Legislative janitor?

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

BE IT ENACTED etc. etc. that the following subsection be added to section H.11 of El Lexhatx:

The Ziu may, by a 2/3 majority in each chamber, elect a Clerk of Legislation, to be known as El Xhenistà, who will proofread and suggest revisions to all bills to be Clarked, and may request the Secretary of State to exercise their powers under this sub-section to withdraw any bill from the Clark.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

BE IT ENACTED etc. etc. that the following subsection be added to section H.11 of El Lexhatx:

The Ziu may, by a 2/3 majority in each chamber, elect a Clerk of Legislation, to be known as El Xhenistà, who will proofread and suggest revisions to all bills to be Clarked, and may request the Secretary of State to exercise their powers under this sub-section to withdraw any bill from the Clark.

This is adorable.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

It doesn't make a lot of sense to put a 2/3 majority requirement in a law that can be changed by a simple majority.  No Ziu can bind the hands of its successors, as the saying goes.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Such "single entrenchment" exists in other countries, eg New Zealand's electoral law. It might not stop a determined majority but it's a guideline. This office can't be held by someone who's only respected by one side of the Ziu.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Fair enough.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

An alternative might have el Xhenistà chosen by consensus of the Seneschál, Oppo Leader, Túischac'h and Mençéi (or a subset thereof)?

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Or they could be a Permanent Secretary under the Avocat-Xheneral, which would require no new legislation as far as I know.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Or they could be a Permanent Secretary under the Avocat-Xheneral, which would require no new legislation as far as I know.

I have no objection to this in principle, except the "technical" one that I think the job should be part of the Ziu rather than the Civil Service; but we'll see what the A-Xh thinks.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I'll say now what I said when Owen instituted the civil service: the only "pay" we give the people who do work is the fun of making the decisions involved and the novelty of carrying out the tasks.  If you take away the decisions, you're relying on the novelty, and that wears thin for most people pretty quickly (as the ranks of current Permanent Secretaries can attest).  We're not big enough for those jobs to work in most cases, in my opinion.  Finding reliable people willing to do important but a bit tedious work is hard, and those people are usually made SoS.  That's why I insisted that no secretary spot be created until it was affirmatively wanted -- the best concession I could get.  I was never a very good politician, after all.

So whatever you do, I encourage you to choose the option that leaves the smallest footprint.  A Permanent Secretary is probably that choice, since I think you'd reject a simple A-X deputy.