Sigil Government

Ok, this is my take on how Sigil is governed in UPS. This is different from what was original described in the Sigil thread, but I felt a parliment with electons just didnt feel right for Sigil, so here is my alternative, hope you enjoy.
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Sigil Government

Sigil is governed by The Senate. It was originally called The Sigil Senate, but it gained such a reputation that almost any planar (and even many prime worlds) knew about the senate, so the name was just shorten. This body governs the overall laws and affairs of the city, passing new laws and legislation if needed and removing out dated policies. The Senate comprises 33 Chairs and 300 Seats, which vote on matters which arise, with almost all votes requiring a 2/3 majority to be passed. All 333 members have one vote each. Unlike many prime governments, the members of the Senate are not elected, nor are Chairs and Seats allocated by the same means, though the means are similar.

Seats with the Senate have a 3 year term. When a term is over, the Seat is put up for auction, and sold to the highest bidder. An individual may only hold one seat. Seats commonly go for several million credits, with some reaching into the billions. Seat holders must attend Senate meetings. Failure to do so may result is the Seat being stripped from the holder and re auctioned.

Chairs have a 9 year term. As with Seats, when their term is over, the Chair is auctioned off. However, unlike seats, Chairs are only auctioned to Corporations, which publicly trade their shares on the Sigil Stock Exchange. Chair positions auction off for vast sums of money, they are some of the most expensive ‘items’ on the outer planes and often cost more than entire prime worlds! A Corporation may only hold a single Chair, and it is doubtful whether any current corporation could afford more than one Chair, but the law is still in place. The position of Chair historically was held by the CEO of the successful corporation, but as times have changed, corporations are too big, and being a Chair also has an element (somewhat high) of risk, so most corporations which win the position appoint a member of their board, not the CEO, to take the Chair. If a Chair does not attend Senate meetings, then the corporation may loose the Chair. Such individuals who loose their Corporation’s Chair position find their life insurance revoked very quickly.

These auctions are a significant source of revenue to Sigils government. However, the system is rife with corruption, as though only a single individual may hold a position, very wealthy individuals sometime sponsor friends and family to gain political clout. Corporations too have been known to sponsor subsidiary corporations in the hope of gaining more pull on key votes. Due to the number of Seats and Chairs, it is difficult for any individual or group to pull the Senate too far in one direction. It has however happened in the past. The Corporation at the head of the corruption was trying to gain control of the city in the name of Heaven and attempting to remove any lower planar denizens from the city. On the morning of the final vote, the Corporation’s board of directors were found flayed in their board room, a Dabus delivered a message to the Senate that their Chair was open for auction and the city quickly forgot about the plot as another round of bribery and capitalism swept across the city to try and win the Chair.

Behind the Senate lies a huge bureaucracy of staff that actually run the city, the civil servants of Sigil. Much like more normal governments, these individuals are employed by the city to run it, making the decisions of the Senate happen. Their main concerns are making sure the city functions on a day to day basis, police departments capture law breakers, the fire department is on standby, the roads and subways keep moving etc. But to make these changes, money is always needed. As stated, the auctions are huge part of the city’s income. To support them, to provide a steadier rate of income, is the tax system of Sigil.

Because Sigil sees so many individuals coming and going, trying to keep an accurate register of individuals in the city is almost impossible. Without that, the city can not tax individuals directly. Instead, it taxes its greatest commodity, space. Every private building in Sigil is taxed, heavily. This means that those businesses then pass that cost onto travellers, workers and residents of the city and so they are all taxed eventually. Ownership of buildings of Sigil is also somewhat strange. It is handled by the Sigil Property Bureau. This body is in charge of keeping records of ownership for every building in the city, which is does. But it only works because the Dabus work with it. Whenever new buildings are constructed in the city, a Dabus merely delivers the lease contract of the property to the Bureau and they sell it on to the public. No private construct firms are allowed to build in Sigil.

Many clueless wonder why one faction or another hasn’t made a grab for the control of the Senate directly. Most bloods don’t even ask that question. Most faction corporations are private corporations, which only trade shares with their own members, as no faction would want outsiders interfering with their agenda’s. And private corporations are not allowed to bid on Chair positions, only public corporations are.

But at the end of the day, even though the Senate and the Civil Service run Sigil day to day and even year to year, it is her Serenity that rules Sigil. If one corporation’s actions threaten her city, the board of directors turn up flayed, or the CEO is never seen from again…

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Well, thats it, hope you like it, I can happily provide more on this, but atm, I'm writing up the 9 chairs and the police department, as hopefully, come june, I have a UPS campaign starting and m,y players are cops

Later

Kal

EDIT Added a paragraph detailings why factions do control the Senate directly.