Realer Town Rights Amendment Act

[Musclebound]

CONGRESS OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
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A BILL TO

AMEND THE CONSTITUTION TO ENSHRINE REAL LOCAL GOVERNANCE

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The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:
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PART I — PRELIMINARIES

1. Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the 'Realer Town Rights Amendment Act'

(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.

(3) This Act has been authored by Musclebound with text from Real Town Rights Amendment Act

(4) This Act has been sponsored by Representative Musclebound and co-sponsored by Representative MJL and Representative Spy Beer

2. Reasons and Intent

(1) The Commonwealth ought provide local governments with fundamental rights and privileges under the constitution;

(2) The Executive has in the past used its existing discretion in ways that would unduly harm residents of towns, such as by imposing an auction tax involving town plots without congressional approval;

(3) Many players find purposes in their towns, and these players deserve constitutional protections;

(4) Providing constitutional legislative authority to towns will allow them to function more autonomously;

(5) The Congress seeks to enshrine the following guarantees into the constitution regarding towns:
(a) A guarantee that Towns cannot be dissolved by the mere whim of the Executive;
(b) A guarantee of the ability to lawfully build, zone, and create properties within the town;
(c) A guarantee that only the towns may tax or collect fees based upon properties owned in their jurisdictions;
(d) A guarantee that Towns may create and enforce local laws relating to properties, businesses, and actions in the towns;
(e) A guarantee for Towns for permissions to effectuate transfers of properties without reliance upon Federal Authorities;
(f) A guarantee against unjust discrimination for residence in a town;
(g) A guarantee against undue Federal intervention in affairs properly left to a town.

(6) To more clearly define what is already present in towns and establish new rights guarantee.

(7) The Congress seeks to amend the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Redmont to address these concerns and achieve these goals.

PART II — AMENDMENTS

3. Amendment

(1) The Constitution shall be amended by inserting the following Part IV in the Constitution.

PART IV – TOWNS

32. Recognition
(1) Towns are autonomous local governments of the Commonwealth.

33. Establishment & Dissolution
(1) A Town may be established or dissolved only by an amendment to this Constitution. No Town may be dissolved by Executive action nor by ordinary statute. Current recognized towns are:

(a) Town of Aventura

(b) Town of Oakridge

34. Town Constitutions and Local Vesting
(1) Each Town shall have a Constitution, which shall lay out and serve as a foundational document for the government of that Town. Local Executive power may vest in a Mayor, or to other offices within a Town as delegated by a Town's Constitution. Legislative power over local matters is vested in each Town legislature. Town bylaws, as applicable, have force within Town limits and/or on Town residents.

35. Zoning & Development
(1) Towns may create, zone, merge, and delete plots; set and enforce building standards; and approve or deny construction and designs.

36. Property Administration
(1) Towns may evict for cause, conduct auctions, and effectuate transfers of property within Town limits without reliance on federal authorities.

37. Taxation & Fees
(1) Towns shall possess the authority to impose the same property-based fees that the Federal Government is authorized to levy.
(2) By Act of Congress, authority may be delegated to Towns to levy such additional fees, taxes, or fines as Congress may prescribe

38. Local Execution
(1) Towns may create executive offices and services to administer bylaws, issue permits, and enforce compliance, including by municipal fines consistent with due process.

39. Residency & Equality
(1) No person shall face unjust discrimination for residing, or seeking to reside, in a Town. Town residents enjoy equal protection of Commonwealth law.

40. Town Domain
(1) The Town Domain includes, without limitation:
(a) land use, zoning, building, and property administration;
(b) municipal services, public spaces, and events;
(c) local roads, transport, signage, and traffic within Town limits;
(d) public safety and welfare within Town limits;
(e) Town finance, budgets, procurement, and property-based taxes and fees applied to or arising from ownership of town plots;
(f) any reasonable action undertaken to protect Town Domain, provided no such action extends to matters reserved under subsection
(2). Notwithstanding (1) and §§41-46, the Town Domain does not include, and no Town bylaw, office, or fee may regulate, license, or tax: financial services, mergers & acquisitions, antitrust, bankruptcy, accounting, and financial reporting. These remain reserved exclusively to the Commonwealth and are administered by the Department of Commerce, whether or not inside Town limits.
(3) For the purposes of this Part, "property," "plots," and "property administration" mean real property and Town plots only, and do not include shares, securities, business ownership interests, financial instruments, or the incorporation, dissolution, or bankruptcy of business entities, all of which remain reserved under subsection (2).

41. Home-Rule Presumption
(1) Town bylaws governing the Town Domain are valid and supreme within Town limits unless displaced under §§42-46 or reserved to the Commonwealth under §40(2).

42. Non-Interference and Territorial Integrity
(1) Federal departments may not operate, regulate, or enforce within areas under Town Domain unless the Town consents. No part of this section shall infringe on federal authority with respect to criminal law enforcement, election administration, running animal shelters and hospitals, Charter rights under Section 35, and the Department of Commerce's regulation, registration, auditing, licensing, and oversight of the matters reserved under §40(2). In addition, the Commonwealth may not take territory away from a town unless the town passes a bylaw allowing it.

43. Express, Narrow Preemption Only
(1) Department policy or executive order shall not displace a Town bylaw. An Act of Congress may override an existing Town bylaw within the Town Domain when it:
(2) Nothing in §§43-45 shall require an Act of Congress, a court finding, or a compelling-interest justification for the Commonwealth or the Department of Commerce to act within the matters reserved under §40(2).

44. Extraterritorial Effects Test
(1) A Town bylaw falls outside the Town Domain only if the Federal Court, in a special proceeding brought to challenge the bylaw, finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the bylaw imposes a material obligation on non-Town residents outside Town limits, directly regulates inter-town or interstate commerce beyond a de minimis effect, or materially impacts fundamental rights granted to citizens under this Charter.

45. Standard of Review
(1) Any federal action must be a compelling government interest that would give cause to supersede local authority and or bylaws.

46. General Applicability Laws
(1) General Statutes shall apply in Towns and shall be construed to avoid unnecessary intrusion into the Town Domain.

47. Elections
(1) Towns governments shall take the form of a representative democracy, with each town having a Mayor and a Council. Town elections shall be fair and facilitated by Federal departments as provided by law. Towns may set reasonable candidacy and voting requirements consistent with Commonwealth law.

48. Budget & Grants
(1) Towns control their treasuries and budgets. Towns may receive grants from the Federal government by law but are not owed recurring federal appropriations.

49. Judicial Review
(1) Courts may resolve conflicts between Town and federal law consistent with §§40–46 and this Constitution.

50. Continuity
(1) Existing Town constitutions and Town bylaws remain in force unless inconsistent with this Part or other constitutional provisions, or if subsequently repealed and/or amended by the towns.
(2) All federal laws and Department of Commerce regulations governing the matters reserved under §40(2) remain in force within Towns.
51. Grandfather Clause
(1.) All acts of congress passed prior to the date of the passing of this constitutional amendment are grandfathered in for the purposes of §§40(2) and 41-46.

PART IV - Local Government

32. Local Governments
Towns are autonomous local governments of the Commonwealth.

(1) Establishment & Dissolution
A Town may be established or dissolved only by an amendment to this Constitution. No Town may be dissolved by Executive action nor by ordinary statute. The current recognised towns are:

(a) Town of Aventura

(b) Town of Oakridge

(2) Structure
Each Town shall have a Constitution that establishes its basic representative and democratic system of local government. Executive authority may be assigned to a Mayor or another local office as determined by the Town’s Constitution. Legislative authority over local matters rests with the Town’s legislature.

(3) Jurisdiction
The Town Constitution and all Town bylaws must be consistent with this Constitution and federal law. The Town Constitution and bylaws shall apply within the Town's jurisdiction, which shall be the following applicable only within the territory of a Town or the residents of that Town:

• • land use, zoning, building standards, and property administration;
  • local taxes, fees, and revenues arising from Town property or bylaws;
  • local services, permits, and enforcement, including municipal fines;
  • business regulation within Town limits (excluding financial services, mergers & acquisitions, antitrust, bankruptcy, accounting, financial reporting);
  • public spaces, events, transport, roads, and traffic;
  • public safety and local welfare matters (excluding Federal Criminal Code);
  • town governance, elections, and offices;
  • matters predominantly internal to the Town’s jurisdiction.

(4) Territorial Integrity
The Commonwealth may not remove territory from a town’s jurisdiction without a Town bylaw authorising such removal.

33. Elections
Town elections shall be free and fair, facilitated by Federal departments as provided by law. Towns may set reasonable candidacy and voting requirements consistent with Commonwealth law.

34. Appropriations
Towns retain full authority over their treasuries and budgets. While they may receive federal grants as provided by law, they are not entitled to ongoing or guaranteed federal funding.

(2) All subsequent sections shall be renumbered appropriately.

 

[juniperfig]

- I prefer my Constitution vague and endlessly argued over. I believe this is far too much detail for the Constitution.

 

[Troniq]

- This bill goes too far in its quest to guarantee towns rights by transforming these areas into something that is closer to being fully autonomous entities than administrative districts.

 

[Talion77]

- requiring a supermajority for Congress to override Town Bylaw is not something I can support. Nay pending amendment.

 

[Talion77]

Before Revote

 

[Franciscus]

Presidential Assent

When I started my political career in Redmont, it was an election to Oakridge's town council. I was in a runoff that went for a god-awful number of rounds for the role of Head of Residence. I continued to serve in Oakridge for many months after that, both as Head of Residence and as Town Attorney General. That purpose on this server in my town work reflected to the purpose I eventually found as a Representative, Senator, VP, and President.

Towns, however, have at times struggled for purpose and meaning. Some of this was the extraordinary restrictions that had been handed down from a Federal level on their creativity. At the time I entered politics, the DCT even controlled Aventura's evictions. The long campaign for town rights has given towns the ability to do more, to have more purpose, and to create their own adventures.

This bill will further the cause of towns. What this bill does is resolves a set of legal questions around towns and their laws. The bill enumerates things towns can do (Town Domain), solidifies the legal status of statutes in towns (Home-Rule Presumption), handles federal-town relations in a way that permits federal preemption but requires that such preemption be explicit (Non-interference, preemption sections), and establishes continuity between old laws and new laws.

This clarity provides a clear win for Redmont. I fully support this bill.

The chief opponent of the cause for town rights has, for my entire time on this server, been the disgraced politician and convicted accomplice to corruption named xEndeavour. When I started my campaign for President, I resigned from Judge and wrote the following message:

Redmont faces a battle for the soul of the nation. I cannot stand idly by and watch xEndeavour be the only individual to launch a serious and viable campaign to become President.

When xEndeavour is given positions of leadership, he fails to crack down on corruption in his ranks and has weaponized government against his political enemies. He is someone who has driven countless souls to leave this server on innumerable occasions due to his maltreatment of his fellow players. And he is someone who consistently has treated others poorly: when I was in the 34th Congress, people sought to leave it (some even resigning) rather than have to continue to deal with his repeated and persistent toxicity.

The sever now has been filled with new players who have not seen how xEndeavour has acted over the past several years. He is now hoping to lure them into a false impression of himself. Those of us who have been around a while know him from his actions in power and how he treats others: he is someone who should never be trusted with power over other people, especially in our government, and he is not fit to ensure inclusion of new players.

Redmont must utterly and totally reject xEndeavour. His actions in the political arena have revealed that he simply does not have the character or judgement to be trusted to lead our country.

For this reason, I have chosen to resign from my role as a Federal Judge, effective immediately. I am re-entering the political sphere and will be running for President. I cannot and will not stand idly by and allow our country to be governed by xEndeavour without a serious and viable second campaign that can provide a vision for better future for Redmont.

Many of us have long known this. Many others have since gotten to know xEndeavour's style of politics better since I wrote that message. He is someone who pushes boundaries and lies to get what he wants, then blames the people he harms for being on the receiving end of it.

Among the lies that he has been pushing in the political arena has been a lie that this bill creates city-states. This bill does not do that. And the people of Redmont should not stand for End's favorite lie: claiming that a bill creates city-states has been his consistent lie when opposing town rights bills.

I am unconvinced by his skepticism, and I encourage the public to reject xEndeavour's lies in full. I believe that this bill will bring about more lively towns and will clarify the legal status of town laws. And this is a win for the Commonwealth.

Therefore, I proudly sign this bill and grant it assent. This bill is referred to the Department of State for referendum.

 

[Staff Team]

Owner Veto

This is a joint veto of the Willow Revivification Act and the Realer Town Rights Amendment Act.

We recognise that the concept of towns is popular, and that many players would like to see the return of more towns. Willow means something to a lot of people, and with the playerbase picking back up there's a real appetite to bring it back.

We recognise that over the past six years, towns have put in the work to build their communities. It's fair to ask what they get to do next.

Willow

Willow is a really important part of our server - it's the only place where players can get farm plots on the Reveille map.

Each time Willow has had a local government, political decisions have systemically resulted in:

a. farmland getting sold off and stops changing hands;

b. farmland plots get converted to residential or commercial plots (which subsequently sit empty); and

c. players, and in particular, new players, are unable to get hold of farmland.

Recalling several local governments repeating this cycle, we're not content that:

a. this bill has enough protections in place to stop the repetition of this scenario; and

b. that there is genuinely enough things for a local government to do in Willow with such restriction as above.

This lack of things to do leads to the next point on the topic of town rights.

Town Rights

Towns asking for more power right now is reflective of a broader existential crisis towns are having now that they have exhausted all of their available land, and with it, an obvious reason to exist beyond maintaining what's already built. The bill treats *more power* as if it were itself a purpose, but granting towns broader authority over regulation doesn't create a purpose - it just kicks the can down the road.

The town concept was to build small, local communities which would not rival the main city nor Federal Government. They were, by design, small executive bodies which had delegated executive power. They existed in this form for over 5 years until they were recently brought into the Constitution.

Staff intent is for Towns to remain as subordinate local governments to a central Federal Government. The home rule system is largely impractical for server infrastructure as most of the systems a town would need to exercise authority over are run through server-wide plugins. For example, this is why the DOS run town elections and the DCT are required to evict plots.

Way Forward

Noting that this bill changes little but the dynamic between the Federal Government and local governments, we believe that there are still opportunities for towns that don't rely on a Constitutional change.

We propose the following ways that the Congress may seek to create purpose in towns:

1. Greater involvement in the Federal Government. Growing the federal legislature and establishing senate electorates for towns and the city. This provides towns with a stake in the legislature and meaning for people to be part of them.

2. Budget. Including towns in the Federal budget to allow towns the economic means to support their community and culture.

3. Statutory Changes. Exploring statutory delegations, such as town-issued infringements for bylaw breaches (i.e. the ability to issue infringements on local laws, which rely on the player to pay... or challenge in court).

Subject to Presidential support, we are also able to revise the veto limit on town council patronage from five (5) to eight (8) in acknowledgement of player base growth. But, in exchange for the removal of the inactive Willow Advisory Council as to not oversaturate local government.

Server Leadership