Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

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Tanoujin Milestone
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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

We are used to call that implementing ordinances „by-laws“. I see no reason to put the additional responsibilities in by-laws, but I am not in direct opposition either, as long as we use a language that is understood by the juridical lay person.

BTW, the LUC is not a Non Governmental Organization. It is traditionally and by concept a RA Committee or Commission.

Lets return to the discussion about „executive“ or not. I have a hard time to find any executive functions of the LUC *in reality*, could you name a few? I see the RA has delegated long term planning to the LUC. Because it is somewhat convenient, the LUC takes on tasks of region development as well and advises the Chancellor. We are adding now some documentation. How are theses activities executive?

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

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Tanoujin Milestone wrote: Tue Nov 17, 2020 1:04 am

We are used to call that implementing ordinances „by-laws“. I see no reason to put the additional responsibilities in by-laws, but I am not in direct opposition either, as long as we use a language that is understood by the juridical lay person.

Agreed, then call it by-law. Once again: In my understanding, a law defines the frame of responsibilities like in the paragraphs referred to in the Additional Responses. This way, they are not really "additional", but just implementations of the namely paragraphs in all their detailed depth.

Furthermore, using by-laws allows to assign or also to remove tasks without the need to change the law again.

Tanoujin Milestone wrote: Tue Nov 17, 2020 1:04 am

BTW, the LUC is not a Non Governmental Organization. It is traditionally and by concept a RA Committee or Commission.

BTW, have I ever doubt that in the draft? Under the given circumstances and to comply with the obviously *holy* tradition, I refrained to ask for converting the LUC in an orderly governmental department.

Tanoujin Milestone wrote: Tue Nov 17, 2020 1:04 am

Lets return to the discussion about „executive“ or not. I have a hard time to find any executive functions of the LUC *in reality*, could you name a few? I see the RA has delegated long term planning to the LUC. Because it is somewhat convenient, the LUC takes on tasks of region development as well and advises the Chancellor. We are adding now some documentation. How are theses activities executive?

I'm completely confused. The LUC is *the* service body for retrieving and processing information in respect on land use for the CDS government - the RA and now also the Chancellor - and shall fulfill their requests, and you state seriously that this is not an executive role? What exactly is your understanding of "executive" then? Please enlighten me :D

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

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Thanks for asking! Let us look at §1 Motivation and Purpose:

A) ...Citizens actively participate by proposing, discussing, deciding and implementing the three-dimensional environment and all its directly related topics and items...

Proposals and Discussions are surely not executive by nature, they are preliminary. The democratic decision-making process stands in-between, it is linking the options with the realization by defining an authoritative plan. While the main institutions for this purpose are the forums and the Representative Assembly, the task to prepare proposals for development of our regions is delegated to the LUC. This is not an executive task either.

The implementation (=realization, execution [sic]) is an executive task

Some are deemed executive every-day-business and maintenance that are left to the Chancellor and their executive team, assuming they execute this according to the Constitution and Code of Laws. As far as region development is concerned, this

includes replacement/upgrading/placement of individual trees, rocks, street-lights, and any other environmental decor and corrective/adaptive terraforming that fit the theme and ambiance of the area and don't interfere with any citizen's enjoyment of their land. (https://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?p=49955#p49955)

Changes of important structural elements (executive) are subject to public discussion on the forums (decision-making). They are presented to the Chancellor and to the RA. If the Chancellor agrees to the changes, the Chancellor assigns the work to a CDS Artisan Guild member, or a member of the Executive team. You see, it is not the LUC, but the Chancellor and the RA who make the decision, and the Chancellor and their executive team, who carries that out. We are adding two other groups with the LUC act in 1(G):

(G) Though the long-time experience has shown that the commissioned creators of public projects are often LUC members, the LUC as such must not serve as the actual building contractor in order to prevent conflicts of interest. Building contractors may be suggested by the LUC to the Chancellor who will contract the actual work to a qualified CDS Artisan Guild member, or a member of the Executive team or CDS citizen at large.

Here you have it explicitly stated that an executive role of the LUC would lead to conflicts of interest.

————

I will give you some examples of activities I reckon as executive to give you an idea:

The work of the Treasurer (collecting tier, pay out, accounting, reporting etc)
The work of the Estate Managers (set parcels for sale, operate the Tier-Box-System, personal service, monitoring etc)
The work of the Estate Owner (maintenance of the Tier-Box-System etc)
The work of the Public Information Officer (organizing events, advertising, serving as Vice-Chancellor etc.)
The work of the Chancellor (supervising their team, writing late notices etc)

————

I hope I made my point clear. The LUC is on the side of proposing, discussing, and has a voice in deciding by its advisory role, but it is explicitly barred from executive activities as far as I understand it.

There is something else I would like to add for your consideration: if we add the word "executive" in 1(C), we limit the public control to exacly that. All other powers and permissions would be excluded by this specification. If we on the other hand omit to use that adjective, *any* powers and permissions of the LUC would be covered and the discussion moot.
I understand that you would prefer to fall back to your initial suggestion for (C) and state "that the LUC is an executive organ of the CDS". You told me you would like to see the CDS as a free town instead of a republic. This is an interesting idea, and we can discuss that as a constitutional question. But, see, you won't change anything by planting such a statement on the code-level. I have a lot of intersting ideas too, but I abstain from trying to make them real in CDS.

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

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Tanoujin Milestone wrote: Tue Nov 17, 2020 5:20 am

§1 Motivation and Purpose:

A) ...Citizens actively participate by proposing, discussing, deciding and implementing the three-dimensional environment and all its directly related topics and items...

Proposals and Discussions are surely not executive by nature, they are preliminary. The democratic decision-making process stands in-between, it is linking the options with the realization by defining an authoritative plan. While the main institutions for this purpose are the forums and the Representative Assembly, the task to prepare proposals for development of our regions is delegated to the LUC. This is not an executive task either.

Once again I disagree! The difference between proposals and discussions stated by citizens in the Forum and formal requests to the LUC to take action for developing plans, performing surveys etc. is that this is an active demand of either the legislative (the RA) or the executive (the Chancellor) towards the LUC. And nobody who participates on forum discussions is obliged to report to the RA or the Chancellor. The LUC, however, is.

The implementation (=realization, execution [sic]) is an executive task

Agreed. But creating and presenting plans, performing a survey, creating maps, examining more modern alternatives for existing solutions are acts of implementation, too. All these tasks are eventually executive tasks in my eyes.

Some are deemed executive every-day-business and maintenance that are left to the Chancellor and their executive team, assuming they execute this according to the Constitution and Code of Laws. As far as region development is concerned, this

includes replacement/upgrading/placement of individual trees, rocks, street-lights, and any other environmental decor and corrective/adaptive terraforming that fit the theme and ambiance of the area and don't interfere with any citizen's enjoyment of their land. (https://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?p=49955#p49955)

Changes of important structural elements (executive) are subject to public discussion on the forums (decision-making). They are presented to the Chancellor and to the RA. If the Chancellor agrees to the changes, the Chancellor assigns the work to a CDS Artisan Guild member, or a member of the Executive team. You see, it is not the LUC, but the Chancellor and the RA who make the decision, and the Chancellor and their executive team, who carries that out.

I even do not disagree, because it is not the task of the LUC to make decisions this way or to compete with the Chancellor's competencies. That is clearly stated in the draft. But for me, it looks like the legal nature of the LUC shall be just a sort of informal coffee party somewhere in a twilight zone between private and political life. Such a weak legal position within the CDS, however, does not meet the (even yet extended) scope of LUC responsibilities. Please read this word carefully: Responsibilities! Who of the discussion participants in the Forum can claim to have a fixed role profile like this? Nobody.

We are adding two other groups with the LUC act in 1(G):

(G) Though the long-time experience has shown that the commissioned creators of public projects are often LUC members, the LUC as such must not serve as the actual building contractor in order to prevent conflicts of interest. Building contractors may be suggested by the LUC to the Chancellor who will contract the actual work to a qualified CDS Artisan Guild member, or a member of the Executive team or CDS citizen at large.

Here you have it explicitly stated that an executive role of the LUC would lead to conflicts of interest.

And one more once: It is nowhere stated in the draft that the LUC claims for itself to act as a building contractor or as a syndicate of creators. Yes, it underlines the actual tasks of the LUC as defined in the LUC Act. The executive acting of the LUC, however, is not bound to the fact that it is building houses or changing landscape or planting bushes or not. It is bound to the fact that the RA as legislative organ has the right to demand services from the LUC and also to expect rendered accounts - like it would do with any other executive organ in the RA meetings.

————

I will give you some examples of activities I reckon as executive to give you an idea:

The work of the Treasurer (collecting tier, pay out, accounting, reporting etc)
The work of the Estate Managers (set parcels for sale, operate the Tier-Box-System, personal service, monitoring etc)
The work of the Estate Owner (maintenance of the Tier-Box-System etc)
The work of the Public Information Officer (organizing events, advertising, serving as Vice-Chancellor etc.)
The work of the Chancellor (supervising their team, writing late notices etc)

The work of the LUC (creating plans, performing surveys, drawing maps, retrieving land information etc.)

————

I hope I made my point clear. The LUC is on the side of proposing, discussing, and has a voice in deciding by its advisory role, but it is explicitly barred from executive activities as far as I understand it.

I'm sorry, but none of your arguments has really convinced me. I see the main issue is that you see executive powers exclusively in the hands of the Chancellor and their assigned officers while I understand executive as an acting to fulfill tasks based on a vote and order of a constitutional power.

There is something else I would like to add for your consideration: if we add the word "executive" in 1(C), we limit the public control to exacly that. All other powers and permissions would be excluded by this specification. If we on the other hand omit to use that adjective, *any* powers and permissions of the LUC would be covered and the discussion moot.

Proposal for a compromise: When the LUC is a legal body which shall not be official part of the CDS executive in this narrow sense, would it then at least be possible to call the LUC a corporation under public law (German: Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts) acting as an order management for the legislative and the executive? Let me rephrase the paragraph accordingly:

I (C) The LUC is a corporation under public law of the citizenship of the CDS under direct supervision and control of the RA for the purposes outlined in (B). Its powers and permissions are directly tied to public discussions in the CDS Discussion Forums and to the votes of the RA. The LUC shall perform order management for the legislative and executive powers of the CDS. It thus shall be responsive to requests from the RA and the Chancellor, but may set its own agenda.

That omits the word "executive" now, but shows between the lines that executive tasks may be performed by the LUC under control of the RA etc.

I understand that you would prefer to fall back to your initial suggestion for (C) and state "that the LUC is an executive organ of the CDS". You told me you would like to see the CDS as a free town instead of a republic.

A free town *is* also a republic, just as a side note. But also the curent Republic of the CDS should have an effective government especially when you have so few people willing to run it (and having the same people in multiple functions). I'm not fond of traditional "common law" constructions with NGOs in positions which actually require something different. Anyway - we will have to talk about this act in the next RA while we are still anxiously hoping for two by-elected further colleagues.

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

Thank you for explaining. I see your point and am undecided now - thanks for offering a compromise! I would like to know Rosie‘s opinion now, while I look up the implications of defining the LUC as „corporation under public law“

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

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Okay, I looked it up now.

I see a problem with using juristic language that is specific for Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland for two reasons:

1. The average citizen (e.g. me) will be overcharged with understanding concepts from national juristic RL contexts. Consequences to the political system of the CDS are opaque and not assessable. In the tradition of Dean Gwyneth Llewelyn I admonish the legislator to keep the texts of our laws in an educating format. That means we have to explain the concepts we use in simple words.

2. The CDS has seen a judiciary crisis in 2006/2007, when RL experienced lawyers tried to professionalize the Judiciary Branch. What we learned from that was to keep it simple, stick to basic procedures without adding more complexity than necessary and protect citizens’ rights and the balance of power.
That does not mean I reject your obvious RL expertise in public administration, but I am trying to „translate“ it according to the knowledge we can expect from an average lay person.

----------

To the point:

1) A corporation under public law is a juristic person entrusted with public functions.
1A) Territorial corporations are the state, the federation itself, the federal states and the municipalities. Such s corporation holds control of sovereign public authority. It can raise taxes and employ personnel.

In this sense the CDS as a whole would be a territorial corporation. IMO this concept is too mighty to apply it to a sub-council of the government like the LUC.

1B) Self-governmental corporations deal with governmental tasks that are outsourced to the people concerned and transferred to legally responsible organizations. As part of the public authority they are bound to statute and law. They are subject to legal supervision by the government.

Looks like we *could* use this definition.
Examples are the Bavarian State Chamber of Physicians, bar association and the „Deutschlandradio“ (national German public radio broadcaster).

1C) Corporations with limited state influence: sometimes the government confers the status of a corporation under public law to organizations which do not deal with public functions, but are part of civil society. This is an act of appreciation that comes with certain privileges.

I think this is not applicable.

1D) Religious bodies recognized by law

not applicable.

————

Let us look deeper into 1B). Self-governmental corporations under public law deal with the affairs of the persons concerned. That means they have members. I believe the example of Deutschlandradio is the most interesting. Members and at the same time providers of the corporation are ARD, a radio broadcasting network composed of ten public service broadcasters and ZDF, the „second“ public radio broadcaster.

These subunits are not constituted as corporations under public law, but public-law institutions (German: Anstalten des öffentlichen Rechts).

Definition: A public-law institution is a juristic person of public law, entrusted with public functions which have been allocated to it by law or charter. In contrary to a corporation under public law the institution has no members, but users.

I think that is the crucial point: the LUC is not a guild of landscapers, but it helps producing an environment (like a radio broadcaster produces a program) that is commonly used by the CDS Citizenry. So I think public-law institution would be the term which is more to the point.

Now if you try to find a parallel in the anglo saxon world, the closest thing you can find is „The Public Institution“ (öffentliche Einrichtung):

A public institution is a juristic person in the United States which is backed through public funds and controlled by the state.[1][2] Typically a public institution will have a board of trustees who govern the institution and the members of the board are public officials who are appointed by the state. A public institution is required to conform to the same requirements as the state for constitutional questions. Court cases involving public institutions are within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Federal Court System.

Okay, based on this I suggest we agree on the term public-law institution. As no one will understand what that means, we have to explain.

Proposed:

1 (C) The LUC is a public institution of the CDS, entrusted with public functions outlined in (B). It is directly supervised and controlled by the RA. Its powers and permissions are directly tied to public discussions in the CDS Discussion Forums and to the votes of the RA. The LUC shall process orders on behalf of the legislative and executive branches of the CDS. It thus shall be responsive to requests from the RA and the Chancellor, but may set its own agenda.

I do not use the term public-law institution, because there are no entries in the english wikipedia or the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary. I do not want our Citizens groping in the dark. I see no reason to mention the legal person characteristic, the „board“ and the process of appointment are covered elsewhere, loyalty to the constitution and jurisdiction of the SC are self-evident in my opinion.

A bit tired, waiting for comments. Would be nice if you could add the traits you are missing instead of discarding the whole compromise, thank you.

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Almut Brunswick »

Dear Tan,

I can keep it simple: 100% agreed!

Thank you for the elaborate survey and pondering pros and cons. It seems you hit the nail and outlined the legal nature of the LUC very well. Now I'm curious what others will say.

Almut

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

Draft 202101291400

CDSL 34-01 Land-Use Commission Act
Enacted 16 October 2014
Updated by the 34th RA, Jan. 2021

LAND USE COMMISSION ACT

1 Motivation and Purpose

(A) The Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) strives to let citizens actively participate by proposing, discussing, deciding and implementing the three-dimensional environment and all its directly related topics and items which make up the geography of the CDS territories. This may also comprise the control of environmental conditions like regional Windlight settings, seasonal changes and other phenomenons, so far these are controllable by Second Life residents with the respective permissions.

(B) As the elected body for this goal, the Representative Assembly (RA), in accord with its constitutionally mandated service role to “perform long term planning,” shall establish a permanent commission as a means to advise, to prepare, to record and to supervise their approved projects with respect to the CDS land use. This commission shall be called the Land Use Commission (LUC).

(C) The LUC is a public institution of the CDS, entrusted with public functions outlined in (B). It is directly supervised and controlled by the RA. Its powers and permissions are directly tied to public discussions in the CDS Discussion Forums and to the votes of the RA. The LUC shall process orders on behalf of the legislative and executive branches of the CDS. It thus shall be responsive to requests from the RA and the Chancellor, but may set its own agenda.

(D) The LUC is obliged to collaborate closely with the Chancellor in an advisory role. This way, the LUC shall assist the Chancellor in fulfilling his/her constitutional tasks with respect to land use and to help integrate new buildings and infrastructure into the landscape. This comprises, but is not limited to trees, rocks, water, roads, parcels, permanent decor, CDS-owned infrastructure and terraforming.

(E) Referring to (B), the LUC shall work out and recommend concepts of region development and usage both on public and private land, to advise the RA on keeping the covenants up to date and recommend new, more effective technologies as they become available. The LUC may inspect public and private land to find problematic locations that need improvement and make those recommendations to the Chancellor and the RA.

(F) Another obligation of the LUC shall be to create and to maintain suitable documentation such as drawings, maps, spreadsheets and more for RA and citizen understanding of projects.

(G) Though the long-time experience has shown that the commissioned creators of public projects are often LUC members, the LUC as such must not serve as the actual building contractor in order to prevent conflicts of interest. Building contractors may be suggested by the LUC to the Chancellor who will contract the actual work to a qualified CDS Artisan Guild member, or a member of the Executive team or CDS citizen at large.

2 Membership, Structure and Roles

A) The LUC shall be re-established at the beginning of every election term. The LUC term in office shall be bound on the CDS election period and shall end automatically as soon as a newly elected RA has gathered for the first time.

(B) The LUC shall be composed of six members, preferably design experts of various fields of activity, and further interested citizens in order to encompass a variety of viewpoints and approaches to the discussed matters. Such members are to be appointed by:
1. Two citizens from the CDS Artisan Guild,
2. One RA member appointed by the RA
3. One citizen from the Executive Branch appointed by the Chancellor
4. Two citizens in good standing appointed by the RA

(C) The LUC shall elect the LUC Chairperson, the LUC Deputy Chairperson as pro tempore and the LUC Secretary. The regulation regarding their term in office shall apply as defined in (A).

(D) The LUC shall follow democratic modes of decision making as usual at any RA committee. Though meetings are public in general and citizens are welcome to attend at any time, only LUC members have the right to vote.

(E) It is the obligation of the LUC Chairperson or - in the case of absence of the LUC Chairperson - of the LUC Deputy Chairperson to set up the agenda for the LUC meetings, to invite the LUC members and all interested citizens to meetings and other activities of the LUC, to moderate the meetings and to represent the LUC in the CDS public.

(F) It is the obligation of the LUC Secretary to publish the meeting transcripts and keep the Minutes of Meeting in the LUC Forum. Minutes of all meetings shall be accepted at the following regular meeting, and be published with the transcript of that regular meeting.

(G) It is considered advisable that the LUC-Chairperson or the LUC Deputy Chairperson by way of a substitute attend the meetings of the Representative Assembly to give a report about the ongoing work of the LUC and answer questions. If both the LUC-Chairperson and the LUC Deputy Chairperson are indisposed, the RA LUC Delegate shall fill this role. The RA LUC Delegate shall have the privilege to comment first on LUC related items. It is taken for granted that the Assembly Members read the LUC Minutes in preparation of the Meeting.

(H) A LUC member may resign or be removed from office at the discretion of the RA upon the recommendation of their nominator. This resulting vacancy, or the vacancies due to end-of-term, shall be filled according to the legislative process, the new member(s) assuming the term of the member(s) replaced.

3 Meetings

(A) Ordinary meetings of the LUC shall be held at published times, at a frequency dependent on the demands of its mandate, but not less than once per month.

(B) The LUC has the right to decide a Code of Procedure for its meetings. This Code of Procedure shall be published in the forum.

(C) The LUC is expected to welcome all interested citizens as guests at their meetings and be open to their suggestions and concerns. It is expected that all guests behave respectfully and that they comply with the rules of the Code of Procedure.

(D) The LUC Chairperson and the LUC Deputy Chair have the right to invite LUC members to on-site inspections. For this kind of meeting, a public invitation is not obligatory, albeit a transcript must be kept and published.

4 Public Information and Discourse Policy

(A) Permanent changes to public land, outside of the seasonal tree and ground texture changes and official CDS temporary structures for events, have to be announced in the CDS Forum and allow a sufficient comment period to make sure the interests and concerns of all interested citizens can be taken into account by the RA. Public spaces have to be developed in accordance with policy and changes need to be subject to public comment and review.

(B) The duration of comment periods in the CDS Forums is defined in a separate law by the RA.

(C) The regulations of the LUC Act regarding transparent region development guidelines must not be in contradiction to other laws.

IMPLEMENTING BY-LAWS TO CDSL 34-01 LAND-USE COMISSION ACT AS OF JAN. 2021

1st BY-LAW: MASTER PLAN
Based upon the Paragraphs 1(E) and (F) of CDSL 34-01 the Land-Use Commission shall create, update and maintain a CDS master plan, under which future expansions in land area and themes shall occur. This plan shall be submitted to and approved by the RA, as well as being resubmitted to the RA for approval whenever modifications are deemed necessary by either the Commission or the RA.

2nd BY-LAW: NEW REGION PLANNING
Based upon the Paragraphs 1(E) and (F) of CDSL 34-01 the Land-Use Commission shall, upon a request from the RA or the Chancellor, investigate the viability of new region purchase and present recommendations to both bodies. This will include, but is not limited to:

1. Consideration of type of region (full region, homestead, void, or other types that might become available in the future);
2. Consideration of placement of region;
3. Consideration of region theme;
4. A survey of Citizens;
5. Appropriate In-world meetings for discussion and public comments;.
6. Compilation and summarization of ideas and comments from citizens from surveys and official meetings, or future channels as they may be useful.
7. A consideration of finances, balance of public and private prims and any specific public spaces appropriate to the theme.
8. A draft of legislation for the acquisition of a new region or regions, including covenants and/or codes for said region, which shall regulate the manipulation or use of CDS’ three-dimensional, graphical environment, whether on Public or Private parcels.

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Almut Brunswick »

Firstly just some minor formal things to be consider before the Law is ready for the RA voting:

We should always write LUC Chairperson and not LUC-Chairperson and Land Use Commission and not Land-Use Commission.

(D) The LUC shall follow democratic modes of decision making as usual at any CDS committee. (not RA commitee... I suppose that the SC and the Guild are following democratic modes as well.)

Furthermore, I propose to add another article to Paragraph 2 which regulates that only exact one member of a constitutional institution must be elected for the LUC (e.g. no further RA member as a Guild member or no further SC member as a citizen's representative). You all know how I think about "unwritten laws" and pretended "old traditions" which are just another words for undemocratic arbitrariness in my eyes, so I prefer to define it once for all in the Law itself. Proposal:

(I) To avoid conflicts of interests and to exclude any danger of dominance caused by the fact that more than one member of a constitutional institution are in the LUC, only one member of a constitutional institution must be elected to become member of the LUC regardless of the dispatching instance.

Almut

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

Draft 202101301100
Edit: Typos, exchanged "RA committee" with "CDS panel" (2D), added proposed "exclusion"-paragraph (2I) - tm

CDSL 34-01 Land Use Commission Act
Enacted 16 October 2014
Updated by the 34th RA, Jan. 2021

LAND USE COMMISSION ACT

1 Motivation and Purpose

(A) The Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) strives to let citizens actively participate by proposing, discussing, deciding and implementing the three-dimensional environment and all its directly related topics and items which make up the geography of the CDS territories. This may also comprise the control of environmental conditions like regional Windlight settings, seasonal changes and other phenomenons, so far these are controllable by Second Life residents with the respective permissions.

(B) As the elected body for this goal, the Representative Assembly (RA), in accord with its constitutionally mandated service role to “perform long term planning,” shall establish a permanent commission as a means to advise, to prepare, to record and to supervise their approved projects with respect to the CDS land use. This commission shall be called the Land Use Commission (LUC).

(C) The LUC is a public institution of the CDS, entrusted with public functions outlined in (B). It is directly supervised and controlled by the RA. Its powers and permissions are directly tied to public discussions in the CDS Discussion Forums and to the votes of the RA. The LUC shall process orders on behalf of the legislative and executive branches of the CDS. It thus shall be responsive to requests from the RA and the Chancellor, but may set its own agenda.

(D) The LUC is obliged to collaborate closely with the Chancellor in an advisory role. This way, the LUC shall assist the Chancellor in fulfilling his/her constitutional tasks with respect to land use and to help integrate new buildings and infrastructure into the landscape. This comprises, but is not limited to trees, rocks, water, roads, parcels, permanent decor, CDS-owned infrastructure and terraforming.

(E) Referring to (B), the LUC shall work out and recommend concepts of region development and usage both on public and private land, to advise the RA on keeping the covenants up to date and recommend new, more effective technologies as they become available. The LUC may inspect public and private land to find problematic locations that need improvement and make those recommendations to the Chancellor and the RA.

(F) Another obligation of the LUC shall be to create and to maintain suitable documentation such as drawings, maps, spreadsheets and more for RA and citizen understanding of projects.

(G) Though the long-time experience has shown that the commissioned creators of public projects are often LUC members, the LUC as such must not serve as the actual building contractor in order to prevent conflicts of interest. Building contractors may be suggested by the LUC to the Chancellor who will contract the actual work to a qualified CDS Artisan Guild member, or a member of the Executive team or CDS citizen at large.

2 Membership, Structure and Roles

A) The LUC shall be re-established at the beginning of every election term. The LUC term in office shall be bound on the CDS election period and shall end automatically as soon as a newly elected RA has gathered for the first time.

(B) The LUC shall be composed of six members, preferably design experts of various fields of activity, and further interested citizens in order to encompass a variety of viewpoints and approaches to the discussed matters. Such members are to be appointed by:
1. Two citizens from the CDS Artisan Guild,
2. One RA member appointed by the RA
3. One citizen from the Executive Branch appointed by the Chancellor
4. Two citizens in good standing appointed by the RA

(C) The LUC shall elect the LUC Chairperson, the LUC Deputy Chairperson as pro tempore and the LUC Secretary. The regulation regarding their term in office shall apply as defined in (A).

(D) The LUC shall follow democratic modes of decision making as usual at any CDS panel. Though meetings are public in general and citizens are welcome to attend at any time, only LUC members have the right to vote.

(E) It is the obligation of the LUC Chairperson or - in the case of absence of the LUC Chairperson - of the LUC Deputy Chairperson to set up the agenda for the LUC meetings, to invite the LUC members and all interested citizens to meetings and other activities of the LUC, to moderate the meetings and to represent the LUC in the CDS public.

(F) It is the obligation of the LUC Secretary to publish the meeting transcripts and keep the Minutes of Meeting in the LUC Forum. Minutes of all meetings shall be accepted at the following regular meeting, and be published with the transcript of that regular meeting.

(G) It is considered advisable that the LUC Chairperson or the LUC Deputy Chairperson by way of a substitute attend the meetings of the Representative Assembly to give a report about the ongoing work of the LUC and answer questions. If both the LUC Chairperson and the LUC Deputy Chairperson are indisposed, the RA LUC Delegate shall fill this role. The RA LUC Delegate shall have the privilege to comment first on LUC related items. It is taken for granted that the Assembly Members read the LUC Minutes in preparation of the Meeting.

(H) A LUC member may resign or be removed from office at the discretion of the RA upon the recommendation of their nominator. This resulting vacancy, or the vacancies due to end-of-term, shall be filled according to the legislative process, the new member(s) assuming the term of the member(s) replaced.

(I) To avoid conflicts of interests and to exclude any danger of dominance caused by the fact that more than one member of a constitutional institution are in the LUC, only one member of a constitutional institution must be elected to become member of the LUC regardless of the dispatching instance.

3 Meetings

(A) Ordinary meetings of the LUC shall be held at published times, at a frequency dependent on the demands of its mandate, but not less than once per month.

(B) The LUC has the right to decide a Code of Procedure for its meetings. This Code of Procedure shall be published in the forum.

(C) The LUC is expected to welcome all interested citizens as guests at their meetings and be open to their suggestions and concerns. It is expected that all guests behave respectfully and that they comply with the rules of the Code of Procedure.

(D) The LUC Chairperson and the LUC Deputy Chair have the right to invite LUC members to on-site inspections. For this kind of meeting, a public invitation is not obligatory, albeit a transcript must be kept and published.

4 Public Information and Discourse Policy

(A) Permanent changes to public land, outside of the seasonal tree and ground texture changes and official CDS temporary structures for events, have to be announced in the CDS Forum and allow a sufficient comment period to make sure the interests and concerns of all interested citizens can be taken into account by the RA. Public spaces have to be developed in accordance with policy and changes need to be subject to public comment and review.

(B) The duration of comment periods in the CDS Forums is defined in a separate law by the RA.

(C) The regulations of the LUC Act regarding transparent region development guidelines must not be in contradiction to other laws.

IMPLEMENTING BY-LAWS TO CDSL 34-01 LAND-USE COMISSION ACT AS OF JAN. 2021

1st BY-LAW: MASTER PLAN
Based upon the Paragraphs 1(E) and (F) of CDSL 34-01 the Land Use Commission shall create, update and maintain a CDS master plan, under which future expansions in land area and themes shall occur. This plan shall be submitted to and approved by the RA, as well as being resubmitted to the RA for approval whenever modifications are deemed necessary by either the Commission or the RA.

2nd BY-LAW: NEW REGION PLANNING
Based upon the Paragraphs 1(E) and (F) of CDSL 34-01 the Land Use Commission shall, upon a request from the RA or the Chancellor, investigate the viability of new region purchase and present recommendations to both bodies. This will include, but is not limited to:

1. Consideration of type of region (full region, homestead, void, or other types that might become available in the future);
2. Consideration of placement of region;
3. Consideration of region theme;
4. A survey of Citizens;
5. Appropriate In-world meetings for discussion and public comments;.
6. Compilation and summarization of ideas and comments from citizens from surveys and official meetings, or future channels as they may be useful.
7. A consideration of finances, balance of public and private prims and any specific public spaces appropriate to the theme.
8. A draft of legislation for the acquisition of a new region or regions, including covenants and/or codes for said region, which shall regulate the manipulation or use of CDS’ three-dimensional, graphical environment, whether on Public or Private parcels.

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Han Held »

Almut Brunswick wrote: Sat Jan 30, 2021 1:49 am

Furthermore, I propose to add another article to Paragraph 2 which regulates that only exact one member of a constitutional institution must be elected for the LUC (e.g. no further RA member as a Guild member or no further SC member as a citizen's representative). You all know how I think about "unwritten laws" and pretended "old traditions" which are just another words for undemocratic arbitrariness in my eyes, so I prefer to define it once for all in the Law itself. Proposal:

(I) To avoid conflicts of interests and to exclude any danger of dominance caused by the fact that more than one member of a constitutional institution are in the LUC, only one member of a constitutional institution must be elected to become member of the LUC regardless of the dispatching instance.

Almut

As I pointed out in the RA meeting -we already have a shortage of people willing to step up to the plate and serve.

Any thing, for any reason, that hinders people from participation is undesirable.

This is a horrible idea.

It's a horrible, poorly thought out and in this circumstance destructive idea.
Yes, destructive -as it sets up a roadblock to keep the few people willing to serve from serving.

If we reach a point where we have actual elections -where there are multiple candidates for both Chancellor and for spots on the RA; then we will be in a healthy enough posistion to revisit and reconsider this idea.

We are not at that point now, and honestly this would have too many negative side-effects.

I'd strongly urge the RA to give this a hard, hard pass.

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Almut Brunswick »

Han,

you might be surprised that I fully agree with your argumentation. I personally would be happy to have no limitations like this in this law - or in any other law.

This is, however, not the whole story behind. The motivation for this regulation is that there came up from a SC member that it would be impossible to have two RA members in the LUC due to old traditions and habits. I have the suspect that the actual subtext was: "I do not want a specific person in the LUC and hence I invent quickly an unwritten rule to make this attempt to candidate for the LUC somehow impossible, even immoral." Because I don't like such arbitrary "rules" which are not transparent for all citizens, I added this paragraph to the draft in the sense: When there is indeed such an urgent need to exclude people from certain functions, then it should apply to everybody which fulfill that objected criterion.

Let's step back for a moment and hypothetically ponder what would really happen when two RA or SC members were in the LUC:

  • Since there will be always a majority of other representative, it is arithmetically impossible that these two members from a constitutional body could overrule the other member's vote.

  • Furthermore, the dominance theory takes as granted that these two members have always the same opinion and thus act together to dominate the others. That is not impossible though, but not likely.

  • Dominance in a group - especially in a body like the LUC - is more a matter of personality than of the institutional background.

  • Rosie's argument that even the LUC Chairperson could be one of the RA or SC members without any restrictions is a good point, because the LUC Act exactly defines their rule: The LUC Chairperson is not the "boss", but is obliged to take responsibility for an orderly conducting of the meetings.

The bottom line is: I would love to strike that paragraph from the draft, but then in return I don't want to hear that pseudo-argument against the possibility to have two RA members in the LUC ever again!

In a living democracy, there are other means to prevent unwanted people from being in a group. For example elections: The candidate with the better arguments and qualification may win! I even don't see my defeat to become the second Guild Representative for the LUC as something bad, because there was an election needed between three candidates for two seats instead of just waving through the two usual persons. We can call ourselves lucky when there are at all alternatives you can choose from!

We are indeed short of volunteers to take any obligation and responsibility in the CDS, and we have a couple of capable and dedicated citizens who are meanwhile so frustrated that they are not willing to candidate for anything anymore - or even left the CDS completely because of that. But apparently this insight is sadly still not a common good.

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Han Held »

I see your point, and I can understand where you're coming from.

This comes back to the "weighty friends" problem discussed elsewhere -that, itself, is a by-product of having too few people to draw from, and then after a while those who know and work together prefer their own company for whatever reason.

Sometimes this comes from exprience -after a group has worked together for a while you can see how and why someone new might be working towards a different goal than your group is working towards. Regardless of personal feelings -or assessments, the person being excluded should have a recourse of some sort. Maybe by proving themselves, or something else.

Sometimes the group is the problem, sometimes the outsider is the problem; in our 16 year history we've had instances of both (for the former: Al Andalus; for the latter, Cleo and her manipulations).

The problem you're talking about is real -but my CDS experience tells me that making legislation more complex and inaccessible will only aggravate that. The law can easily be used to exclude as well. The more byzantine the law, the more it can be misused in that manner.

I think that addendum is harmful, I see the problem you describe but I feel it would exacerbate it, not alleviate it.

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

Thank you Han and Almut for making your points clear.

Yes, Almut, there is a story behind it, starting with the argument to exclude you from the LUC because you would be a second RA member on an institution that should advise the RA.

I never saw a problem there and was against any exclusion rule from begin on. There was a draw between you and Delia at the Guild meeting before our neutral person who counted the votes left, and the Guildmaster took over and withdraw their vote in order to count. Looking back now, I think we should have flipped a coin instead.

We have plenty examples from the past and from outside the CDS, even RL, when this kind of "self-fertilization" happend and as far as I know it did never do any harm. To have a study group preprocess a topic for consideration should not be a question of power, but of time and dedication invested to get the facts right and prepare solutions.

The LUC is a place where cooperation and orientation on the factual level predominate. We should be happy about that and leave the workers alone, not over-regulating their choice of a suitable chairperson nor blocking access to the ranks of voting members. As Han points out, we simply are not in the situation to code considerations about "office-hording", which will always influence our democratic choices in the background (maybe just of our own heads) while we appoint Reps to the LUC. Let us trust the processes in place and the intelligence and common sense of the people involved, instead of trying to find rules for every thinkable situation.

Somewhat here the principle of separation of powers, which is so important for us in general, does not apply to this subset of a panel. It is not your function that defines your role at the LUC, but your interest, qualification and talent.

I appreciate you brought this up, Almut. Nevertheless we can not prescribe what people should think or say - so if someone argues the RA is running the LUC in said "Self-fertilizing" manner if they send a second RA-Member, we can do nothing but reject the reasoning behind that and advertise our own. This is what we actually do right now, sadly after the fact. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion... you had my vote at the guild, what else could I have done?

So you have the choice now to retract your proposed paragraph 2(I) or have it voted down, Which would you prefer?

For everyone interested I add the snippet from the last RA meeting covering this topic:

Last RA meeting (Jan 30st 2021 https://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9685 11:07)

Delia: I believe it is not a conflict to have more than one member of the SC as a member of the LUC. I strongly believe that no one who holds another constitutional office should be LUC Chair. So that I for instance or Rosie, or Lilith would not be eligible to be LUC chair this term, as it would most certainly be a conflict of interest.

Almut: I like Delia's last proposal that in any case the LUC Chair should not have another constitutional function or even office. That would be indeed against the original idea to have a *neutral* advisory NGO for the RA and the Chancellor. About the exception of the SC, I must say that I disagree. Sitting in the LUC and forgetting for this time not to be a member of the SC does not work. And if so, same could apply for two RA members or two executive officers. The SC is the supervising body of the RA and the LUC is reporting to the RA, so the RA could come into a "tweezers situation“.

Delia Lake: The SC is not a supervising body to the RA. The SC has the responsibility on ensuring that laws that the RA passes are consistent with the Constitution but has no supervisory role so far as the RA is concerned.

Rosie: I was going to make the point that Delia just made, that the SC is not a supervisory body of the RA. Thanks for clarifying that Delia. The other point that I wanted to make is that whoever is chair of the LUC, needs to remember that their primary purpose is to run the meeting fairly, it is not to promote their own Agenda. And so that even if someone who is on another functionary body becomes the Chairperson, it shouldn't become a conflict of interest.
I'm also thinking about the issue of there being the same people... all of us here in this room... that end up volunteering for these committees so that it would often make it impossible to find someone who is not already a functionary, somewhere.

Han: I'm staring at an empty chair to Tor's right ...and we're proposing to limit participation ...at all? In my opinion that's the wrong direction to be going on. The LUC is intended to be an advisory committee, we aren't talking about holding the purse strings to the CDS. I think we should table any talk of participatory limits until such time as we have at least 2 consecutive "real" elections, which would prove an interest in participation.

I am with Rosie and Han here.

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Re: Reform of the CDS Land Use Commission (LUC)

Post by Kyoko »

Thank you Tan for your clear analysis. In an ideal world I do think we serve on LUC out of genuine interest and not as a power grab. But there still is a legitimate reason why the one person tradition from the RA is different. The RA supervises the LUC. Period. Full stop. I don't have a vote (good ol' separation of powers!), but I would not be in favor of adding this clause to the new LUC law.

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