Elections, Politics & Government Structure

[kenichis]

Alright so my suggestion is straightforward, give us a Mayor. The Mayor would act as the leader of the Government faction and would be elected every term. The term can be whatever the server decides (probably 1-2 months) and the Mayor would be capable of doing actions that involve things server wide (banning drags, press meetings, etc.) It would lead to a lot of cool roleplay (political campaigns, elections, etc.) and generally I think will improve the immersive ness of the server.

I understand that not everyone will be able to fulfill the demanding tasks that come with being a position like that. Which is why selection for the position should be monitored by the admin team. People who want to run for mayor would make an OOC application and then if they fit the criteria would then start an IC campaign.

Why this should be added:

• I feel that besides doing business licensing the Government faction is a bit of a no show in the city. Yes once in a while they show up and do interesting things, but most of the time City Hall is just, there. Nothing really happens in that NCZ and most people don’t even know we have it. With the addition of a Mayor as the faction leader this would give the faction a new better image that will reach more people.
• Increased immersive ness and more roleplay possibilities that I listed already.
• Other servers already have this feature. This would make Eclipse as a server seem more feature packed and generally stand out more compared to the competition.
• More IC things that are usually handled OOCly via server suggestions now have an actual place to be submitted. Things that people feel should get changed can now be brought up to the Mayor and it is up to him whether he feels it is a good change or not, all within server rules of course.

[Yputi]

I think it's fine how it is now.

[Pearson]

I appreciate the idea and believe City Hall should include additional roleplay to continue to be relevant.  However I don't believe the introduction of this role is necessary.

[Meowksius]

+1 I like it

[Amaim]

I don't understand why there are no elections and campaigns, it's super fun and I saw it in many servers in SAMP and it was successful.

Elections each fixed period of time.

The mayor can have authoritu over legal factions, would be assigned detail from PD/SD if necessary.

The mayor can have control over tax percentages. (With a limit)

The mayor controls the funds for LSPD, LSSD, DOC & EMT with a monthly budget proposed by the legal faction heads.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Amaim

[Aldarine]

Government factions are supervised and managed by our Legal Faction Management Team OOCly and ICly by our Commissioners who are Head Administrators. While I would like to see City Hall become more involved with everyday roleplay, I do not believe for a second that we should have a player in the server with oversight over our legal factions. Any position like this would be in name alone and have no actual power. There is more to managing legal factions than you think and fundamental server operations is a huge factor which cannot be dealt with by a normal player. This is a -1 from me.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Aldarine

[Jasmine]

On 2/3/2020 at 11:21 AM, Aldarine said:

Government factions are supervised and managed by our Legal Faction Management Team OOCly and ICly by our Commissioners who are Head Administrators. While I would like to see City Hall become more involved with everyday roleplay, I do not believe for a second that we should have a player in the server with oversight over our legal factions. Any position like this would be in name alone and have no actual power. There is more to managing legal factions than you think and fundamental server operations is a huge factor which cannot be dealt with by a normal player. This is a -1 from me.

I partially agree to this. 

Mainly because, there are players out there who are willing to put in significant time and effort into this job, and become more involved in everyday roleplay. They could be out there RPing and making things happen, and have an Admin who supports them with script/faction management. This is already happening to some extent at the casino, which is mostly run be a player, and she is supported by a admin faction leader to help with faction management and scripting. 

Within the government, a lot of the business work is being done by a player as well. And she is supported by the faction leader.

I think a voted/elected/or even appointed player official could help bring the gov faction out to the public, and push gov/civ/pd interactions, and also lessen the burden on the faction leader. The faction leader can focus on script/faction management, and the player official can put in the hours/work/effort needed, undistracted by admin/faction duties. 

You could even have a mayor/city commissioner team. Many city have 4-5 commissioners, and within those elected officials, one serves as mayor, others serve as vice-mayor etc. This way, the faction leader can still maintain control, but allow a player official to help with engagement in everyday roleplay.

[eradicati0n]

Mayoral Elections & Political System

 

I've played for quite a while on the server now, enjoying both Crim and Legal RP. However, there's one thing that I really think is missing from the Legal RP side, and that is leadership in the city. Crim characters have leadership figures in their gang leaders, but legal character don't really have much recourse for having their say on city laws and rules, and there is a distinct lack of community spirit in the city. To remedy this, I would like to suggest a political system which allows the average citizen to have their say politically and vote in a Mayor who would help to influence goings on in the city, organize community events, and lobby the government for changes the people want to see. I personally would suggest this format, please note that all time measurements are given in terms of IRL time:

 

Every year, select players would be able to apply to be a mayoral candidate. These players should be leaders of legal Political groups, and meet the following requirements:

OOC Requirements

• At least 50k Player XP
• No Admin warnings/punishments in the past year

IC Requirements

• No misdemeanour charges in the past year (excluding minor speeding tickets or traffic infractions)
• No Felony charges on record
• No affiliation to known gang members, or membership of any non-legal faction

 

Mayoral candidates would be selected through a shortlist selected by Government officials, looking at their levels of support through membership and survey-based ratings, rather than political views. This would be shortlisted to 2 or 3 candidates so as not the spread the votes too thin. Shortlists should occur 6 months before each election, making the political parties with the shortlisted Mayoral candidates Official factions with an official treasury, so that they may set aside funds for campaigning and paying staff.

 

Party Format:

Political parties should be properly formulated and structured with fully legal, like-minded individuals. Parties can advocate for a variety of political views, right to left, excluding extremism that encourages violence against the opposition. Political parties whose Mayoral nominees are shortlisted would have 5 months to accrue funds, and a month to campaign for the vote of the citizens of Los Santos. This would be through Weazel News, Party Political Broadcasts on Youtube, Party Advertisements on LifeInvader, leafleting, and at least one set of cross-candidate debates to be held in a City Hall-type location.

 

Election Process:

The process of voting for a Mayor would take place after all campaigning is finished, over a period of between two weeks and a month, done through an in-character Google Forms sheet available through Discord, LifeInvader and all Weazel News outlets in-game. This would collect each individual vote and would be tied to your in-character name, allowing all of your characters to vote but not allowing them to vote multiple times for a single candidate, or multiple. This could also be done a different way to prevent multiple votes from the same character, however Admins see fit. To avoid new accounts being created to vote, anyone under 5k XP (New Player) would not be eligible to vote in the election. The winner would be chosen by a simple majority, rather than any complex political system to avoid undue complaints and criticism from the community

 

Election Results:

Election results would be announced at peak time the day after the close of elections, with the winner being given a Government-funded parade through the streets, along with giving an acceptance speech at a location of their choice, be that City Hall, Observatory, Church, where-ever they see fit (within reason). After the parade and acceptance speech, the Mayor would then work with community representatives to handle issues that the community sees as important, including police activity within the city, financial policy, community events, industry regulation and more.

 

Conclusion

In closing, I think the overall RP quality of the server would be vastly improved by having such a large RP-centric event happening across the city. This gives people of every class of life a voice and a way to be heard, be it farmers, truck drivers, money transporters, millionaires, mechanics, and everything in between. I thoroughly enjoy spending time in the city, but I feel that in-depth RP is often quite sparse, as people seem to be more focused on grinding for money because they don't see much quality RP around them. Having such publicly visible RP that involves the entire player base of the server helps to involve everyone in more in-depth RP that can open their eyes to even more RP that could be had.

 

Furthermore, the role of Mayor could open up even more RP aside from just the election. Rallies could be held to show support for certain causes, protests could be held about controversial issues, there could even be political process to oppose the Mayor should he or she be thought to not working in the true interest of the people, including impeachment or votes of no confidence. I believe that the people that regularly play on this server are passionate about its success, and recent developer updates over the past year have helped to introduce more features to spread people around the map and get them doing more things they're interested in, but I think more could be done to introduce quality RP in the server and make people realize that their RP doesn't always have to be money or property focused, and they can instead focus on causes and processes that are important and help to build character.

[Victor Einhart]

+1, it would be nice to have civilian input into government functions.  Right now at least in terms of LSPD, the final boss in the chain of command is the Commissioner's office, when in reality it would be some form of elected official like a mayor or governor.  Having said that, there should be some form of ooc corruption rule similar to PD and SD to prevent abuse.

Edited August 24, 2020 by Victor Einhart

[eradicati0n]

 

Having said that, there should be some form of ooc corruption rule similar to PD and SD to prevent abuse.

Agreed, there absolutely should be for such an important position

[CaesarSeizure]

If this was a thing, it should be harsher than PD to not allow any corruption and no corruption permission to be granted, maybe down the line, but considering it would be a new thing corruption would ruin it from the start.

Regarding voting, i believe using the most common practice in the US would make sense, that is to not allow people who have committed felonies for a certain time. This would allow people to regain their voting rights after some time, but would prevent constant felons from influencing the vote and the general state to be more in favor of crime. While the OOC corruptions rules would likely protect against that, this would give people who are turning their life around to be part of the change, while not allowing constant felons to influence votes.

I think what could also work is allowing for 1 voted in government official to sit at the table, this would mean that when the commissioners are discussing potential changes, 1 person on the table would be in a position to represent the people and might even be pushing for changes that the commissioners do not.

It does not have to be a mayor, but representing the people is something the server could benefit from.

[Percival]

+1 

the server needs a player ran and elected government body to inspire more roleplay in this server, this is the same for a judicial group/system to inspire legal roleplay in a different manner than just cops and robbers. These systems will be astronomical in increasing the server’s playerbase and retention of players who join. Many players have expressed interest in the politics and court roleplay both criminal and legal faction members.

[eradicati0n]

 

If this was a thing, it should be harsher than PD to not allow any corruption and no corruption permission to be granted, maybe down the line, but considering it would be a new thing corruption would ruin it from the start.

Regarding voting, i believe using the most common practice in the US would make sense, that is to not allow people who have committed felonies for a certain time. This would allow people to regain their voting rights after some time, but would prevent constant felons from influencing the vote and the general state to be more in favor of crime. While the OOC corruptions rules would likely protect against that, this would give people who are turning their life around to be part of the change, while not allowing constant felons to influence votes.

I think what could also work is allowing for 1 voted in government official to sit at the table, this would mean that when the commissioners are discussing potential changes, 1 person on the table would be in a position to represent the people and might even be pushing for changes that the commissioners do not.

It does not have to be a mayor, but representing the people is something the server could benefit from.

I did think of something like this (excluding felons from voting). It would ideally not be as harsh as the Form C requirements, which is 18 months IRL, but maybe 3 - 6 IRL months

[eradicati0n]

 

+1 

the server needs a player ran and elected government body to inspire more roleplay in this server, this is the same for a judicial group/system to inspire legal roleplay in a different manner than just cops and robbers. These systems will be astronomical in increasing the server’s playerbase and retention of players who join. Many players have expressed interest in the politics and court roleplay both criminal and legal faction members.

For my legal character, I've been interested in Political RP for quite a while. After achieving the baser needs of a car, a house etc, I think people need something to aim for that isn't just more money on the legal side, and involving themselves in politics, either as a party member or just an interested voter, is definitely something that would be good for legal RP I think

[KonaKealoha]

HUGE +1000 I want to see this AND a criminal justice/court system 

[NixieHays]

+1

[Xoza]

+1

Great ideas, here's my input.

• I don't think there should be any kind of 'party' system.
• IC requirements should have the following.
  • Should have experience in a government faction.
  • Misdemeanor charges could be lightened a little (this could give politics a little 'scandal' to RP off of.).
• Should be term limits. "Can only be 'in office' for 6 months total."
• Must be locked to 'no corruption'

Mayor should be able to do the following.

• Perform all Gov duties.
• Adjust taxes by 3% +/- (this would affect his own pay)
• Pardon individuals (could lead to more scandal and dismissal if viewed negativity)
• Drive the focus of city leaders / government departments.
• Can adjust laws very slightly and create edicts that focus on specific areas that need focus or improvement.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Xoza

[MrJangoon]

-1 while yes i think this is a good idea, i believe it should be an rped hting rather than a scripted feature per ce.

[Xoza]

The voting system would only need to be the scripted feature. However this can be also done on Life Invader with polls but that wouldn't accommodate the following, preventative scripted feature suggestions.

• Voting Citizens
  • Can't have a felony in the past week.
  • Must have 50k XP.
  • Must have logged at least 8 hours game time in the last 7 days.

As for benefits to the Mayor, they too can get some pretty easily scripted features that would not require special permissions from staff.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Xoza

[XtraShrimpyGuy]

+1

I've wanted to RP as a lawyer for some time and adding a political/justice system would help immensely. It would give a lot more power to legal players to make changes in the city. This would also make playing as a legal character way more rewarding as you can now influence decisions being made.

[Andy Mason]

+1

This will further add more RP content as well as something new in the server

[XxTheIrishGuyxX]

Hello ECRP, 

I consider myself an experienced resident of Los Santos, and I am always looking for ways to make the server better. I know I am shooting for the stars here, but hey go big or go home. I have seen a lot of people throw out ideas, some good, some bad. From what I have seen (correct me if I am wrong) the majority of complaints on the server come from the admin team, and the player base, having different goals, and visions of the server. I propose the following change in order to bridge the gap between the admin team (and development team), and the player base. 

My suggestion is the creation of a Mayor in Los Santos. This will help balance the needs of the admin team, and the player base. Since the Mayor will reflect the people, The Mayor can't be a current part of the admin team (OOCly), or a State Government Commissioner (ICly). This is to create a system of checks and balances, as described in Section D below. The primary responsibility of the Mayor would be to ensure that the people of Los Santos are heard.

Section A : How the Mayor will be elected:

1.      If a citizen wants to run for Mayor, they first will need to obtain two hundred and fifty (250) signatures from other citizens, in a certain time period.

2.      After a person receives two hundred and fifty (250) signatures from citizens of Los Santos, they are eligible to be placed on the ballot, for the election of Mayor.

3.      Once the time period from step 1 expires, a general election will then be held. The citizens on the ballot for Mayor, will be everybody who received greater than 250 signatures from step 1. The winner of the election will be the person who receives the greatest number of votes.

Section B : General Specifics:

1.      Mayor term length: 4 Months. Any shorter length will lead to a Mayor not being able to make effective change. Any longer length will lead to slow turnover.

2.      Able to be reelected: Yes.

3.      Lieutenant Governor: The Mayor will select a Lieutenant Governor to run with him/her. This person will be second in command behind the mayor, and take over the Mayoral responsibilities, if the Mayor can’t perform their duty.

4.      Election process: See Section A.

5.      Mayor responsibilities: See Section C.

6.      How the Mayor’s responsibilities will be put into law: See Section D.

Section C : Possible Mayor policies: (note this list is not collectively exhaustive)

IC:

1.      Lowering or raising taxes.

2.      Increasing or decreasing fines.

3.      Removing and creating new laws.

4.      Creating new businesses.

5.      Holding town hall discussions.

6.      Creating events that occur in Los Santos.

OOC:

1.      Creating new factions.

2.      Adding, adjusting, or removing server rules.

3.      Discussing with the admin team about adding new activities.

4.      Sit in on admin discussions about the future of the server and give their opinion.

Section D : How Mayor polices would be put into effect:

1.      Mayor decides on a policy.

2.      Mayor sends the policy to his or her counsel (admin team) to see if the policy if technically feasible (able to be implemented on the server) [OOC vote].

3.      If the Mayor's counsel (admin team) approves the policy, the policy is then sent to the San Andreas State Government Commissioners to vote on [IC Vote].

4.      If the vote is passed by the San Andreas State Government Commissioners, the policy becomes law (changes are implemented to the server).

Let me know what you think. Give me your honest feedback.

Thank you,

Edited October 16, 2020 by XxTheIrishGuyxX
Just formatting

[Bala]

We have the board of commissioners for that. Considering their experience IC and their positions on top of our admin team, they are likely to be the most suitable.

[VarnishD]

+1 This is a great idea. I am very interested in politics.

[Umbra_Smith]

+1 

I love this idea