Section added
Part Four: Private Sales
For parcel sales to be complete, the new buyer's name must appear both in the Land and Hippo object. If the seller neglects to clear their name from the Hippo object, the executive clears the seller's name so the new parcel owner can pay tier.
2014 Tier Collection and Land Reclamation Bill
CDSL 13-03 pertains to a since-retired proprietary tier collection system. Since the system has changed, it is impossible for the Executive to comply with CDSL 13-03. Therefore we propose this Tier Collection and Land Reclamation Bill
Alignment is needed with CDSL 16-03, the Citizenship Establishment Act, and applicable parts of CDSL 13-10 the Citizenship Bill.
Repeal CDSL 13-03 Motion to amend NL 9-2 the Land Sales Reclamation Act , NL 4-3 Land Sales Reporting Act and NL 5-5 Section 2, Duties of the Treasurer as obsolete because they also pertain only to retired systems:.
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Three sections: Tier Collection, Reclamation - Special Circumstances
Part One: Tier Collection
Since 2011, CDS has used the Hippo Rental system; significantly altering the method by which CDS collects tier.
1. Tier is paid, to the Estate Owner, in advance of use, beginning on the date a citizen acquires a parcel. Citizens pay tier via the Hippo object assigned to their parcel. They have the option to pay for one, two or three months at a time. Citizens must pay tier – via the Hippo object – on a parcel that lists them as the owner in the land tool.
2. Through the Hippo object, a citizen can collect a refund when selling or abandoning a parcel. There are three types of abandonment and/or ownership termination events and appropriate procedures and responsibilities associated with each.
3. The Executive shall employ the following procedures for tier collection, reclaiming parcels under ordinary circumstances and clearing (resetting) Hippo objects.
a. Parcel abandoned from the land tool only - Executive clears the Hippo object and returns any outstanding funds if the avatar responds to IM. If no response from an avatar who has left CDS, the refund goes into the CDS general funds.
b. Parcel abandoned (ownership terminated) via Hippo only - Executive reclaims the land within a week and resets the Hippo object. (see Part Two for exceptions.)
c. Parcel abandoned from land tool and ownership terminated via Hippo - Executive resets the land for sale.
d. Before resetting the hippo object, the Executive informs the Treasurer – via email – of the name of the avatar , the refund amount or the balance due per the Hippo object.
4. The Hippo objects shall be set to use the notice functions that alert landowners of the expiration of their tier in advance of due date, and the days remaining until they are due. The Hippo object also announce numbers of days overdue. Landowners are expected to be in world to receive such notices and/or have provided LL with an email address allowing them to receive IMs while offline. Landowners are expected to set preferences to receive IMs when off line. Landowners who do not make provision to receive IMs in email, nor provide an email to the Executive, are still required to pay tier in a timely manner.
5. Because the Hippo object sometimes fails to send IMs, The Executive drops a notecard, sends an IM and sends an email to landowners who have provided their email address.
The Chancellor shall maintain a list of citizens with the email addresses provided by citizens on a no-modify notecard with an explicit request to notify them by the provided email address. “<date>: To the Chancellor: please use the following email address if you need to contact me about tier.”
Upon leaving office, the outgoing Chancellor will transfer that list to the incoming Chancellor.
6. The Estate Owner should include the following reclamation language in the CDS Covenant land tool: “The right to vote and stand for election is reserved for citizens in good standing, i.e. are current with tier.
Part Two: (Timing) When Tier Expires
1. Beginning three days before tier expires, the Hippo object is supposed to begin sending IMs to the parcel owner.
2. Within 7 days of being in arrears:
• The remaining time shows up on the Hippo spreadsheet, available to all Hippo managers.
• The Executive notifies citizens (via IM, notecard, email) of impending land reclamation at 14 days of delinquency and loss of voting rights once tier expires. Refer to CDSL 16-03, Item 2 regarding potential loss of voting rights.
3. Once tier runs out
• Hippo continues to send IMs until the object is reset
• The Executive notifies citizens (via IM, notecard, email) to the (now probationary) citizen.
• The 14 day time period begins in which the citizen can reclaim their parcel by paying all owed amounts. (Notification by IM, notecard and email - or IM when the citizen is not logged in.)
• The Executive announces the date of the impending land sale, both in the Forums and as a Group notice.
4. In addition to the census, CDS has the right to make public the lists of provisional citizens from time to time, as reasonably needed for its administration of government. The Treasurer creates the list, with provisional citizens noted at the bottom. The Executive posts it to the Forum using the subject line “Census, (month, day, year)." Treasurer adds the lists to the Praetorium census dispenser. Additionally, the Executive posts a notice to CDS group, announcing the publication of the list and it’s availability via the Forum or the Census Dispenser at the Praetorium.
5. At fourteen days overdue, if the landowner has failed to pay the full amount outstanding and absent a declaration of ‘special circumstances.’ then the Executive shall reclaim the parcel. Objects on the parcel shall be returned to the landowner and the parcels set for sale unless there are plans to redraw parcel lines or the parcel added - temporarily – to the public parcel holdings.
Part Three: Private Sales
For parcel sales to be complete, the new buyer's name must appear both in the Land and Hippo object. If the seller neglects to clear their name from the Hippo object, the executive clears the seller's name so the new parcel owner can pay tier.
Part Four: Reclamation - Special Circumstances
From time to time, real life circumstances – either personal or technical – prevent a citizen from keeping current with tier (coming in-world and paying). On the ‘in-world’ side, Hippo objects sometime fail to send proper notification; IMs are sometimes capped per LL and may prevent a citizen from receiving email. We refer to these as ‘special circumstances.’
In the event of special circumstances either before or after reclamation – where the Citizen does not intend to let tier lapse – the Citizen, members of a group to which the parcel is assigned, friends of the citizen, the community at large, and the Executive might
offer to pay tier (parcel owner or partner of)
contact the parcel owner
notify the Executive of special circumstances
notify the community of special circumstances and call for help
petition the SC for relief
Citizens whose circumstances advise using the partner option on the Hippo object, can recruit someone to cover their tier. Note, paying tier as a partner does not confer citizenship. Repeated payment by the named partner can result in status change to ‘provisional’ and put voting rights in jeopardy.
This law repeals and replaces CDSL 13-03, any provisions of prior CDS laws (including CDSL 13-03) that specify land reclamation or rent payment methods, to the extent that they contradict the explicit terms of this law.