Draft

Rob Axson, chair, opened the meeting at 10:27am. Rick Robinson, Sevier County Chair, led the prayer. Mark Magneson, Utah County, led the pledge. Rob Axson read the platform plank on the Proper Role of Government. Rob announced that he had asked Wendy Hart, Utah County and Audit Committee Chair, to act as Secretary before the Secretary election. 

Rob then invited Representative Mike Kennedy (CD3) to address the body, which he did. 

The credential report was 79 in person and 40 online for a total of 119 or 65%.  

Neil Sebring, Salt Lake County, moved the adoption of the agenda. 

Lowell Nelson, Utah County, made a motion to amend the agenda to begin with item v at the top of section 3 and go down and then return to the top to address item a.

Neil Sebring made a motion to end debate, which passed.  

We returned to Lowell’s motion. The chair ruled the motion failed. Teena Horlacher, Davis County called division. The motion passed with 61 yays and 55 nays and the agenda was amended. 

Chuck Wood, Utah County, made a motion to call the question on the agenda as amended. Mac Sims, Utah County, made a motion to remove t, gg, and hh from the agenda, which were his submissions. Chuck withdrew his motion. Mac’s motion passed without objection. James Evans, Salt Lake County, made a motion to limit debate to two speakers for and two speakers against. The room expressed displeasure verbally and James withdrew his motion. Chuck made a motion to call the question again. The motion passed. 

The agenda was adopted as amended at 11:02am. The four hour time limit would expire at 3:02pm. 

Rob introduced the approval of the minutes. There were no changes to the minutes. We approved the minutes of October 26, 2024 without objection. 

We proceeded to the officer reports. McKay Newell gave his officer report. Kim Coleman gave her officer report. Brad Bonham gave his officer report. Rob Axson gave his officer report. 

Jared Cahoon, Utah County, made a motion that we get specifics on the budget within 7 days of this meeting. Rob noted that McKay has that information and also that we have to file reports with the FEC every month for our federal account. We would try to get that information by the end of this meeting. 

We moved to the first item of business, which is the operations manual. Aaron Bullen, Utah County, made a motion to approve. Jen Garner, Davis County, objected. The operations manual was approved. 

We moved to the replacement elections. Olivia Dawn HW, Davis County, moved to adopt the Rules for Leadership Elections. There was no objection. The rules were adopted. 

Olivia Dawn HW noted that we hadn’t received a list of candidates before the meeting. Rob noted this is a deficiency in our rules because candidates can be nominated from the floor so there is no definitive list. 

Olivia Dawn HW moved to close nominations. Rob ruled that out of order because we have to see who would nominate anyone from the floor. No one wanted to nominate from the floor, so Rob closed the nominations. We put the list of candidates up on the screen in the room. 

We moved to the election of secretary. There was only one candidate, Stafford Palmieri Sievert, who was elected by acclamation. 

We moved to the election of the vice chair. Rob invited Chris Null, Salt Lake County, who was serving as Elections Chair at the meeting to explain how voting would take place. We used paper ballots in the room. We had three volunteers on Zoom accepting votes for those individuals to keep their ballot secret. 

Candidates made speeches in the following order except we skipped the two candidates who were not present or on Zoom:

• Mark R. Carney
• Jesse Sloan
• Chad G. Saunders
• Melanie Monestere
• Gunnar Thorderson
• Corey Daniel Turner - not present
• Zac Wilson
• Austin Gray
• Laura Gundry - not present

The updated credentials report was 89 in person and 46 online or 135 total as of 12:45pm. We opened voting. 

Rob announced the following results with 134 votes cast. 

• Mark R. Carney - 0 votes - ELIMINATED 
• Jesse Sloan - 14 votes, 10.4%
• Chad G. Saunders - 11 votes, 8.0% - ELIMINATED
• Melanie Monestere - 50 votes, 37.0%
• Gunnar Thorderson - 13 votes, 9.6%
• Corey Daniel Turner - 0 - ELIMINATED
• Zac Wilson - 45 votes, 33.3%
• Austin Gray - 1 vote, 0.1% - ELIMINATED
• Laura Gundry - 0 votes - ELIMINATED

We moved to the second round. The candidates had 30 seconds to make speeches and did so in the following order: 

• Jesse Sloan 
• Melanie Monestere
• Gunnar Thorderson
• Zac Wilson

There was no change to the credentials report. We opened voting for the second round. Rob announced the results: 

• Jesse Sloan - 13 votes, 9.6% - ELIMINATED
• Melanie Monestere - 55 votes, 40.7%
• Gunnar Thorderson - 9 votes, 6.7% - ELIMINATED
• Zac Wilson - 52 votes, 38.5%

We moved to a third round. The two remaining candidates gave 30 second speeches in the following order: 

• Melanie Monestere
• Zac Wilson

The updated credentials report was 47 online and 89 in person for a total of 136. 

The results: 

• Melanie Monestere - 68 votes, 50% - WINNER
• Zac Wilson - 58 votes, 42.6% 

We moved on to the constitutional and bylaw amendment proposals. Aaron Bullen, C&B Chair,  made a motion to combine a-n, excluding f, k and m (from the original agenda before it was amended). These were items that had been on the agenda multiple times since the September 2024 meeting, so the body had had several months to review them. Rob clarified that if we approve items as a block, your yes vote will show as a yes vote for each item because we roll call all bylaw changes. 

Brent Odenwalder, Weber County, objected to bundling. Rob explained that any one member of the body can object and remove items from the bundle. Since Brent had objected we would need to proceed one by one through the agenda as amended, starting with item v. 

We considered UT GOP Constitution proposed amendments to Article XII CAUCUS AND CONVENTION PROCEDURES: Allow Platform Amendments at Organizing Conventions and Set Voting Threshold in Bylaws sponsored by Bob McEntee, Weber County. Bob presented his amendment and moved its adoption. This item passed with 108 yays and 3 nays. 

Now that we had considered item v, which had been the reason for starting half way down the agenda, Aimee Winder Newton, Salt Lake County, made a motion to amend the agenda to return to the original a on the agenda. It would not add any items removed previously. There was a second. Neil Sebring called the question. The motion to call the question passed. We returned to the underlying motion to amend the agenda, which required a ⅔ vote. The motion failed. 

We continued as before and considered Constitutional Amendment to Set a Standard Caucus and Convention Date by Bob McEntee. Bob moved the amendment. There was an objection. Fred Cox made a motion to amend the proposal to delete “or time” - so that the time could not be changed by the SCC. The motion was seconded. Mac Sims, Utah County, asked a question which is whether “date or time” could be interpreted to mean the SCC could change the date or the time but not both. Rob conferred with the parliamentarian and clarified that there is ambiguity and this would be up to the chair’s discretion. Bob clarified his intention was it to be interpreted as “and/or” so that the SCC could amend the date, time or the date and time together. The motion to amend the Constitutional Amendment failed. 

We returned to the underlying motion to adopt the original Constitutional Amendment. 

Blair Brandenburg made a motion to extend time by 5 minutes on this item. The motion failed. 

The motion to adopt the Constitutional Amendment failed 49 yays and 56 nays. 

Daniela Harding, Davis County, made a motion to reconsider. The motion to reconsider failed. 

We considered Constitution Article I Proposal to Add Additional Candidate Certification and Disclosure by Aaron Bullen. He moved to adopt his constitutional amendment. 

Jen Garner, Davis County, made a motion to strike “even year elections” and add “years” so that it would be the “previous two years”. Bob McEntee, Weber County, made a motion to amend the amendment from two years to 12 months. Bob’s amendment failed. We returned to Jen’s amendment to replace “even year elections” with “years”. The motion passed. 

The motion to adopt the underlying Constitutional Amendment failed to meet the two thirds threshold with 66 yays and 36 nays. 

Chad Saunders, Tooele County, made a motion to extend time by 2 hours. Maryann Christensen, Salt Lake County, made a motion to extend time until we have finished business or we have run out of quorum. That motion passed. 

We then considered Bylaw Proposal to Add Additional Candidate Certification and Disclosure by Aaron Bullen, Utah County. Aaron moved the adoption of the bylaw. Aaron made a motion to amend his proposal to replace two years with one year. The amendment to the bylaw passed. Mac Sims, Utah County, called the question. That motion passed. We returned to the vote on the bylaw, as amended. The bylaw passed with 73 yays and 24 nays. 

We considered Combined & Divided Precincts Article XII_2024 by Bob McEntee, Weber County. Bob moved the constitutional amendment. It was seconded. Bob moved to amend his proposal to strike the sentence “Combined caucus precincts shall not contain more than 1500 active registered Republican voters” and to cut “to not less than 300 active registered Republican voters. Counties may also” after the word “precincts” in the third sentence and add the word “or” before “leave”. 

As amended, the proposal would read as follows: 

County Parties through their bylaws may combine leadership and delegates of adjacent (if possible) voting precincts to form combined caucus precincts. Combined caucus precincts shall not contain more than 1500 active registered Republican voters. Counties may also divide precincts to not less than 300 active registered Republican voters. Counties may also or leave precincts as the State or County has designated them.

The amendment passed. We returned to the underlying motion to adopt the constitutional amendment for consideration at convention, which failed with 35 yays and 51 nays. 

Daniela Harding, Davis County, called a quorum count. There were 61 in person and 23 online, or 84 members present. Given the earlier motion to extend the time until we were done with business or lost quorum, we stood adjourned at 4:08pm.