Commonwealth of Frémont • 16th Parliament

[Mike Thick]

Nominating myself for Speaker, once more.

Seconded

[Mike Thick]

Posting for once the Speakership vote is over.

Frémont Fair Districts Act of 2020

AN ACT to strengthen democracy throughout the Commonwealth.

Section I (Title)
i. The long title of this act shall be, the "Frémont Fair Districts Act of 2020." It may be cited as the "FFDA."

Section II (Commission System Reform)
i. §4(ii-iii) of the Constituency Democratization Act are amended to read as follows:

ii. In the case of the former, the commission shall be composed of two representatives of every party which shall have received at least 10% of the vote in the last election for governor of that state,one representative appointed by the leader of each legislative chamber of that state, and one representative appointed by the leader of the largest minority party in each legislative chamber of that state, and led by an independent chair appointed by the first minister of Frémont, for a total of five representatives.
a. Each appointee to the commission must be confirmed by the aforementioned legislative body, receiving the approval of half or more of the legislators of each political party that counts as members two or more elected legislators within said body.

iii. In the case of the latter, the commission shall be composed of two representatives of every party which shall have received at least 10% of the vote in the last mayoral or county executive election in that jurisdiction,one representative appointed by the leader of the legislative body governing the municipality, and one representative appointed by the leader of the largest minority party in the aforementioned legislative body, and led by an independent chair appointed by the governor of the state, for a total of three representatives.
a. Each appointee to the commission must be confirmed by the aforementioned legislative body, receiving the approval of half or more of the body's legislators of each political party that counts as a member an elected legislator within the body.

Section III (Enactment)
i. This act shall take effect immediately after signature by the first minister.

[Mike Thick]

1. OBD
2. ASV

[Mike Thick]

AN ACT

to combat economic blight and hunger within the Commonwealth

Section I. (Title)
i. The title of this Act shall be the “Feed Frémonters Act”.

Section II. (Definitions)
i. As it is used in this legislation, "food bank" is defined as an organization providing stocks of food free of charge to people in need.

Section III. (Declaration of Intents)
i. The Commonwealth of Frémont hereby recognizes the economic peril facing many farmers throughout the Commonwealth.
ii. The Commonwealth notes that due to the ongoing recession, it is currently more cost-effective for some farmers to allow crops to rot in fields than to pay for their harvest and distribution to retailers.

Section IV. (Purchase, Donation, and Distribution of Produce)
i. Any farmer conducting business within the Commonwealth may apply to the Frémont Farm Relief Bureau (FFRB) to sell produce to the Commonwealth at cost.
ii. Any food bank or branch thereof operating within the Commonwealth may apply to the FFRB to receive produce purchased under §IV(i) of this Act free of charge.
iii. Any such food bank may also apply to the Frémont Ministry of Transportation to lease any vehicle in the Commonwealth Vehicle Fleet, free of charge, to transport produce donated by the Commonwealth.

Section V. (Funding)
i. All funds appropriated by the Fremont Farm Maintenance Act of 2018 (FFM Act) not yet allocated shall be reappropriated to finance purchases authorized under §IV(i) of this Act, and leases authorized under §IV(iii) of this Act.
ii. $500,000 of the aforementioned funding shall be appropriated within the FFRB for the purposes of creating a webpage to efficiently process applications for produce donations, and for the hiring of additional employees to help process such applications.

Section VI. (Enactment and Expiration)
i. This act shall take effect immediately after signature by the First Minister.
ii. This act shall expire once all funds appropriated by the FFM Act are exhausted, or at the end of Fiscal Year 2020, whichever comes first.

[Mike Thick]

AN ACT
to protect victims of sexual assault

Section 1. (Title)
i. The title of this act shall be, the "Outlaw Police Rape Act."

Section 2. (Amendment to Consent Laws)
i. No sex act between a police officer and a person in police custody shall be considered consensual under the laws of the Commonwealth.

Section 3. (Enactment)
i. This act shall take effect immediately after signature by the First Minister.

[Mike Thick]

AN ACT
to improve public safety throughout the Commonwealth

Section 1 (Title)
i. The long title of this act shall be, the “Frémont Public Safety Act." It may be cited as the "FPSA."

Section 2 (Declaration of purpose)
i. The Parliament of Frémont finds and declares all of the following:
a. The complexities of emergency issues surrounding crises in mental health, intimate partner violence, community violence, substance abuse, homelessness, and natural disasters can, at times, be addressed more safely, with greater impact, and more cost-effectively and efficiently with community organizations, which often have deeper knowledge and understanding of the issues, trusted relationships with the people and communities involved, and specific knowledge and relationships surrounding the emergency.
b. Furthermore, young people of color, people with disabilities, people who are gender nonconforming, people who are formerly incarcerated, people with immigration status issues, and people who are unhoused or homeless, face significant barriers to engaging with law enforcement and other first responder personnel. Data demonstrates that these populations often do not reach out for needed help when dealing with crises in their communities because of their fear and challenges with engaging law enforcement, which puts lives and families at risk for continued harm and trauma. Community organizations that specialize in working with these populations, understanding their issues, and maintaining deep relationships in their communities have a more successful track record of engaging and supporting them.
c. Philanthropic and community organizations in cities and counties throughout the Commonwealth have recognized the need to expand innovative approaches to emergencies and have created programs to do so.
d. These alternative approaches have strengthened the response to emergencies in places throughout the Commonwealth by deepening impact, preventing violence, deescalating volatile situations, protecting property and the environment, reducing law enforcement use of force, and ensuring the health and safety of communities while, at the same time, saving money by decreasing calls for service and the sole reliance upon first responders for emergency situations.
e. Even as crime rates have decreased or remained static, police spending throughout the Commonwealth has increased significantly over the past 20 years; furthermore, while police play an important role in keeping Frémont safe, tasking them with response to the aforementioned public safety issues requires police officers to do jobs that can be more effectively done by community organizations, which in turn has necessitated such dramatically increased levels of spending.
f. Despite the innovative approaches led by community organizations, the Commonwealth does not have a policy, or a set of protocols to support community organizations’ involvement in addressing emergencies, or to effectively rein in local government spending on law enforcement.
g. This act seeks to remedy those issues by articulating a policy framework to support innovative approaches to build capacity in, and to facilitate grants for, community organizations to support emergency response, while reallocating some resources from law enforcement to support these grant programs.

Section 3 (Local police spending caps)
i. Spending on sheriff's offices, police departments, and equivalent entities by county and municipal governments may not exceed $125 per resident within such an entity's jurisdiction.
ii. Beginning in FY 2022, county and municipal governments shall eliminate annually 20% of the differential between FY 2021 spending levels and those mandated by §3(i).

Section 3 (Guidelines for reallocating resources)
i. The Frémont Ministry of Emergency Services (FMES) shall develop a set of guidelines for providing municipal grants to community organizations, for the purpose of incorporating the participation of such organizations into local emergency response, and for the expanded use of unarmed first responders to address nonviolent situations affecting public safety and well-being.
a. The FMES shall complete the development of these guidelines by January 1st, 2021.
ii. $4,000,000 shall be appropriated to the FMES in FY 2021, and every year thereafter for six years, for the purpose of providing direct aid to local governments in the development of programs for such grant administration and such expansion of unarmed emergency response services, or for other programs intended to assume responsibility for services outlined in §2(i(a)), as well as traffic enforcement, currently provided by law enforcement agencies.

Section 4 (Implementation)
i. This legislation shall take effect immediately upon signature by the First Minister, except where otherwise specified herein.

[Mike Thick]

AN ACT
to make crowd control more humane throughout the Commonwealth

Section 1 (Title & Definitions)
i. The title of this act shall be, the “Safer Crowd Control Act."
ii. As used in this legislation, "rubber bullet" refers to a projectile made of or coated in rubber and shot out of a firearm.
iii. As used in this legislation, "stun grenade" refers to an explosive device that produces a bright flash and a loud noise so as to stun or disorient people without causing serious injury.

Section 2 (Prohibition of rubber bullet use in crowd control)
i. No law enforcement agency within the Commonwealth may deploy rubber bullets or stun grenades for the purposes of crowd control or dispersal.

Section 3 (Implementation)
i. This legislation shall come into effect immediately upon signature by the First Minister.

[Mike Thick]

1996 Will Commence Again Resolution

Whereas, Frémont offers the most freedom to it's residents;

Whereas, Frémont has been known to fully support and encourage it's residents to exercise their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms;

Whereas, Frémont has been known to fully support and encourage it's residents to exercise their right to free expression, particularly as that right allows the free consumption and appreciation of various media;

Whereas, Frémont, along with all of Atlasia, celebrates Independence Day on July 4th;

Be it resolved, that the Commonwealth Government:

1. Encourages Frémonters to celebrate Independence Day by practicing target shooting on any extraterrestrial creatures that should attempt to conquer the Earth on that day, or the several days in July preceding it.

2. Encourages the use of sophisticated malware to disable alien spacecraft, especially when covertly planted in their mothership by a hotshot fighter pilot and a quirky satellite engineer -- an unlikely pairing, to be sure, but a lovable one.

3. Encourages Frémonters, if the need arises, to sacrifice themselves for the good of humanity, by flying a plane into the big pointy glowing thing on the bottom of the alien spaceship.

4. Encourages the appreciation of all cast members of 1990's blockbuster films, and does not support applying modern moral standards to their later career choices, particularly Will Smith's later roles in After Earth (2013), Collateral Beauty (2016), and Bright (2017).

[Mike Thick]

AN ACT
to make housing more affordable throughout the Commonwealth

Section 1 (Title & Definitions)
i. The long title of this act shall be, the "Provide Housing And Tax Totally Unused Stateside Holdings Act." It may be cited as the "PHAT TUSH Act."

Section 2 (Rezoning Amendment)
i. The "Y.I.M.B.Y. Act" is amended to read as follows.

Section 1
i. High-density housing developing projects in urban areas that are in agreement with prior existing state and regional zoning laws for high-density projects will not be subject to local review measures provided that 30% of the proposed project's housing units include 30% of units are set aside for affordable housing, defined as housing that can be rented for less than 30% of the surrounding area's monthly median income, or that of the municipality as a whole, or the state, or the region, whichever is lowest..
ii. No state or local government may restrict the construction of four-unit residential dwelling complexes in any area zoned for residential use.
a. This clause shall not apply to proposals that would require demolition of residential dwelling units occupied by tenants, or residential dwelling units that are subject to any rent or price control at the municipal level which exceeds such regional controls, or residential dwelling units that are subject to a law restricting housing to residents of low income.
iii. Restrictions on the height of residential developments shall not prevent the construction of developments measuring less than 55 feet in height, provided that:
a. 30% of the units in the development are set aside for affordable housing as defined in §2(i), or
b. The criterion established in §2(ii(a)) is met, and the development is located within 1.5 miles of a major public or private transit center, or a jobs-rich area, as defined by the Frémont Ministry of Housing.

Section 2
i. If 12 weeks pass after receipt of a proposal for construction of a housing development by a state or local regulatory agency, and the issuance of approval or denial of permitting for said development, the relevant agencies shall approve permitting for said development.

Section 3 (Empty Homes Tax)
i. Should a residential property lie vacant for more than six months of the calendar year, the owner of the property shall pay a tax equal to 1% of the property's assessed value in said calendar year.
a. Revenues from this tax shall be allocated to the construction of affordable public housing.
b. If the property is owned by a corporation not created or organized inside of Atlasia, the tax paid shall be equal to 5% of the property's assessed value in said calendar year.

Section 4 (Regulations on Rent Gouging)
i. No residential landlord may increase rent for a residential unit by more than 5%, plus the rate of inflation as measured by the Atlasian Consumer Price Index, in a single calendar year.
a. This clause shall expire on January 1st, 2026.
ii. No residential landlord may increase rent for a residential unit at an annualized rate greater than 1%, plus the rate of inflation as measured by the Atlasian Consumer Price Index, in the month following any month in which the region-wide unemployment rate is calculated at 8% or greater by the Atlasian Bureau of Labor Statistics.
a. This clause shall expire on January 1st, 2026.
b. Effective January 1st, 2026, no residential landlord may increase rent for a residential unit at an annualized rate greater than 5%, plus the rate of inflation as measured by the Atlasian Consumer Price Index, in the month following any month in which the region-wide unemployment rate is calculated at 8% or greater by the Atlasian Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Section 5 (Implementation)
i. This legislation shall come into effect immediately upon signature by the First Minister.