S.20.4.11 - Amendment to the Appointment Regulation Act [PASSED]

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

The Appointment Regulation Act is hereby amended to read:

Appointment Regulation Act

1. When filling a vacancy in the Southern Chamber of Delegates, the Governor shall select an eligible individual who is registered under the same party that the resigned, deregistered, or deceased incumbent was registered under at the time of their resignation, deregistration, or death.

2. If the resigned, deregistered, or deceased incumbent was registered as an independent, or if the party they were registered under has since been abolished, the governor may then select any eligible individual, regardless of party registration or lack thereof.

3. In all cases, the governor is encouraged to select someone of similar ideology to the incumbent.

4. In the event that the governor cannot find anyone from the appropriate party to take the seat, they then have the following options:
 a. They may appoint an eligible individual outside of the party, but this individual must be approved by a unanimous vote of the chamber before that individual can take office.
 b. In the event the Governor and the Chamber cannot settle on an appointment, the Governor may call a special election. The election shall occur on the following weekend and adhere to all regional election laws, but may not occur within 48 hours of the special election being called. If no appointment is made within 7 days of the vacancy arising, a special election shall automatically be called.

5. Once the appointed individual is sworn in, or once an election is called under 4b., the action is final and cannot be rescinded

Sponsor: tmthforyou94

Minimum 72 hours to debate. The sponsor is invited to advocate for their bill on the floor.

[tmthforu94]

DTC - Thank you for bringing this to the floor. My intention behind this is the belief that the current process is tedious and needs clarification, and there have been recent problems with the party chair involvement and questions over how much power they should have, most recently WB and I following a request from the Labor Chair and then receiving an onslaught of nasty personal attacks from former Labor President Pericles, which provided a great distraction to Chamber business.

The original (and current) text can be found here: https://talkelections.org/AFEWIKI/index.php?title=Appointment_Regulation_Act

What changed (using clauses from old text):
Clause 1 - nothing
Clause 2 (from old bill) - This clause stated that the governor could solicit a recommendation from the party chair of resigned member, but it carried absolutely no teeth and is unnecessary to include.
Clause 2 - No changes regarding what happens with an independent delegate
Clause 3 - Again, no changes regarding encouraging that the person is of similar ideology (also toothless, but felt it was good to leave in to show the spirit of our intentions)
Clause 4 - Removes the first mandate that if an appointment is made out of party, the party chair must approve. This gets messy and issues have happened recently regarding it. More importantly, I don't see why we should be granting power/authority to people who may not even be a citizen of our region. Instead, a unanimous vote is required is required from the Chamber, which more likely than not will require the approval of someone within the same party as the resigned member. (Note: this has always been an option for the Governor to take as opposed to the party chair route, which I think has been confusing to some)

Another important piece on this clause was amending the wording on how special elections occur, providing more clarification as the previous wording was vague. Additionally, this requires that a decision must be reached within 7 days - if the Governor doesn't make an appointment or if the Chamber rejects a nominee of a different party, it automatically goes to a special.

Clause 5 - clarifies that it is final once the appointed individual swears in. Before it states once the appointment is made, but that creates a loophole if the Governor appoints someone but they never swear in (which we were recently at risk of happening).

TL;DR: removes power from party chairs and keeps decisions regional, provides needed clarification on special election process.

[tmthforu94]

Everyone good with this going to a vote? It is pretty straightforward.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

As the author of the original version of the Act, would like to voice my support for the revisions here. The bill was originally written the way it was because there was an expressed desire to avoid special elections whenever possible, so we included various pathways to get an out-of-party appointment approved, including the party chair or their designee, the resigned incumbent, or a unanimous vote of the chamber. Admittedly this wide berth did leave some potential for abuse.

If the region is ready to accept occasional special elections for the Chamber, then I look forward to them passing this into law.

[tmthforu94]

I am calling for a final vote.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

I am calling for a final vote.

We will now be voting on this bill. Please vote AYE, NAY, or Abstain.

Members will have 72 hours to vote on this legislation.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Aye

[tmthforu94]

Aye

[reagente]

aye

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

I vote Abstain.

This bill passed with 3 Aye’s and 2 abstains/no votes. It now goes to the governor’s desk to sign.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I had some level of uncertainty about whether the law should be touched at all but I'm fine with it because Wulfric, the author of the original bill, endorsed it. Expect a signing.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Appointment Regulation Act

1. When filling a vacancy in the Southern Chamber of Delegates, the Governor shall select an eligible individual who is registered under the same party that the resigned, deregistered, or deceased incumbent was registered under at the time of their resignation, deregistration, or death.

2. If the resigned, deregistered, or deceased incumbent was registered as an independent, or if the party they were registered under has since been abolished, the governor may then select any eligible individual, regardless of party registration or lack thereof.

3. In all cases, the governor is encouraged to select someone of similar ideology to the incumbent.

4. In the event that the governor cannot find anyone from the appropriate party to take the seat, they then have the following options:
 a. They may appoint an eligible individual outside of the party, but this individual must be approved by a unanimous vote of the chamber before that individual can take office.
 b. In the event the Governor and the Chamber cannot settle on an appointment, the Governor may call a special election. The election shall occur on the following weekend and adhere to all regional election laws, but may not occur within 48 hours of the special election being called. If no appointment is made within 7 days of the vacancy arising, a special election shall automatically be called.

5. Once the appointed individual is sworn in, or once an election is called under 4b., the action is final and cannot be rescinded