Your Honors,
I submit this brief as a Citizen and Legislator of the Coalition, as well as a former Chair of the Assembly.
While I was Chair, I elected to interpret Article IV(4) of the Charter as requiring that a vote takes place on March 15th, with the Chair or their appointed deputy starting the debate thread as required by the Legislative Procedure Act at least 3 days prior to March 15th [1]. This view of what is “commencing” is in line with how legislators interpreted the amendment that introduced these eventually-passed changes to our laws at the time of the debate, see for instance [2].
My view is that the interpretation of the term “vote” is made clear by our laws and conventions: a plain reading of the Legislative Procedure Act would entail that a vote means the period at which Legislators cast their approval or disapproval for the draft that was motioned and seconded. While the Legislative Procedure Act provides for a minimum period of debate, debate timing has never been understood to be construed as part of the vote itself, but rather a period occurring prior to a draft being put to vote.
While not pertaining to the specific case of retention votes, I would also like to note the Court has previously ruled on when votes occur: in [2207.HQ] In re Assembly Vote Closures, the Court ruled that a vote opens at the time a voting thread is started.
[1] Office of Assembly Affairs - #322 by lordnwahs
[2] [2501.AB] Re-Approval Votes - #28 by Welly