SC and RA members and Chancellor)? And, given the straitened times we live in, we need to ask ourselves whether every item of expenditure is really justified. My proposal is to abolish them all but, if elected, I would be happy to consider trimming the amounts or the number of stipends.

[Patroklus Murakami]

Thank you to everyone who came to the impromptu "Meet the candidate" meeting i held on tuesday.

I plan to hold another on

• Friday 25 November
  At 2pm SLT
  In the Biergarten, Neufreistadt

All welcome

[Patroklus Murakami]

Just to confirm something I said at the impromptu meeting. If elected I will not put myself forward as Leader of the RA and will not accept the post if asked. I was LRA for one and a bit terms previously and I don't plan to repeat the experience.