O.K... I'm sure we'll get the child board eventually... um... anyway... here's more detail on committees. This supplements information given earlier (and replaces any lists of committees given earlier).
It's worth noting that as the game develops, the committee structural will probably (that is if
you (collectively) want it to) change radically. These rules are by no means set in stone.
First, there are the two monsters; Public Works and General Purposes. Public Works controls not just a conventional definitiuon of public works but also planning, transportation policy (include the details of public transport administration), waste disposal, etc, etc. General Purposes controls
everything not controlled by another committee (this includes, by way of example, licensing, oversight, disciplinary stuff, relations with the police and fire services... etc...). At some point it's pretty much inevitable that calls will be made to break up the monsters.
And then there is the Finance Committee, which controls the purse strings and rates (ie; local property-based taxation). It's both extremely powerful and rather weak. The power of its Chairman tends to increase in the runup to the yearly budget being announced.
Next the are two committees that are extremely powerful in their own area, but have little power outside it; the Chamberlain Local Education Authority (which controls education policy in the city; including the cirriculum at this stage. Additional edited in note; if you're interested in this committee, it'd be a good idea to become somewhat familiar (even in a very general way) with the issue of selective education and the introduction of the comprehensive system) and the Housing Committee (which does exactly what it says on the tin. This, for any Americans present
, includes being, in effect, the landlord of the city's council estates, that's public housing to you).
And there are three weak committees that inevitably bow to pressure from the strong; Public Health, Welfare, Arts & Leisure.
Finally, there is the Full Council. It controls general policy and has to rubberstamp decisions made in committee. The "committee's" chairman in a literal sense is the Lord Mayor, but in terms of power, it's the Leader.
So, how do they work?
First, read what was written about them earlier. But some more details...
1. Committee appointments are made by the Leader of each group (the Leader can have the Chief Whip vet them if he likes) and no one else.
2. Commitee chairman are (as mentioned earlier) also appointed by the Leader (ditto vetting etc). Note for leaders; there's nowt wrong in appointing NPC's to chair committees. Some of these people are rather senior, rather powerful, and could cause you a
lot of trouble if you sideline them.
3. Each committee will get its own thread on the child board. The only people who may post in these threads are committee members. Exactly how decisions are made is up the Chairman of each committee. Public votes
must be held for all decisions made by the Full Council, but this is not strictly necessary in committees. (postings on the committee threads will be assumed to count as minutes).
4. Councillors may be a member of up to three committees (NOT including the Full Council), but may not chair more than one.
5. Councillors can be removed from committees by the Leader or Chief Whip of their group without notice. The General Purposes Committee can also remove councillors from committees (and can also suspend and expel councillors from the council) but hearings must be held in public before that can happen. Note that, at this stage, this is the only way (barring a criminal conviction or electoral defeat) that corrupt councillors can be removed from their positions, and their office. The introduction of outside bodies to regulate this area is decades away.
6. Committees may call any of the following to give evidence; councillors who aren't members of the committee, the Leader of the council (even if he
is a member of the committee), any and all Council officers (ie; civil servants), any and all members of the public (including senior policemen or whatever, for example).
7. Oh yes, the finance committee. There won't be any need to pass a formal budget, just make general decisions about which departments and projects are getting more money, which are getting less... the same applies to the various kinds of rates (to make this simple, let's just have two. Ordinary (paid by the citizens), Business (paid by all businesses and etc). Just say whether they're going up or down and by what %.
I think that's enough for now. Ask any questions if thee has them.
(yes, yes, yes... there
is potential for abuse here. That's both deliberate and realistic).
