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you are here: > United America
> Article 59
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7. Local Objects
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| Article 59-Assembly | ||
| 59.1 | Assembly | |
| All legislative powers of a local community shall be vested in an Assembly of Members ("Assembly") which shall consist of all valid registered Members of United America Free Society to that Assembly. | ||
| An Assembly shall be named and defined according to the pre-existing legislative and geographic subdivision of a state or region into individual districts, postcodes or boroughs. An assembly shall always be smaller in geographic area than a state or region. | ||
| A Member may only belong to one (1) Assembly according to the location of their current primary living location (domicile address). | ||
| 59.2 | Power of the Assembly | |
| Vested by this Covenant, the Assembly shall have the power to review all budgets, expenditure and official planning of the Local Executive. | ||
| The Assembly shall have the power to elect its Mayor and local executive at every second (2nd) Annual Session of the Local Assembly. | ||
| The Assembly shall not have the power to block general expenditure and income required for the operation and function of the local community, except when under the control of a Local Commission of Financial Review. | ||
| The Assembly shall have the power to accept donations from Members and to own assets and keep and maintain bank accounts for the good financial conduct of local services. However, by this Covenant, all bank accounts must be registered with both the regional and national organization. The non disclosure of a bank account shall be considered an offense liable to expulsion and further prosecution. | ||
| The Assembly shall have the power and authority to establish local schools for the education of the children of Members and non members. The Assembly shall also have the authority to establish local health and community services where requested and needed. | ||
| The Assembly shall have the power to commission a Local Commission of Investigation with the power to call any registered Member of the United America Free Society within the community and any information held by the Local Executive to review. | ||
| The Assembly also has vested by this Charter the power to commission a Local Impeachment for the forced removal of any elected official from the Mayor to any position within any branch of government in the district. | ||
| A Local Commission of Investigation must be called by the Assembly when a call to expel one or more members is made, excluding cases where the grounds of the charge are based on an automatic expulsion. | ||
| 59.3 | Assembly Sessions | |
| Every year, there shall be a minimum of three (3) Ordinary Sessions and one (1) Annual Session not less than every ninety (90) days in a building suitable for such a purpose whereby all registered local Assembly Members of the United America Free Society may attend. | ||
| The Agenda of Business ("General Business") of the Assembly shall be according to the rules of this Article, subject to the management of proceedings by the Local Executive with the length of the Session not less than two (2) hours and not exceeding four (4) hours, including a mandatory break of a minimum of half an hour where the planned session is longer than two hours. | ||
| The General Business of an Ordinary Session shall always be considered different to the General Business of an Annual Session. The procedures for General Business shall be defined and recorded in the Parliamentary Code. | ||
| 59.4 | Operation of Assembly | |
| (a). Life of Assembly | ||
| The Assembly shall exist for a fixed period of two (2) years before being dissolved ahead of Assembly Elections for a new Parliament. | ||
| (b). Dissolution of Parliament | ||
| The instrument of dissolution shall be three writs issued by the Mayor: | ||
| (1) To the Speaker of the Assembly ordering their office to be sealed until a new Parliament is elected; and | ||
| (2) To the local (district) Board of Directors ordering the government to institute caretaker provisions which forbids the appointment of any new positions, the announcement of any new projects or the commissioning of any new expenditure; and | ||
| (3) To the State director of the National Election Commission requiring the commencement of District Election provisions for the conduct of the Local Assembly to elect a new Executive Government and Parliament. | ||
| (c). Date of Local Assembly Elections | ||
| The date of a national election shall always occur at the at least fourteen (14) days prior to the commencement of an Annual Session allowing 40 days prior to the date of the election for the official campaign period. | ||
| (d). Formation of new Parliament | ||
| The formation of a new Parliament shall occur within 14 days after the Local Election day following the count and verification of all votes. | ||
| The instrument of formation of a new Local (Assembly) Parliament shall be two (2) declarations from the State Director of the National Election Commission: | ||
| (1) To the successful candidate for election as Mayor confirming their validity as the rightful executive to form government; and | ||
| (2) To the caretaker Mayor that the election result has been verified and that writs to summons successful candidates to be sworn into Local Parliament and form the new Local Executive must now be issued. | ||
| (3)Upon receipt of the declaration, the caretaker Mayor shall be required to issue writs within seven (7) days for the summonsing to Parliament of successful Mayor to form the new Parliament and Executive. | ||
| (e). Quorum | ||
| The minimum number of Members (quorum) required to be present within the chamber of a Local Assembly to permit the full exercise of its powers shall be two thirds the total number of Members of that Assembly. | ||
| The Assembly shall not be permitted to undertake procedures that require a quorum if the total number of Members in that House is not equal or greater to the quorum. | ||
| (f). Voting | ||
| Excluding the election of Office Holders, voting in Local Assembly shall be by open vote expressed as either Yes or No to the proposition before the chamber. | ||
| Voting shall always require a quorum and shall follow the standard procedures listed in this Charter. | ||
| Total votes shall be tallied as either Yes, or No to the proposition expressed by the Bill. A higher total number of Yes votes to No votes shall deem the Bill or proposition has been passed. A higher total number of No votes to Yes votes shall deem the Bill or proposition has been defeated. | ||
| The record, attendance and vote of all members of Local Parliament shall be recorded on the public record. | ||
| (g). Office of Speaker of Local Assembly (Assembly Speaker) | ||
| Responsibility for good conduct and control of the Assembly and the scheduling of business within the chamber shall be vested in the Office of Speaker of Local Assembly (Assembly Speaker). | ||
| The Speaker of a Local Assembly shall be an independent role, free from political party preferences. The candidate shall be elected by new college themselves on the first day of sitting of the new parliament after a Local Election. | ||
| 59.5 | Maximum size of Assembly | |
| Accordingly, a Local Assembly shall not be permitted to grow beyond 5,000 (five thousand) households. This is in recognition of the practical limitations placed on the Mayor to be able to properly support a community. | ||
| Communities that grow to this limit or beyond must institute within six months of reaching this number a Community sub-division whereby the community is divided into two-equal halves based on the geographic distribution of Members. | ||
| 59.6 | Formation of a Temporary Assembly | |
| A temporary Assembly is formed when approval is given to an application to form an Assembly by six (6) or more Members subject to the following conditions: and | ||
| (a) That each member on the application is a current and valid Living Member of the United America Free Society; and | ||
| (b) That each member on the application currently resides in the geographic area belonging to the proposed Assembly; and | ||
| (c) That none of the applicants are immediate family related; and | ||
| (d) That none of the applicants have previously applied for the formation of an Assembly. | ||
| Approval of such an application shall be the responsibility of the appropriate State Congress, or if no permanent State Congress yet exists, the Senate. If no permanent Senate exists, it shall be the responsibility of the temporary administrator. | ||
| A temporary Assembly shall have the right to participate in State elections but not national elections. Furthermore, a temporary Assembly shall not have the power to undertake any financial transactions for or on behalf of the United America Free Society. | ||
| 59.7 | Formation of a permanent Assembly | |
| Within one hundred and eighty (180) Days since the formation of a temporary Assembly, permanency shall be granted to a temporary Assembly providing the following conditions are met: | ||
| (a) That membership of the Assembly now constitutes at least thirty six (36) Living Members; and | ||
| (b) That the Assembly has held elections and elected a Board; and | ||
| (c) That no action contravening this Covenant has occurred with the original applicants that would warrant an Internal investigation or their expulsion. | ||
| 59.8 | Disbandment of a temporary Assembly | |
| If by one hundred and eighty (180) Days since the formation of a Temporary Assembly one or more of the conditions for permanency are not met, the appropriate permanent State Congress shall have the right to disband the temporary Assembly and revoke its status. If no permanent State Congress yet exists, the National Senate shall have such right. If no permanent National Senate exists, it shall be the responsibility of the temporary administrator. | ||
| Upon a disbandment, the persons originally making the application for a temporary Assembly are not permitted to directly re-apply for a new Assembly, nor hold office for a period of not less than six (6) months. | ||
| 59.9 | Wind-up of a permanent Assembly | |
| The wind-up of a permanent Assembly is when an order is granted by the National Senate and/or Executive for a permanent Assembly to be wound up, its assets seized, its membership re-allocated or suspended and the Assembly itself deregistered. | ||
| Such an order is an order of last resort and must be subject to a national vote based only on one or more of the criteria being in existence: | ||
| (a) That the total active living membership of the Assembly has been less than 36 for twelve months or more; or | ||
| (b) That the entire Executive has been expelled from United America Free Society and that the majority of remaining members represent members of their former network; or | ||
| (c) That the Assembly is bankrupt and unable to continue to pay its financial obligations with no prospect of independent financial income in the future to meet its ongoing obligations. | ||
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