Judge Advocate General Report #3: Judicial Code Changes

Greetings once again, everyone. For my third JAG report, I want to outline an amendment to the Bravo Fleet Judicial Code that Bravo Fleet Command recently voted to approve, which can be reviewed here. In short, this change expands eligibility to serve in the JAG Investigator and Defender roles to non-TFXO/BFSS members of the BFC. The reasoning for this change being implemented is the current realities of staffing within the club. Since the code was originally changed to its current form, the club has added two Senior Staff roles and opened an additional Task Force. That has created an additional six possible positions between the Senior Staff, TFCO, Deputies, and TFXO’s that cannot service in the JAG office. The strain on finding individuals qualified to be able to perform the duties of Investigator and Defender, roles that are not labor intensive but absolutely critical when needed, is problematic. While it would be optimal to maintain a stark divide between the executive and judicial from an optics perspective, we cannot short change the members who the JAG staff serves and protects for the sake of optics. There are a potential 28 people on the BFC in various capacities that could then barred from JAG service, and each of those positions is far more impactful from a day to day perspective than either JAG officer. I do think it’s was bit of a problem, however, when those who might be tasked with defending the membership against charges brought by the club leadership were going to be quite possibly the 29th most qualified staff member. As such, I requested the aforementioned amendment be implemented, and the Electorate voted to implement it.