Iron County School District Office

September 6, 2025 10:00 A.M.

Rob Axson, Chair, started the meeting at 10:20am. Bill Hoskins gave the prayer. Jordan Hess led the pledge of allegiance. Mari Eddy read the Education plank of the platform.

Credential report was 41 online and 90 in person for a total of 131 members as of 10:27am.

Lowell Nelson had asked to pull his resolution from the agenda and he moved to adopt the corrected agenda that includes the resolutions as sent out on Tuesday.

Fred Cox made a motion to put the resolutions after the business. There was no objection.

Wendy Hart made a motion to add a resolution on the Better Boundaries lawsuit to the agenda.

Brad Barrowes made a motion to call the question on Wendy’s motion and the underlying motions. The motion passed.

The motion to add Wendy’s resolution to the top of the list of the resolutions passed.

We considered the motion to adopt the amended agenda. It was approved at 10:47am. The four hour time limit will expire at 2:47pm.

Chuck Wood made a motion to add an agenda item to discuss the scheduling of the next two SCC meeting dates after the binding business and before the resolutions. Chuck explained that both the Nov 15 and Jan 10 meetings conflict with Utah County CCC meetings that were set in 2024. There was an objection. The motion failed.

We moved to the adoption of the minutes June 21, 2025 (full meeting, including Adjourned Meeting on August 13, 2025). The minutes were approved without objection.

The following officers gave reports:

• National Committeeman, Brad Bonham
• National Committeewoman, Kim Coleman
• Treasurer, Chris Null
• Secretary, Stafford Palmieri Sievert
• Vice Chair, Melanie Monestere
• Chair, Rob Axson

We considered the FY26 budget, as recommended by the Executive Committee. Chris Null, Treasurer, presented the budget and took questions. He clarified that the SCC is approving the budget not specific categories on the chart of accounts. Rob noted that, just as he committed to when he first ran for chair, we will never spend money we don’t have - and this budget reflects that. Jordan Hess made a motion to call the question and to second the motion to approve the budget. Rob noted that we wouldn’t have to call the question if there was no objection to approving the budget. Mike Stuart made a motion to approve the budget without objection. It was approved.

Chris Null introduced the candidates for the Budget Committee to be ratified by the SCC. He noted that two members are automatic - himself and an appointee from the Audit Committee; at their first meeting they selected Wendy Hart for this role. The other appointees are:

• Zac Wilson
• Mike Bird
• Carma Brown
• Rickie Mehl Farmer
• Tifanie Fitzgerald

Rob made a motion to ratify the budget committee candidates. There was no objection and the motion passed.

Stafford made a presentation about the requirements for re-petitioning for auxiliary status. She reviewed the criteria in the bylaws and stated that six current auxiliaries reapplied for status. Stafford had presented this information to the Executive Committee on August 19th. Given questions about the compliance of the Utah Federation of Republican Women, the Executive Committee had approved a motion to recommend Women’s Liberty Caucus, Young Republicans, Veterans Caucus, Native American Caucus, and College Republicans for reapproval and to reserve the Utah Federation of Republican Women for further study.

There was a discussion, particularly around how an auxiliary would be removed. Rob clarified that the removal process is based on a recommendation from the EC. The EC has to recommend their removal for the SCC to then vote on their removal. The SCC cannot unilaterally revoke auxiliary status. Further, precedent matters, and this is how we have handled this for many years.

Glen Burton made a motion to extend time on this item by 3 minutes. The motion failed.

We moved on to the discussion of QPP/RPP status of the Utah Republican Party in compliance with state law requirements. Lowell Nelson made a presentation about his research of the Election Code. He noted that he had asked to have his resolution removed from the agenda because a political party shall participate in the statewide primary in order to be a party. He realized that his resolution to not participate in the statewide primary in 2026 would be the end of the party.

Mike Stuart made a motion to have the chair create a committee to study this issue. Jamie Munns made a motion to ask the Executive Committee handle this. Lyndon made a motion to amend Mike Stuart’s motion to make Lowell Nelson the chair of this committee. Teena Horlacher made a motion to amend Lyndon’s motion to make the committee composed of the C&B Committee Chair, the Audit Committee Chair, and the elected Congressional District representatives of the Executive Committee. We had run out of time on this issue. We considered the motion to make Lowell Nelson the chair of the committee. The motion passed. Now we returned to the underlying motion to ask the chair to create a committee. The motion passed.

We considered the approval of the method of election for the 2026 State Convention. Rob clarified that our party constitution allowed two methods of election: multiple round balloting or rank choice balloting. Peter Cannon objected to maintaining the multiple round balloting. Wendy Hart made a motion to use multiple round balloting for the 2026 convention. Mac Sims made a point of order that the method used at the nominating convention is also used at the organizing convention, so we are actually picking the method for the next two years. The motion passed.

We then moved on to a discussion of caucus planning. Rob explained how we had come up with the March 17, 2026 date. First, we had polled the county leadership. We’d also had conversations with multiple county leaders. There was a slight preference for March 17 over March 10, given the latter was during Washington County’s spring break. This date was brought to the Executive Committee. In that discussion, we considered doing it early in January, but were concerned about promoting it and getting volunteers over Christmas. We also were avoiding the Legislative Session, which starts the Tuesday after MLK Day and goes through March 6, 2026.

We appreciated that this does reduce the number of weeks before the state convention, which by state law can be no later than the last Saturday in April (which is April 25, 2026). This is because we must report the results of the convention by the last Monday in April (which is April 27, 2026). Rob noted that larger changes to caucus, such as the time, the day of the week, the fact it’s in the spring, etc. would require a constitutional amendment to the party’s constitution. Rob has set up a working group to consider these larger changes with the mandate to provide a recommendation by the first of the year so that we could consider them prior to the last SCC meeting before convention, currently scheduled on January 10, 2026.

We moved on to the first order of business, Amendment to Update Operations Manual Timeline. Susan Lee stood in as secretary for this item. Chad Bennion C&B Chair presented his report that the C&B had met and considered the items on the agenda. He also noted that they are going to have set dates for C&B meetings to make it easier for members to attend. Stafford Sievert presented the amendment and moved passage of the amendment. The motion was seconded. There was a discussion. The motion passed by 118 yays to 12 nays, with 8 voting present.

Derek Brown, Attorney General, gave his report.

Stafford Sievert presented Amendment to Clarify SCC Submission and Call Process and it was seconded. There was a discussion. Olivia Dawn made an amendment to strike “as an attachment or digital link to the agenda.” There was an objection. Olivia amended her amendment to add the words “such” before “as” and not strike the rest of the sentence. It was seconded. There was objection. The amendment passed. Glen Burton asked if he could make a motion to clarify that the item had to be sent by the deadline as there was no way for the sender to verify receipt. Rob ruled this out of order as it was beyond the scope of the proposal. We returned to the underlying amendment to adopt the bylaw amendment, as amended. The proposal passed 121 yays to 6 nays and 1 voting present.

Stafford Sievert resumed her duties as Secretary. Teena Horlacher presented her Bylaw Amendment to Require In-Person Attendance at SCC Meetings. She moved adoption of the amendment. Chuck Wood made an amendment to Teena’s motion to add a proviso statement to the motion to adopt that it would not go into effect until midnight on September 7th, 2025. Because bylaws go into effect immediately, we’d have to kick everyone off Zoom. This was a majority vote. The motion to add the proviso statement passed. Ben Soholt made a motion to send this proposal back to the C&B Committee for further work, specifically on considering situations where Zoom participation is necessary, vs a total ban. He noted that the Cache County Chair was splitting her time between this meeting and the Peach Days parade - it was not possible for her to be in two places at once. The motion to send it back to the C&B Committee failed.

Holly Crowley made a motion to extend time for an additional 3 minutes. The motion passed. We continued the debate and ran out of time again. We considered the motion to adopt the amendment; it failed by 82 yays to 53 nays with 1 voting present, failing to reach the 2/3rds threshold.

Joe Levi asked for a ruling of the chair on the opinion that we are in continuing breach because we met on Zoom to amend the bylaws to allow Zoom. Rob said that this issue required more research and would come back with a ruling of the chair. Lowell asked that the chair consider the same proviso that we had added to the amendment, since if he made a ruling that we were in breach of the bylaws, that would also kick everyone off Zoom at the next meeting. Rob noted that should his ruling come down that we are in breach after he does some research, he would be inclined to include that proviso.

Jennifer Garner presented her Proposed Bylaw to Comply with Secret Ballot Requirements. Ben Soholt made a motion to include the same proviso to make this go into effect at midnight on September 7, 2025 should this pass. There was no objection and that proviso was added. The amendment failed 56 for to 75 against with 3 voting present.

Maryann Christensen made a motion to extend the time until we finish the business. She amended her motion to extend time until we finish the agenda. Maryann amended her motion again to extend time for the meeting until we conclude the binding business and the resolutions. Mac Sims made a motion to amend Maryann’s motion to limit time on each item to 5 minutes. The chair ruled that out of order because Mac’s amendment requires a ⅔ vote but Maryann’s amendment was a majority. We considered a vote on Maryann’s motion. It passed.

Mac Sims made a new separate motion that we reduce the time for each item to 5 minutes. That motion also passed.

Jennifer Garner presented her next proposal, Bylaw Amendment Removing Secret Ballot Requirements for Online SCC Meeting Participants. She moved the amendment and then moved to pull the amendment. There was no objection and the item was pulled.

Jennifer Garner presented the next proposal, Bylaw Amendment to Increase Trust in Elections. Fred Cox made a motion to extend time by 15 seconds to propose an amendment. He proposed to change the words “collection container” to “counting station”. The amendment passed. The underlying motion passed 103 to 17 with 1 voting present.

Stafford Sievert turned the Secretary role over to Susan Lee once again. Stafford presented Amendment to Clarify Wording Around Timing of Filing and Submissions and made a motion to adopt. Chad Bennion made an amendment to restore the language in C and strike the new sentence starting with “unless otherwise specified”. Upon suggestion of the parliamentarian, Chad made a motion to divide the proposed amendment to consider paragraph B and paragraph C separately.

We considered the motion to adopt paragraph B. It was approved 117 to 1, with 1 voting present.

We then had a discussion about paragraph C. We moved to the vote and it was approved 103 yays to 20 nays, with 0 voting present.

Aaron Bullen made a point of privilege to clarify that the Constitution and Bylaw Committee “approval” is form and function, not whether the committee is for or against a proposal.

Stafford Sievert introduced Amendment to Update the Auxiliary Requirements and moved its adoption. Joe Levi made a motion to postpone indefinitely, which was seconded. There was an objection. We had a discussion. Wendy Hart made a motion to extend time on this item by 2 min. The motion failed. We returned to the vote to postpone indefinitely. The motion failed. We then voted on the proposal, which passed, 101 for to 17 against, with 3 voting present.

Jennifer Garner introduced Bylaw Amendment to Clarify No Absentee or Proxy Voting and moved its adoption. It was seconded, but there was objection. There was discussion. The amendment passed 109 for to 17 against, with 0 voting present.

Jennifer Garner introduced 2.4 Audit Committee: Bylaw Amendment to Increase Transparency, and moved its adoption. Mike Carey made a motion to divide paragraphs B and C. It was approved.

Brad Barrowes made a motion to return paragraph B to the C&B committee for further refinement. The motion passed and section B was sent back to committee. We moved to section C.

Stafford Sievert made a motion to add the words “the Audit Committee” between “of” and “receiving”. The amendment passed without objection. Marilyn Momeny made a motion to amend the proposal to change the number 60 to 90. Given pushback from the body, Marilyn offered to pull her amendment. There was no objection to pulling the amendment. We then voted on adoption of the proposal for paragraph C, as amended, which was adopted 109 for, 0 against, and 1 present.

We considered the resolutions on the agenda. Cade Alcock made a motion to combine the resolutions into one and then to end debate. It was seconded. The motion failed.

We moved to consider the Resolution to Preserve the Utah Constitution Against “Better Boundaries”, sponsored by Wendy Hart. Wendy moved adoption and it was seconded. There was an objection. The resolution was adopted.

We considered the Resolution In Support of Confirming President Trump’s Nominees, sponsored by Jordan Hess. Don Guymon called the question. The motion passed. We considered then the resolution itself. The resolution was adopted.

The chair recognized Brad Green, who was visiting the meeting.

We considered the Resolution Encouraging Utah Sheriffs to Support ICE, sponsored by Teena Horlacher. There was a discussion. The resolution was adopted unanimously.

Natalie Clawson presented the Resolution for the Lieutenant Governor to Comply with the NVRA and Provide a Complete Copy of Utah’s Voter Registration Rolls. Aaron Bullen made a motion to amend to remove the 2nd, 3rd and 4th bullet points under the whereas clause that starts with “WHEREAS, multiple requests for transparent voter rolls” because bringing Phil Lyman back into the discussion is going to undermine the larger purpose, which is getting the LG to comply with the law. There was an objection. Neil Sebring made a motion to call a roll call vote, which has a 25% threshold. The motion passed. The amendment passed 60-52 with 3 voting present and those bullets were stricken.

Aaron Bullen made a motion to extend time by 3 minutes, a 2/3rds vote. The motion passed. Aaron Bullen made a motion to strike “Phil Lyman and” from the THEREFORE clause given that it was now irrelevant having struck previous mentions. The amendment passed.

We went back to the underlying resolution. It passed.

Having completed our agenda, we stood adjourned at 5:15pm.