Adopted
Chair Rob Axson opened with a welcome. Rob noted that the Sept SCC meeting would likely be in southern Utah, and the October meeting in the Salt Lake area.
Lisa Shepherd, Utah County, led the prayer. Jared Cahoon, Salt Lake County, led the body in the pledge of allegiance. Kim Coleman, Party Vice Chair, read the platform plank on taxation.
Attendance is 105 (75 in person, 30 online) as of 10:36am.
Rob made a motion to move the ratification of the lieutenant governor and the brief remarks by Mike Kennedy and Trent Staggs to immediately before the officer reports and after the adoption of the minutes. This motion was adopted without objection.
Kirby Glad, Utah County, made a point of order that both of the resolutions on the agenda are out of order under Robert’s Rules of Order and our own Constitution. Rob ruled the two resolutions out of order under Robert’s Rules of Order 10(26)(2).
Gunnar Thorderson made a motion to appeal the ruling of the chair for both resolutions. This requires a 2/3s vote to change the ruling of the chair. The motion failed.
Olivia Dawn, Davis County, called for division. The motion failed again, 53 yays to 56 nays.
Lowell Nelson, Utah County, made a motion to withdraw both of his proposals from the agenda (originally numbered 5e and 7b). It was adopted without objection.
Aaron Bullen, Utah County, made a motion to withdraw his bylaw amendment (originally numbered 7a).
Jennifer Garner, Davis County, made a motion to amend the minutes from a prior meeting. This was out of order but would be in order when we get to the adoption of minutes.
The agenda was adopted at 11:04am. The four hour time limit started, ending the meeting at 3:04pm.
We moved to the adoption of the minutes on January 27, 2024. Jen Garner made a motion to add her motions from that meeting to the agenda. Stafford Sievert, Secretary, clarified that they were not motions but points of order and commentary. Rob Axson ruled this out of order. Marci Campbell made a motion to add the discussion that she led regarding the adoption of the caucus rules be added to the minutes. Rob ruled this out of order. The minutes were adopted as presented.
We moved to the adoption of the February 15, 2024 minutes. Olivia Dawn, Davis County, asked to include the specific Robert’s Rules reference regarding the adoption of the method of election in that section of the minutes. Rob agreed and also noted that he will include the specific language he had prepared to explain it. Olivia also asked that to that to the extent this was in order that we include any specific references from the January meeting as well. Rob agreed.
Olivia Dawn, Davis County, made a motion to make the recording of the meeting available to the members when they request it. Rob clarified that it is already possible to come view the meeting in person with the Secretary or the party staff at the party offices. We would be happy to work with folks who live far from Salt Lake as we travel around the state to schedule a viewing when we’re nearby. The February 15th minutes were adopted as amended.
Rob invited Mike Kennedy, the convention nominee for CD3, to address the body.
Rob invited Trent Staggs, the convention nominee for Senate, to address the body.
Rob invited Natalie Clawson, the lieutenant governor candidate with Phil Lyman, to address the body. Rob invited Natalie’s mother Sherri Peterson to address the body and offer her endorsement of her daughter’s candidacy. Sherri addressed the body.
We moved to the Ratification of Candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Rob moved the motion to ratify Natalie Clawson as candidate for lieutenant governor. There was no objection and Natalie was ratified.
Brad Bonham gave his officer report. Anne-Marie Lampropoulos was not present but Rob noted that she was working hard on the RNC. McKay Newell gave his officer report, noting that we’d get into more detail on the budget later in the agenda. Stafford Sievert gave her officer report. Rob noted that we’d conduct two trainings on Numinar, our new door knocking app, next week for candidates and for counties.
Rob noted that if any candidates have issues with data access, they should flag for us so we can address it.
Bob McEntee made a point of order that he thought the ruling of the chair could be overruled by a majority not a 2/3rds vote. Rob clarified that it required a 2/3rds vote because it was related to the scope of the party. Bob believes that we are in a continued breach. Rob invited Bob to make a motion to reconsider as that would be his option now.
Rob clarified that only someone who was on the prevailing side can make a motion to reconsider. First, you’d have to reconsider both. Should that prevail, we should have both before us, and then we would need to make a motion to divide.
As of 12:14, there were 79 people in person and 40 online or a total of 119.
James Evans, Salt Lake County, made a motion to reconsider the ruling of the chair that the two resolutions were not in scope. The chair ruled the motion passed. Kason Goodrich called for division. The motion to reconsider passed with 57 yays and 46 nays.
Olivia Dawn, Davis County, made a motion to divide the question. This was adopted.
Gunnar Thorderson, Utah County, made a motion to withdraw his resolution from the agenda. There was no objection and the agenda was amended.
Rob Axson clarified that he does have the ability to change his ruling now the motion is divided and we are considering only one of the resolutions. He ruled that Bob McEntee’s resolution is in order. However, the resolution would still need to be readded to the agenda.
Mac Sims, Utah County, moved to add the Resolution for Utah to Adopt an Independently Elected Secretary of State to where it was originally noticed in the agenda. Kirby Glad, Utah County, objected. This is a 2/3rds vote since the agenda has already been adopted. The motion passed with 78 yays, 23 nays and 1 present.
Kim Coleman, Vice Chair, gave her officer report. Rob Axson, Chair, gave his officer report. He offered to match dollar for dollar up to $1000 dollars any donations made by SCC members today during the meeting.
Lots of questions were asked by the members about how the state party was supporting the candidates.
Kirby Glad, Utah County, made a motion to return to the Orders of the Day because the discussion had veered off from Rob’s report. Rob ruled the motion out of order. Rob concluded his officer report.
Rob moved on to the first item of business, which is the approval to book convention venues in 2025 and 2026. Rob noted that in an Organizing Convention year there are about 50 venues around the state that can handle that type of convention but in an Nominating Year, there are only two and they are on the Wasatch Front: Salt Palace and Mountain America.
Chad Saunders, Tooele County, amended the motion to make approval of convention spaces for the next four years instead of the next two years. He gave this authority to the chair, whoever that may be.
Jennifer Garner, Davis County, made a motion to amend Chad’s motion to add a list of specific locations that are always the preferred locations if they are available.
Kirby Glad, Utah County, made a motion to amend this to be a standing rule that any chair can always go out at least four years. The language would be “The chair is authorized to negotiate and secure venues for state conventions up to four years in advance.” A standing rule is an administrative rule that can be added to the bylaws.
Kimball Willard, Washington County, called the question and on all previous questions. This was a 2/3rds vote. The motion passed. We returned to Kirby Glad’s motion to amend the motion to establish a standing rule to allow chairs to contract for venues up to four years in advance. The motion passed.
Then we moved to the standing rule itself which states “The chair is authorized to negotiate and secure venues for state conventions up to four years in advance.” The motion passed, negating prior amendments and motions.
We started a discussion about caucus. Rob noted that we are working on a report on lessons learned from caucus. This would be a “how to” manual for future leadership teams that would be tailored to rural, suburban and urban versions of caucus. These needs are very different. He also noted that we blocked at least 3,500 Democrats from preregistering through our system.
Bob McEntee moved to extend the meeting to 5pm. With pushback from the audience, he amended his motion to extend the meeting to 4pm. The motion passed and the meeting was extended to 4pm.
We moved to the next item, which was the consideration of the budget. Hard copies were passed out to members of the SCC. This is a confidential document and Rob asked that they get turned back in at the end of the meeting so that we can keep these numbers private. There was a discussion. McKay Newell moved to adopt the budget.
Jennifer Garner, Davis County, called a quorum. 34 online, and 61 in the room, or 95 total. A quorum was reached.
We returned to the motion to adopt the budget. The budget was approved for fiscal year 24-25.
Aaron Bullen provided a report from the C&B committee. The committee had voted that form and function was in order on all of the submissions of the agenda.
We considered the first Constitutional Amendment, Constitutional Amendment to Clarify Election Elimination Procedures by Mac Sims, Utah County. Mac introduced his amendment and then made a motion to adopt the Constitutional Amendment.
Stafford Sievert, Morgan County, made a motion to amend the Constitutional Amendment to strike the last sentence of the amendment. The motion passed by majority vote. She indicated her intent to replace it at the next meeting with a different method to deal with tie breaker situations that does not leave the result of an election to chance.
Neil Sebring, Salt Lake County, made a motion to revert back to “shall” instead of “may” in the second sentence. There was an objection by Mac Sims. Rob clarified that this amendment is not necessary because it was established parliamentarily at the February meeting that if the SCC doesn’t vote we revert to the prior adopted process. Mac clarified that using “may” cleans up the language for future leadership teams so there is less confusion. Rob ruled the motion failed. Division was called. The motion to amend the amendment from may to shall passed 52 yays to 36 nays, and 2 present.
Ben Soholt, Box Elder County, made a motion to send the Constitutional Amendment back to the C&B Committee for further review. The motion passed.
We stood adjourned at 4:09pm for lack of quorum.
