Promption of City Leaders

[Mystic]

<Wozzy> I'm not entirly sure how to start off this conversation. Its very need is questionable, but I think as a growing world there comes a time and a place for such things. What i'm reffering to basicly is the leadership of the three cities, Neth, Shang'ilstar and Zihandier, and any future cities that may occure.

At this point the central goverment handles all the cities while smaller councils for each city handles the smaller details, and this works for now, but it wont forever. So I think its time we gave leadership of each city to someone (who naturally works for us as part of the chain of command). We could just give control of the cities to specific world governors, or even pairs, but personally I think its better if you all stay incontorl of the greater picture and delegate smaller control to someone else.

So how do you choose? Public voting or Leaders choice? I looked into how both Techoren and Dark Jurai do it and both seem to use a mix of both. The Techoren 9 are not voted in by the public but by the 9 themselves. The High Senate are voted in members of the Lower Sentate, voted in by the Lower Sentate with the approval of the 9. The Lower Sentate is voted in by the general public.

The Dark Jurai have the Emperor, if he ever stepped down the crown automaticaly goes to the Crown Princess, upon her succession another Crown Prince(es) would be choosen, likly her off spring, but not nessacrily. The choice is made by the riegning Emperor(ess) and the High Council. The High Council is appoinated mostly by rank (High Ranking Generals, Fleet commanders, Knights and System Lords) all of which is pretty much appointe dby the Emperor or the Council. The Lower Council however is made up of world Governors (again appointed by the Emperor) and by individuals voted in by the public to represent them.

In short, voting tends to be kept to a minim, though it does occure. If we allowed voting for city leaders here we give the people a say, we get a person to present the people from the people, and likly someone whos publicly popular. We dont nessacrly get someone who likes us, or will do what we want. We may end up with criminal figures making a power play, and voting tends to result in a regular staff turn over.

If we appoint someone ourseles we have to find a person to do the job. Likly end up with someone whos loyal and most importantly, quiflifed, but may not have a direct connection to the population.

By doing this we have a person we can put in charge of a city, we can tell them the aims and focuses and let them worry about how that city achieves it. The choice is yours and we can always just continue with the status quoe

Wozzy out

[Leila Dark Jurai]

<Leila>
A combination of both could work. An appointed authority heading the government, and an elected council. That way, the people get a chance to express their will, and we get to have a qualified person who is loyal to us at the head.

[Mystic]

<Wozzy> I'm not really so shure that'd work. You just end up with a council that ignores your choosen presentive. Unless you mean like a small city council for the menial stuff. Anyway i'm more of a believer in placing one singluar person in charge of the city. Commites are all well and nice but their frankly a waste of time. If you want a decesion ask someone, if you want a decesion have a commiete.

[Leila Dark Jurai]

<Leila>
A single person can also make the wrong decision, however allow me to elaborate. The appointed representative would be in charge so it would be kind of hard for them to ignore him or her. The purpose of the council is to allow the people to have a voice, not to allow them to rule. The council could draft ordinances and such, but would have zero power to give them force of law. They could propose solutions to problems, but could not implement these solutions themselves. Basically, they would be there in an advisory position.

[Mystic]

<Wozzy> Its worth pointing out whee talking on a city wide level here. No ones going to be writing any laws. I'm just talking about someone to run a city. Direct its growth, ensure the success of its econmanic resources and to make sure city developement, growth, education or expansion meet with OUR aims. Not for them to run the city as an indepdent city state, which would be a horrid loss of power.

I suppose we could add such people into a council of goverent, if we wanted. But that depends how much control your willing to delegate. Right now i'm just talking about overseeing the running of cities.

[Leila Dark Jurai]

<Leila>
Cities tend to have different needs. Some pass ordinances, which effectively are local laws. Mostly these cover issues too insignificant or local to cover by a planet-wide law, or which is not addressed in planetary code. But that's neither here nor there. An alternative to my original proposal, is to appoint people to run the cities, and then allow them to appoint a limited number of people designated to deal with various things. The idea is to have a good manager at the head, and below them people knowledgeable about various aspects of the city.

[Mystic]

<Wozzy> I have created a shortlist of possible candidates for the jobs of city leaders. All of them have their own talents and skills... and agendas. Definatly pick based on which direction you want that city to go. I would also suggest an informal and formal interview with either all the candidates or just the ones you truly think suitable. Its worth remembering, while you run the world, these city rulers while have a say in world politics as well.

Name: Markus Devons
Profesion: Corporation CEO

Markus currently stands as the CEO and major shareholder of the Solarus Corportion. This company holds headquarters now on four planets, though Nethilius it appears is the second largest of these. It has come to my attention that Markus is considering stepping down as CEO, while he would still remain a major shareholder. The man has proven to be effective with money, has a strong understanding of Techoren technology, and an inventor mind that looks towards the future. His assistence with the Solar Power plant also shows his willingness to work alongside us.

Shortfalls: Markus has no real understanding of Dark Juraian culture, is a man who enjoys his comforts, and his little interest in enviormental projects.

Name: Sara Cunning
Profession: Company Vice Presdent, Retired Militry Enginer

Sara Cunning currently stands as the Vice President for a large Techoren manfucturing company that primarly deals in the production of militry grade spacecraft. She has appraoched us with the offer of running one of our corportions. I believe if we placed her incharge of one of our cities she could turn it into a powerful industrail center. Encourage the growth of industry and possibly lay the ground work for developement of our own fleet.

Shortfalls: She knows industry, not healthcare, education, or argiculture. Sees herself above the average person.

Name: Dylana Presin
Profession: Senior Teraform Coordinater

Dylana is the daughter of one of Dark Jurai's world governors, and definatly eger to step out from under her fathers shadow. Shes been invovled in Terraforming projects for over the past 30 years, the last 10 years spent working as part of major projects within the Dark Jurai dead zone. Shes a quilifed Enviromental specialist with understanding of biochemstry. She'd likely focus on clean green envioremnt, the development of parks and recreation centres and argiulatural pursuits.

Shortfalls: Dislikes heavy industry/manfucturing. Untested in a major leadership role.

Name: Ragnar Razorwind
Profession: Netomi Lt Militry Commander

Currently the aged Ragnar serves as a Lt Commander in the Netomi armed forces. Due to his advancing years Ragnar is looking to retire from front line action, and so is considering stepping into politics. Hes an experienced militry commander whos hard on displine, and has recived several medals throughout his career. His primary focus wuold be education and law enforcement. .

Shortfalls: His strong sense of descplaine comes off as overly harsh to the none militry. He has trouble understanding those who dont see things as he does.

Name: Natala Sparrows
Profession: Shingala Mayor

Natala is a Juraian Mayor on the world of Gala, overseeing the city of Shingala. Reports shows that she had a strong disagreement with the ruling governor and so her mayorship wont be renewed. Natala sees herself as a woman of the people, and so focuses on what she believes the people want or need. This translates into increased standard of living, with the focus on the lower class, and increased education. Lower unemployment, and development of recreational centres.

Shortfalls: Natala's compassion for the poor often brings her into conflict with the wealthy, especialy big buisness. Her recreational centres and employment polices can cost a bit of money.

Name: Alren Mistmantle
Profession: High Priest

Alren is a High Elf from the Juraian Empire who worships the deity Vervulas. Hes spent his time pilramging from world to world to spread the way of his, and other deities of light. Juraian repression has encourage him to travel further abroad. Alren believes Nethilius to be in bad need of deific guidence and so has offered his support in leading our people into the light. He would see the growth of churchs, and the conversion of the populace to the various deites of light. He would also focus on healthcare, encouraging the development of hospitals and clinics.

Shortfalls: Alren is a simple man and so has very little understanding of the running of buisness. As a healer Alren is a man of peace with little support for war.

Name: Marival Jurai
Profession: Royal Princess

Marival is a bit of a wild card. Egger to step away from the influence of her father she can bring a strength of relgion to Nethilius, and start to encourage Juraian interest in our world. Her appointment would result in increased desipline, reduction on crime, and growth under the churchs of Tsunami. It would also help to strength Juraian invovment.

Shortfall: Untested in a leadership role such as this. Known for a short temper. Questionable loyalty to her father.

[Leila Dark Jurai]

<Leila>
Where to begin...

Ragnar Razorwind would be an interesting choice for Neth. I would hope he would be quick to deal with our little crime problem. Once our crime problem is cleaned up, however, he could be less of an asset.

Dylana Presin may be a candidate for Shang'ilster.

Natala Sparrows may be another choice for Neth, tackling the problems from another direction. Again, I'm not certain I would trust her in the long term, in regard to the effects she may have on industry.

Markus Devons is probably the one out of the bunch I would pick to govern Zilandier.

Perhaps we should have a relatively short-term appointment period, like 2 to 4 years. This would give enough time to affect change, but would give us the option of enlisting new candidates if we find we need to shift focus later.

[Leila Dark Jurai]

<Leila>

I have thought some more on this matter. I would like to elaborate on my choices, and ask what the rest of you think.

I had the opportunity to speak with Marcus Devons at the ball. I believe he would focus Zilandier into an appropriate direction, that is, expand the offerings of the universities there and begin work on promoting research and development. He also appears excited about the idea of a financial center.

Shang'ilster... I'm not sure. Where do we want to go with that city? I know I don't intend it to be a center of heavy industry. At this point I'm considering Dylana Presin for this position. In addition to running the city, I would like her to work on the terraforming effort planet-wide.

Neth. This is the big city, with the big problems. Because of our other things we want to do with Neth, I don't feel comfortable devoting it 100% to heavy industry. I want Neth (or a portion thereof) to be our center of commerce. This will invite a white-collar element into the city. Also, I would like to expand industry here. This would provide jobs and such. Finally, we absolutely need someone who would help clean up Neth. Our crime problem is out of control and we need to do something about it quickly.

Naturally, none of the candidates can cover all of that. My proposal for Neth is, therefore, instead of having one person, to have more than one. Below are my recommendations for this, if we can work this out.

Sara Cunning - She would be in charge of developing the industrial side of Neth.
Ragnar Razorwind - While I was heasitant to put him in charge alone, I have no problem setting him in charge of dealing with law enforcement, education, and the like.
Markus Devons - I'm actually a bit hesitant here, as he will have duties in Zilandier, but I would like him to be involved in the establishment of our financial and commerce center, which I want in Neth to keep the city balanced.

[Mystic]

<Wozzy> Hmmm interesting and well thought out first thoughts. I'm definatly interesed in hearing Kokaku's review, I know in passing he mentioned a desire for Mrs Cunning but not much more or why.

I've had another idea, but i dont wish to over complicate the issue. So i'm going to put the idea out there, but remind you our main focus is on establishing the city mayors so the day to day running of cities can be taken off our hands.

Anyway, my idea is an advisory council of sorts. As we know you guys are at the top, with Celst acting in a chairman type role, the trouble is, you guys arnt always around, decesions need to be made, and even when you are here, you dont nessacrly know all the facts. The councils job would be to run the day to day stuff, reporting to you guys. Basicly an extension of the chian of command.

To keep matters simple the council will just consist of the 3 city mayors to begin with. So whats changed? While the mayors run their own cities (under our guidelines and with our approval) we can also place additional, global responabilites on them, such as terraforming, or the finical sector. It also allows us the creative freedom to appoint positions not nessacrly related to cities. Such as Police or head of militry.

I had originally avoided mentioning htis option as i did not wish to over complicate matters to fast, but maybe it is nessacry. its at least on the table now.

[Kaosu]

<Kokaku>

After much thought and time doing so, I suppose its time to put in my bit.

As Wozzy previously mentioned, a council may be in order. However, I do not think it is the time to put in a council just yet; we should stabilize and build a framework for our world first, in industry, education, and economical sectors of our world. Once we begin even sprouting more cities and a larger population, we can begin implementing a council in order to manage priorities within local governments of those individual cities or lands.

We should not add unneeded management until there is a time or need for it, which i suspect will be soon and we should start thinking about it, as we will be increasing government size soon enough.

That said, I agree with Leila on Zilandier's assessment of Mayor whole-heartedly.


Shang'`ilstar


On the topic of Shang`ilstar is where I may disagree; the city has no focus and by all accounts, making it a 'green' city will not affect the city positively. By sitting near a waterfront, a improved industry can improve fishing intake, coastal mining, and also improve growth as well. For that, I would consider Sarah Cunning.

Neth is already the biggest city. With a growing crime rate and a economic powerhouse, commerce, entertainment, and white-color office settings, I believe we should move industry away from Neth, as it will not further benefit, as much as Shang`ilstar.

With Sarah Cunning, I believed a improved industry will dramatically give the city focus, making it easier add infrastructure and control growth.

Now the big one ..

Neth
This is a tough one. I'm down to two people and cannot decide on either:

Ragnar Razorwind and Dylana Presin. Natala Sparrows conflicts directly with what Neth has in place, so she is not a option for me at this point.

Why Ragnar and/or Dylana?
First: Ragnar: Higher Education for the majority of the population and crime control will improve the quality of the city, improve growth, indirectly effecting Zilandier's in terms of long term population's quality for our universities and academies. Crime control is important, as Neth will house Elderus Tower. If we cannot control what goes on in our yard, who would ever come to our house?

Second: Dylana Presin. Considering the majority of our population as well as the elites live in Neth, a clean, healthy Neth is a good Neth. Her specialties would come handy for our Northern Farms, in pairing off with Ragnar their experiences would make Neth a much more considerable place than before.

If I could not have both, I would consider Ragnar first over Dylana. We must stabilize our city first, before we can work out the details. I have seem to picture Ragnar as someone that would fix the picture; Dylana would add color to it.

[Leila Dark Jurai]

<Leila>

The reason for my choice in Shang'ilstar is that I want to keep heavy industry OUT of that city. I also want to keep its original architectural style as much as possible, that of the elven ruins. That is part of the charm of the site. Appointing Sara Cunning there will result in heavy industry, such as manufacturing, establishing itself there. Making it a "green" city doesn't necessarily mean alienating existing industry. It means focusing on industries which are environmentally friendly, such as fishing and agriculture. The former is in place already, and the coastal climate may provide an appropriate place for the latter. I would also like to promote Shang'ilstar as a home for the more affluent of our citizens as well. Oceanfront estates can be quite nice, after all. I believe Sara Cunning is a much better fit for Neth, which I picture serving as our industrial and financial hub.

[Kaosu]

<Kokaku> I'm not sold on land agriculture on a coastal city. If you want to make the city into a tourism spot due to its culture, I'll concede. But a city must focus on its strong points: Neth has commerce, financial, and entertainment strengths, as well as the possibly of being a united front for the alliance. Industry should be seperated from such kinds of cities, though it does not limit on how the city grows or how big it becomes.

Zilandier or Shang'ilstar. I will not consider Sarah Cunning for a Neth mayorship. Now or ever. But I do want her involvement on Neth (the planet) in some form.

[Leila Dark Jurai]

<Leila>

I get your point on Neth. However, I do not want to violate the core concepts of any of our cities.

The answer, then, is to start a new city. I believe the first thing we should do is to establish an industrial spaceport. This will include not only the port, but also repair and eventually production facilities. It would also provide a reason for industry to build there.

[Mystic]

<Celst> I've considered both sides to the argument. I certainly had no intention of starting up a new city any time soon. However Kokaku has a point Neth is the face of our world. Once the diplomatic centre is fully functional important people will be traveling to and from our world, most likly spending most of their time in Neth. This city needs to catter to that, glorious gardens, entertainment centres, it doesnt heavy industry clogging things up.

But Shang'ilstar is our only coastal centre, and those seaside locations will be very popular residentals at some point. Although somewhat heavy industry has to appear there as its our only harbour as well. Still its a nice tourist spot, and the citys theme is lost if it becomes cluttered with industry. And i'm not sure industry would do well in Zilandier either.

So a new city? Unfortuantly we dont have much money, between the debt on Elderus Tower and the new Power Plant we are fairly stretched. Where going to need a cheap way to get this started. Or we are going to have to wait. Questions stand, where would we put it? Part of me thinks it would be nice to place it on another contient, but that does mean further travel distance for shipments.

I've toyed with the idea of mines on Mephious, but our militry isnt ready to sustain us on this front.

Its a pitty about this blasted desert. If we existed on lush plains like this place use to be, we could open up land and allow people to natural expand out and start their own farms, this would allow farms to be taken away from our cities. Unfortuantly the farmers want terraformed land, which we can only produce so fast, so unfortuantly farm growth is limited.

Anyway on the suspect of leaders we seem in agreement about Mavious Devon. The others not so much. Prehaps we should not give Ragnus a mayorship but instead make him our cheif of police. It wastes his eductional side, but allows him to put anti crime policies in all our cities. No point flushing crime out of Neth and into Shang'ilster. Dylana does do Shang and Neth well, if she takes Neth for that "garden city" look, and we put Sara on hold for a new city... who takes Shang'ilstar? Nataila Sparrow may once again be a possible choice for Neth... hmm.