I totally agree with that. Lateral transfers, especially when they fit a character's skillset, should have no penalty. It would need its own interface however, to circumvent the penalty you speak. A seperate screen where you can only move a council member from one position to another, no penalty, but no other option either as to not exploit it for a "free fire."
Not sure I totally agree with this principle. This would be assuming that the character in question who was being transfered would be willing to do "the swap". What if their life long ambition was to have a certain appointment but then you swap them to something else. In real life that could disrupt a persons goals, ambitions and plans and therefore they could loose confidence in their leige. So I agree that there should be a penalty of some sort.