Report by the Chancellor for the month of June 2014 - Part 1
This first month in office has been very busy as you will see below. There was no formal transfer of administration from the previous Chancellor to my new administration. I was left to seek out what my legal duties are and what tools are needed. In order to gain access to these tools I first had to discover who held that access and hope they would cooperate. My wish is that no future Chancellor ever has to spend over a month trying to gain access to what they need in order to do their job. Thank you to each and every citizen who has assisted me and my team.
I have laid out this first monthly report by quoting first the relevant parts of the constitution and laws that prompted my actions.
Constitutional responsibilities of the Chancellor and the Executive Branch
Article II – The Executive
Section 1 – The Chancellor
The Chancellor will serve as the executive of CDS, working to coordinate and plan community projects.
Section 2 – Powers of the Chancellor
The Chancellor of CDS shall, subject to the laws of CDS, have the power:
(a) to determine the use to which any and all land in CDS shall be put;
(b) to expend monies held by the Office of the Chancellor of CDS for the administration and management of public facilities (including, but not limited to, roadways, signage, public buildings, public events and similar), and to discharge any other duties or powers of the Office of the Chancellor conferred by this Act or any other Act of the Representative Assembly;
(c) to publicise CDS;
(d) to appoint and pay deputies or other staff to hold office in the Office of the Chancellor of CDS to facilitate the discharge of any function of the Office of the Chancellor conferred by this Act or any other Act of the Representative Assembly;
(e) subject to the payment of adequate compensation to any citizen or citizens thereby affected, reclaim or swap any land held by any citizen of CDS for the purposes of discharging any function of the Office of the Chancellor conferred by this Act or any other Act of the Representative Assembly, provided always that no citizen of CDS shall not be caused to have no holding in Neufriestadt at all thereby;
(f) to make regulations pursuant to the above; and
(g) to enforce such regulations in accordance with law.
Section 3 – Public Oversight
The Chancellor must provide for regular and active citizen participation and public review of any decision concerning land use or the aesthetic or functional environment.
Section 4 – Themes
Nothing in this Act shall give the Chancellor of CDS any power to change the overall theme of Neufriestadt or any other sim or administered component of the CDS.
Section 5 – Chancellor Selection Process
1. The Chancellor of the CDS shall be elected by universal suffrage of all citizens from among any CDS citizen who shall make application to the SC.
2. The Chancellor will serve a term ending with the election of the next Chancellor.
3. The Chancellor may not be elected to or serve on the Representative Assembly, nor serve on the Scientific Council.
4. Chancellor vacancies will be filled by a by-election administered on a schedule set by the Scientific Council consistent with other applicable CDS law.
Section 6 – The Chancellor’s Veto
The Chancellor shall have the power to veto any act of the Representative Assembly, except any bill to remove the Chancellor from office. The Representative Assembly may override a veto with a vote by at least a two-thirds majority. In order to exercise the power of veto, the Chancellor shall post a public declaration of her or his intention to exercise that power, together with the name of the the Act in respect of which he or she seeks so to exercise, and the reasons for exercising it in respect of that Act, on the Confederation of Democratic Simulators web forums or wiki within seven days of the posting to the wiki of the Act in respect of which he or she seeks to exercise that power.
Section 7 – Removal from Office
The Chancellor may be removed from office prior to the expiration of the term of office by at least a two thirds vote of the Representative Assembly.
Section 8 – RA Oversight
Each month the Chancellor shall attend a meeting of the Representative Assembly, and fully and truthfully answer there any questions posed by any citizen about any aspect of the affairs of the CDS or of the Office of the Chancellor. The Chancellor will also attend upon three days notice at the written request from any member of the Representative Assembly.
Section 9 – AC Overlap
Any power or responsibility assigned to the Artisan’s Collective by the constitution and precedent that overlaps those provided to the Chancellor in this amendment will be assigned to the Chancellor.
Community projects
I accepted responsibility from the previous administration for the implementation of the CDS exhibit for SL11B. To that date the previous Chancellor had developed a theme only. Time was short and there was a need to move very quickly to create the CDS response in a time period of 2 weeks. The previous Chancellor offered to take over the project but because I was elected and would obviously be held responsible for the final outcome of the project I offered the outgoing Chancellor the opportunity to work closely with me on SL11B. Though he did cooperate by handing over information when requested he disrupted the first planning meeting.
I instigated a number of meetings where all citizens were invited to contribute to the CDS SL11B experience. Various working parties were formed and resources collected or created to build the exhibit and the resources within it. This exhibit opened on June 22nd and is currently still open. Thanks to all those citizens who contributed.
AbbyRose, Arria, Molly, Tor, Pat, Lilith, Pip, Ludo, Xuryon, Em, Catz, Penelope, Lam, Nolligan and many others.
JerryDon was asked to organize a series of events to take place in the CDS sims for SL11B and a large program of events was put together which have been successfully held. On a separate note JerryDon, using his own initiative, requested and received permission to speak on the main event stage about the nature of democracy in CDS and SL and my thanks go to JD for doing this.
Colt and Calli also had performances on the SL stage and thank you Colt for mentioning CDS during your performance.
Land
One of the first things I did on taking office was update the roles and abilities in the Land Verwaltung (LV) group to reflect the newly elected administration and appointed team members. This was important because the LV group manages CDS land and I am required by law to be its caretaker. Updating the LV group had also been suggested to me by Sudane as being important. I removed the old administration from the roles used to manage CDS at the Executive Branch level. I added the new CDS Estate Managers into the LV group along with the Vice Chancellor Bagheera, the PIOs, the new RA. For clarity in the LV group I created separate group roles for SC and RA members, per the law.
In a similar way I asked the Estate Owner, Sudane, to remove the old administrations officers from the Estate Manger tool and add the new administrations officers.
I have subsequently added for those in the LV group (some 61 individuals) under the ‘everyone’ role the ability to host events which now provides the ability for LV members to do everything they could do under Musicians/Presenters. Most people in everyone were also in Musicians/Presenters. I removed all people from the Musicians/Presenter role, which will now be used for temporary musicians/Presenters in CDS for clarity, so that they can be easily added and removed after the need for them to be in the LV group is completed.
I put into place a new procedure for the sale of land held by the government due to tier delinquency or abandonment. This procedure creates two sale days per week at fixed times so that citizens are aware of the date land will be set for sale. Any land that becomes available is announced, on the forums and inworld by notice, with at least 24 hours before a sale day. Any land not sold when it is set for sale will be available and visible on the map in yellow until it is sold. So far all the land set for sale in this way has been bought on the day of sale and we are currently at full occupancy in the CDS sims.
I would remind all citizens who have rezzed or built a new property or structure on their parcels in June need to contact either myself or Bagheera by notecard requesting an inspection to ensure covenants are complied with.
NL 4-16 Public Prim Allotment Act
Public service institutions chartered by City of Neualtenburg share prims from the general Neualtenburg Raumnutzung prim allotment. These institutions are the Museum, the School, and possibly if they should fall in this catagory in the future, the Church, the Biergarten and the Schloss. Implementation of this measure will involve two primary actions:
1. The institution will operate in the manner already established, chartered by the City, and contributing monthly fee based on the Land Area they occupy and the zoning rates applicable to that area. But, the parcel(s) they occupy will not be deeded to their “Group”, but rather will remain as a part of the Raumnutzung.
2. The institution agrees to participate in a Guild-based Prim management Committee. This committee will oversee the regular collection of prim use data from the component parcels deeded to the Raumnutzung, and will determine, based on usage needs agreed by representatives of the Guild and each participant institution, fair and equitable prim allotment.
Furthermore, The Guild is directed to develop and implement a plan to reduce prim usage at the Neualtenburger Kirche by 25%.
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passed as amended 11 March 2006
Notes:
At the current time, about half of Neualtenburg land remains deeded to the Neualtenburg Raumnutzung (Neualtenburg Land Management Group). Even if all parcels designated for sale should be sold, a substantial percentage of the sim will remain Raumnutzung.Ordinarily, as each new institution is formed, it’s parcel, like all citizens’ parcels, would be deeded to the group managing the institutions. And, as with citizens, the institution would then have available for its use only that many prims as are allocated for the m2 occupied. Allocated prims are approximately 23% of m2.
However, all the institutions which may be affected by this measure are heavy users of prims, indeed, by necessity in most cases. This proposal returns those institution’s prim allotments to the general City pool, with the theory that the common good provided by those institutions is deserving of sharing in all prims available to the City. In addition, the common “interest” of the public service institutions provide a common ground upon which to come to shared agreement on prim usage.
It is envisioned that the Prim Management Committee (PMC) will have frequent cause to examine prim usage, with an eye towards shifting the allotments from time to time as scheduled events cause first one institution and then another to need more than their ordinary share.
notes by Sudane Erato
Concerns were raised earlier in the month when the land occupied by the CDS Artisans Guild (CDSAG) was transferred by the Treasurer from the government land holding LV group to a group owned by the CDSAG. This moved the land from public ownership into private ownership. As Chancellor I was not consulted by either the CDSAG nor the Treasurer before this unilateral action was taken. This happened before I started receiving land scanner emails and I was informed of the event by the Vice Chancellor.
I asked the Treasurer/Estate Owner if she was aware of this event. Sudane told me she, herself, had taken the land and placed into the new group. After a conversation about why Sudane had taken this action I instructed the Treasurer to return the land to the LV group as there had been no authority given for the transfer. I did not feel I had the authority to approve Sudane’s actions. I felt a responsibility to protect CDS citizens as I had recently taken my oath of office to that effect. The NL 4-16 Public Prim Allotment Act very clearly speaks about the school and the way in which it is to be operated, with specific reference to the ownership of the land.
At no stage were the members of the CDSAG who were in the LV group denied the ability to rez. Because the land is held in the LV group which also holds all government held land in all five sims, (roads, buildings, public buildings, water, etc) it was not possible to give the CDSAG full control of that one parcel without giving the same high level of control in all five sims. They also wanted the ability to add people and change roles in the LV group.
When I addressed the first session of the RA I proposed a simple solution to the problem. That the NFS School land could be easily placed into a newly formed government held group, separate from the LV group. This would allow compliance with the NL 4-16 Public Prim Allotment Act. The CDSAG to remain located in the NFS School and essentially continue to rent the parcel from CDS as they always have. To date I have not been approached by the CDSAG with regard to this solution.
A request for clarification outlined below was sent to the SC on 6/10/2014
Petition for clarification from the SC.
The points of law I would like the SC to address are:
1. That the SC confirm or deny that the NFS School parcel is owned by the citzens of CDS and held under government management by the Chancellors Branch.
2. Whether NL 4-16 requires that the land remain in the ‘Raumnutzung’ and therefore ‘the LV group’
3. Whether the Chancellor or officers of the Executive Branch have the authority to transfer the NFS School parcel from the LV group to the CDS Artisans Guild or any other group or private ownership.
NL 4-17 Anzere Infohub Act
The city shall apply to Linden Labs to build and manage the Anzere Infohub. The city shall pay Aliasi Stonebender $L1000 to coordinate the project.passed as amended 22 March 2006
I have visited the Anzere infohub and will look in the coming month how the PIO team can refresh this important outpost of CDS, updating information, so any visitors will find a real understanding of CDS and the opportunities if they were to join our community in the 5 sims. I have no intention of making any changes to the build structure in any way. I do intend to update the information held there.
NL 4-18 City Building Redundancy Act
Full perm copies of all city owned buildings shall be provided by the builder to the Content Archivist. The full-permission copy is for the CDS intended purpose only, and not to be given or sold otherwise. In addition pictures have to be published in the portal by the Executive.
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Passed as amended March 29 2006
Further amended by CDSL 15-02 17 July 2011
CDSL 15-02 City Building Redundancy Act
Amend NL 4-18 City Building Redundancy Act to read:
Full perm copies of all city owned buildings shall be provided by the builder to the Content Archivist. The full-permission copy is for the CDS intended purpose only, and not to be given or sold otherwise. In addition pictures have to be published in the portal by the Executive.
Passed 17 July 2011
We will be reviewing all CDS owned buildings and infrastructure in the next few months and will seek to place as many of these as possible into the Content Archivist avatar ‘Archie’. We will contact citizens whose builds and prims are publically rezzed in CDS and ask that, where possible based on permissions, these items are set to Archie in world and/or transferred to Archie’s inventory. We appreciate the cooperation of those citizens while we complete this work.
NL 4-24 Defense of the Republic Act
Preamble
Estate owners in Second Life have tools available to them to defend their property against those who would do them harm. In Neualtenburg we allocate those powers to Government officials and responsible citizens to protect the sim and our citizens. We also allow for oversight of these powers to prevent abuse.
Definition
Griefing is defined here as behaviour designed to harrass others or to damage the sim. It includes inter alia harrassing avatars for racial, sexual or homophobic reasons; deleting or defacing public or private property in Neulatenburg; armed or unarmed combat with unwilling parties and attempts to crash the sim.Powers
Members of the Representative Assembly, the Scientific Council and the Guild Master (and citizens temporarily empowered by these bodies) are empowered to ban avatars from Neualtenburg if they are griefing or make a recorded threat to grief.
The Scientific Council are empowered to deny citizenship to a non-citizen if they have cause to believe that the non-citizen will not abide by the Constitution, founding documents and laws of the City.
Oversight
Sim bans will be reviewed at the next Scientific Council meeting which must take place within 28 days. The Scientific Council can support, rescind or amend the ban and must set a time-limit for review by a future SC meeting.
Bars to citizenship must be time-limited and can be overturned by a 2/3 majority vote in the Representative Assembly.
Rationale:
I’ve made the changes as discussed in previous posts. The one difference is that I’ve added the potential for the RA, SC or Guildmaster to temporarily grant ban powers to other citizens. I thought this might be useful when we want to have ‘security’ at events without relying on a member of the government to be there and be prepared to eject people if need’s be.
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(Author: Patroklus Murakami)
passed as amended 12 May 2006
Two avatars, believed to be ‘bots’, reported to me by 5 citizens, were observed entering the mid point of CDS sims on a regular basis and remaining for only a few seconds. The two avatars were temporarily banned from the CDS estate, were notified of their right of appeal to the Dean of the SC and a report of the incident and banning sent to the SC for their due process.