Adopted
August 19, 2023
230 W Towne Ridge Pkwy #200, Sandy, UT 84070
Chair Rob Axson opened the meeting at 12:21pm. He made a motion to skip the prayer, pledge and platform because we had done this at the start of the adjourned June 24, 2023 meeting, which had concluded before this meeting.
Chair Axson then invited any SCC members who are running for municipal office to introduce themselves to the body and the office for which they were running. The following individuals did so:
- Whit Cooke, Grantsville City Council
- Stan Jensen, Provo City Council
- Juan Valladares, Layton City Council
- Gloria Vindas, West Jordan City Council
- Gene Garate, Virgin City Council
- Kimball Willard, St. George City Council
- Kari Malkovich, Woodland Hills City Council
The body was then addressed by current elected officials including Attorney General Sean Reyes, Treasurer Marlo Oaks and Auditor John Dougall.
While we continued to wait for preliminary credential numbers, CD2 Convention nominee Celeste Maloy addressed the body.
Chair Axson provided the preliminary credential report of 163 members present, of which 42 are online and 121 in person. This represents 91% of our body.
Adoption of Agenda
Goud Maragani, Salt Lake County, moved to adopt the agenda. It was seconded. Goud moved to strike his resolution to censure Aimee Winder Newton from the agenda because it was no longer necessary. Casey Gale, Salt Lake County, moved to add his resolution to the agenda addressing the political persecution of Donald Trump. The resolution has been provided to the body. It came from [email protected]. The name of the resolution is Resolution to Condemn the Political Persecution of Donald J. Trump. The agenda, as amended, was adopted at 12:36pm.
Adoption of Minutes
Chair Axson moved to adopt the minutes from Jun. 24th, 2023. Rob clarified that Stafford had updated the minutes with this morning’s adjourned meeting business. The minutes were adopted without objection.
Officer Reports
McKay Newell, treasurer, gave a report. Stafford Palmieri Sievert, secretary, gave a report. Kim Coleman, vice chair, gave a report. Rob Axson, chair, gave a report.
Chair Axson asked the body to ratify our new hire, MaryKate Metler, as our Executive Assistant who will also help us with organizing and marketing. There was a discussion. Derek Brown, Salt Lake County, made a motion to ratify the hiring of MaryKate Metler. The motion was seconded. The motion passed.
Chair Axson moved to ratify the Budget Committee. It is not fully constituted and additional members will be added. In the meantime, these four names were put forward:
- McKay Newell, by party rules
- Fred Cox, elected by the Audit Committee
- Zac Wilson, appointed
- David Edmunds, appointed
There was no objection and the Budget Committee was ratified.
Executive Committee’s Recommendations on Auxiliaries
Secretary Sievert presented the list of existing auxiliaries who had successfully submitted documents to fill the requirements as outlined in the bylaws. No new auxiliaries have applied for auxiliary status. Of the existing auxiliaries, the status was as follows:
- Utah Federation of Republican Women (UFRW) - fully compliant
- Utah Federation of College Republicans (UFCR) - fully compliant
- Utah Republican Latino Coalition - not compliant
- Utah Republican Native American Caucus - fully compliant
- Utah Republican Women’s Liberty Caucus - fully compliant
- Utah Republican Veterans’ Caucus - partially compliant
- Utah Young Republicans - fully compliant
Past auxiliaries that did not apply for continued auxiliary status include:
- Utah Black Republicans
- Teenage Republicans
Chairman Axson noted that the Executive Committee (EC) had recommended that for any auxiliary that had not met the requirements, the SCC would preliminarily approve them while we work with this auxiliary before the October meeting. He also reiterated our commitment to working with auxiliaries to improve their processes and effectiveness. There was no objection.
Amendments
Aaron Bullen, C&B Committee Chair, made a report on the work of the C&B committee for this meeting in reviewing the resolutions and bylaw changes being considered in this meeting.
We considered the first Amendment, which was an Amendment to Allow for Unanimous Consent in Lieu of Roll Call Votes, presented by the C&B Committee. Aaron Bullen, Utah County, presented the amendment and moved to adopt the proposal. It was seconded. Chair Axson clarified that procedurally we would consider both this amendment and the next amendment, Amendment to Reduce Unnecessary Roll Call Votes by Kirby Glad, Utah County, in concert conceptually, but that we would need to consider amendments to this amendment (and vote on them) before we could consider amendments to Kirby Glad’s amendment on the same topic. Should this proposal pass, then we would be unable to consider Kirby Glad’s proposal, which amends the same section of the bylaws and would be in conflict with the newly updated bylaws.
Stan Jensen, Utah County, moved to amend the proposal to replace “present” with “currently credentialed”. It was seconded. We had run out of time on the proposal, so Stan Jensen then proposed to extend the discussion time by 10 minutes. It was seconded but the motion failed to pass. We returned to the original motion to amend the proposal. The motion passed.
Skylar Beltran, Utah County, moved to amend Kirby Glad’s proposal to replace “5” with “15”. The motion was seconded. It passed. Skylar Beltran then made a motion to substitute Kirby’s language for Aaron’s proposal. It failed. We returned to the original motion which was to consider Aaron’s proposal.
Aaron Bullen, Utah County, then moved to adopt the proposal as amended. It passed with 87 yays (70.16%) to 37 nays (29.84%).
Bob McEntee moved to delay the implementation of this bylaw given the logistics challenges of handling folks who have left the meeting and the outstanding questions about how it would be implemented. It was seconded. This motion passed.
We then considered the third proposal, Amendment to Change the Default Voting Method to Sequentially-Numbered Paper Ballots, by Robert McEntee, Weber County. Bob McEntee moved to adopt the amendment. There was a discussion. Aaron Bullen, Utah County, made a motion to amend the underlying bylaw, but the amendment was ruled out of scope by the Chair. Fred Cox, Salt Lake County, made a motion to extend the time of debate by 2 minutes for the purpose of amending the proposal. The motion passed. Fred Cox made a motion to delete “State Central Committee” and replace it with “delegates.” The motion was seconded, but it failed. We returned to the motion to adopt the original proposal. The motion failed 60 (48.78%) to 63 (51.22%).
We then considered the fourth proposal, Amendment to Extend SCC Meeting Time Limit to Five Hours, C&B Committee. Aaron Bullen, Utah County, moved to adopt the amendment. It was seconded. Kirby Glad, Utah County, called the question on the motion. It was seconded. The motion failed. The debate continued. Bob McEntee, Weber County, called the question. It was seconded. The motion passed. We then returned to the original motion to adopt the proposal. The motion failed with 55 yays (46.22%) and 64 nays (53.78%).
We then considered the fifth proposal, Amendment to Establish News Media Credentials, by Aaron Bullen, Utah County. Aaron Bullen moved to adopt the proposal. He proposed an amendment that would:
- Strike paragraph C after “subject” to the end
- The totality of paragraph D
- To replace “E” with “D” (technical amendment)
Tom Hansen, Emery County, moved to call the question on the amendment to the proposal. It was seconded. The motion passed. We then considered the amendment to the proposal. The motion was seconded. It failed. Skylar Beltran, Utah County, made a motion to amend the proposal to strike E.3. regarding media that block people on posts that attack them. Joe Levi proposed to extend the discussion by 47 seconds to consider an amendment. The motion passed. Joe presented his amendment to strike “will not be permitted to publish information online regarding Utah Republican Party meetings or State Central Committee members if they” and add “if” at the beginning of the paragraph and “they shall be denied news media credentials” after the word “content” and before the period. Joe made a motion to adopt his amendment. The motion was seconded. The motion passed.
We returned to consideration of the underlying motion to adopt the proposal. The motion failed with 75 (64.10%) yays and 42 (35.9%) nays.
We then considered the sixth proposal, Amendment to Comply with State Law as it Pertains to a Special Election, by Jennifer Garner, Davis County. Jennifer Garner moved to adopt the proposal.
Alexis Ence, Washington County, moved to extend the meeting time by 30 minutes to 5:06pm. The motion was seconded. The motion passed.
Bob McEntee, Weber County, made a motion to move the proposal to the C&B Committee for further research and refinement and to add a statement on the Party’s position on this issue. Charles Wood made a motion to call the question. It was seconded and it passed. We returned to Bob’s motion to send the issue to the C&B Committee. The motion was seconded and it passed.
Resolutions
Gunnar Thorderson, Utah County, made a motion to move the Resolution to Condemn the Political Persecution of President Donald J. Trump to the top of the resolution agenda. The motion was seconded. Charles Wood, Utah County, called the question. The motion was seconded and motion passed. We then voted on moving the order of the agenda, and the motion passed. The agenda was amended.
We considered the first resolution on the agenda, Resolution to Condemn the Political Persecution of President Donald J. Trump, by Casey Gale, Salt Lake County. Stafford Palmieri Sievert, Morgan County, moved to strike the third WHEREAS clause regarding the Georgia indictment. The motion was seconded. The author, Casey Gale, accepted the amendment but the motion was opposed. The motion passed.
Olivia Dawn Horlacher Williams, Davis County, moved to extend the meeting by 30 minutes. The motion was seconded. The motion passed. The new end time of the meeting is 5:36pm.
Olivia Dawn Horlacher Williams moved to call the question. The motion was seconded. The motion passed. We considered the resolution as amended. The motion was seconded. The resolution was passed.
There was a quorum call. There were 91 members present in the room and online.
We considered the second resolution on the agenda, Resolution on Legal Immigration, by Robert McEntee, Weber County. Bob McEntee moved to adopt the resolution. The motion was seconded. Kirby Glad proposed an amendment to strike the sentence “We also call for a sunset or repeal of the law allowing non-citizens to become peace officers in Utah” because it is non-germane to the WHEREAS clauses. Bob McEntee opposed the amendment and called the question. The motion was seconded and passed. Kirby Glad’s motion was seconded. Kirby Glad’s amendment failed. We returned to the original resolution and the motion to adopt. The motion passed.
Casey Gale, Salt Lake County, moved to extend time by 30 minutes to 6:06pm. It passed.
We considered the third resolution on the agenda, Resolution to Protect Utahns Against CBDC, by Brandon Beckham. Brandon Beckham made a motion to adopt the resolution. The motion was seconded. The motion passed.
There was a quorum call. There were 86 members present in person and online. Chair Axson let the meeting stand at ease. After a few minutes, there were 92 members present online and in person.
We considered the fourth resolution on the agenda, Resolution to Restore the Utah Flag, by Brandon Beckham. Brandon Beckham made a motion to adopt the resolution. It was seconded. Kirby Glad made a motion to postpone this resolution indefinitely. The motion was seconded. The motion was opposed. There was discussion. Stan Jensen, Utah County, called the question on Kirby Glad’s motion and all previous motions. The motion was seconded. The motion passed. We then considered Kirby Glad’s motion to postpone indefinitely. It failed. We returned to the motion to adopt the resolution. It passed.
Olivia Dawn Horlacher Williams, Davis County, made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 5:52pm.