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TGLS · 01-08-2021, 04:52 PM

Question 51 [CTY] – Key factions in the Transitional Authority for YOU-Topia
Part 3/3
Popular Assemblies

“The popular assemblies of YOU-Topia are the instruments of the people of YOU-Topia to hold the Transitional Authority of YOU-Topia to account for its decisions. There shall be a Leaseholder’s Assembly to represent the interests of the T3L-holders. The undersigned Civil Defense Committees shall be allowed to continue operation provided they renounce violent direct action. The Special Representative shall form any other popular assemblies on an ‘as needed’ basis.”

This is all the charter had to say about the popular assemblies. Since the establishment of the charter, there have been only two popular assemblies established by the special representative; the Resident’s Advisory Board (as established by Ruan) and the Supreme Jury.

The Leaseholder’s Assembly is probably the most important of the Popular Assemblies. Each Top-Level Lot Leases (T3L) held grants one vote within the borough it’s located. There are seventy-one boroughs, each electing two assembly members, a primary and an alternate. With a small number of voters in each borough, councilmembers are usually held to account by voters. There are four broad factions on the Leaseholder’s Assembly:

The Corporatists, which is mainly formed by Neurocorp and the other large corporations that lease lots in YOU-Topia. They favor low taxes and prefer security measures to social welfare programs.
The High Residents, the Upper Class who lease the lots their houses sit on directly from YOU-Topia PLC. They share the preference for low taxes with the corporatists but are more inclined to support welfare to curb crime.
The Landlords, who range from people who sublet rooms to operators of small-scale apartment complexes. Much of their clientele is poorer, and they occasionally support welfare measures as this can help their occupancy ratings.
The Condominiums, the Upper Middle Class to Middle Class who jointly lease their lots through a homeowner’s association or similarly structured organization. They form the faction that empathizes most with the plight of the poor, as they tend to be most likely to find themselves walking along the edge.

Until the reforms of Representative Ruan, the chief power of the Leaseholder’s Assembly was the control of the samooblozhenie. Under the Transitional Authority for YOU-Topia’s charter, taxes were fixed at a percentage of the leasing fee collected by YOU-Topia plc. The leasing fee has been kept artificially low for a variety of factors, but the short of it is the there are hardly any tax revenues to pay any government programs. When this grew increasingly obvious about in 5262, Representative Baldini came up with a clever plan; taxes were fixed, but there was nothing stopping the Leaseholder’s Assembly from agreeing to pay a voluntary tax. So periodically the Leaseholder’s Assembly either agrees to pay or refuses to and messes up the budget. This usually meant the other factions had to cooperate with the Special Representative or the Corporatists got their way.

After Ruan agreed to stop vetoing the decisions of the Leaseholder’s Assembly (in order to secure funding to purchase multiple T3Ls), the Assembly has grown more dynamic. The Landlords try to push schemes to line their own pockets. The Corporatists try to curb investigations into police brutality. The High Residents get to act all NIMBY. The Condominiums try to enforce rent control. One can wonder whether they realized they gave up their only tool (now that the municipal government no longer relies on them for revenue) for a politician’s promise.

The Resident’s Advisory Board is basically two organizations merged in a weird way. It represents the interests of the tenants of the municipally owned T3Ls. Representative Ruan views it as necessary to ensure that tenants gain confidence in this scheme, so people will welcome the further purchase of T3Ls by the municipal government, as opposed to simply seeing them as a landlord that controls the police. This does make municipal owned areas some of the best served areas in the city. The other factor is it’s used to get a barometer of public opinion from the common man. It isn’t a perfect way to handle this, though the T3Ls do provide a diverse mix of residents.

The Supreme Jury is the other popular assembly. It is convened on the order of the Special Representative to fact-find and make decisions on crimes, legislation, treaties, etc. It can be convened by the Superintending Procurator to investigate the Special Representative. When convened, twenty-five residents selected at random and are sequestered to review evidence and deliberate, until a decision is made. The Supreme Jury is rarely invoked, including the decision of whether to sign the PARADIGM Treaty in ‘51, a review of the actions of Representative Di Pietro in ’74, the trial of the Pearl Gate CDC in ‘81, the Sluse Seven Trial in ’88, and after LD-8 Incident in ‘03. An extremely dubious jury was convened by Executive Procurator Papke in the wake of the Ursulas Scandal, though it was superseded by the PARADIGM Treaty Court.

Question 67 [CTY] - What are the "Civil Defense Committees"?

01-08-2021, 04:52 PM	#87
TGLS Join Date: Jan 2014	Re: [GAME] Synthesise a Cybercity! Question 51 [CTY] – Key factions in the Transitional Authority for YOU-Topia Part 3/3 Popular Assemblies “The popular assemblies of YOU-Topia are the instruments of the people of YOU-Topia to hold the Transitional Authority of YOU-Topia to account for its decisions. There shall be a Leaseholder’s Assembly to represent the interests of the T3L-holders. The undersigned Civil Defense Committees shall be allowed to continue operation provided they renounce violent direct action. The Special Representative shall form any other popular assemblies on an ‘as needed’ basis.” This is all the charter had to say about the popular assemblies. Since the establishment of the charter, there have been only two popular assemblies established by the special representative; the Resident’s Advisory Board (as established by Ruan) and the Supreme Jury. The Leaseholder’s Assembly is probably the most important of the Popular Assemblies. Each Top-Level Lot Leases (T3L) held grants one vote within the borough it’s located. There are seventy-one boroughs, each electing two assembly members, a primary and an alternate. With a small number of voters in each borough, councilmembers are usually held to account by voters. There are four broad factions on the Leaseholder’s Assembly: The Corporatists, which is mainly formed by Neurocorp and the other large corporations that lease lots in YOU-Topia. They favor low taxes and prefer security measures to social welfare programs. The High Residents, the Upper Class who lease the lots their houses sit on directly from YOU-Topia PLC. They share the preference for low taxes with the corporatists but are more inclined to support welfare to curb crime. The Landlords, who range from people who sublet rooms to operators of small-scale apartment complexes. Much of their clientele is poorer, and they occasionally support welfare measures as this can help their occupancy ratings. The Condominiums, the Upper Middle Class to Middle Class who jointly lease their lots through a homeowner’s association or similarly structured organization. They form the faction that empathizes most with the plight of the poor, as they tend to be most likely to find themselves walking along the edge. Until the reforms of Representative Ruan, the chief power of the Leaseholder’s Assembly was the control of the samooblozhenie. Under the Transitional Authority for YOU-Topia’s charter, taxes were fixed at a percentage of the leasing fee collected by YOU-Topia plc. The leasing fee has been kept artificially low for a variety of factors, but the short of it is the there are hardly any tax revenues to pay any government programs. When this grew increasingly obvious about in 5262, Representative Baldini came up with a clever plan; taxes were fixed, but there was nothing stopping the Leaseholder’s Assembly from agreeing to pay a voluntary tax. So periodically the Leaseholder’s Assembly either agrees to pay or refuses to and messes up the budget. This usually meant the other factions had to cooperate with the Special Representative or the Corporatists got their way. After Ruan agreed to stop vetoing the decisions of the Leaseholder’s Assembly (in order to secure funding to purchase multiple T3Ls), the Assembly has grown more dynamic. The Landlords try to push schemes to line their own pockets. The Corporatists try to curb investigations into police brutality. The High Residents get to act all NIMBY. The Condominiums try to enforce rent control. One can wonder whether they realized they gave up their only tool (now that the municipal government no longer relies on them for revenue) for a politician’s promise. The Resident’s Advisory Board is basically two organizations merged in a weird way. It represents the interests of the tenants of the municipally owned T3Ls. Representative Ruan views it as necessary to ensure that tenants gain confidence in this scheme, so people will welcome the further purchase of T3Ls by the municipal government, as opposed to simply seeing them as a landlord that controls the police. This does make municipal owned areas some of the best served areas in the city. The other factor is it’s used to get a barometer of public opinion from the common man. It isn’t a perfect way to handle this, though the T3Ls do provide a diverse mix of residents. The Supreme Jury is the other popular assembly. It is convened on the order of the Special Representative to fact-find and make decisions on crimes, legislation, treaties, etc. It can be convened by the Superintending Procurator to investigate the Special Representative. When convened, twenty-five residents selected at random and are sequestered to review evidence and deliberate, until a decision is made. The Supreme Jury is rarely invoked, including the decision of whether to sign the PARADIGM Treaty in ‘51, a review of the actions of Representative Di Pietro in ’74, the trial of the Pearl Gate CDC in ‘81, the Sluse Seven Trial in ’88, and after LD-8 Incident in ‘03. An extremely dubious jury was convened by Executive Procurator Papke in the wake of the Ursulas Scandal, though it was superseded by the PARADIGM Treaty Court. Question 67 [CTY] - What are the "Civil Defense Committees"? Last edited by TGLS; 01-09-2021 at 12:57 PM.