The Los Santos Government: An Introduction

[Thread]

Hey,

 

I'm Thread. Some of you might remember me from other servers, or from late 2017 when I used to actively play and develop here before real life obligations took over. I came back pretty recently and offered to give @Rukka and @Taunky a hand with (re-)setting up the government. A little bit about my background is that I've been an on and off government and legal roleplayer since I started way back on NGRP during SAMP's heyday, and have always had a vested interested in seeing government factions across servers succeed, lending assistance whenever I could. I have always been of the belief that a solid, consistent government faction can do wonders for the overall quality of a roleplay server, whereas an absent, lackluster government leads a void in legal roleplay.

 

Over the next few weeks, the three of us will be putting together some documents to lay the foundation for the next iteration of the server's government faction. There's a lot of ground to cover, but we're hoping to have things up and running in a few weeks so we can have elections going on. Seeing as how a government faction is something that affects nearly the whole server's playerbase, I'd like to use this thread for collective brainstorming of sorts, and to hopefully gain some comments and thoughts from the community regarding how you guys want the government to be formed.

 

Here's some issues that are at the forefront of my mind, so let me know what you guys think of them:

• How much authority should the government have over the municipal legal factions?
• How do we handle having a municipal government existing alongside a county law enforcement agency?
• How realistic and fleshed out should the government be?

 

Feel free to add your own comments, questions, and concerns by posting here or PMing me. If you think you have a strong grasp on American law, politics, and government, and want to give us a hand, also feel free to PM me.

[Rensai]

5 hours ago, Thread said:

• How realistic and fleshed out should the government be?

I personally think some semblance of realism is needed however this can easily go to far. I think that for Government to function within the confines of what is supposed to be a community based around something fun (roleplay) we should consider not making it too complicated or arduous to participate either as a constituent, or someone who holds office, or a position otherwise. As I have no experience in Government roleplay I can't really expand beyond that, but I am extremely happy to see this rework and hope it turns out great.

[Notbond]

Especially towards the start of the server the government should be very confined, any legislative body should be very small and only have the most active players who want to take part, the same goes for the executive as well. 

[Apache]

7 hours ago, Thread said:

How much authority should the government have over the municipal legal factions?

Government controls funding and picks the heads of departments for different wings, such as Chief of Police, Fire Chief, City Planner, D.A. 
I think Gov should be active and trustworthy people that should fill that role, and Legal factions should play into it. Could open up a lot of RP, Mayoral candidates backing a certain Chief of Police could add a lot of political RP into the mix and could be really cool to see.

 

7 hours ago, Thread said:

How do we handle having a municipal government existing alongside a county law enforcement agency?

I think at some point once it's more steady, we could also add a Governor of San Andreas. Maybe we could add that as a role that someone in management could fill even for the time being. Idk. 

 

7 hours ago, Thread said:

How realistic and fleshed out should the government be?

Start small and build up once you have steadily active people. Don't start with the biggest possible structure, as that will be the downfall of the gov.

[Airwolf]

I personally don't want the Government to have any authority over other legal factions to prevent a bias. If there are any IC or OOC issues, Legal Faction Management are the ones to sort it out. You can have a Mayor that is trusted at the start but when there are elections it can happen that community members vote for their friends, people who don't have sufficient experience or just because they got plans to remove certain legal faction leaders because they have a conflict of interest. 

[Taunky]

Don't need Management for it. Rukka is the Governor of San Andreas and has been for awhile.

[Thread]

Lot of good input so far.

 

@Rensai: You're right. I've always been a fan of large, robust government systems but it definitely can go too far. One of the challenges I have to sort out is to figure out the sweet spot between practically and realism.

 

@Notbond: I'm aiming to make things as streamlined as possible in the beginning, and simple enough such that a layman can understand the systems we'll lay out.

 

@Apache: I'd really like to make it such that the mayor can pick the heads of the municipal organizations. A budgeting and funding system will also be considered. To combat the SD system, we may have a staff member stand in as Governor.  

 

@Airwolf: We'll be watching like hawks to ensure nobody takes OOC advantage of any government position. A government without any power behind their actions or words isn't much. I would like to make it such that the government has some oversight and power, but not overbearingly so.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Thread

[Asesci]

I'm the opposite. In my opinion, the government faction should be the main governing authority over the executive branch of the government. There should also be two other branches: judicial and legislative. The judicial branch should be comprised of the courts of San Andreas and the legislative branch should compose the legislators (perhaps City Senate or similar.)

 

Essentially, the government should oversee other official factions, along the other two branches. Perhaps some sort of a review committee should be instated in order to make sure that LEO factions and the FD are not stepping over their boundaries. The government should be keeping these factions in line to avoid any future complications. After all, we all know what happened to LSRP's LSPD.

[Notbond]

I don't feel it would be wise for the government to have any ability to pick the heads of LEO factions. Not all abuse can be prevented, the head of an LEO faction is often not a very wanted position (at least by the people who understand the realities of it) and it is extremely time-consuming and requires experienced people. There often isn't a very large suggestion pool and OOC factors also play a part to ensure the stability of some of the most important factions on the server. 

[Thread]

@Asesci: We share the same opinion. The judicial branch is not my domain, but I'm making sure both the executive and legislative branches get up and running without a hitch. The legislative branch will be a city council, modeled after LA's council.

 

@Notbond: It will be a tricky issue to tackle. Personally, I like the idea of a nominee nominated by the mayor (after being vetted by FM) and having to be confirmed by the city council. I don't want the wrong people being chosen, so there likely will be some OOC aspect. None of this is set in stone, however.