The Clark Unbundling Act

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

WHEREAS it has been Talossan tradition since time immemorial - that is, at least the late 1980s - that the legislative journal The Clark is issued by the Secretary of State;

AND WHEREAS the role of Secretary of State is a high-pressure job as it is which burns out a lot of people;

AND WHEREAS it is important for responsibilities to be decentralised in Talossa, so that a tiny amount of active citizens don't become responsible for every single job, like Miss Rabbit in "Peppa Pig", thus risking chaos or disaster should they disappear for whatever reason;

AND WHEREAS it behooves the dignity of the Ziu that it be responsible for its own legislative schedule;

AND WHEREAS the Mençéi in recent years has taken on a far more active role in organising debate and voting in the Senäts, and this should be encouraged and formalised;

AND WHEREAS the Túischac'h (chair of the Cosa) is not an Organic office, but should nevertheless share this role with the Mençéi should one exist;

AND WHEREAS should this be adopted, the Secretary of State's remaining Organic functions will be to conduct elections and maintain the list of citizens;

BE IT ENACTED etc. as follows:

1. Organic Law VII.4 shall be replaced in its entirety as follows:

The Mençéi shall supervise, and shall organise the legislative business of the Ziu. He or she shall do this by administering a public venue for the inspection of legislative proposals before they become bills, "The Hopper" and by compiling and publishing the monthly legislative journal, "The Clark". All the duties of the Mençéi in this Article shall be exercised jointly with the Chair of the Cosa, should one exist, and may be delegated to the Secretary of State.

3. Organic Law VII.5-7 shall be amended as follows:

Section 5 Any Member of the Cosa, or a Senator, or the King, or the Secretary of State, shall have the right to submit legislative proposals, and bills to the Secretary of State Mençéi for consideration by the Ziu according to the procedures specified in this article, and specified by law. Within the bounds and rules imposed by law, tradition, and reason, the Secretary of State Mençéi shall ensure that all legislators be allowed to submit their bills for consideration.

Section 6 At his discretion, the Prime Minister shall have the right to withdraw any legislative proposal from "The Hopper", and instruct the Secretary of State Mençéi to treat it as a properly submitted bill.

Section 7 All bills received by the Secretary of State Mençéi during one calendar month shall be compiled into a published legislative journal, to be called "The Clark". The Clark shall be compiled prior to the first day of the following month, and shall be published publicly on that day. The Clark shall be made available to all MCs and Senators.

4. Organic Law VII.9 shall be amended as follows:

Section 9 Every MC and Senator may vote on every bill in every Clark through reasonable means determined by the Secretary of State Mençéi, and MCs and senators will have until the end of business on the twenty-first day of the calendar month to submit their votes to the Secretary of State Mençéi. An MC or senator may vote "për" (to a bill he approves), "contrâ" (to a bill he disapproves), or "austanéu" (for an abstention) on every bill. Except where otherwise provided in this Organic Law, when determining the outcome of a vote in either house of the Ziu, "austanéu" votes will not be counted.

5. A new section shall be added to Organic Law Article V, following V.2:

The Secretary of State shall be appointed and dismissed as specified by law. The Secretary of State has the right to appoint deputies. Responsibilities, appointment, and dismissal of deputies shall be governed by law.

[esbornatfiglheu]

I think this is a sound measure and would wholeheartedly support this.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

It seems like this would inherently require getting rid of the database, since I don't know that it is technically feasible to separate out the current Chancery duties without an overhaul of the code.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

I've considered that issue. I've reached out to the current SoS for comment, but he's busy at the moment. But the Database needs maintenance anyway, I hear. And - you may be amazed to hear that I agree with you that we shouldn't rely to much on it.

[Açafat del Val]

I oppose this bill completely.

The Mençéi should not have control over the Clark, because the Clark serves the entire Ziu and not just the Senäts; therefore, the Clark should be administered by an impartial third party, such as... the Secretary of State. Plus, an ultimately partisan officer (we are only fooling ourselves if we think that the next selection of the Mençéi won't be political) should just not be in charge of The Hopper.

I also adamantly stand by my sentiment that the current official duties of the SoS are not so overwhelming or cumbersome that a careful officeholder could not undertake them. The duties are tedious and thankless, but not overwhelming; a person must simply be thorough and consistent. There is a fixed, easy schedule of ministerial tasks that take maybe an hour of work per week... perhaps up to three hours if legislative activity is particularly busy in a month.

This bill decentralizes the duties of the SoS in favor of creating more bureaucracy and more jobs to fill. That is the opposite direction which we should take.

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

It seems like this would inherently require getting rid of the database, since I don't know that it is technically feasible to separate out the current Chancery duties without an overhaul of the code.

Couldn't the duties related to operating the database be delegated to the SoS, per the provisions of this amendment?

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

It seems like this would inherently require getting rid of the database, since I don't know that it is technically feasible to separate out the current Chancery duties without an overhaul of the code.

Couldn't the duties related to operating the database be delegated to the SoS, per the provisions of this amendment?

Sure.  But then it seems like this is just a kabuki exercise, since that's what's going to have to happen in practice.

Unrelated problem: this makes an elected official much more visible and important, which poses an inherent advantage at re-election time.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

If by an elected official you mean the Mençéi, then that's an interesting point I hadn't thought of. Does the Speaker of the House get an unfair advantage in other jurisdictions? In the Irish Dáil, the Ceann Comhairle (speaker) is always re-elected unopposed at election time, but for the opposite reason - because of their duties they can't get out and campaign as much and are actually at a disadvantage.

Anyway, now we have our presumptive Acting Secretary of State, I will discuss with him where we go from here with this.

[esbornatfiglheu]

I think, if we're going to do this, it will need to devolve to each house, and not the Mencei only.  But, if memory serves, Tuisac'h is largely a toothless role and not even an Organic Office.  Am I correct in this?

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

I think, if we're going to do this, it will need to devolve to each house, and not the Mencei only.  But, if memory serves, Tuisac'h is largely a toothless role and not even an Organic Office.  Am I correct in this?

You're right. I want to write the Túischac'h into the OrgLaw but this was meant as a "quick fix".

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

In any case, the incoming Secretary of State says he sees no need for this bill at the moment; so I withdraw it for now.