Retention Votes and the Legislative Procedure Act

I would like us to have a debate on the way the Legislative Procedure Act handles retention votes, because I think the current setup is not the ideal one.

  • The Charter requires retention votes to be held every March 15 and we know pursuant to [2601.HQ] Regarding Retention Votes that this refers to the start of the vote itself, not to any preceding debate.

  • The Legislative Procedure Act requires all measures, including retention votes, to receive a motion and a second.

I consider this motion and second requirement to be unnecessary: if the Charter requires retention votes to be held then no motion and second should be needed because the vote must be held on a given date by constitutional mandate.

Given this, I’m curious about legislators’ thoughts on amending the Legislative Procedure Act to exempt retention votes from the motion and second requirement and, if allowing reasonable time for debate is a concern, requiring the Chair to start debate by a given date such that legislators have ample time to properly hold officials to account.

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I think it would be quite reasonable to amend it such that if debate is ongoing, the votes can be delayed just as any normal vote would be.