Have changed as requested.....I did temper down Lady Clasp's proposal....I also believe that councillor should have membership of the VoS....
Thankyou all...and I would like to ask your final opinions on this before I request the Council to vote on this.......
I've added in a few things I think need to be added in light of some recent events
005 Book V – The Lower House of Somerset (Voice of Somerset – VoS)
Preamble:
By the grace of the noble jah and all other divinities, does the County of Somerset recognise the Voice of Somerset (VoS) as the peoples voice. Literaly the voice of the people. In the halls of the house let no man be superior to another. Yet the civil rings of logical and methodical reasoning prevail over the rhetoric and mudslinging this house was made ot avoid. Let this house be the way for Somerset Citizens to be more involved with their governmentArticle 1 – Definitions
Art. 5.1.1.: The Lower House of Somerset, hereafter referred to as the Voice of Somerset (VoS), shall be the congregation of all Somerset citizens wherein each Somerset citizen has the ability to be recognized by the elected Ducal Council.
Art. 5.1.2.: Members of the VoS shall consist of every verifiable citizen of Somerset Duchy.
i. Level 0 citizens shall be included and afforded the unique ability to participate in their county politics.
ii. Councilors shall also be included in the VoS, in effect creating a dual membership in both the upper and lower governing bodies of Somerset.
iii. Members shall be verified by their mayors, Only people residing in Somerset may take membership in this body
Art. 5.1.3.: Parliamentary Motions are [discussions] which are later made into polls, The discussions must be made first so that an apropriate motion can be made by a member, The discusssion is so that the parliament may debate over the motion, Once the speaker of the VoS deems that there has been sufficient debate he/she locks the discussion and archives it, The parliamentary motion must be a clear document that clearly and succinctly defines the aim of the motion, It must be phrased as such that after the debate a simple poll can be used to determine wether or not the house supports it.
Parliamentary Voting procedure
i. All members of parliament are entitled to propose a motion in the VoS, which is put in a [discussion] format, after the speaker of the VoS deems that there has been enough discussion the initial proposer of the motion must signal that he/she is ready for the motion to be locked.
ii.Following the advice of the initial proposer the speaker locks the thread.
iii.The onus is then on the proposer to draft an oficial Parliamentary Bill that can be presented to the VoS, if he/she does not do so in 4 days he/she must move for a motion again. The bill must be a poll where the options must be Aye, Nay, or Abstain
iv. After 7 days the bill is locked whichever option has gained the simple majority is deemed the "will of Somerset" . If the majority is the "abstain" option then the bill must be revoted by a new poll. If a majority of the VoS are in oppozition to the bill then no bill of similar or identical content may be presented to the VoS for 17 days. After that period of time he/she can again make a motion again.
v.If a majority is obtained the county council is legally bound to examine that issue within 3 days.
vi. A county council representative must then report back to the VoS, with the county council's decision.
vii.If the margin in any passage of any bill is of a margin of 3% of the total votes or less any member of the VoS is entitled to call for a revote
viii.In the case of a revote the aproved bill is locked and no further action is taken until and unless the second bill is passed propoerly
Article 2 – Authority of the Lower House of Somerset (Voice of Somerset – VoS)
Art. 5.2.1.: The sole authority of the VoS shall be to forward Parliamentary Bills(PBs) that have gained simple majority of votes by the citizens of Somerset who have access to the chambers and who have chosen to register a vote regarding the forwarded PB to the Ducal Council.
Article 3 – Restrictions of the Lower House of Somerset (Voice of Somerset – VoS)
Art. 5.3.1.: The VoS shall be restricted to verified citizens of Somerset Duchy only.
i. Citizens shall be verified by the Mayor of their hometown and then granted access to the chambers.
ii. Mayors and town mentors shall be required to provide clear instructions to each citizen on where the chambers are located and how to request access.
iii. Every citizen of Somerset has the right to request access and be admitted. Likewise, it is every citizen’s responsibility to assist fellow citizens in obtaining access to the chambers.
Art. 5.3.2.: The VoS shall be subject to all Ducal Laws. The county council has every right to overule any parliamentary bill of the VoS. The County Council is superior in every right of governance to the VoS.
Art. 5.3.3.: The Speaker, the speaker is a person NOT on the county council who is directly elected by the parliament for a fixed term of 4 and a half months. The speaker is allowed re election for as many terms as they want. The speakers election goes through the term of the previous speaker. So in effect 3 weeks before the end of a speakers term nominations are taken for the position of speaker.
i. Voting on the speaker must take precedence of all other duties of the VoS
ii. The election of the speaker goes for 11 days at the bare minimum. All nominated and seconded candidates must then be put for election.
iii. The candidate/s securing a total of 51% must stand for a run off election in the event of no one candidate securing 51% of the VoS.
iv. If the margin is less than 4% the duke has the right to apoint the speaker in a run off election
v. Once one candidate has secured 51% of the VoS support, regardless of how many run off elections it takes, the duke must then apoint the person officially into office.
vi. In the even of someone deemed inapropriate gaining the majority then the county council may vote and apoint any candidate to the position.
vii. The county council may dismiss any serving speaker with a two thirds majority vote
iix. The VoS can push for a vote of no confidence in the Speaker, thence a poll is made just like any other parliamentary bill it is sent to the county council after a majority is obtained. If two thirds the VoS or more are in favour then the duke may dismiss the speaker instantly. But in the case of the VoS not obtaining such a majority then the county council must aprove the decision. The county council may refrain from sacking the duke if they sight a mobb rules aproach,
Art. 5.2.2.: Art 5.2.2: An elected representative from the VoS elected from the VoS must be present at council discussions, although silent (cannot post in council forum, but can watch it), and watch for any misdeeds by an Somerset elected councilor. This elected representative's sole duty will be to report any conduct unfitting a Somerset elected councilor to the VoS. The VoS shall then vote on any action to be taken against the Somerset elected councilor.
i: Misdeeds and conduct unfitting a Somerset elected councilor are verbally attacking the personage of another Somerset elected councilor, purposefully spamming the council forum, failure to participate in council discussions for a period of over one month.
ii: At the beginning of each council term, a VoS member must be nominated by another member or members to be the elected representative of the VoS to the council. At that point, a poll is created for all members of the VoS to vote in, where all nominated representatives are voted upon. If one nominated representative does not recieve 50% or more of the votes, a new poll is created to vote between the top two recievers of votes.
iii: A member of the VoS cannot nominate himself to be representative.
iv: The option of Abstain will be integrated into all representative election polls. If, at the end of the poll, the Abstain option has recieved 50% or more of the votes, then all nominated representatives cannot be reconsidered, and new nominations must take place.
v: At the time a misdeed or conduct unfitting is reported by the representative, the speaker of the VoS determines the severity, and if it should be voted upon. The representative must report the misdeed or conduct unfitting without naming the councilor. At no time should any member of the VoS be allowed to know the name of the councilor being voted on. The only people to know the name of the councilor being voted upon should be the councilor representative to the VoS (unless he is the one being voted upon, in which case the name would fall to the Duke of Somerset), and the VoS elected representative. If the speaker of the VoS determines it should be voted upon, he will put the misdeed or conduct unfitting into a poll, with three options. Forgive, Impeach, or Abstain. The Impeach option must recieve at least 85% of the vote for it to be put into effect.
vi: The councilor representative to the VoS has the right to challenge any Impeach decision made by the VoS, unless the impeach decision is against the councilor representative himself, in which case the duty falls to the Duke of Somerset to challenge the decision. At that time, the speaker will put together a group of VoS members to investigate the alleged misdeed or conduct unfitting. If found to be completely faulty, the VoS elected representative to the council shall be brought before the VoS for answering questions, in the form of a [discussion] thread.
vii: Upon an unchallenged Impeach vote, the councilor will be immediately removed from the council room by denying access on the forum, and the next person to take his place will be given access to the forum.
Art. 5.2.3.: Although the Duchy Council is in effect more powerfull than the VoS, any councillor exempting the duke may be subject to a vote of no confidence and thereby after a majority of 65% of atleast 95% of the "Active" membership, votes in a period of a minimum of 3 days, the vote is limited to a maximum of 21 days, after that time the speaker may lokc the thread as it is deemed invalid.
Art. 5.2.4.: Legal Bindings, The VoS may implement legally binding writs, which are limited to calling a councillor to report to the VoS, to overturning the impeachment of a councillor, to if aproved by the Duchy council a change to the Legal Corpus, to drafting diplomatic treaties, The writs may not be of military or trade nature. For a writ to be determined legally binding a qorum must be present, a qorum is equivalent to 80% of the active membership voting upon the writ, any inactive member of the VoS should be deleted, speakers, and council members are given a 7 day grace to explain their inactivity. Prior explanation is acceptable. If a quorum does not vote on the issue it is not valid. Inactive members may be deleted after a writ such as this mentioned above. A low ranking member who has never posted in the forums in question can simply be deleted at the leisure of the speaker, and then re admitted after a pm to the speaker.
Art. 5.2.5.: The VoS is a body of dignity and integrity is that is ever compromised through actions of it's members the members in quesiton are forced to face the described disceplenary action. Any court case against a VoS member who has voted atleast thrice can be assisted by the VoS, through the VoS supplying the member in question with a defence counsel, if the defence cousel deems the person is guilty he/she can refrain from the pursual of defence actions. Any case against the insitution it's self or the house, will demand that any defence counsel with membership obligated to defend the faculty.
Statute of Secrecy (partaining to Art. 5.2.5.
i) documents in the VoS dorums may not be reproduced without the express consent of speaker and 51% of the Parliamentary majority without quorum.
ii)Men and Wemen may speak freely without fear of retribution for their words, aslong as they maintain forums rules, and if accusing the member must phrase their accusation politely and must provide evidence.
iii) Breach of this statute is considered contempt for the Parliamentary proceedings and the member in question can be suspended imediately by the Speaker then the breach must be considered in a thread that polls a simple question as to wether the member acted in sontempt of the court.
iv)All members may not discuss any findings or votes of the VoS without the permission of the Speaker, with any person/s of non membership in the VoS
Article 4 – Responsibilities of the Lower House of Somerset (Voice of Somerset – VoS) and of the Ducal Council regarding the VoS
Art. 5.4.1.: The sole responsibility of the Ducal Council to the VoS shall be to officially enter into [Discussion] any proposal that gains a simple majority vote within the chambers of the VoS. The Ducal Council shall not be required to pass into law any proposal put forth by the VoS, only to consider the proposal as a valid [Discussion] within the Ducal Council chambers, requiring the mandatory 2-day debate of proposals put forth in chambers.
Article 5 – Hierarchy of the Lower House of Somerset (Voice of Somerset – VoS)
i. There can be sub committee's formed from the VoS to deal with projects or initiatives
ii. The chair of any such sub committee would be limited to simply reporting back to the VoS and undertaking liasing betweent he apropriate parties.
iii. Mayors and members of the County Council are elected members of the higher order of governance thereby they must be given respect, any member of the VoS not doing so may be suspended or expelled from the house.
iv.A group of elected members of the VoS may be elected by simple majority to liase with the county council and or apropriate bodies
Disceplenary Action
i. If any member of the VoS who breached this constitution or the legal corpus of Somerset or the existing forum rules, they are automaticaly suspended by the speaker
ii. A privelleges committee is formed to decide further action/s against a member
iii. If the priveleges committee deems the circumstances right they may suspend, expell or eject any member from the house.
iv. No member of the county council may be disceplined, If they are convicted of wrongdoing, the county council decides further action
Clauses
1. These clauses overwrite all other articles in this book
2. The speaker may not be disceplined\
3. Bodies such as the Court of Appeals or the College of Heraldry or any other foreign body, hold any power over the VoS as an institution.
4. VoS is the inferior of no person/s, The body is simply bound to respect the wishes of the Duchy Council
5. The speaker can't be a member of the council
6.While party politics and bloc voting is not barred or banned, party domination or insulting will result in a temporary ban by the speaker. Voting in blocs or factions is in no way against the laws mentioned above.
7. A duchy council member who has been impeached may continue in his role if he retains the support of the Duchy Council
8. The VoS may change it's own laws at any time with a writ, that requires 90% of the active membership as a raised quorum. The duchy Council may vetoe the changes if and only if the changes give greater power to the VoS.
The Rights of all members:
-To be heard
-To be valued
-To operate within the VoS in a safe and friendl environment
-To have any beliefs that they deem fit
-To be heard by the speaker if they feel they were ejected, expelled or suspended unfairly
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Wed Oct 10, 2007 7:39 pm
