Adopted

Rob Axson, Chair, called the meeting to order at 10:27am. 

Zac Wilson, Young Republicans Chair, gave the prayer. Carlos Moreno, Salt Lake County, led the pledge of allegiance. Carma Brown, Salt Lake County, read the Immigration Platform plank.

Rob welcomed the members to the body. We had 85 members in the room and 40 online, for a total of 125 members. 

Brad Bonham gave his officer report. 

Kim Coleman gave her officer report. 

Stafford Palmieri Sievert gave her officer report. 

McKay Newell gave his officer report. 

Jon Harvey made a motion to send all unreviewed amendments back to C&B. Rob ruled this out of order but it would be in order later in the agenda. 

At this point, attendance was 96 in person and 36 online. 

Brent Odenwalder, Weber County, objected to the adoption of the agenda. He motioned that after item 1c the person who is currently suing the body and SCC members in a personal capacity, Tracie Halvorsen, would be allowed to address the body. Rob ruled that out of order but agreed to let the body vote on whether this person should be allowed to address the body. It is a 2/3rds vote because the agenda was noticed with time limits. Brent appealed the ruling of the chair. This motion failed, and division was called. The vote was taken again, and there were 75 yays and 36 nays to uphold the ruling of the chair. We returned to the underlying motion, which was to allow Tracie Halvorsen to address the body. 

Brent Odenwalder amended his motion to allow for up to 10 minutes total to be provided to Tracie Halvorsen. That includes her presentation and Q&A. Rob noted that advice from counsel was not to engage with anyone threatening to sue and to engage only with legal counsel. 

The motion to amend the agenda failed. 

Bob McEntee asked about the party’s actions on requesting signature data from the state. Mac Sims gave an update on the GRAMMA request the party had submitted for a variety of election data related to state races (not county), but we had not received some of that information back. 

Bob McEntee, Weber County, made a motion that Rob Axson officially request all signatures including private but not withheld and have the members of the Audit Committee (not the Committee itself) review the information and report back to the body at the October meeting. Bob clarified that he did not intend the party to submit another GRAMMA request but to formalize the work that the party was already doing, and to have the members of the Audit Committee review the results. The motion passed. 

Jon Harvey, Salt Lake County, made a motion to move all items in section 7 back to C&B. There was an objection. Natalie Levi, Cache County, made a motion to exclude all of the items by Stafford Sievert in her capacity as secretary from the motion. That motion failed. We returned to Jon Harvey’s underlying motion to send all items that didn’t go through C&B back to C&B. Maryann Christensen, Salt Lake County, made an amendment to the motion to move all the items that didn’t go through C&B committee to the end of the agenda instead of removing them from the agenda. 

Mac Sims, Utah County, made a motion to call the question and all underlying questions. The motion passed. The motion to amend the agenda to move items to the end of the agenda failed. We returned to the underlying motion to remove all items that didn’t go through C&B to the C&B committee by Jon Harvey. The chair ruled the motion failed. Division was called. There were 56 yays and 59 nays. 

Aaron Bullen, Utah County, made a motion to remove 7s and 8b from the agenda. There was no objection to the amendment and the agenda was amended. 

Cody Adams, Juab County, made a motion to reduce the time requirements on the bylaw and constitutional amendments by Stafford Sievert specifically to 5 minutes from 10 minutes. Kimball Willard called the question. The motion passed. We returned to the underlying motion. The motion passed. The time was limited to 5 minutes on the proposals by Stafford. 

Kimball Willard, Washington County, made a motion to adopt the agenda as amended. 

Chuck Wood, Utah County, made a motion to move item 7a to the February meeting agenda. Chris Null, Salt Lake County, made a motion to call the question. That motion passed. We returned to the underlying motion to move item 7a to the February agenda. The chair ruled the motion failed. Division was called. The motion failed again 37 yays to 51 nays. 

Agenda was adopted at 12:28pm. The four hour time limit was set to end at 4:28pm. 

The chair recognized Mike Kennedy in the room. 

Rob moved to the minutes from May 18, 2024. There were no corrections. The minutes were adopted. 

Business: 

Rob provided a State Party Update on the following topics: 

1. GOTV, TrumpForce, Salt Lake initiatives
2. Caucus Working Group
3. Legal defense of the party against proposed legal action against the party and the members of the SCC 
4. Interim Committee Action of the legislature, which was removed from the agenda
5. October SCC meeting description
6. Supporting the Election of Donald Trump

Rob introduced the item Constitutional Amendment Ballot Initiative Introduction and Information and invited Senator Kirk Cullimore to address the body to explain what happened in the lawsuit, the Supreme Court’s decision, and the special session called by the legislature to address the Court’s decision. There is now a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot in November to implement the Legislature’s action. Senator Cullimore took questions from the members. 

Jen Garner, Davis County, made a motion to extend discussion by 10 minutes. This was adopted without objection. When we hit the 10 minute limit, there was a motion to allow Christina Boggess, Salt Lake County, to ask one final question and it was seconded. The motion passed. 

Rob gave an update on the location and timing of the State Convention venue and date, namely that we are still working on it. We are trying to work around homecoming dates and other events. 

Rob also offered the body the opportunity to change our method of voting from multiple round voting to rank choice voting. No one proposed a motion to change our method of voting to rank choice voting. Mac Sims, Utah County, noted that our rules state that in an organizing convention, we use the method of voting from the nominating convention, which means we wouldn’t need to vote on this until the spring of 2026. The body verbally supported staying with multiple round voting. 

We moved onto the Legislative Resolutions (10 minutes each). Rob handed over the gavel to James Evans, Salt Lake County, to preside over the meeting during the first resolution. 

Rob Axson presented the Resolution In Support of SJR401, Utah Republican Party Officers and moved the resolution. It was seconded by Lisa Shepherd, Utah County. There was debate. 

Jen Garner, Davis County, proposed an amendment that wherever it says “Republic” that we add the word “Constitutional” before the word “Republic”. This occurs in the first and second “whereas” clauses. There was no objection. The amendment passed unanimously. We continued the debate on the resolution as amended. The resolution passed. 

Rob resumed the gavel. Bob McEntee presented his resolution, Resolution for Utah to Return to an Independently Elected Secretary of State. Kimball Willard, Washington County, made a motion to cut the last two resolved clauses: 

“RESOLVED, The Utah Republican Party calls upon our legislature to enable candidates to independently require a full hand recount of ballots when races are within 5% if that candidate will pay towards said recount the reasonable amount the Legislature shall set except if they win the recount there shall be no cost to them. 

FURTHER RESOLVED, Signatories of candidate ballot petitions for public office shall have their names publicly displayed on the State website just as persons who sign for initiatives and referenda.” 

Fred Cox, Salt Lake County, made a motion to divide consideration of the amendment to strike these two clauses. There was no objection and Kimball’s amendment was divided. (Note: when a motion is divided the new motions become “House” motions, which are motions by the body, instead of motions by a member.) We moved to considering the House motion to remove the first clause: 

“RESOLVED, The Utah Republican Party calls upon our legislature to enable candidates to independently require a full hand recount of ballots when races are within 5% if that candidate will pay towards said recount the reasonable amount the Legislature shall set except if they win the recount there shall be no cost to them.”

There was a debate. The motion failed and the clause was retained. 

We then turned to the House motion to remove the second resolved clause: 

“FURTHER RESOLVED, Signatories of candidate ballot petitions for public office shall have their names publicly displayed on the State website just as persons who sign for initiatives and referenda.” 

The motion failed.

We returned to the resolution without amendment. The resolution passed. 

Rob invited Alexis Ence, Washington County, to introduce Resolution in Support of Collaboration with the Utah Legislature for the Repeal of SB54 (2014). Alexis moved the adoption of her resolution. Bob McEntee, Weber County, proposed an amendment to add “while we retain our 60% threshold for a state convention winner” at the end of the last paragraph after “Utahns”. The motion failed and the amendment was not adopted. 

Gene Gerate, Washington County, made a motion to call the question. The chair ruled the motion passed. Division was called. Jon Harvey, Salt Lake County, made a motion to extend debate by 5 minutes. The motion failed. We now considered the motion to consider adoption of the resolution without amendment. The resolution passed. 

Casey Gale, Salt Lake County, introduced the Resolution to Restore Party Nomination Rights and Full Repeal of SB54 and moved its adoption. 

Fred Cox, Salt Lake County, made a motion to switch the order of the names of Curtis Bramble and Dan McCay to accurately reflect that Bramble was the primary sponsor and McCay was the floor sponsor. That amendment was adopted without objection. 

Ben Soholt, Box Elder County, made a motion to ask the sponsor to articulate why this resolution is different from the prior resolutions on the topic of SB54. Rob noted that he knows of at least three motions on that topic. The vote was too close to call, but Rob invited Casey to address the body. 

Mackey Smith, Salt Lake County, made a motion to amend the agenda to remove this item from the agenda as redundant with the prior resolution that we just passed. The motion required a ⅔ vote. The motion failed. 

James Evans, Salt Lake County, had a motion to amend by striking the third “whereas” clause as inaccurate: 

“Whereas, This legislation undermines the Utah Republican Party's freedom of association rights by allowing candidates to bypass the party's traditional caucus-convention system and directly seek nomination through a signature-gathering process;”

Carrie Hughes, Utah County, made a motion to amend the James’ amendment to not strike the entirety of the paragraph, but instead add “we believe” and replace the capital T with a lower case t at the beginning of the word “This”. There was no objection to this amendment to the amendment and it was adopted. 

We were out of time. Jen Garner, Davis County, made a motion to extend time by 5 minutes. The motion failed. Division was called. The motion failed again by 46 yays and 56 nays. 

We returned to the motion to adopt the resolution. The resolution was adopted. 

We moved to the elections of C&B and Audit Committee members. Lisa Shepherd, Utah County, made a motion to adopt the Election Rules. They were adopted without objection. 

Rob noted that there was only one candidate for the Audit Committee, Blair Brandenberg, Weber County, and so he was elected by acclamation. 

We then opened the speeches for the C&B Committee candidates. They addressed the body in the following order: 

• Kimball Willard
• Charles Wood 
• Bob McEntee
• Haylee Caplin

The current credentialed report was 41 online and 95 in person for a total of 136. 

In the first round, the vote totals were as follows: 

• Kimball Willard - 6 votes
• Charles Wood - 15 votes
• Haylee Caplin - 40 votes
• Bob McEntee - 56 votes

Since no one got a majority, we moved to a second round. Kimball Wood and Charles Wood were eliminated. 

In the second round, the vote totals were as follows: 

• Haylee Caplin - 57 votes
• Bob McEntee - 65 votes

Bob McEntee, Weber County, was declared the winner. 

Time had expired and Kimball Willard made a motion to extend the meeting by one hour to 5:39pm. The motion failed and we stood adjourned at 4:44pm.