Adopted
Payson High School, Utah County
Rob Axson, Chair, opened the meeting at 10:49am; the delay was due to technical difficulties with the AV system. Alexis Ence, Washington County, gave the prayer. MaryAnn Christensen, Salt Lake County, led the pledge of allegiance, followed by Cindy Cossairt, Wasatch County, who read the Utah State Sovereignty platform plank. There were 144 members present as of 10:53am.
Rob Axson, Chair, made a motion to adopt the agenda, with the note that Mac Sims had asked to remove his Constitutional Amendment and Bylaw change related to creating a tech committee.
Bob McEntee, Weber County, made a motion to amend the agenda with a Constitutional Amendment. The chair ruled that that was out of order because it did not meet the two week notice requirement. McEntee appealed the rule of the chair. A vote was taken and the motion failed. The chair’s ruling stands.
Marci Campbell, Davis County, made a motion to move the adoption of the caucus rules and report before the project reports. After some clarification, Marci amended her motion to move the marketing and caucus update and caucus rules before the other project reports. Marci’s motion passed.
Lowell Nelson, Utah County, made a motion to strike the 20 minute time limit for each of the proposals on the agenda. Ben Soholt, Box Elder County, called the question; this motion passed. The original motion to remove the time limits, however, failed. Olivia Dawn called for division. A count was taken but the motion failed again.
Gunnar Thorderson made a motion to amend the agenda to add a resolution to censor certain elected officials to the agenda after the Excellence in Voting resolution by Casey Gale. There was some discussion. Kimball Willard, Washington County, called the question. The motion passed. The underlying motion passed and the resolution was added to the agenda.
Neil Sebring, Salt Lake County, made a motion to move all of the resolutions to the top of the business in front of the adoption of the logo. The motion failed.
Ben Soholt, Box Elder County, made a motion to move the Precinct Delegation Allocation Constitutional Amendment before the Amendment to Allow Delegation on the agenda. The motion failed.
Alexis Ence, Washington County, made a motion to amend to add a resolution about the southern border after Gunnar’s resolution to censor certain elected officials, which had already been added to the agenda.
Kirby Glad, Utah County, made a motion to call the question on this question and all previous questions, which means that we end debate on the agenda as well. The motion passed.
We returned to the motion to add Alexis Ence’s resolution to the agenda. The motion passed and the resolution was added to the agenda.
We returned to the original motion of adopting the agenda, as amended. The motion passed at 11:38am, starting the 4 hour time limit until 3:38pm.
Rob Axson, Chair, invited James Moss, chair of the State Board of Education, to address the body. Teena Horlacher, Davis County, objected. The motion failed. James Moss addressed the body.
Rob Axson, Chair, made a motion to adopt the minutes from Oct. 28th, 2023. They were adopted without objection.
We moved on to the officer reports. Rob Axson, Chair, noted that we had to excuse Anne Marie Lampropolous, National Committeewoman, who was unable to get a flight back from a trip. Brad Bonham, National Committeeman, gave a report. Treasurer McKay Newell made a report. Secretary Stafford Palmieri Sievert made a report. Vice Chair Kim Coleman provided a report, which included her project report on the West Side Initiative in Salt Lake County. Lastly, Chair Rob Axson made a report.
Credentials report was updated to 146 of which 117 were in person and 29 were online as of 12:28pm.
We broke for lunch for 20 minutes and the time was extended to 3:58pm.
MaryKate Metler, Party Staff, provided a project report on the party’s marketing efforts, specifically focused on caucus. Josh Daniels, Caucus Chair, then gave a report on caucus.
Rob Axson, Chair, introduced the first item of business: Adoption of the Caucus Rules. Jeramey McElhaney, Grand County, made a motion to adopt the rules. Clair Ellis, Cache County, proposed an amendment to change “other business” to “donations”. Rob clarified that the agenda for caucus is actually set in the bylaws, not in these rules, so that we cannot change it without changing the bylaws, which is not what we were doing today. Clair Ellis, Cache County, amended his amendment to add “including the solicitation of donations” to the end of the agenda item that starts with “other business”. It passed.
Wendy Hart, Utah County, proposed an amendment under the header “Delegate and Precinct Leadership Elections” to strike “or preference voting” in the second paragraph. It was ruled out of order because it violates the State Party Constitution.
Kristen Chevrier, Utah County, made an amendment to limit the number of ballots that precinct chairs could bring in of 5 ballots. Holly Rabanne Crowley, Tooele County, made a motion to call the question. It passed. We returned to the original question of Kristen Chevrier’s amendment. The amendment failed. We returned to the motion to adopt the rules as amended.
MaryAnn Christensen, Salt Lake County, made a motion to amend the rules to say that the precinct chair can receive any number of ballots that are voluntarily given to them but may not solicit ballots. The amendment failed.
The motion to approve the rules as amended passed.
Goud Maragani, Salt Lake County, made a motion to form a committee to investigate the sharing of censure information outside the body. Rob Axson, Chair, ruled this out of order because there was no investigation and the only situation where the expectation of privacy is when we are in executive session.
Goud Maragani amended his motion to form a committee to investigate State Senator Todd Weiler.
Kirby Glad, Utah County, made a motion to return to the orders of the day. It requires a two-thirds vote. A vote was taken and the chair ruled it passed. Neil Sebring, Salt Lake County, called for division. The members were counted and the motion passed again. The orders of the day were upheld and the item of censuring Todd Weiler was tabled.
We returned to the project reports. Stafford Palmieri Sievert, Secretary, explained the party’s branding efforts. She then introduced the new Utah Republican Party logo. A discussion ensued. Mac Sims, Utah County, called the question. The motion passed. Kari Malkovich, Utah County, moved to approve the logo. The motion passed and the logo was adopted. Division was called. Rob gave folks a minute to review the presentation which was added to the agenda. The members were counted and the motion passed again.
Kimball Willard, Washington County, made a motion to move the resolutions above the Constitutional Amendments. Teena Horlacher, Davis County, proposed an amendment to the motion to exclude the bylaw change. In other words, the bylaw change would be considered in the original order (before the resolutions). Olivia Dawn, Davis County, made a clarifying motion to amend Teena’s motion to consider 4b (bylaw change for the method of voting at convention) and then consider the resolutions. The motion passed.
Kimball Willard, Washington County, made a motion to extend the time by one hour from 3:58pm to 4:58pm. The motion passed.
We considered the bylaw Amendment to the System and Method of Voting for Convention by Mac Sims, Utah County. He made a motion to approve the amendment and called the question. The motion to call the question failed and there was a discussion. Bob McEntee, Weber County, made a motion to add an item g to the amendment, but it was ruled out of order for being an additional requirement and not noticed. Jeramey McElhaney, Grand County, made a motion to correct a technical error which was the numbering of the section in the bylaw. This was ruled in order by the chair and the amendment was adopted. A roll call was taken and the amendment passed with 72 yays and 33 nays and 1 present. This included one manual vote from David Pyne who voted for the amendment.
Speaker of the Utah House Mike Schultz addressed the body.
Gunnar Thorderson, Utah County, made a motion to postpone his resolution to the May 18th meeting because he spends most of his time in California and the border is super important. He wanted to make sure that the border resolution was heard. The motion passed.
Casey Gale, Salt Lake County, made a motion to adopt his resolution a Return to Excellence in Voting.
Whit Cook, Tooele County, made a motion to extend the time to 6pm, or 1 hour and 2 minutes. Division was called. The vote was 53 for and 50 against so the time was extended.
Teena Horlacher, Davis County, made a motion to call for a roll call vote on Casey Gale’s resolution. The motion passed.
Holly Rabanne Crowley, Tooele County, requested a quorum call. Rob Axson, Chair, suggested that we could take the roll call vote and if we don’t have a quorum that we would be immediately adjourned. There was an objection. We returned to the quorum call. A count was taken and there was a quorum present.
The resolution passed with 74 for and 20 against with 2 voting present.
Alexis Ence made a motion to adopt the resolution about the Resolution on Federalism and Securing Our National Border. The motion passed.
Olivia Dawn, Davis County, made a motion to reconsider having been on the prevailing side for the purpose of amending. The motion failed.
Kimball Willard, Washington County, made a motion to adjourn. The motion passed at 5:32pm and the meeting was adjourned.
