[Saints News] The State of the City

[HaveADream]

The State of the City

How Has Rockford Performed?

 

Vincent Rockford, Mayor of Los Santos, considered by many to be a little camera-shy due to his lack of public appearances and press engagement, was inaugurated a little over a year ago (Source: Weazel News) after the public fall from grace of the former Mayor, who resigned over conflict with business taxes. Since his inauguration, the city of Los Santos has seen changes at the government level, but how has Rockford stacked up in Los Santos?

 

How Has The Media Reported The Rockford Administration?

 

While scarce, there are several sources of Rockford's relations with the press, with the earliest, of course, being the Weazel News article of his inauguration over a year ago. In the article, former governor Holdsworth stated that Rockford will bring 'an organised administration and stability', and while the government has appeared both organised and stable from the outside, it's difficult to see the effects of any policy that has been pushed by the current administration due to the 'behind-the-scenes' ideology of the current government, who rarely push press releases or release things through press organisations at all, coupled with the fact that the government do not currently collect any statistics for the effects of their policies or run any think-tanks on their own behalves. Earlier this year, Saints News issued a Freedom of Information Request on the demographics of the Los Santos Police Department which went unactioned due to the inability of the police department to compile statistics. 

 

The next source we have comes from R&R, which began as a breakaway group from Weazel News following an internal split from the latter towards the end of last year. The 'Bureau of Licensing shuts down The Vanilla Unicorn' was the first real experience that the public saw of Mayor Rockford, the venue was highly controversial even in its peak and its shutdown was well received by many. To quote the article, "Vasquez’ questions of whether the LSPD present were aware of the laws they were enforcing on behalf of the government and if said laws were written at the time of the incident (referencing the Rule of Law) went unanswered. Dimakos claimed the staff were obstructing, to which the Unicorn’s staff and Vasquez reaffirmed that they were not and that the LSPD could walk past them.". No follow-up, further publication or clarification was ever offered. 

 

The final source comes from Saints News, which followed a first-of-it's-kind press meeting with Mayor Rockford regarding the controversial Business Code. 'Interview With Mayor Rockford' came at a time of a social media flurry regarding the newly-pushed law, with the question of 'You're familiar with the fourth amendment, I'd assume. How would you, having read the plain text of these sections, respond to those who call the scope of these searches able to be conducted by the Department of Finance unconstitutional?' raised flags regarding the issue of the scope of power granted to the city government, but this question remained unanswered. The law itself was pushed via Section 36b of the City Charter, which is listed as;

 

'Upon suspension of City Council activities, limited legislative powers are granted to the office of the mayor to enact ordinances addressing critical issues within the City of Los Santos, subject to the Governor’s veto, with all legislation enacted during the time subject to review during the first City Council session after resumption of its activities.'

 

In regards to this section, the following was asked; 'I see you're listing the supposed 'pros' of the law, but it still doesn't answer how this was a critical issue needing to be addressed. This couldn't have waited until a city council is formed?' in which Rockford claimed a study had been conducted to support the passing of the legislation as a critical issue. This study has not been released to the public. 

 

The 'Election Question'

 

A year flies by and Los Santos appears to be no closer to holding elections - at his inauguration, Rockford said this; 'However, it is one of my main goals as the mayor to make sure the administration I leave behind is robust enough to accommodate elections. I can promise you that appointing the City Clerk to oversee the elections is one of my priorities.' when it comes to the City Charter, amended by the Rockford Administration, elections are incredibly brief. 

 

The sections regarding Elections in the City Government.

 

Further on, no legislation or action has been undertaken in public regarding the establishment of elections, however, this may be due to the 'behind-the-scenes' working of the City Government. 

 

When asked in August, Rockford had this to say regarding the election cycle. 'At the moment? We're in full swing to build sufficient district infrastructure for the elections to happen. Not only the actual voting stations, but also district offices.' the status of the aforementioned infrastructure is currently unknown and there have been no further comments of the establishment of the cities election cycle. 

 

So What Has Been Done?

 

As stated previously, it's hard to gauge the effectiveness of Rockford's changes to the city, however, the general premise of the Government Grants & Loans has appeared to placed nicely in the hearts of business owners throughout the city, with one stating bluntly that the system has 'saved my business more times than I can count.' In terms of transparency, the Government has established the bulletin, which is published weekly here, which publishes the weekly legislation placed into effect as well as the registration of new businesses and the dissolution of the old. It's very difficult to gauge further effectiveness of the governments' policy due to the lack of outright clear indications, studies and research on the subject. While the government may be either effective or ineffective, one thing that is not is transparent, it's difficult to find out who's currently working in the government or what's going on, whether we're moving to elections or not, whether legislation is currently being passed, introduced or rejected or whether anything is even happening at present. 

 

Los Santos - do you believe the government is effective or transparent? Let us know in the comments below.

 

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