The mess that is the Pacific (and its Constitution)

[Adam Griffin]

As I posted earlier, the entire Pacific Government has been absent for going on 11 days. The Governor himself did not log in to the forum at all for roughly 10 days, beginning shortly before this hiatus of all elected officials.

EXECUTIVE:

The problem with the current government and Constitution is not just this, but the fact that there is really no recourse for the citizens whatsoever. I misspoke in my original post; there is no recall measure in the Constitution to allow citizens to act on this:

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There is also no mention in Article 3 (Executive) of provisions that result in automatic removal from office of the Governor, meaning that he can in effect be absent for an infinite amount of time. There is a provision that states:

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LEGISLATIVE:

But the fact remains that all Councillors have been MIA from duty for 11 days now! And what about them? Are there provisions to see that inactive Councillors can be removed from office? As I already mentioned, there is no recall mechanism in the Pacific. The only way a Councillor can be removed is:

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Wait a minute! It would appear that "poor behavior" is defined here in the Constitution, and that "absences lasting longer than ten days" mean that "the seat will then be considered vacant". So one interpretation leads us to believe that we have no Pacific Council at the moment, and Councillors Potus2036 and Spamage have been removed from office automatically.

The other interpretation (for those who like to get crafty) is that they have not been removed from office yet, and that the first part of Article IV Section 3 may mean that the Council has the right to remove Councillors for aforementioned reasons, after which point their seats are considered vacant. In either case, deeply disturbing!

On top of that, Potus2036, Spamage, and Averroes Nix were elected to the Pacific Council in October. Nix was also elected to the Senate, so I don't think he ever took office in the Pacific Council. It appears that the Governor never appointed a third Councilor. Why wasn't a third Councilor ever appointed?

JUDICIAL:

And where's the Pacific Justice in all of this? Well, the Justice has the authority in the Constitution to open a voting booth if the Governor's office has been vacated:

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There is no other mention of the Pacific Justice having the authority to open a voting booth in lieu of an inactive Governor; only if the Governor's office is vacant. There is also no mention of the Pacific Justice having any authority whatsoever to open a voting booth for the Pacific Council, vacant or otherwise.

And on top of that, there is no Pacific Justice. Likely Senator-elect Bacon King was appointed AG several weeks ago and there has been no replacement. The Governor even acknowledged this as being a benefit while he was still active when passing a Right to Life bill:

Eheu, we no longer have a Justice to tell us whether or not we can actually do this, but I'm all for it notwithstanding.

Why wasn't the Pacific Justice replaced?


So, hinging upon the interpretation of Article IV Section 3, we have one of two scenarios in the Pacific right now:

1) The Governor is inactive and cannot be removed from office nor recalled by the citizens. He can only be removed by the Council, two out of three of whom have been removed from office for being absent longer than ten days (with the third never being appointed). The Pacific Justice has no authority to open a voting booth for the Council, and on top of that, there is no Pacific Justice.

2) The Governor is inactive and cannot be removed from office nor recalled by the citizens. He can only be removed by the Council, two out of three of whom are still Councilors but who are inactive and cannot be recalled by the citizens (and one vacancy that was never appointed). The Councilors can only be removed from office by the Council voting to expel each Councilor. The Pacific Justice has no authority to open a voting booth even if the Councilors were to expel themselves, and on top of that, there is no Pacific Justice.  


Am I missing something here, or are we going to have to make up "precedent" and basically break the Constitution to fix this if circumstances (aka elected officials) don't fix themselves?

[Adam Griffin]

I am back in, and will do my duty to vote, share ideas, and endorse others. I must apologize for not voting in the big election last month.

Hmm, so actually I am a registered Federalist, and I have decided that I will stay that way.
I also promise to vote on every future bill.

It appears that Potus2036 and Spamage are the only two Councilors. I can't find a record of where you were appointed; Nix was elected as the third Councilor in October and there was no mention of you being appointed in Simfan's office.

Appointed under Cranberry.

When he was Governor? We've had elections since then.

[Adam Griffin]

I'll just remind everyone (yet again) that FTRA is the only lasting pathway forward for any solution being discussed here that revolves around two regions interacting in such a way. Al does bring up an interesting point about the 10 Senator issue, though, and that would ultimately have to be considered. The first step, however, would be for (one or two?) more regions to ratify FTRA and then proceed through consent process, alteration of Constitution in any other needed ways like mentioned above, and then additional public votes on the merger of any regions.

[Adam Griffin]

Nay I say, nay to all of this!

I'm just glad you're saying something!

[Adam Griffin]

With the second round of inactive messes in the Pacific now upon us, we can at least be grateful that there is a judicial officer in place to handle things if the worst comes to pass.